Mar-28 Liturgical Study for Palm Sunday

 Mar-28 Palm Sunday

Isaiah 50:4-7

The reading from Isaiah is a reminder that despite the suffering that Jesus experienced, God vindicated him through the resurrection. For Jesus spoke the words of his Father and was obedient to him even unto death on the cross. He willingly endured all the pain and humiliation knowing it would bring the salvation of mankind. Death on the cross was not a defeat but a victory for all Christendom.


Psalm 22

David prophesied Christ’s crucifixion by his Roman captors 950 years before it finally occurred.


Philippians 2

The name Jesus, is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “he saves.”

Jesus is not a passive victim, but enters fully and willingly into his mission. He emptied himself of all claims to divine glory and honor to become a human being. He humbled himself even to the point of dying a slave’s death, for the shameful and tortuous form of execution by crucifixion was reserved for slaves and rebels against Roman rule. Jesus' essential character is shown to be one of self-emptying love rather than self-aggrandizement or grasping for power and glory. In exalting Jesus, God gives Jesus his own name — “Lord” — and confers on him Lordship over all creation.


Mark 14:1 - 15:47

The story of Christ’s passion and death is told by the four evangelists. Every year a different synoptic narrative is proclaimed on Passion Sunday (Matthew in Year A, Mark in Year B, and Luke in Year C). On Good Friday, the Passion is always taken from the Gospel according to John. 

Although Mark is the shortest of the Gospels the narrative of the Passion takes up nearly one-fifth of his Gospel, this is because his purpose was to show Jesus as the suffering servant who is the Son of God. 


Mark sees the cross as Jesus’ way to glory and the climax of his ministry that began after his Baptism by John. Throughout this Gospel, Jesus alone seems to understand his mission. The disciples are not shown in a good light and their behavior at the time of the arrest and suffering of Jesus is disturbing. In the end Peter denied Jesus, Judas betrayed him, and Peter, James and John fell asleep on him during his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.


The Gospel reading offers three significant messages:

• The woman’s act of anointing is the anticipation of Jesus’ burial.

• The Passover meal commemorates the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. Just like they passed-over from slavery into freedom, Jesus will pass-over from death to life. The meal dramatized his self-offering as the Paschal Lamb who will establish the new covenant.

• It was a pagan centurion who was able to see the living Son of God most clearly in his humble and loving death.


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