Magyar Egyház, 1999 (78. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1999 / 1. szám
6. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ THE ROAD FROM PALM SUNDAY TO EASTER The Palm Sunday experience is a subject to a number of interpretations, and it reveals many truths about the human situation. It offers one insight to the human predicament that seems especially relevant to our own times. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, there was a great burst of enthusiasm, a spontaneous and contagious response that became a strikingly colorful procession of all kinds of people. They sang and shouted with great joy because they thought that Jesus would bring them a triumphant victory, and they believed that in that victory, he would resolve every social, political, and economic problem in keeping with their ideas. His entrance into Jerusalem signified for them that the Kingdom of God would be established immediately upon the Earth. Of course, they had their own concept of the nature of the Kingdom of God. It should not surprise us that they expected it to be in accord with their own desires. A slave in a modern novel makes a suggestion that sheds light on the persistence of this celebration in the Christian year. In Lloyd C. Douglas’ book, The Robe, the slave, Demetrius, pushes his way through the crowd on the occasion of the triumphal entry, trying to see who is the center of attention. He comes close enough to look upon the face of Jesus. Later, another slave asks him, “See him close up?” Demetrius nodded. “Crazy?” Demetrius shook his head emphatically. “King?” “No,” muttered Demetrius, “not a king”. “What is he then?” demanded the other slave. “I don’t know”, mumbled Demetrius, “but he is something more than a king”. •k Je Je Gethsemane was a cross of mental and spiritual suffering. The second cross was made bearable and understandable because Jesus had been victorious with the first cross. Gethsemane was the cross of acceptance. Calvary was the cross of completion. If anything, it was the easier of the two. There is no incident in the trial or anywhere else where Jesus debates, deliberates, or shrinks from the cross after Gethsemane. From this moment on there is no decision to be made, only acceptance based on the decisions already made. In Gethsemane, we get a magnified glimpse of the humanity of Jesus. He was tempted, and he prayed for deliverance. Here it was not simply a question of his fear of death. His temptation was the temptation to doubt his messianic vocation in view of his imminent death on the cross. His mission was to set in motion the Kingdom of God on Earth. To this end, he lived and preached and performed mighty works. Was it all to be in vain? Was it to end in catastrophe? On the contrary, God designed for him a crown of thorns. God chose to exalt him not on a throne but on a cross. Je Je Je Usually, when men died on crosses they shrieked, railed, and cursed those who crucified them. But Jesus prayed. Not for himself but for others. “Said” is a verb tense, which meant he kept on saying. Perhaps he began as they nailed him to the cross and continued to do so. His prayer to the Father was to forgive, not to curse, those involved. “Them” certainly included all that were involved in the event: Pilate, soldiers, and mob. However, in the end, he prayed for us - the “crucifiers, then and now” - for we were there in our sins when they crucified the Lord. *** Before there could be the ecstasy of Easter, there had to be the agony of Calvary. There could be no overwhelming joy of the Easter morn unless there had been the suffering, pain, and death of Christ on the rugged cross. There could be no rapturous delight of victory over death until Christ had tasted death for every man. As the rainbow follows the storm and as smiles follow tears, so the ecstasy of Easter follows the darkness of the crucifixion and the tomb. The resurrection is the sign that God is not defeated in his creation. The resurrection is the sign that he succeeds. Death is swallowed up in victory. Fear is defeated by radiant faith. Guilt is removed by the fact of God’s grace, his forgiveness seen in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection deals with something that happened to a physical body. We don’t understand it all. But a body that was cold, lifeless, and dead was transformed, made alive, radiant, and victorious. God wants to begin his resurrection victory in our bodies right now. God wants you to feel the uplift of the resurrection posture and to have the comfort of knowing death is not the end. Our separations that seem so long to us now are not final. There is going to be a joyous reunion. He has answers to our fears and our guilt. God himself is with us and for us. God wants to let us know that he cares. He has not left us. He will never desert us.
