A Kaddish for Jesus: Holy Week repentance and regret for anti-Judaism

I offer this 2013 sermon every year during Holy Week as my annual reminder that the Gospels we read during Holy Week reflect a vicious anti-Judaism that has contributed to misunderstanding and even hate by many Christians over the centuries. Let’s commit to hold these thoughts in context, regret and repent our historic institutional anti-Judaism as we gather for Holy Week services.

A Kaddish for Jesus

Maundy Thursday, March 28, 2013
A Kaddish for Jesus
Robin Garr
Sermon at St. Thomas Episcopal Church
Louisville, Kentucky

יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא

Yitgaddal v’yitqaddash sh’meh rabba …  
“Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name …  ”

Christ Before Pilate Again

Christ Before Pilate Again (1308-1311), tempera painting on wood by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319). Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, Siena, Italy.

So begins Kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer in which family members or friends honor the memory of a loved one who has died.

We gather this evening in memory of Jesus’s last supper with his friends, when he showed them the dignity of service and the meaning of humility by lovingly washing their feet.

Tomorrow, Good Friday, we’ll remember Jesus’s passion and death on the cross.  Tonight,  Jesus and his friends are sharing a Passover dinner. Within 24 hours, Jesus’s friends would have been sitting together, mourning his death with an ancient version of something like the Kaddish.

After all, Jesus and all his apostles were Jewish. They studied the Torah and they worshiped at the Temple in Jerusalem.  Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher; many saw him as a prophet.

As we enter the three holy days of Jesus’s passion and death leading to the Easter joy of Christ’s resurrection, I’d like us to take a few minutes to remember  – and honor – the Jewish tradition that Jesus believed and that Rabbi Jesus taught.

Now, you might be thinking, “Why bring this up?”  Certainly it’s no secret that Jesus was Jewish and that Christianity is rooted in Judaism, sharing the same First Testament. But why go into all that now, during the holiest days on the Christian calendar?

I would suggest that there is no better time for us to think about our relationship with our Jewish brothers and sisters than now, when our scripture readings through Lent, Palm Sunday and Good Friday confront us with the harsh words that the leaders of the early church had for the Temple authorities.

Early in the Gospel of Luke, “the Jews” in Jesus’s home town got so angry with his first preaching that they chased him out of the synagogue and tried to throw him off a cliff. Luke goes on to tell how the Jewish scribes and priests were constantly spying on Jesus and trying to trick him into saying things that would get him in trouble.

In tomorrow’s Good Friday services we’ll hear John portraying “The Jews” as a nasty gang, out to get Jesus. They’re dead-set on making sure that the Roman governor Pontius Pilate won’t let Jesus off on a technicality. Earlier in the Gospel, John calls the Jews “children of the devil,” and warns  that the Jewish authorities were constantly hatching plans to kill Jesus.

We  hear “The Jews … The Jews … The Jews” like the beat of an angry drum. But as we listen to John’s Gospel tomorrow, let’s bear in mind that in Jesus’s time there were many Judaisms, not just one.  Much like the church today, there was a huge variety of Jewish practices and scriptural interpretations, and they didn’t all get along.

Jesus very likely squabbled with a group of Temple authorities who saw nothing but a troublesome uproar over  his active public ministry, his healings and his call for “good news for the poor.” In these days, especially at Passover time in Jerusalem, the Roman rulers weren’t shy about cracking down on anything that looked like trouble. This noisy rabbi was getting a lot of attention, and nobody wanted that!

And when Matthew wrote that “the Jews” shouted out to Pilate, “His blood be on us and our children,” he set down a vicious charge that would be hurled back at Judaism for 2,000 years. Placing the blame for Jesus’s death on “the Jews” set a flame that would ignite a shameful history of pogroms and persecutions and, eventually, the Holocaust.

In this post-Holocaust world, all people of good spirit look back and say, “never again.”  To this end, let’s not just shrug off the anti-Jewish verses that still reside in our scriptural tradition.

It’s important to recognize that the stories about Jesus – the Gospels – were not written down until some 40 to 70 years after the crucifixion. Not many first-hand witnesses were still alive, and bad attitudes and prejudices had already built walls between Christians and Jews.

Forty years after the crucifixion, the Romans had destroyed the Temple, and most of Jerusalem with it. The Christian faith had reached out to embrace Gentile converts and was spreading across the Mediterranean and beyond, but its leaders still thought of the church as “Christian Jews.”

Judaism, meanwhile, focusing on the synagogue as center of community in a world without a Temple, now viewed the Christians as more than heretics.  Christian Jews were thrown out of the synagogues and told to stay out. Everyone involved was human and flawed. Anger and tempers flared. It was in this fiery setting that the Gospel stories were written and the idea of “the Jews” as unrepentant killers of Jesus set in stone.

But as Marcus Borg points out in his recent book, Evolution of the Word, the Gospels don’t indict  all Jews, only the individuals responsible for Jesus’s rejection – and, years later, the Christian community’s rejection from the synagogues. “To fail to recognize the historical circumstances and the limited intention of these passages,” Borg says, “is to perpetuate the long history of Christian anti-Semitism.”1

“His blood be on us and on our children”?  “The scribes and chief priests …       watched him and sent spies”? “The Jews, The Jews, The Jews”? When we hear these words during Holy Week, the holiest week of the year, let’s remember that it would not be inappropriate for us to pray Kaddish for Jesus:

“Yitgaddal v’yitqaddash sh’meh rabba … Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world, which God has created according to God’s will. May God establish God’s kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.”

Think carefully about those words. Hear what they say. And now think about this: That first verse of Kaddish sounds a lot like the words that Jesus taught us when we asked him how to pray:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come. Your will be done,  on earth as it is in heaven.”

Speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

––––––––––––––––
1Borg, Marcus J. (2012-08-28). Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written]. HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

Holy Week 2024

The Descent from the Cross

The Descent from the Cross (c.1435), oil painting on oak panel by Rogier van der Weyden (c.1399-1464). Museo del Prado, Madrid. (Click image to enlarge.)

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Holy Week 2024

Lectionary readings for March 25, 2024 (Monday in Holy Week)

Isaiah 42:1-9 [He has established justice in the earth]

Psalm 36:5-11 [Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens]

Hebrews 9:11-15 [He is the mediator of a new covenant]

John 12:1-11 [You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me]

Lectionary readings for March 26, 2024 (Tuesday in Holy Week)

Isaiah 49:1-7 [The Lord called me before I was born]

Psalm 71:1-14 [In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge]

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 [Consider your own call, brothers and sisters]

John 12:20-36 [Whoever serves me, the Father will honor]

Lectionary readings for March 27, 2024 (Wednesday in Holy Week)

Isaiah 50:4-9a [It is the Lord God who helps me]

Psalm 70 [O Lord, make haste to help me]

Hebrews 12:1-3 [Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us]

John 13:21-32 [“Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me”]

Lectionary readings for March 28, 2024 (Maundy Thursday)

Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14 [The first Passover]

Psalm 116:1, 10-17 [O Lord, I am your servant]

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 [This is my body that is for you]

John 13:1-17, 31b-35 [Jesus knew that his hour had come]

Lectionary readings for March 29, 2024 (Good Friday)

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 [The Suffering Servant]

Psalm 22 [My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?]

Hebrews 10:16-25 [He who has promised is faithful]

or Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 [Jesus the Great High Priest]

John 18:1-19:42 [“It is finished.”]

Lectionary readings for March 30, 2024 (The Great Vigil of Easter)

At The Liturgy of the Word

At least two of the following Lessons are read, of which one is always the Lesson from Exodus. After each Lesson, the Psalm or Canticle listed, or some other suitable psalm, canticle, or hymn, may be sung. A period of silence may be kept; and the Collects provided on pages 288-91, or some other suitable Collect, may be said. It is recommended that the first Collect on page 290 be used after the Lesson from Baruch or Proverbs. (pp 893, BCP)

Genesis 1:1-2:4a [The Story of Creation]

Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18, 8:6-18, 9:8-13 [The Flood]

Genesis 22:1-18 [Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac]

Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21 [Israel’s deliverance at the Red Sea]

Isaiah 55:1-11 [Salvation offered freely to all]

Baruch 3:9-15, 3:32-4:4 [Learn wisdom and live]

or Proverbs 8:1-8, 19-21; 9:4b-6 [Does not wisdom call]

Ezekiel 36:24-28 [A new heart and a new spirit]

Ezekiel 37:1-14 [The valley of dry bones]

Zephaniah 3:14-20 [The gathering of God’s people]

At The Eucharist

Romans 6:3-11 [Death no longer has dominion over him]

Psalm 114 [Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord]

Mark 16:1-8 [His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow]

Lectionary readings for March 31, 2024 (Easter Sunday – Early Service)

Use one of the Old Testament Lessons from the Vigil with:

Psalm 114 [Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord]

Romans 6:3-11 [Death no longer has dominion over him]

Matthew 28:1-10 [He has been raised; he is not here]

Lectionary readings for March 31, 2024 (Easter Sunday – Principal Service)

Acts 10:34-43 [God raised him on the third day]

or Isaiah 25:6-9 [This is the Lord for whom we have waited;]

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 [Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good]

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 [His grace toward me has not been in vain]

or Acts 10:34-43 [God raised him on the third day]

John 20:1-18 [ “I have seen the Lord”]

or Mark 16:1-8 [His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow]

Lectionary readings for March 31, 2024 (Easter Sunday – Evening Service)

Isaiah 25:6-9 [Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces]

Psalm 114 [Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord]

1 Corinthians 5:6b-8 [A little yeast leavens the whole batch]

Luke 24:13-49 [He showed them his hands and his feet]

A Kaddish for Jesus: Holy Week repentance and regret for anti-Judaism

I offer this 2013 sermon every year during Holy Week as my annual reminder that the Gospels we read during Holy Week reflect a vicious anti-Judaism that has contributed to misunderstanding and even hate by many Christians over the centuries. Let’s commit to hold these thoughts in context, regret and repent our historic institutional anti-Judaism as we gather for Holy Week services.

A Kaddish for Jesus

Maundy Thursday, March 28, 2013
A Kaddish for Jesus
Robin Garr
Sermon at St. Thomas Episcopal Church
Louisville, Kentucky

יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא

Yitgaddal v’yitqaddash sh’meh rabba …  
“Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name …  ”

Christ Before Pilate Again

Christ Before Pilate Again (1308-1311), tempera painting on wood by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319). Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, Siena, Italy.

So begins Kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer in which family members or friends honor the memory of a loved one who has died.

We gather this evening in memory of Jesus’s last supper with his friends, when he showed them the dignity of service and the meaning of humility by lovingly washing their feet.

Tomorrow, Good Friday, we’ll remember Jesus’s passion and death on the cross.  Tonight,  Jesus and his friends are sharing a Passover dinner. Within 24 hours, Jesus’s friends would have been sitting together, mourning his death with an ancient version of something like the Kaddish.

After all, Jesus and all his apostles were Jewish. They studied the Torah and they worshiped at the Temple in Jerusalem.  Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher; many saw him as a prophet.

As we enter the three holy days of Jesus’s passion and death leading to the Easter joy of Christ’s resurrection, I’d like us to take a few minutes to remember  – and honor – the Jewish tradition that Jesus believed and that Rabbi Jesus taught.

Now, you might be thinking, “Why bring this up?”  Certainly it’s no secret that Jesus was Jewish and that Christianity is rooted in Judaism, sharing the same First Testament. But why go into all that now, during the holiest days on the Christian calendar?

I would suggest that there is no better time for us to think about our relationship with our Jewish brothers and sisters than now, when our scripture readings through Lent, Palm Sunday and Good Friday confront us with the harsh words that the leaders of the early church had for the Temple authorities.

Early in the Gospel of Luke, “the Jews” in Jesus’s home town got so angry with his first preaching that they chased him out of the synagogue and tried to throw him off a cliff. Luke goes on to tell how the Jewish scribes and priests were constantly spying on Jesus and trying to trick him into saying things that would get him in trouble.

In tomorrow’s Good Friday services we’ll hear John portraying “The Jews” as a nasty gang, out to get Jesus. They’re dead-set on making sure that the Roman governor Pontius Pilate won’t let Jesus off on a technicality. Earlier in the Gospel, John calls the Jews “children of the devil,” and warns  that the Jewish authorities were constantly hatching plans to kill Jesus.

We  hear “The Jews … The Jews … The Jews” like the beat of an angry drum. But as we listen to John’s Gospel tomorrow, let’s bear in mind that in Jesus’s time there were many Judaisms, not just one.  Much like the church today, there was a huge variety of Jewish practices and scriptural interpretations, and they didn’t all get along.

Jesus very likely squabbled with a group of Temple authorities who saw nothing but a troublesome uproar over  his active public ministry, his healings and his call for “good news for the poor.” In these days, especially at Passover time in Jerusalem, the Roman rulers weren’t shy about cracking down on anything that looked like trouble. This noisy rabbi was getting a lot of attention, and nobody wanted that!

And when Matthew wrote that “the Jews” shouted out to Pilate, “His blood be on us and our children,” he set down a vicious charge that would be hurled back at Judaism for 2,000 years. Placing the blame for Jesus’s death on “the Jews” set a flame that would ignite a shameful history of pogroms and persecutions and, eventually, the Holocaust.

In this post-Holocaust world, all people of good spirit look back and say, “never again.”  To this end, let’s not just shrug off the anti-Jewish verses that still reside in our scriptural tradition.

It’s important to recognize that the stories about Jesus – the Gospels – were not written down until some 40 to 70 years after the crucifixion. Not many first-hand witnesses were still alive, and bad attitudes and prejudices had already built walls between Christians and Jews.

Forty years after the crucifixion, the Romans had destroyed the Temple, and most of Jerusalem with it. The Christian faith had reached out to embrace Gentile converts and was spreading across the Mediterranean and beyond, but its leaders still thought of the church as “Christian Jews.”

Judaism, meanwhile, focusing on the synagogue as center of community in a world without a Temple, now viewed the Christians as more than heretics.  Christian Jews were thrown out of the synagogues and told to stay out. Everyone involved was human and flawed. Anger and tempers flared. It was in this fiery setting that the Gospel stories were written and the idea of “the Jews” as unrepentant killers of Jesus set in stone.

But as Marcus Borg points out in his recent book, Evolution of the Word, the Gospels don’t indict  all Jews, only the individuals responsible for Jesus’s rejection – and, years later, the Christian community’s rejection from the synagogues. “To fail to recognize the historical circumstances and the limited intention of these passages,” Borg says, “is to perpetuate the long history of Christian anti-Semitism.”1

“His blood be on us and on our children”?  “The scribes and chief priests …       watched him and sent spies”? “The Jews, The Jews, The Jews”? When we hear these words during Holy Week, the holiest week of the year, let’s remember that it would not be inappropriate for us to pray Kaddish for Jesus:

“Yitgaddal v’yitqaddash sh’meh rabba … Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world, which God has created according to God’s will. May God establish God’s kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.”

Think carefully about those words. Hear what they say. And now think about this: That first verse of Kaddish sounds a lot like the words that Jesus taught us when we asked him how to pray:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come. Your will be done,  on earth as it is in heaven.”

Speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

––––––––––––––––
1Borg, Marcus J. (2012-08-28). Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written]. HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

Holy Week 2023

The Last Supper

The Last Supper (1592-1594), oil painting on canvas by Jacopo Tintoretto (1519-1594). Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy. (Click image to enlarge)

Lectionary readings for April 6, 2023 (Maundy Thursday)

Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14 [The first Passover]

Psalm 116:1, 10-17 [O Lord, I am your servant]

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 [This is my body that is for you]

John 13:1-17, 31b-35 [Jesus knew that his hour had come]

Lectionary readings for April 7, 2023 (Good Friday)

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 [See, my servant shall prosper]

Psalm 22 [My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?]

Hebrews 10:16-25 [He who has promised is faithful]

or

Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 [He became the source of eternal salvation]

John 18:1-19:42 [“It is finished.”]

Lectionary readings for April 8, 2023 (The Great Vigil of Easter)

At The Liturgy of the Word

At least two of the following Lessons are read, of which one is always the Lesson from Exodus. After each Lesson, the Psalm or Canticle listed, or some other suitable psalm, canticle, or hymn, may be sung. A period of silence may be kept; and the Collects provided on pages 288-91, or some other suitable Collect, may be said. It is recommended that the first Collect on page 290 be used after the Lesson from Baruch or Proverbs. (pp 893, BCP)

Genesis 1:1-2:4a [The Story of Creation]

Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18, 8:6-18, 9:8-13 [The Flood]

Genesis 22:1-18 [Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac]

Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21 [Israel’s deliverance at the Red Sea]

Isaiah 55:1-11 [Salvation offered freely to all]

Baruch 3:9-15, 3:32-4:4 [Learn wisdom and live]

or

Proverbs 8:1-8, 19-21; 9:4b-6 [Does not wisdom call]

Ezekiel 36:24-28 [A new heart and a new spirit]

Ezekiel 37:1-14 [The valley of dry bones]

Zephaniah 3:14-20 [The gathering of God’s people]

At The Eucharist

Romans 6:3-11 [Death no longer has dominion over him]

Psalm 114 [Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord]

Matthew 28:1-10 [His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow]

Lectionary readings for April 9, 2023 (Easter Sunday – Principal Service)

Jeremiah 31:1-6 [I have loved you with an everlasting love]

Acts 10:34-43 [God raised him on the third day]

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 [Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good]

Colossians 3:1-4 [You also will be revealed with him in glory]

John 20:1-18 [ “I have seen the Lord”]

Matthew 28:1-10 [He is not here; for he has been raised]

Lectionary readings for April 9, 2023 (Easter Sunday – Evening Service)

Isaiah 25:6-9 [Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces]

Psalm 114 [Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord]

1 Corinthians 5:6b-8 [A little yeast leavens the whole batch]

Luke 24:13-49 [He showed them his hands and his feet]

Palm / Passion Sunday A

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for April 2, 2023 (Palm / Passion Sunday A)

Liturgy of the Palms A

Gospel: Matthew 21:1-11

We celebrate Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday together as Holy Week begins. In this lectionary year we hear the evangelist Matthew’s account of Jesus’s triumphal procession into Jerusalem.

Christ's entry into Jerusalem

Christ’s entry into Jerusalem (1320), fresco by Pietro Lorenzetti (1280-1348). Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi, Assisi, Italy. (Click image to enlarge)

In a variation that we only hear from Matthew, Jesus enters the city apparently riding two animals at once, reflecting the evangelist’s understanding of Zechariah’s prophecy that Israel’s shepherd-king would arrive “mounted on a donkey, and on a colt.” Jesus’s arrival in the city is exciting but tense: A large, noisy crowd surrounds Jesus in a city that Matthew describes as “in a turmoil.” Jesus has warned the disciples that he will be mocked, flogged and crucified. Soon he will anger the authorities again when he drives the money changers out of the temple, as the narrative hurtles toward his passion and death on the cross.

Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

As we enter church on Palm Sunday waving palm fronds – recalling Jesus’ traditional entry into Jerusalem before a cheering crowd – we chant verses from Psalm 118 that portray another festive procession in honor of our Lord and God. In familiar words we celebrate “the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!”

Liturgy of the Passion A

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a

When Christians hear Isaiah’s verses about the “suffering servant,” our thoughts naturally turn to Jesus Christ, our messiah and king. After all, our Creeds declare that Jesus suffered for us. Our Gospels reveal a Jesus who taught us to turn our cheeks to those who strike us, knowing that a peaceful response to enemies is no cause for disgrace. During Holy Week, though, it’s important for us to understand that Isaiah was not writing to Christians in a distant future but to a Jewish audience in his own time, a people living in exile in Babylon. They were a suffering body of faithful servants, awaiting a Messiah to guide them home.

Psalm: Psalm 31:9-16

Speaking in tones of lamentation, the Psalmist recites a litany of sorrow, distress, grief, sighing, misery, scorn, horror, dread and more. He suffers, his neighbors scheme; they plot his death. In the poet’s words, “I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am as useless as a broken pot.” Yet amid all this misery, hope glows like the sun breaking through clouds: Trust in God, place our faith in God’s love, and wait to be saved.

Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Paul sets out these poetic verses from an early Christian hymn, an ancient confession in song that preceded the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed by centuries. In these worshipful words we understand that Christ was fully divine, yet embodied in Jesus he was fully human too. The Son of God willingly set aside his divinity – “emptying himself” – to bear the horrific pain of crucifixion as a vulnerable, frightened human. Jesus took on the full weight of all that suffering to show us the true exaltation of God’s love, calling us only to respond with love for God and our neighbor.

Gospel: Matthew 26:14- 27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54

Sunday’s readings reach their conclusion in Matthew’s long narrative of Jesus’s passion and death. We listen through the long journey from the Last Supper to the crucifixion. There is much packed into these two chapters, from Judas’ betrayal through the institution of the Eucharist; Jesus suffering in the garden, his arrest and trial, his journey to the cross and his death and burial. That’s a lot to grapple with all at once, so let’s reflect on one passage: When Jesus told the apostles during the Last Supper that one of them would betray him, every one of them was afraid. Every one, no matter how much he loved Jesus, wondered if he might be the traitor. Each in turn asked, ‘Surely not I, Lord?” As are we, they are human, frail and weak. And Jesus, loving us still, takes up the cross.

(As an abbreviated alternative, this Gospel may be read in shorter form, including only verses 27:11-54. This portion tells the narrative from the arrest of Jesus to his death on the cross. It ends with a foreshadowing of the resurrection with the opening of the tombs, while a Roman centurion and his soldiers recognize that Jesus was truly God’s Son.)

Good Friday

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for April 15, 2022 (Good Friday)

Calvarieberg ("Calvary")

Calvarieberg (“Calvary,” 1475), painting on panel by Antonello da Messina (1430-1479). Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium. (Click image to enlarge.)

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 [See, my servant shall prosper]

Psalm 22 [My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?]

Hebrews 10:16-25 [He who has promised is faithful]

or 

Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 [He became the source of eternal salvation]

John 18:1-19:42 [“It is finished.”]

Maundy Thursday

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for April 14, 2022 (Maundy Thursday)

Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet (

Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet (1548-1549), oil painting on canvas by Tintoretto (1519-1594). Museo del Prado, Madrid. (Click image to enlarge.)

Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14 [The first Passover]

Psalm 116:1, 10-17 [O Lord, I am your servant]

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 [This is my body that is for you]

John 13:1-17, 31b-35 [Jesus knew that his hour had come]

Palm / Passion Sunday C

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 10, 2022 (Palm / Passion Sunday C)

The Liturgy of the Palms C

Gospel: Luke 19:28-40

Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday fall on the same day in modern times, prompting us to watch in shock and surprise as the crowds who cheered for Jesus upon his arrival in Jerusalem quickly turn to mocking him and calling for his crucifixion.

Entry of Christ into Jerusalem

Entry of Christ into Jerusalem (c.1530), oil painting on panel by Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502-1550). Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Netherlands. (Click image to enlarge.)

First, in the Liturgy of the Palms, we celebrate and wave our palms as Jesus rides a colt into Jerusalem while the crowd chants the words of the prophet Zechariah celebrating the arrival of Israel’s king: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey!” Then Luke shows the crowd responding with a song of joy that we’ll hear again in Psalm 118: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

This resounding ancient hymn, a song in celebration of victory, rings out in harmony with the first reading’s verses of celebration of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. Imagine a joyful crowd at the gates to the ancient Temple, clapping hands and loudly singing, praising the Lord, our God, whose mercy and steadfast love endure forever. “On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

The Liturgy of the Passion C

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a

Now our readings turn darker and more painful as Holy Week draws near. But even as shadows and twilight fall, the hope that rests in faith and trust remains. The Prophet Isaiah surely meant the “Suffering Servant” figure as a metaphor for Israel under the iron foot of exile, hoping some day to return home with God’s help. Christians must respect this tradition, but the Servant’s pain may make us think of Jesus too, particularly in its clear call to turn the other cheek against our enemies, knowing that God is with us.

Psalm: Psalm 31:9-16

The darkness deepens as we hear this Psalm. These verses that echo the pain of the Suffering Servant remind us that numbing anguish can sap the strength of body, mind and soul. But even in the darkest depths, hope remains! Even when life seems full of pain and void of hope, we trust in God and pray: “Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.”

Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

When Paul wrote this letter from a prison cell in Rome, he may have had Isaiah’s Suffering Servant in mind. In poetic verses that historians believe may have been taken from an early Christian hymn, Paul tells us that Jesus “emptied himself” as a human, even a slave, becoming one with us even in suffering. Jesus took on human frailty as he bore the gruesome pain of crucifixion. With this as our model, Paul shows that all are called to serve God and our neighbor humbly and obediently, becoming “more” through being “less.”

Gospel: Luke 22:14-23:49

Now the joy and celebration of the procession with the palms is fully turned. We see Jesus and his friends at the Last Supper, and now the crowds who had cheered for Jesus are mocking him and calling for his crucifixion. Before long we listen in horror to the familiar account of Jesus’ torture and gruesome death. In the midst of it all, though, take a moment to reflect on a brief passage at the Last Supper when Jesus turns the disciples’ bold ideas upside down after they started arguing about which of them was to be the greatest: “The greatest among you must become like the youngest,” Jesus tells them, “and the leader like one who serves.” What direction might we take from this? How are we called to serve?

Palm / Passion Sunday B

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for March 29, 2015

Procession: Liturgy of the Palms B

Jesus Enters Jerusalem.

Jesus Enters Jerusalem. 18th century icon in the Greek Catholic Cathedral of Hajdúdorog, Hungary.

Gospel: Mark 11:1-11

It’s Palm Sunday, and it is Passion Sunday. In the course of our worship, we hear of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding a donkey and greeted as a King by throngs shouting “Hosanna!” But then, almost before we know it, we hear those same crowds angrily shouting “Crucify him!” How can this sudden and dramatic change occur? Hold this thought as we begin Holy Week, walking with Jesus toward the Cross: God is with us in joy. God is with us in sorrow.

Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

This Psalm, thought to be an ancient “song of ascents” chanted in procession as worshippers approached the Temple, is an occasion for hosannas, too. It sings out joyous praise for God’s works and God’s mercy in words that we adopt in our Eucharist in the Great Thanksgiving: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! … Hosanna in the highest …”

Liturgy of the Passion B

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a

It is difficult for Christians to consider Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant” without imagining Jesus, who suffered for us, turned his cheek against attacks, and surely faced the insults and spitting of his foes. It’s important to remember, though, that the Prophet Isaiah had an entirely different image in mind, imagining a servant leader who would take the enemy’s blows for the people in exile, and, eventually, guide them back home.

Psalm: Psalm 31:9-16

Perhaps the Psalmist had Isaiah’s Suffering Servant in mind as he wrote this Psalm of lament, with its litany of sorrow, distress, grief, sighing, misery, scorn, horror, dread and fear of death. And yet, even in the face of this crushing pain, we place our trust in God, We place our faith in God’s love, and we wait for the light of God’s face to shine through like the sun.

Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

These familiar, poetic verses boast a fascinating background: Scholars believe that they were sung as a hymn in the early church. It may be the most ancient Christian hymn that we have! Moreover, it carries significant theological weight: Although Jesus was truly God as well as truly human, he chose to “empty himself,” taking on the full weight of his suffering, accepting human weakness even as he bore the pain of crucifixion. Then God lifted him up, exalted his name and calls us to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Gospel: Mark 14:1-15:47

And at last we come to Mark’s account of Jesus’ passion and death. The palm branches and hosanna shouts are only a memory now, as we turn to the dark, painful way of the Cross and prepare to be with Jesus through Holy Week. Let us be attentive as we see Jesus’ followers, then his friends, desert him, leaving at the end only those closest to him – and a Roman centurion whose faith showed him the light!

Palm / Passion Sunday A

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, April 13, 2014

Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey. (From ProgressiveInvolvement.com)

Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey.

Procession: Liturgy of the Palms A

Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
As we celebrate Palm Sunday, recalling Jesus’ traditional entry into Jerusalem before a cheering crowd, these verses from Psalm 118 portray another festive procession in honor of our Lord and God; in familiar words we celebrate “the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!”

Gospel: Matthew 21:1-11
Matthew tells of Jesus’s triumphal procession into the city, complete with the odd image of Jesus riding two animals at once, recalling Zechariah’s prophecy that Israel’s shepherd-king would come, “mounted on a donkey, and on a colt.” It is an exciting time: Crowds surround Jesus, and he has warned the disciples that he will be mocked, flogged and crucified. Soon he will anger the authorities again when he drives the money-changers out of the temple, as the narrative leads inexorably to his passion and death on the cross.

Liturgy of the Passion A

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a
This song of the Prophet Isaiah is called “the suffering servant.” Written about the people in exile in Babylon, it looks forward to a servant leader who will guide them back home to Jerusalem. Christian readers can hardly encounter these verses, though, without thinking of Jesus, our messiah and king, who suffered for us and who taught us to give our backs and turn our cheeks to those who strike us.

Psalm: Psalm 31:9-16
Suffering continues in this Psalm of lament, as the Psalmist recites a litany of sorrow, distress, grief, sighing, misery, scorn, horror, dread and more. He suffers, his neighbors scheme; they plot his death. Yet amid all this misery, hope glows like the sun breaking through clouds: Trust in God, place our faith in God’s love, and wait to be saved.

Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11
Might Paul have had Isaiah’s “suffering servant” in mind as he wrote of Jesus’ death on the cross? We understand Jesus as both fully human and fully divine, yet he was willing to set aside his divinity – “emptying himself” – to bear the horrific pain of crucifixion as a vulnerable, frightened human. Jesus took on the full weight of all that suffering to show us the true exaltation of God’s love, calling us only to respond with love for God and our neighbor.

Gospel: Matthew 26:14 – 27:66
There’s a lot packed into this long Gospel, from the Last Supper to the crucifixion; but let’s focus for a moment on just one point: When Jesus warned the apostles that one of them would betray him, they all fretted. Every one wondered if he could turn traitor. One after another they asked, ‘Surely not I, Lord?” No matter how much we think we love, deep inside we worry. Like the apostles, we all know we are human, frail and weak. Yet Jesus, taking up the cross for our sake, loves us all the same.