We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."    Mark 10:33-34

Today is Palm Sunday, the first day of the "Week of the Passion"..., Holy Week. It is a day of changes, changes that seem quicker in the making, than any that have covered our news headlines, or our political worlds. Today, in a matter of minutes, we will go from the joy of Palm Sunday to the rejection of Good Friday. So it is right to call this Sunday not just Palm Sunday, but rather the "Sunday of the Passion".

The words, passion and passionate, have become one and the same in our culture today. They are words that describe emotion, as in a stirring, passionate speaker; words that are now part of every job description and requirement (Do you have a passion for the people?). For others, passion is only the name of a religious movie by Mel Gibson.

But on this day the word "passion" is so much more. Its Latin word meaning is to suffer, to endure suffering and pain. So the Sunday of the Passion is one of the great themes of this day; that our God, the God of all creation and the God of all the details of our lives, suffered and died. Jesus Christ our Lord with blood, nails, thorns, whip lashes, and pain cries, suffers and dies, like we do. Jesus, as one of us, knows what it is to suffer and to die. Our suffering of pain, disease, fear, broken relationships, and more, is taken into Christ's suffering at the hands of Pontius Pilate and his soldiers. Yet this Passion Sunday, and this Passion Week, is more than simply being about a God who suffers. It really is more about how the God who suffers and dies, is a God who loves His children so much, that He is willing to die on behalf of His children; willing to die on our behalf.

I stop and try to think: what do I, or for that matter anyone I know, have so much passion for, that we would be willing and able to die for?

Christ's passion and His suffering, death, and resurrection is about our sins and in His compassion, Christ forgives these sins and creates in us new hearts. This is my favorite time of the year for it always amazes me what Christ did for all people. His body broken, His blood poured out.....and all for the forgiveness of our sins. As the song says "What wondrous love is this."

This is what I know we will hear from the Gospel accounts of Christ's Passion this week (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and on Easter), and it's really too good to miss.

Love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, hope, life -- all shared, all poured out, all flowing. And it never stops. It is a love that sustains us, transforms us, and encourages all of us, even in the face of troubles, even in the face of death. For in our hearing and awareness today and this week, that God loves the world, that God loves humanity, that God loves us, our perspective of this day and this week changes, and it changes us.

Good and gracious God, we thank you for this Palm Sunday, this Sunday of the Passion. We thank you for Jesus who was willing to be human, who came down and lived among us. We thank you as we journey now toward Good Friday and him dying on the cross. And so, today, we cry from our hearts, "Hosanna! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord". Amen.

Contributed by Chris
Sunday April 5, 2009
Liturgical Year B Week 19
Sunday Gospel Readings:
Passion Sunday