We stand between Palm Sunday and Good Friday, so I want to talk about the passion narratives that we hear this week. A few weeks ago, I went to an amazing talk by Donald Senior, C.P. (appropriately enough a priest of the Passionist community), a Scripture scholar and the president of Chicago Theological Union. While Senior talked about all four passion narratives, I want to share with you a little of what he said about Matthew, which we heard on Sunday, and John, which we will hear on Good Friday.

Matthew, following Mark, focuses on Jesus' humanness and solidarity with human suffering in the passion. Matthew focuses on Jesus as the obedient Son of God, paralleling the understanding of Israel as the Son of God in the Hebrew Scriptures (cf. Exodus 4:22). The idea of Jesus' sonship focus on his obedience and his trust. This relationship is shaken, but not broken, in Jesus' encounter with death. Senior points out that his death entails not only physical death, but the seeming loss of his mission, the shattering of his community and of his dreams for Israel. He prays in the garden that this cup might pass, but ultimately prays as he taught his disciples, "Your will be done."

On the cross, the religious leaders mock Jesus in the fashion of Psalm 22:

He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him. For he said, 'I am the Son of God.' - Matthew 27:43

All who see me mock me; they curl their lips and jeer; they shake their heads at me: "You relied on the LORD--let him deliver you; if he loves you, let him rescue you." - Ps. 22:9

The crowds mock the very relationship with God that has grounded Jesus throughout his life and his ministry, and Jesus cries out in response with the words of Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" In a lament psalm the first half of the psalm pours out all of the psalmist's frustration and anger, but psalmist does not stay in the place of despair. Rather he moves in the second half of the psalm to a place once again of trust in God and praise of God.

For God has not spurned or disdained the misery of this poor wretch, Did not turn away from me, but heard me when I cried out. - Psalm 22:25

Jesus cries out, but does so trusting that God hears him. He cries out again at the moment of his death, and gives up his spirit, literally his breath. Senior pointed out that Matthew changes the verb from Mark's more raw "loud scream" (toned down in our translations as "a loud cry") to "cried out again" to bring to mind that reassurance of the Psalm that God hears those who cry out. Jesus does not "expire" or "breath out" as in Mark, but hands over his spirit in a final act of trusting obedience to God. Senior pointed out that for the Israelites, our breath was given to us by God and belongs to God. Jesus gives his breath back to God in a act of loving surrender, and the result is cataclysmic for the entire world - the veil in the sanctuary is torn in two, the earth quakes, rocks are split, tombs open, and the dead are raised. All that seemed hopeless is given new life - Jesus' trust in God is vindicated. Senior sums up: God is faithful even in the midst of our anger and doubt.

John's gospel tells a very different story of the passion. Jesus in John's gospel is the Word of God, the revelation of God to the world. And what does God say to the world? "For God so loved the world . . . " (Jn. 3:16) Senior points out that the most powerful sign/symbol/word of God's love is the death of Jesus.

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. - John 15:13

In John's gospel love and life triumph over death. Jesus walks to his death in supreme confidence - the hour of his glory has come. The soldiers fall down before him. Senior points out that in John, Pilate brings Jesus out before the crowd's and seats him "on the judge's bench." Jesus is the true judge. Pilate fears Jesus.

Death in John is the completion of Jesus' mission. Jesus' crucifixion, his being "lifted up," is his exaltation, his ascension to the Father. He returns to the Father to prepare a place for those he loves. For John's gospel, death is communion with God. Senior sums up: death is the portal into communion with God, with the love of God.

As we stand between Palm Sunday and Good Friday, between the anguish of death and the confidence of God's love and faithfulness in the midst of our human turmoil, we also stand on the anniversary of the war in Iraq, a war that has now lasted five years. It seems somehow appropriate that a day that so aptly illustrates part of the sinful and anguished human condition falls between these two readings of the passion. So once again I ask you to pray for peace in Iraq and the world and wisdom for the leaders of our country and Iraq. Let us turn to God with all of our doubt and anger and somehow trust that God stands by us even in our darkest moments. Let us trust that all those who have tragically died in this ongoing cycle of violence have been taken up into the love of God. Let us move through Palm Sunday and Good Friday to celebrate the resurrection of Easter.


To read more of Donald Senior, see his books:
The Passion Series, 4 Volumes, Liturgical Press, 1985-1991.
You can also access some of his commentary on the passion narratives at:
http://www.cptryon.org/xpipassio/passio/index.html