Pawn
Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the
human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to
take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross,
giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant
that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share
in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.
human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to
take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross,
giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant
that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share
in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.
For each Sunday, the Propers include a Collect for the Day, which almost invariably contains specific theological assertions. In many collects the theology is simple and straightforward. But the theology of our collect for Palm Sunday is a fabric rather than a thread:
- God is almighty and eternal,
- God loves people dearly (implying not only that God is not dispassionate but that the Lord is so peculiar a God as to care about humans),
- God sent Jesus to become truly human,
- God sent Jesus to suffer and die on the cross, and that specifically so that we should see and follow his example of humility (the above contemporary language collect may be “liberated,” but the traditional language version is clearer theologically, “and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility”).
Interestingly, this collect does not carry the theology that Christ came/was sent to die for our sins. But more interesting is the assertion that God sent him for this purpose, to be crucified, a cruel, humiliating, excruciatingly painful way to die. Reason, a characteristic of Anglican theological thinking, would recognize that if Calvary was God’s purpose and intent, those who were instruments of God’s purpose and intent must in the end be judged innocent pawns in the drama. Judas Iscariot. Caiaphas the chief priest. Peter who denied him. The Sanhedrin. The screaming crowd. Pontius Pilate. The soldiers who tormented him. The passersby who mocked him. God who willed it. Jesus son of Mary. Eloi eloi lama sabachthani.
This line of Reason absolutely comes down to Judas, whom the Christian ages have reviled and condemned more than any other, perhaps because, opposite to Caiaphas and Pilate, he was a trusted and loved disciple. Perhaps Judas was an innocent pawn then. Just an actor in the drama. Is that unthinkable?
TW+