Palm Sunday – 28th March 2021 – Mark 14,1-15,47
Enacting God’s Will in Total Surrender
We are entering into the Passion Week, to reflect, to remember, to relive and to rejoice at the movement of Jesus from the earthly glory to heavenly glory mediated through God’s will. As Jesus triumphantly enters into Jerusalem, the crowds praise Him as the descendant of David who comes in the name of the Lord. They joyfully wave the branches as He passes by. Enthusiastically they put their cloaks on the pathway and scream “Hosanna! Hosanna!” They welcome Jesus royally into the City – the very place where He will experience His Hour of Glory in His death and resurrection. He enters Jerusalem, the city of Peace, in order to announce the Good News, not just with His words but by His act of loving sacrifice for all people. He manifested this through His total surrender to His Abba, Father.
Jesus’ prayer in the garden shows most clearly that He had a strong sense of right and wrong. He made decisions based not on his feelings, comfort or convenience, but on a solid, prevailing, core principle. In this hour of deep pain, Jesus makes the most important decision of his life in one simple sentence, “Abba, Father, … not what I will but what you will” (14,36b). However, in the wilderness before Jesus began his ministry, He had asserted thrice the will of God against the suggestions of Satan. Now, at the end of his life, three times he submitted his will to His Father in prayer.
Mark describes how Jesus prayed three times, looked for and failed to comfort three times. Finally Jesus summoned his three intimate disciples, Peter, James and John, to prepare for the ultimate battle with evil. The fervent prayer of Jesus strongly contrasts with the disciples’ behaviour. Before entering into prayer, Jesus warns them to “keep awake”. Yet, after each prayer of Jesus the results are the same: the disciples fall asleep instead of keeping watch. The triple failure of the disciples parallels the three times that Peter will deny Jesus before the night is over. Here Jesus recognizes the conflicting dimensions within each person: “the spirit”, which is responsive to God’s will and “the flesh”, which is egotistical and opposed to God’s will. Through his prayer Jesus is now prepared for his arrest and passion. However, the disciples who failed to keep awake in vigilant prayer fled in fear.
In this prayer, Jesus acclaims the deep and intimate union between the Father and the Son. The simple word “Abba” reveals something about the warmth, the care, the tenderness and accessibility of God and his childlike simplicity. But, here Jesus discloses a very different vision of God. The “Abba” to whom Jesus prays in the garden is not a parent who rushes to the rescue of a child when that child is in danger. Neither is Jesus’ God a magical God, who appears from nowhere in a critical situation to save him. Nor is Jesus’ God has a simple cure for any and all problems. The God, disclosed by Jesus in the final days of his life, is one who challenges the believer courageously to face and accept the consequences, pleasant or painful. A God, who helps each one to make the fundamental choice to believe and be faithful. It is to this Father that Jesus committed his life and won by losing.
