Meditation 

            HOMILY  Sunday, March 29, 2026  Sunday of the Passion / Palm Sunday

Welcome!  Today we begin Holy Week, a week filled with paradoxes, reversals, and ironic twists.  The story, as you’ve heard, moves inevitably from celebration toward death, yet it brings the promise of life.  Jesus appears to be the victim, but he chooses this path, humbling himself, confident that God will exalt him in victory.  Pilate embodies the full might of the Roman Empire, but is powerless before the crowd’s demands.  The chief priests and elders, perhaps more than anyone else, should recognize the long-hoped-for Messiah, but their jealousy prevents it.

Perhaps the greatest irony in today’s Passion reading is found in the crowd’s exclamation, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:25).  Over the eons, these words have been misused to slander the Jewish people, claiming they bear the guilt of Christ’s blood.  Superficially, that’s what the crowd means: Pilate refuses responsibility, so the people, the Jewish people, take it upon themselves.  Theologically, though, that crowd speaks a universal truth.  Their words do NOT justify anti-Jewish scapegoating!  Instead, these words apply to all humanity.  Somehow, we are all implicated in the death of Jesus.  Our rebellion, our sin, places him on the cross.

Paradoxically, however, the crowd’s words also reveal a deeper truth.  The blood of Christ does not mark us with condemnation; instead, it promises forgiveness.  It does not stain us with guilt; it washes our sin away.  By accepting suffering and death at the hands of sinners, Jesus wins the victory of love.  His blood be on us, indeed!  Just as we all share guilt in the crucifixion of Jesus, so too are we all granted mercy by his self-giving death.  United in baptism to his death and resurrection, receiving his body and blood in communion, we receive grace, freedom, and life.

In the days to come, let’s not look at these contradictions as puzzles to be solved.  They are mysteries beyond our full understanding.  But as we contemplate the events of Holy Week, we’ll discover new depths of God’s love for us.  May his blood be upon us all, with mercy, and with grace, and with salvation.

So may it be for all of us.  God loves you and so do I.   AMEN!

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