Abandoned for Good – 28 March, 2021

The fact that there are two liturgies may serve as a warning that what is going on here is delicate and needs to be treated with sensitivity and prayer. . . . One thing should be remembered: Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem in order to die. The very ones shouting “Hosanna!” are the same as those who participate in his crucifixion.

We often pass out palms during worship to reenact the ancient scene: the ancient people carried palms or leafy branches with them when they went out to meet Jesus. They laid these on the road to symbolize a royal procession as Jesus entered the city and they proclaimed him as the blessed one.

. . . We also carry them so that we remember this story is not only about the ancient people of Jerusalem and what they did; it is also about us. The palms we carry in worship today end up as the dust applied to our foreheads next Ash Wednesday. We also participate in crucifying the one we call “blessed.” –– Katherine Lauer Rigler

Mark 14:1–15:47

Of all the passion accounts, Mark’s emphasizes the humanity of Christ the best. . . Mark emphasizes the raw emotions all humans feel sometimes. In the garden, Jesus’s prayer to the Father is not polite and formal. . .

Jesus feels abandoned throughout Mark’s passion account. The disciples abandon Jesus at the time of his arrest. In 1:16–20, the first disciples readily left their nets and their families to follow Jesus. Now that the hour of testing has arrived, the disciples cannot endure it. . . The disciples have abandoned their own dignity, their calling, and their Jesus, the one to whom they all professed such loyalty at the Last Supper.

In Mark, there are no disciples at the foot of the cross. Jesus is once again alone. He cries out the words of Psalm 22:1 in a very human reaction to the seeming absence of God. (It is important to note that Jesus’s cry is not one of despair. Even in his agony, Jesus addresses God as my God.) Jesus dies alone. It was customary for disciples of a teacher to arrange his burial. Again, the disciples are missing, leaving the burial to a stranger.

Remembering that Mark is writing to a persecuted church (most likely Rome), his message is clear. The persecuted Christians may well have felt abandoned by their families and perhaps betrayed by fellow Christians who broke under pressure. Mark assures them that, like Jesus, faithfulness even unto death will lead to eternal happiness. –– Joseph McHugh

Philippians 2:5-11

On this Palm Sunday when Christ obediently accepted the Father’s will, Paul urges us, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” There is a temptation to enjoy the happy ending (“God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name”) without remembering that exaltation comes after the cross. –– Joseph McHugh

Isaiah 50:4-9a

From the earliest days of the church, Christians have found in these songs references to Christ, the suffering servant par excellence. –– Joseph McHugh

Katherine Lauer Rigler, a Presbyterian Minister (PCUSA), serves Saint Barnabas Presbyterian Church in Richardson, Texas.

Joseph McHugh is a freelance writer from New Jersey, and a former weekly newspaper columnist writing on lectionary readings whose writing includes a revision of Rev. Melvin L. Farrell’s Getting to Know the Bible (ACTA Publications, 2003).

Homily Service 42, no. 2 (2008): 68-77.