Passion Sunday: What does the death of Jesus mean to me today?
Scripture: Isaiah 50:4-7. Philippians 2:6-11. Psalm 22:8-9.17-20.23-24. Matthew's Passion Narrative: Matthew 26:14-27,66.27:11-54. Lectionary # 38
Passion Sunday will be celebrated with a procession with palms and the reading of Matthew's Passion Narrative. The Synoptic Gospels take their turn in the A.B.and C cycles of the liturgical calendar. Since we follow the traditional western order, Matthew (A), Mark (B), Luke (C) we are to listen to Matthew.
A good way of paying attention to this is first to read all of the last two chapters of Matthew which are the full Passion, Death, and Resurrection narratives that also contain the Last Supper. By asking ourselves what does this death of Jesus mean to me as I read the perspective of it given to me by Matthew this year?
The other readings and Psalm 22 are a way of looking at the Passion Narrative in order to deepen our motivation in answering the question what does Jesus' death mean for me today. We are aware that the Passion Narrative of Mark is closest to the happenings of the Jesus who lived in the first third of the first century.
His last two days occupy more space than the other days in these narratives of the evangelists. We can learn more about Matthew through reflecting upon his chief source that of Mark's Gospel. He changes very little but where he does we find the perspective of Matthew. This theological point of view is important for us on this Sunday when we concentrate on Matthew' account of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus. We will help ourselves to ponder over what Matthew is telling us about these last forty-eight hours of Jesus life by carefully taking note of the many explicit as well as implicit referencees to the Old Testament. He crafts his detailed story by using the fulfillment citations throughout his Gospel and now in the Passion of the Christ they are more prevalent. Some are implicit others quite explicit. We,like Matthew, are rereading the prophets especially Isaiah II and Zechariah with the viewpoint of Matthew, probably a converted Jewish scholar or tax-collector as suggested in the tradition about this author. He probably has written this some ten to fifteen years after Mark's Gospel.
As we read the fulfillment texts through the footnotes in our Bible or the parallels to the Old Testament we see that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings (Psalms). We realize how much Matthew relied on these divinely inspired writings and brought them to bear on Jesus life and death and resurrection. The innocence of Jesus is seen in the shedding of his blood as in a sacrifice made willingly to the God of love, his Father. When the chalice or cup is prayed over Matthew adds that this is done for the forgiveness of sins. Here is where our question about how does the death of Jesus affect me can be more deeply pondered over with our hearts, our minds, and our whole being. We see that Judas himself who betrayed Jesus is the one who contrasts with him but struggles with the innocence of Jesus' blood.
We take up the Psalm that most closely resembles what Jesus is going through and make it our prayer. This urgent plea to God not to forsake us helps us to identify with Jesus' death. We can also use the beautiful liturgical hymn that Paul gives us about the meaning of Jesus who was equal to God but took on our limited human nature so that through his total surrender in suffering and death he could return to his Father and have the name above all other names in his glorified state as Son of God.
Matthew will remind us throughout the Passion Narrative to meditate on Jesus as the Son of God. Since we are for the most part Gentiles who will be listening to this Passion Narrative on this Sunday we can join in the final expression of faith in the Roman soldiers who confirms Jesus is dead but proclaims, Truly this man was God's Son! Amen.
(Fr. Bert Buby, SM, Professor at the International Marian Research Institute, Dayton and good friend of Teresa Monaghen. Fr. Bert writes a daily reflection on the scriptures of the day. Go to http://scripmed.blogspot.com/)
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