· CHILDREN'S EDUCATION

· ADULT EDUCATION

· EFM

· JOURNEY TO
   ADULTHOOD
      RITE 13
      J2A
      YAC

· VACATION BIBLE
   SCHOOL

· SERMONS

· CURSILLO

· HAPPENING

· RESOURCE LIST
      Chapel Library
      Recommendations

SERMONS

Palm Sunday and Sunday of the Passion
March 16, 2008

By The Rev. Sylvia Czarnetzky

Matthew 21:1-11 (Liturgy of the Palms)
Isaiah 45:21-25
Psalm 22:1-11
Philippians 2:5-11
The Passion Gospel according to Matthew

At the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Greenwood, they have a series of stained glass windows dedicated to the twelve apostles. Lots of churches have apostle windows, but the windows at Nativity Church are different, because one of the twelve apostle windows is dedicated to Judas Iscariot.

It is unusual for a church to have a Judas window -- most churches that have apostle windows dedicate the 12th window to the apostle Matthias, Judas’s replacement. But Nativity has a Judas window instead.

The apostle windows in the Church of the Nativity are high up in the nave, six on one side and six on the other.  And 11 of these windows are done in brightly colored stained glass -- lots of red and blue and green and gold. But not the twelfth window. The stained glass in the twelfth window is done in somber tones of black, brown, and gray. It’s the Judas window. On it there is a noose made from rope, and precisely 30 pieces of silver -- the going rate, according to Matthew, for ratting out your Lord to the authorities.

And I think there’s a kind of integrity in having a Judas window -- it acknowledges a truth that we often forget, when we talk about Judas, which is that Judas was not “a fringe member” of the disciples; rather he was right there, in Jesus’s inner circle, from the very beginning.

“If anything, [Judas] is the most trusted of the twelve...” because they put Judas “in charge of the money box. It is his job to keep food on the table, for the[ disciples] and for the poor. He is their stewardship chairman. They trust him to manage their [money], ...because Judas is one of them.  He is the Lord’s friend. He has walked hundreds of miles with them and ... slept out under the stars with them.” (Taylor 41) And Judas’s membership in that trusted inner circle makes his betrayal of Jesus that much “more treacherous.” (Taylor 41)

Judas may be the most famous traitor “in all of history.” He’s certainly one of the most despised! Dante puts Judas is in the very lowest circle of Hell. (41) In Dante’s Inferno, there is “no one who suffers more than Judas Iscariot.” (Alighieri 423)

But as despised and hated as he is, Judas Iscariot is NOT the only one in this Passion Gospel to betray Jesus. If you think about it, Jesus is betrayed again and again by the people who have been the closest to him, and the betrayals occur again and again as Jesus moves closer and closer to the cross.

For one thing, the disciples Peter, James and John go with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemene, and he asks them to stay with him in his hour of need -- he asks them to stay awake with him, but they cannot do it. (Mt. 26:26-45)

Every single time Jesus goes off to pray in the garden, he comes back and finds them sound asleep! (Taylor 112) They slept when Jesus needed them the most. (112) Jesus asks them, in one of the most haunting questions in the whole Passion story:“[c]ould you not stay awake with me one hour?” (Mt. 26:40) Then later, after Judas has betrayed Jesus with a kiss, and the crowds have led Jesus off to the the house of the high priest, we are told by Matthew that “all the disciples deserted [Jesus] and fled.” 

And the other betrayal in the Passion Gospel that rivets our attention comes from Peter. Peter follows the entourage as it moves from Gethsemane to the high priest’s house, but he follows from a safe distance. Then Peter kind of slinks into the courtyard to watch the action, again from a safe distance. And then, when a coupld of people say to Peter, “Hey, weren’t you one of those guys with Jesus a few minutes ago?  Didn’t I see you earlier? Aren’t you one of his disciples?  Aren’t you?” And Peter denies even knowing Jesus! (42)

And the betrayals in this story don’t stop with the inner circle. What about the crowd?  What about the people of Jerusalem? One minute they welcome Jesus into the city, scattering cloaks and palm branches in his path and shouting “Hosanna!”; and the next minute they send Jesus to death, shouting “Give us Barrabas!” One minute they give Jesus a hero’s welcome, then the next minute that are watching Jesus stumble with the heavy cross to the place where he will be killed. (Brueggemann 248)

I think that’s part of the power of this Sunday -- this Sunday service starts out with a celebration of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, [where we sing a hymn of triumph and] we play the part of the crowd, welcoming our hero home, with palm branches and shouts of “Hosanna!”

But the next thing we know, we are playing the part of the crowd again, this time in the reading of the Passion Gospel. And we are given the opportunity to take Pilate up on his offer of amnesty, but we refuse, shouting “Give us Barrabas!” and “Crucify him!  Crucify him!”

And the truth is the betrayals don’t stop there. We ourseles, today, participate in the betrayal of Jesus, in ways large and small, just like they did two thousand years ago. We’re just as fickle as that crowd -- shouting “Hosanna” one minute and “Crucify him!” the next; Showing up for church one minute, then denying we even know Jesus the next minute.

As this Holy Week unfolds before us over the next six days, we are invited to hear once again the story of Jesus’s last hours and days. And we’re reminded of all the betrayals Jesus experienced over and over as he moved closer to the cross.. And we are invited to consider in our own lives, all the ways, large and small, that we betray Jesus -- all the ways, large and small, that we fail our Lord, just when he needed us most.

It is not an easy invitation to accept, but the truth is that
the only way we can get to Easter morning, is to go through Holy Week.There’s no bypass. No shortcut. No way around it. Amen. 

Works Cited

Alighieri, Dante. Inferno.The Divine Comedy. Trans. John D. Sinclair. NewYork:Oxford University Press,939.

Brueggemann, Walter, et al. Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on NRSV -- Year B. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993.

Taylor, Barbara Brown. God in Pain:Teaching Sermons on Suffering.  Nashville: Abington Press, 1998.