March 16,  2008 The Sunday of the Passion also called Palm Sunday Year A At the Liturgy of the Palms: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 Matthew 21:1-11 At the Liturgy of the Word: Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Matthew 26:14-27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54 Click here for sermons from previous weeks The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf Episcopal Diocese of Central NY Today is Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week. As we begin the observance of this holiest week of the Christian year, perhaps we should take some time to think about WHY we keep Holy Week. It's true that it is a time of special and important services in the church. It's true that it is a time that reminds us of Jesus' last week on earth and of the events surrounding his death on the cross. But unless we understand clearly WHY we keep Holy Week, it will not mean very much to us. It will be "just another thing the church does." In past times, it was common for parents to keep reminding their children of WHY children should obey their parents, and of how much parents had done for their children. We don't do that so much any more, because we are afraid of damaging the kids' emotions nowadays. But it used to be common for a naughty child to hear a scolding that went something like this: After all I've done for you, you do THIS to me? For this I gave up a good job that I loved, to stay home and raise you? After all, I give you a home, food, clothes and nice vacation trips, and you still do something stupid like this? You should be ashamed of yourself! Well, God doesn't scold us just like that, although some of the preaching of the prophets does sound like it. But the whole point of Holy Week is to remind us, just as parents used to remind their children, that the parent...or, for us, God...loves us much more than we can possibly understand, and has done much more for us than we are aware of. Loving costs. Loving your children is expensive...the cost of a house, food, clothing, club dues, music lessons, vacation trips, toys and hobby stuff, and maybe college or a fancy wedding on top of that. And for God to love us costs him plenty too...in fact it costs God the life of his beloved son, Jesus. That's why we observe Holy Week. We need to keep reminding ourselves that our life is valuable and costly, and we didn't pay for it ourselves...God, who made us, has to stand by and watch us mess up our lives with sin and mistakes, and grieve over our failures, and wish we would only realize the value of what we are getting for free. God has to watch us sin, and agonize over how our sin comes between him and us, and makes it impossible for us to live in peace with him in Heaven. In fact, if we are honest about it, our sin means that we should really die forever, and go to hell. That's the proper punishment for sin. But God can't stand the thought of that, and so he permitted his beloved son, Jesus, who is God the Son, to accept in his own body the punishment for all our sins, for all the sins of everyone who ever was born and who ever will be born. That punishment was the terrible whipping and abuse and torture, and the terribly painful and shameful death on the cross. Now, some churches say that we should not use a crucifix, or have one in our home or our room. They say that Jesus rose again from the dead, and is no longer on the cross, so we should have an empty cross instead. But they miss the fact that the crucifix shows us exactly the point of Holy Week. It shows us that our sins cost God a life, the life of God the Son, who is truly God just as much as the Father is. The crucifix shows us how much our sin costs God, and how ashamed we should be of our sins, and how thankful we should be that God loves us so much that he allowed Jesus to die in our place just so we could join him in heaven, free from sin and able to live forever with him. That's what Holy Week is about. We have just read the story of the Passion, the suffering and death of Jesus, as St. Matthew wrote it. Most days during Holy Week we will be reading that same story from the other three gospels. All of them have the same theme: My people. this is how much I love you. Do you remember? Do you care? Do you love me back? Amen. Back To Top Home