VIDEO TRANSCRIPT What is Palm Sunday and why is it important? Word on Fire Catholic Ministries minutes November 7th, 2012

Transcription

1 VIDEO TRANSCRIPT What is Palm Sunday and why is it important? Word on Fire Catholic Ministries minutes November 7th, 2012 FR. ROBERT BARRON: Palm Sunday as holy week begins we re drawn to a particular attention. Obviously everything Jesus said and did is worthy of our attention, but there s something about these words and actions as he comes to the climax of his life that draw our attention very particularly. Here s one that we re going to miss, but what I would argue no first century Jew would miss it.

2 We hear now in Mark s gospel this line, When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives. You say, well yeah, okay he s just coming to Jerusalem but he s giving us a little geographical detail. Anyone that s been to Jerusalem knows that just to the east of the holy city is the Mount of Olives and then further on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives you ve got Bethpage and Bethany. Jesus is approaching, Mark is telling us, gradually from the east. He s coming to his holy city. You say, well so what? Why in the world would that be important? Here s why it s important. Keep in mind any pious Jew of Jesus time is just

3 swimming in the text of Scripture. When they were trying to understand anything they didn t turn to philosophy (as we would today probably turn to science), they turned to the Bible, to the great text of their tradition. Here s the text they all would ve known from the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel, I ve spoken before about him in these videos, is especially mysterious and haunting. Here s the text though from chapter 10 of Ezekiel, The glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house and stopped above the cherubim. So, he s imagining the cherubim Angels and the glory of the Lord is above them. The cherubim lifted up their wings and rose up from the earth in my site as they

4 went out. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord and the glory of the Lord of Israel was above them. What s being described there is something utterly devastating. Ezekiel is pronouncing a kind of judgment on the Temple. The temple was, in almost a literal sense, Yahweh s dwelling place on earth. But, it s become so corrupt Ezekiel is saying that the Shekinah, the glory of Yahweh which dwelt in the Temple, got up and left. It left by the east gate which is the main gate of the temple. Then, as he goes on further he says, It hovered above the Mount of Olives. So he s imagining the glory of the Lord leaving the holy Temple and going east. This is a

5 devastating and haunting text. Has God s glory in fact left the Temple because of its corruption? Then, a little later later in Ezekiel we find the prophecy that one day the glory of the Lord would return the same way he left. This is from chapter 43: Then he brought me to the gate, the gate facing east, and there the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. The sound was like the sound of mighty waters and the earth shown with his glory. He left because of corruption, but he will come back, says Ezekiel, and he ll come back from the east and take possession of his Temple. Then Ezekiel says the Temple would then be rebuilt

6 and reconstituted and the glory of the Lord would dwell in it. As I said before, pious Jews of that time would ve known these texts and would have been haunted by these texts. They re trying to understand Jesus who said, as he commenced his public ministry, you have a greater than the Temple here. See what he s saying? In his own person, heaven and earth have come together. In his own person, the glory of Yahweh is dwelling. They ve heard him say that and now they see, at the climax of his life, he s approaching Jerusalem from the east. Who is he? Not just an itinerant rabbi. He is the Shekinah. He s the glory of Yahweh now coming back to reclaim his

7 temple. Now, watch what he does. The minute he arrives in the holy city, he goes into that Temple and, like Ezekiel, proclaims judgment upon it. He overturns the tables. I will tear this place down and in three days rebuild it. This is exactly what Ezekiel said would happen. When the Shekinah of Yahweh would return the temple would be rebuilt. St. John adds of course, that he s talking about the Temple of his body. What s happening here is a very richly textured presentation isn t it? Jesus is the reestablishment of the link between heaven and earth which had become ruptured through sin. The Shekinah of Yahweh had left the Temple but now in Christ the two come together. He

8 himself is the rebuilt Temple. As if that weren t enough, there s more on Palm Sunday. That s why these texts are so densely textured. The other great text which the first Christians couldn t have missed is Zechariah 9:9. Here it is: 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. Zechariah is predicting what? The definitive return of the Davidic King. Go back to second Samuel now. We find David the great King of Israel coming into Jerusalem. David conquered Jerusalem and established it as his

9 capital. As he enters, leading the Ark of the Covenant, the people wave palm branches and celebrate, and in comes the triumphant King. David s son Solomon builds the great temple which houses the Ark of the Covenant. For that brief shining moment, Israel is well governed. It has a righteous King. But then as we know, Solomon himself and then a whole slew of his descendants fall into corruption. They re not doing what the Israelite King is supposed to do. The prophets pronounce judgment on the Kings as they pronounce judgment on the Temple and they began to long and hope that one day a definitive David would return. That s Zechariah s prophecy.

10 Now to make it even more textured, another conviction is dawning on the ancient Israelites that somehow, in this Davidic King, Yahweh himself would become King. Yahweh would govern his people through this Davidic King. Listen now to just a couple of passages; I could have chosen so many more. Here s from Isaiah: Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of Yahweh to Zion. This is Yahweh as King coming into Zion. Here s something from the profit Malachi: For I am a great King says Yahweh of Hosts and my name is reverenced among the nations. That s the idea. Yahweh would reign as king

11 and then all the nations would see it. Here is the Psalm 145: I will extol you my God and King and bless your name forever. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion endures throughout all generations. A Davidic King, yes, who is the vehicle by which Yahweh becomes King of Israel and thereby biking of the world. The return of the King, long before Tolkien picked that up, is a great biblical idea. Can you beat the Bible when it comes to that sense of irony and poetic reversal and so on? How will this Davidic King arrive? Ancient people knew and we know too, that the triumphant King will come on the Arabian charger, surrounded by his army. The same thing

12 is true today. Our presidents and Kings and prime ministers are surrounded by their armed forces and great display of worldly might. How has he come though this new Davidic King? On a donkey. Not on an Arabian charger, but on the foal like a baby or like a little donkey. Surrounded by armies? No. He comes in humility and simplicity. Beautiful poetry of the Bible is this is the return of the King. Yes, the Shekinah coming back to reclaim the Temple coming from the east, but also now the King coming to take possession of his capital city. Is he David? Yes. Does he fight as David did? No. Now as holy week unfolds we see precisely how the new King fights by allowing all the powers of

13 the world to overwhelm him, and he swallows them up in the great ocean of the divine forgiveness and the divine mercy. He thereby conquers the enemies of Israel and emerges as the true King of the world. This is precisely why Pontius Pilate, despite himself, becomes the first great evangelist putting over the cross Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews in all three languages of the time; Hebrew, Greek, and Latin so no one would miss it. That s Pilate announcing with supreme irony that the king came back. Here s why these ancient texts are so important for us. We say, Well, all those connections are interesting, but

14 what about us? It has everything to do with us because Yahweh coming back to claim his Temple means heaven and earth have met, heaven and earth have met in this Jesus. Yahweh reclaiming his capital city is a Yahweh now as Lord of the world. The Lords and presidents and great figures that we see, they re not the Lords of the world, Yahweh is. What s the Church s job? To announce this great truth to the entire world. How wonderful that we can go back to these ancient texts which found their fulfillment in Jesus and that now fills us with life and purpose and mission.