Lectionary Readings: Palm Sunday Passion, Year A
[This entry is unusual in that it preceded the Gospel reading. It was less of a sermon/homily, and more of a guide for contemplating the Gospel that we were about to read.]
This morning, we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. This is the story we heard at the beginning of the service, in which Jesus rides into the city on a donkey, while people lay down palms before him, and shout “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
And now, we are about to read the passion of Jesus, broken into parts for a more dramatic reading. You yourselves have the parts, at times, of the soldiers, the crowds, or the bystanders. There are actually two readings that we can choose for the passion reading – and one of them is a little over twice the size of what we will be reading. We are reading just a portion of the larger reading.
In preparing for today, I read through everything. And what stuck out to me in the full reading is the amount of fear that is evident in all the people we see.
In one sense, the people who are overjoyed at the Messiah entering Jerusalem, have a lot of hope for the future – but only because they fear the Romans and the occupation of Israel. Something that the arrival of the Messiah would change for them.
In that longer reading, we saw the leaders of the people trying to arrest Jesus because they were losing control over the people. They were terrified that Jesus would supplant them. They had seen Jesus coming in to the city, riding on a donkey, and they wanted to arrest Jesus then, but they didn’t because, Matthew’s Gospel tells us, “they feared the crowds, who regarded Jesus as a prophet.” We see Judas offering to betray Jesus to these same leaders. We see Jesus institute communion at the Last Supper, and we see Jesus arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. And all of Jesus’ disciples desert him at that arrest, because they were terrified of being caught up in this arrest.
Jesus had told his disciples that they would desert him before this arrest, and at that time Peter had vehemently said that even if every one else deserted Jesus, he, Peter, would never desert Jesus. And Jesus said, “Yes. Yes you will.”
And after this arrest, Jesus is at the house of the High Priest, and Peter shows up and goes to the courtyard, outside while Jesus was questioned by the leaders of the people inside. And a servant girl tells Peter that she recognizes him being with Jesus – which he promptly denies. So he moves to the porch, and another servant girl comes up and says that she too recognizes him as a Jesus follower – and Peter denies it again. And finally, some bystanders come up, and tell him that they too recognize him as someone who was a disciple of Jesus. And once again, because he is terrified of being connected to Jesus – for being seen as a follower of this man – Peter denies that he knows Jesus for a third time.
And then the rooster crows.
And Peter becomes even more terrified. Because he realizes that he has denied Jesus, just as Jesus had predicted. And so he leaves and weeps bitterly.
All of this brings us up to the passage we are about to read together. And in what we are about to read, there are people who are also terrified. Terrified of the dreams they’ve had. Terrified of passing judgment on innocent people. Terrified of the crowds of people, because what happens when the people turn on you? Or, people terrified, because what happens if their leader, their Messiah is crucified and leaves them?
And, we also see people who are mocking Jesus, showing their hatred for him, because hatred is usually just the end result of fear. We hate what we fear.
This passion gospel gives us numerous examples of fear, and in each case it is because people were afraid of losing something they felt was theirs – power, prestige, control, reputation – you name it.
At the end of the Gospel, there are people terrified because the earth quakes, the rocks are split, the temple veil was torn in two and people were raised from the dead. If any of us were there when all of this happened the moment that Jesus died, I can guarantee you that all of us would be terrified.
This is the only instance where the fear that overwhelmed people had no earthly motive. It was not a fear motivated by a loss of power, prestige, reputation, or control. It was a fear that terrified people for one simple reason: to make the identity of Jesus as the Savior of the World known to all humanity.
Fear is a powerful motivator. And this fear is the only type of fear that should rule our lives. Not fear of the people, like the leaders who wanted to arrest Jesus felt. Not fear of arrest, like the disciples who deserted Jesus experienced. Not fear of what others think of us, which is what drove Peter to deny Jesus. Not fear of making a bad decision, like Pilate. The thing that made the soldiers understand who Jesus is was the fear of God. The soldiers who watched over Jesus were terrified at what was happening, and it opened up their eyes, so that they could say, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
The question, as we read this Gospel today is, which of these characters do you identify with? Which of these people reminds you of yourself? And what is God asking of you?
[This sermon was delivered at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Wickenburg, AZ on March 29, 2026.]