Note: Because of the length of the Gospel, the sermon was shortened to a brief homily. The Passion of our Lord according to St. Mark was the primary preaching on Palm Sunday.
Beloved
in Christ, God’s kingdom advances with power. That has been the theme of Mark
all along. Where God’s kingdom comes, disease and demons must yield and run
away. Where Christ comes, all naturally marvel at His teaching. They may embrace
it as something authoritative or they may be frustrated because they cannot
refute Him. Either way, Christ’s kingdom does not come “through mere idle
chatter, but with power.”
But
what happened? We have come almost to the end of Mark’s gospel, and God’s
kingdom doesn’t seem to be advancing with power anymore. It seems to have hit
some kind of a snag. The chief priests and scribes no longer feel confuted by
Christ’s wise teaching. Instead they are bold enough to plot against Him and
seize Him. His own disciples prove unreliable. One becomes a traitor, another a
denier, and the rest cowards. How can a kingdom be set up when the king’s
cabinet behaves so shamefully? But it just keeps getting worse. He is falsely
accused; He is condemned; He is mocked by soldiers; He is led away to be
crucified, even though He cannot even bear His own cross. On the cross He is
mocked by passersby. The power of God’s kingdom seems to have evaporated.
And
yet. And yet maybe that’s too hasty a statement. Maybe Christ knows more than
He is letting on. He predicts Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial. He institutes
a sacrament by saying that He is giving His body and blood that are given and
shed for the forgiveness of sins—and that is not the act of a powerless man.
Even while He was on the cross, the curtain in the temple was torn in two
because of His death. All nature seemed to react to His death, as if it seemed
to understand exactly how unnatural all this was. And so the centurion, the
ancient Roman equivalent of a battle-scarred, no-nonsense master sergeant, was
moved to confess, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”
Yes,
this was the mighty Son of God throughout. He showed His great power by doing
what we couldn’t. He prayed fervently in Gethsemane when we could not watch for
even one hour. He remained faithful to God when we couldn’t. He went to the
cross when we were unable to bear that heavy load. And through all of that He
did something that nobody else was able to do in all of human history: He dealt
with our sins once and for all and reconciled us to God. That is real power.
And
so, beloved in Christ, the very same Jesus you see on the cross is the Jesus
who had cast out demons, healed countless people, taught with authority, and
did a thousand miracles. He is the same Jesus, the one who always intended to
come in power and change history, and indeed has done so by His death on the
cross. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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