Palm Sunday: the Sunday of the Passion, Year A
March 24, 2002
Christ Church, Covington

“At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split” (Matt. 27:51).

The death of Jesus Christ is the central point of human history, the decisive event upon which human fate rests. The Gospel of Matthew shows this conviction by recording the incredible events that attend Jesus’ death. Jesus breathes his last upon the cross, and decisive things happen; his death is the fulcrum that moves heaven and earth.

So Matthew tells us that the curtain of the temple is torn, signifying the end of the old dispensation; furthermore, and uniquely, Matthew tells us that the earth itself is shaken, and the rocks split. God is revealing his power in the death of Jesus Christ, shaking the earth and remaking it, inaugurating a new order. In fact, through the death of Jesus Christ, God invades the realm of sin and death to bring liberation and life, symbolized by the opening of the tombs and the raising of the dead. In the days of the prophet Ezekiel, God had said, “I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people…” (Ezek. 37:12). Now the prophecy is fulfilled, as through Jesus’ death new life comes into the world.

Make no mistake: the new reality does not come easily. The earth is shaken, and those who witness the events are terrified. More importantly, the new order comes through the painful death of a man. When Jesus says, in Matthew’s Gospel, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Matt. 27:46), he is not just quoting the Psalms, but uttering a cry of pain and despair. Here we stand on sacred ground, silent before the reality of death, speechless at the fact of judicial murder. Yet in the midst of this death, we encounter God’s costly love, willing to give (even to death) for love of humanity. We encounter God’s passion for us, his loving embrace of us, shown forth at a great cost.

It is this that brings a new world into being. The awesome and terrible things that we have seen today should cause us to wonder, but also to rejoice at what is being brought to birth here. For this story is meant to draw us in, to make us a part of it, as we respond to what God has done in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is the central point; this is the decisive moment in the history of the world. May we see the signs, and respond ourselves with those assembled, “Truly, this man was God’s Son” (Matt. 27:54).

The Rev’d John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.

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