An Afterthought about Passion Sunday, written on Passion Sunday April 13, 2025

An Afterthought about Passion Sunday, written on Passion Sunday April 13, 2025

The incident of Passion Sunday should remind us of what the reason for the Incarnation is all about.  We can reminisce about the ministry that Jesus portrayed in healing the eyes of a blind man that brought about a discussion by the Pharisees and the man’s parents.  As one of the signs from John’s Gospel and the truth of the reality of the Incarnation.  Then, of course, the raising of his close friend Lazarus and the final sign of his love for all of us is a future discourse on human forgiveness, the Resurrection of all of us.

But the real symbolism lies with the two events that are prominent from Matthew and Luke:  “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!  Behold, your house will be abandoned, desolate  I tell you, you will not see me again until you say,” Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”   ( Mt 23: 37 - 39). 

As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes .  For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides.  They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone on another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.  (Lk 19: 41 - 44)

This is the essence of Passion Week in which we find the very premise of God’s mercy starting with the outward sign of an innocent lamb coming on the back of an ass.  This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: “Say to the daughter Zion, Behold your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”   (Mt 21: 4 - 5).  

How unique that the God of the universe would humble himself to complete his mission of forgiving mankind for his sinfulness by becoming the very suffering lamb of peace to shedding all of his Blood that you and I would need to do nothing to receive this Passion of his Son.  

Nowhere else in the bible or any other written script is there a sign of a monarch lowering himself from his deity to a common criminal that is a saving entity for the evil of mankind. 

Keeping this entry into a certain suffering and death of our God is the only exact Passion of our Salvation.  

Ralph B. Hathaway