Palm Sunday sermon: Who was this?
“Ἀληθῶς,” says the Roman centurion - “Ἀληθῶς οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος υἱὸς θεοῦ ἦν” [Alēthōs houtos ho anthrōpos Huios Theou ēn]. Literally word for word in Saint Mark’s NT Greek syntax, “Truly this (the) human, son of God was.”
But you are not the Roman centurion: you are The Crowd.
The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday sets you up in a dichotomy of hypocrisy in which you welcome Jesus, waving palm branches and singing “Hosanna to the Son of David, hosanna in the highest heaven,” - - yet later you return to the scene with a pitchfork, a length of rope, a hammer and a handful of nails, shouting “Crucify him, crucify him.” Yes, you! Do you have any IDEA who this man was - - is?
It’s not high school world history about something that happened long ago and far away. It’s here, now, today: you are in Jerusalem living the nightmare, and not as a spectator, but as a participant: Hosanna! Crucify him!
Who was this man, who IS he? You welcomed him so warmly - - and now you scorn him with such contempt, and murder him so barbarically, who was this? “Ἀληθῶς,” says the Roman centurion, “Truly, this man was God’s son!“ But the Bible, our scripture today, struggles with that answer - - and
in our Philippians reading, the “Christ Hymn” only intensifies the issue =>
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death -- even death on a cross.
Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5f, the Christ Hymn.
In the context of Paul’s letter, Paul is telling Philippians to be humble as Jesus was humble. But the Christ Hymn is infinitely more than that context.
The Christ Hymn is complex, with deep theological implications. Many Bible scholars believe Paul quoted it from a then-popular praise hymn or faith creed. The Christ Hymn does NOT affirm what you say in the Nicene Creed that you believe about Jesus - - it challenges you to examine and contemplate what it says and shows and tells, especially about Paul and his Time.
Paul wrote decades before Mark’s gospel, at a Time when, from Jerusalem with Simon Peter and Jesus' brother James, Christians were beginning to voice what they had seen in Jesus - => scholars use the word “christology” - - was Jesus human, or is he divine? Was Jesus of Nazareth human, as Mark, Matthew, and Luke seem to have it, becoming Son of God at his baptism or conception?
Or was he already a heavenly Being, a son of God, בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים Bənē hā-Ĕlōhīm, one of the sons of God in the Hebrew angel hierarchy - - sent (and obediently coming) to Earth to be born in human form? You may resist it, but that is possibly what the Christ Hymn suggests!
Or, a decades later perception, high christology: was Jesus Christ “God the Son” from all eternity as Gospel John has it, and the, even further developed, fourth century Nicene Creed?
“God the Son” and “Son of God” are not the same: God the Son is divine; a Son of God is human. Mark’s passion gospel just now concludes with the Roman centurion confessing, literally from the Greek, Truly, this (the) human - - Son of God was.
For Mark, who starts out “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” the centurion’s acclamation climaxes Mark’s brilliant gospel, solving the Markan Messianic Secret about who Jesus was, ironically revealed on the tongue of a pagan Gentile. For the Roman centurion, “son of God” acknowledges a unique, singular human with divine attributes, like Caesar Augustus.
But Paul wrote Philippians with the Christ Hymn, what did Paul believe? Paul was a Jew: “Shema, Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echod,” Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One,” a monotheist religion where calling a person “God” was capital blasphemy, punishable by death.
At ROMANS 1, Paul introduces himself, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God … concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh - - and was DECLARED Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord - -
So, Paul would SEEM to hold a “low christology” of Jesus as a human being later declared to be the Son of God - - until Paul's use of the Christ Hymn complicates that assumption.
According to the Christ Hymn, a Being came to earth from God’s domain, born as Jesus of Nazareth, a common, ordinary, humble man. During his Time on earth, Jesus was SO obedient to God, even submitting to crucifixion, a death of excruciating agony, because he believed it was God’s will for him to be brutally sacrificed (for God's own reasons) - - he was so extravagantly, extraordinarily, exceptionally obedient that God then highly exalted him.
The Christ Hymn is a phase of "developing theology," that was beyond the Roman centurion’s Good Friday acclamation of “Son of God” - - though not yet the same as Gospel John’s theology of Christ the Word, God from all eternity, God the Son.
The Christ Hymn sees a moment when God the Father steps into the tomb of the dead, crucified, obedient Jesus, says "Get up, Son - - GET UP, SON” - - and in that Resurrection moment, God highly exalts Jesus.
The Christ Hymn is a theological blockbuster with personal implications for you. As a Christian, you also are a child of God, daughter of God, son of God, baptized into the same Way of the Cross as our Passion gospel tells it for Jesus: the Way of the Cross, a life of Humility, Love, Sacrifice, and OBEDIENCE: you are to live as Jesus lived, carrying your own cross, even into the darkness and agony of your own Good Friday, with the promise, hope, and gospel assurance - of your own Easter Morning. Ἀληθῶς, truly!
Hosanna! Crucify him! Alleluia!
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Homiletic endeavor by the Rev Tom Weller, Episcopal priest (retired) on Palm Sunday: the Sunday of the Passion, March 24, 2024 in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida.
pic: from film The Passion of the Christ
Primary texts:
Mark 11:1-11a, Mark's palm gospel.
Mark 15:1-39
As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.” Then the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. Then he answered them, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort. And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him. And they began saluting him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take.
It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.
When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.” And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
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Philippians 2:5-11
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death--
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
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ROMANS 1:1-6 (ESV) Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God … 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.