Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion B, March 28, 2021; Is 50:4-7; Phil 2:6-11; Mk 14:1-15:47 or 15:1-39 (38 ABC)

Normally, you know, like 2 years ago, we would have been shouting, or singing, “Hosanna! Hosanna!” as we came into church waiving Palm Branches - Maybe next year. Of course, Hosanna is usually what we sing, or recite, as part of the Holy, Holy, during Mass. But it was meant to be a triumphant shout.

It is found in Psalm 118 and was regarded as announcing the coming of the Messiah, so, it was natural for the people to shout Hosanna, as Jesus entered Jerusalem, in a triumphal manner, on Passion Sunday, while the people were waving their palm branches.
But even that entrance was not exactly what the people expected.

The Jewish people probably expected the Messiah to enter Jerusalem on a royal steed but, true to his mission, Jesus entered on a donkey instead. For Jesus, it was never about conquest, it was always about surrender. Not surrender, as in giving up, but surrender as in becoming a willing sacrifice – Jesus giving himself up for us.

The passion account that we just experienced together – how did it begin? A woman anoints Jesus with oil. It’s a powerful image - one that I’ve read hundreds of times - yet I still missed something. Before the woman anoints Jesus, with the oil, she breaks the alabaster jar containing the oil. Did you catch that part? Why not just pour out some of the oil? Why break the jar?

Well, with the jar broken there’s no saving any of the oil. All the oil has to be poured out over Jesus' head. From the broken jar the costly oil is all poured out. Just like from Jesus’ broken body, on the cross, his precious life-blood is poured out as well.

This woman offered Jesus something that might have been worth a year’s wages, a priceless gift to symbolize the anointing of her king. In turn, her king’s limitless generosity led Jesus to offer his life for the world. Jesus knew that his anointing by the woman would mean more than what she had intended. Jesus knew that it would be his burial anointing. Because, you see, after Jesus’ death, when the women came to anoint his body, according to custom, they would not find him. Jesus would already be raised from the dead. No chance to anoint at that time. However, the woman with the alabaster jar of perfumed oil had already taken care of that.

Wow, what a mystery! A king, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey? Anointed by some woman at the house of a leper? Jesus’ actions were so far from what people expected. 

This week we will experience that, unexpected, an example of our Savior, Jesus, the Son of God, lowering himself – to wash feet, to offer his body & blood, to be betrayed, to be denied, to be beaten, to be mocked & spit upon, to be whipped & bloodied, to be crowned with thorns, to be humiliated & forced to carry a cross through the streets, to be stripped naked, to have nails driven through his hands & feet, & to be hung up on a cross for all to see – like a criminal.

Who would ever have imagined that an all-powerful God would love us that much? If everyone truly understood the depths of God’s love for us and the depths of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, then, we might all shout out in triumph… Hosanna!