Who Among Us?

          Palm Sunday               April 13, 2025

Texts for this service are Psalm 118:1,2,19,20a; Luke 19:36-38; Luke 19:39-40

ALSO Isaiah 50:5-6, Mark 14 & 15 selected verses (printed here to provide context for the reflection)

The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn 

backward. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my 

cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide 

my face from insult and spitting.

It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. 

The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to 

arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, “Not during 

the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.”

While Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the 

table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment 

of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on 

his head.

When [Jesus and his disciples had taken their places at the table] and were 

eating, Jesus said,  “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, 

one who is eating with me.”

Jesus said to Peter, “Truly I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock 

crows twice, you will deny me three times.”

 [Later] Jesus came and found his disciples sleeping.

“Could you not keep awake one hour?”

Then the soldiers laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.

All [of his disciples] deserted Jesus and fled.

The soldiers took Jesus to the high priest; and all of the chief priests, 

the elders, and the scribes were assembled.

All of them condemned him as deserving death. Some began to spit on him, 

to blindfold him, and to strike him. The guards also took him over 

and beat him.

As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held consultation with the elders 

and scribes and the whole council. Thy bound 

Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and 

after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him.

When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the 

afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Now when the centurion, who stood facing Jesus, saw that in 

this way he breathed his last, he said, 

“Truly this man was God’s Son!”

Hymn  When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?
        

Reflection   Who Among Us?                                                                           

The woman who anointed Jesus whispers in our ear. 

In what measure do we hear what Jesus is really saying?

How readily do we suspend our preconceived ideas and yield

to cultural pressure to let God’s divine intentions capture us?

The fleeing disciples brush by our shoulders.

In what measure do we let expediency or fatigue or fear 

overcome our good intentions? How often do we rationalize 

tepid commitment and half-hearted measures?

The indignant priests rise up within us

In what measure do we fossilize truth and make tradition 

impermeable to fresh revelation? How often do we loose 

sight of the greater good, and worry ourselves over minutia?

And Peter. 

Peter looks us in the eye and when we meet his gaze we hear the 

cock crow and we know. We, like he, see the truth about ourselves

Hymn  When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small,

love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.