Palm/Passion Sunday
Luke 22:14-23:56
April 1, 2007

Passion Sunday

Luke began his gospel by tracing Jesus’ lineage all the way back to Adam. Jesus’ death on the cross, Luke makes very clear, is for the sake of the whole world. As his arms are spread to receive the nails, Jesus prays, "Father, forgive . . ." As he shares the fate of two criminals, he promises, "Today you will be with me in Paradise."

There are many things we might say about Jesus’ death. It was unjust. It was brutal. Behind it lay both religious and political motivations. All of these things are true, but none of them is enough to make sense of Jesus’ death. All the theological theories of atonement notwithstanding, this death makes little earthly or heavenly sense.

The King of the Jews dies a common criminal. God’s Messiah does not save himself. The one who called disciples saying "Follow me" ends up with only two followers – one a criminal hanging beside him, and the other an officer in the Roman army of occupation. So far as the cross makes any sense at all, it makes some sense as the key to a door, a door that we keep wanting to shut and God keeps wanting to open.

The cross has, through the centuries, become a symbol of just the opposite – of doors closed and strangers turned away. People have, and still do, kill other people for the sake of the cross. It is for many today a symbol hatred, hatred especially for the Jews, who are no more culpable for Jesus’ death than the Romans, the disciples, or the thief on the cross. There are no good guys in Luke’s Passion story, except Jesus himself, who, as the centurion points out, is the only innocent party in the whole affair.

But the cross is not symbol of hate. It’s a symbol of love – God’s love for the whole world. God took what makes no sense and used it to open the door between us and God and between us and other people.

We read the Passion story this morning so that we would not find ourselves going from triumphal entry to triumphal Easter without passing through this valley of blood, tears, and death. With the men and women in Luke’s Gospel who followed Jesus from Galilee, we also must stand at a distance and watch these things, for this cross is our door, too -- our open door to God.

It makes no sense, but it does lead to Paradise. And that, beloved, is the wonder and power of the gospel.