Homily for Palm Sunday 4/13/25 – Father Mitch
Readings: Isa 50:4-7, Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24, Phil 2:6-11, Luke 23:1-49
Luke 23:1-49 World English Bible
The whole company of them rose up and brought him before Pilate. 2 They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man perverting the nation, forbidding paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”
3 Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
He answered him, “So you say.”
4 Pilate said to the chief priests and the multitudes, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”
5 But they insisted, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee even to this place.”
6 But when Pilate heard Galilee mentioned, he asked if the man was a Galilean. 7 When he found out that he was in Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem during those days.
8 Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he had wanted to see him for a long time, because he had heard many things about him. He hoped to see some miracle done by him. 9 He questioned him with many words, but he gave no answers. 10 The chief priests and the scribes stood, vehemently accusing him. 11 Herod with his soldiers humiliated him and mocked him. Dressing him in luxurious clothing, they sent him back to Pilate. 12 Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before that they were enemies with each other.
13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought this man to me as one that perverts the people, and behold, having examined him before you, I found no basis for a charge against this man concerning those things of which you accuse him. 15 Neither has Herod, for I sent you to him, and see, nothing worthy of death has been done by him. 16 I will therefore chastise him and release him.”
17 Now he had to release one prisoner to them at the feast.† 18 But they all cried out together, saying, “Away with this man! Release to us Barabbas!”— 19 one who was thrown into prison for a certain revolt in the city, and for murder.
20 Then Pilate spoke to them again, wanting to release Jesus, 21 but they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify him!”
22 He said to them the third time, “Why? What evil has this man done? I have found no capital crime in him. I will therefore chastise him and release him.” 23 But they were urgent with loud voices, asking that he might be crucified. Their voices and the voices of the chief priests prevailed. 24 Pilate decreed that what they asked for should be done. 25 He released him who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus up to their will.
26 When they led him away, they grabbed one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and laid the cross on him to carry it after Jesus. 27 A great multitude of the people followed him, including women who also mourned and lamented him. 28 But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ 30 Then they will begin to tell the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and tell the hills, ‘Cover us.’* 31 For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?”
32 There were also others, two criminals, led with him to be put to death. 33 When they came to the place that is called “The Skull”, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
Dividing his garments among them, they cast lots. 35 The people stood watching. The rulers with them also scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one!”
36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
38 An inscription was also written over him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
39 One of the criminals who was hanged insulted him, saying, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!”
40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Don’t you even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 He said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
43 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
44 It was now about the sixth hour,‡ and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.§ 45 The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Having said this, he breathed his last.
47 When the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous man.” 48 All the multitudes that came together to see this, when they saw the things that were done, returned home beating their chests. 49 All his acquaintances and the women who followed with him from Galilee stood at a distance, watching these things.
Today Jesus enters Jerusalem and truly begins his healing work. Up to this point, he has performed wondrous healings in numbers never before seen in this world. He has healed individual ailments, and plenty of them – every infirmity, from lameness to blindness – and has cast out demons. He has even, on three occasions, raised the dead to life.¹ But those were the healings of individuals. What we are about to witness is something else entirely. This is healing on a scale unheard of. This is a healing beyond even our imagination.
Today, brothers and sisters, Jesus enters not just into personal infirmity but into social dysfunction. Everything in this entire scene is broken. It begins with the false accusation that he has been “perverting the nation, forbidding paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” This is just the sort of lying and distortion we always undertake when we disingenuously want to sway others to our way of thinking. We know that, far from perverting the nation, Jesus was attempting to inspire and inform it. We know for a fact that Jesus advised the people to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and things of God unto God. And we know for a fact that Jesus never claimed to be an earthly king.
From there the chaos and unpredictability only intensify. Everything is either broken or upside down. Pilate and Herod, neither one famous for their patience and even handedness, do the opposite of what we might expect. They find Jesus unworthy of a death sentence. But the people call out for the release of Barabbas, a real criminal and insurrectionist. And then Pilate does the opposite of that government is supposed to do. Instead of holding the line of right and wrong, he caves in to the pressure, reverses his original sentence, and gives the people what they want. He condemns the innocent Jesus and releases the truly guilty man.
The entire culture is crooked and broken. From the bottom to the top, from the citizens all the way up through the justice system, all the way up to King Herod, this system is poisoned and corrupt. Up to this point in the gospels we have seen plenty of individual sin. Certainly we are seeing more of that. But now, layered on top of human failing, we see what happens to our social systems when our sins corrupt the collective: mob mentality, weak officials, and rampant injustice.
But Jesus has come. He is the calm, immovable, and perfect center; the patient, incorruptible force that is unmoved by the maelstrom of catastrophic failings that swirl around him. By his grace, in the midst of this disastrous set of circumstances, decency and love emerge. A thief sees him for what he is and receives entry into paradise. A centurion charged with carrying out Jesus’ unjust sentence repents and accepts him as the Son of God. He is the way, truth, and life. Through him, criminals are rehabilitated, and corrupt officials are reformed. He demonstrates how he heals societies – not from the top down by force as an earthly kings might attempt to do – but as a savior, from the ground up. From within the heart and soul.
And soon, by the mystery of his Resurrection, Jesus will demonstrate his ability to heal more than individuals, and even more even than societies. He will demonstrate his plan for healing the fallen universe itself.
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† 23:17 NU omits verse 17.
* 23:30 Hosea 10:8
‡ 23:44 Time was counted from sunrise, so the sixth hour was about noon.
§ 23:44 3:00 p.m.
¹ The daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus.
