Passion Sunday
Worship
Scripture Notes
For use with Common, Lutheran and Roman Catholic Lectionaries
The texts selected for the observance of Lent 6 as Passion Sunday each year obviously emphasize the suffering of those who are obedient to the Lord. In the Series A texts, the psalmist suffers scorn and ridicule even though the psalmist is obedient to the Lord. The Servant of Isaiah 50:4-9a suffers shame and reproach even though the Servant's ear is always open to hear the commands of the Lord, and of course Jesus is said to have been obedient to God to the point of suffering the most shameful death on the cross in Philippians 2:5-11 and in Matthew 26:1--27:66. Our lives are consistent with these texts in that even today where we are and in the congregations and communities in which we serve those who are obedient to the Lord are still suffering scorn and ridicule, reproach and death. In the very best of our religious tradition, we can and should proclaim on Passion Sunday that together with the psalmist, the Servant of Isaiah 50:4-9a, and God's Son Jesus in Philippians 2:5-11 and in the Matthew 26:1--27:66 text God also suffers with us, since if God's People suffer and God's Son suffers, certainly God also suffers with them.
Common:
Psalm 31:9-16
Lutheran: Psalm 31:1-5, 9-16
Our use of this Israelite individual lament within our Christian worship services on Lent 6 (Passion Sunday) each year is an indication that we perceive that deliverance from human suffering is still a future expectation for us - at the Easter appearance of Christ Jesus our Lord and at our own "Easter" appearance. With the psalmist, we also cry to the Lord (Yahweh for the psalmist, Christ Jesus for us) for deliverance here and now.
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Most of us who participate in Christian worship services and hear this text on the Sunday prior to Good Friday each year probably associate the claims of daily direct inspiration, of suffering at the hands of ruthless tormentors, and of confident trust in the Lord God in this portion of the third Servant Song of the Isaiah tradition with Jesus the Christ as we perceive him. As Christians, we can certainly interpret the Israelite Scriptures in any way that we wish, and it is quite understandable that we think about Jesus as we read and as we hear this text. However, it would be helpful if we would share in some way with the congregation before this text is read that the Suffering Servant Songs in the Isaiah tradition have a meaning and a context of their own in which they portray the israelite prophetic tradition in its ideal form. In the suffering of God's chosen Servant, God also suffers. In this sense, the Old and the New Testaments, the Israelite and the Christian Scriptures, and Jews and Christians are brought closer together.
Philippians 2:5-11
Probably no other text in our Bible is used as frequently and in as many different situations of the Church Year as is this text, this great Christ-hymn. It can be an Advent text, a Christmas text, an Epiphany text, a Lenten text, and a text for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost. In each of these situations we should place the emphasis on the most appropriate aspect of the text. For this Lent 6 (Passion Sunday), we should stress the suffering of Jesus in human form and his courageous willingness to go to Jerusalem. On this Sunday before Good Friday we should stress his willingness to go tb Jerusalem, even though he knew that the oppressive Roman military forces there would probably seize, torture, and crucify him because they feared that Jesus' oppressed fellow Jews who were filled with hope by Jesus' courageous public proclamation that Yahweh, rather than Caesar, is Lord would revolt against them. Through our use of this Philippians 2:5-11 Christ-hymn, we proclaim that in the suffering of Jesus the Christ we proclaim the suffering of God and in our proclamation of the glorification of Jesus the Christ we proclaim the glorification of God.
Matthew 26:1--27:66
(Or Matthew 27:11-54)
Not only is this prescribed text (both in its full and in its abbreviated form) too lengthy to be effective as a reading within the context of a well-rounded worship service; more seriously, its use on Lent 6 covers the entirety of Holy Week and presupposes that the congregation need not and will not assemble again corporately until Easter Sunday morning. The longer reading covers the events of the entire Holy Week. The reading on Lent 6 (Passion Sunday) should be limited to Matthew 26:1-16. Then the events of Holy Week can be relived and reactualized throughout the week as the story unfolds, and the emphasis on Lent 6 can be on Jesus and his relationships with the woman in the house of Simon the leper and with Judas Iscariot.
Even a brief comparison of Matthew 27 with its antecedent in Mark 15 indicates the significant tendency within the Gospel traditions to exonerate the oppressive Roman authorities and to transfer to the Jewish people culpability for the suffering and death of Jesus. The following are the most notable Matthean additions to the Markan tradition that transfer blame to the Jewish people.
1. The account in 27:3-10 has Judas Iscariot throwing down the thirty pieces of silver in the temple. The temple authorities are portrayed as callously lacking in compassion even for Judas who supposedly had helped them.
2. Matthew 27:19 adds to the Markan account the incident of Pilate's wife warning him to avoid judgment of the righteous man Jesus. She had been alerted to this in a dream, a Matthean theme as the dream revelation to Joseph in Matthew 1:20-24 indicates. In this text God is said to have given the revelation to the wife of the Roman official; God is not said to have provided revelation for any of God's own Jewish people.
3. Only Matthew 27:24-25 among the Four Gospels has Pilate wash his hands of the responsibility for Jesus' crucifixion. Only Matthew 27:24-25 has all of the Jewish people take the responsibility for Jesus' crucifixion upon themselves and upon their children. Although it is not inherently impossible that Pilate may have washed his hands to signify his non-culpability after he had given the order to have Jesus crucified, it is hardly conceivable that he would have made a public spectacle of his illegal decision and of the impotence of Roman justice when pressured by the demands of a mob from within a subjected population. Also, it would have been physically impossible for the entire Jewish nation to have spoken with one voice as if in unison, except in a literary drama. Even if the entire Jewish nation could have spoken in unison, it is not likely that it would have requested for itself in perpetuity the full responsibility for the death sentence imposed by an oppressive occupation force on a popular leader from among its own oppressed people. For a more extensive discussion of the anti-Jewish polemic in Matthew 27:24-25 and in Matthew 27:43, please see Norman A. Beck, Mature Christianity: The Recognition and Repudiation of the Anti-Jewish Polemic of the New Testament (Susquehanna University Press, 1985), pp. 159-161.
4. Only Matthew 27:43 has the Jewish leaders add the words, "He has trusted in God. Let God rescue him now if God wishes to have him. For he said that 'I am God's Son.' "
5. Matthew 27:51b-53 adds to the Markan account that when Jesus died "The earth was shaken and the rocks split. And the tombs were opened and the bodies of holy ones who had fallen asleep in death were raised, and when they had come out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and were seen by many people."
6. Only Matthew has in 27:62-66 the intensely anti-Jewish story of the guard detachment at the tomb of Jesus.
These Matthean additions to the Markan account absolve the Roman official Pilate more fully from any responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus. All of the Jewish people are made to accept, even desire, the blame for themselves and for their children for this travesty of justice. The Jews are represented in an even more reprehensible way at the cross and at the tomb of Jesus, and symbolic miracles of resurrection/resuscitation are associated with Jesus' crucifixion in the holy city.
As responsible Christian leaders during these final years of the twentieth century, we have an obligation to re-trace the tendency within the Four Gospel traditions to exonerate the oppressive Roman authorities and to blame the Jewish people for the suffering and death of Jesus. Since we are not in danger, as the leaders of the early church were, that the oppressive Roman Empire officials will seize, torture, and crucify us if we say anything against them, we can now in our proclamation of the gospel transfer the blame for the suffering and death of Jesus back after nineteen centuries where it belongs, from the oppressed Jewish people, to the oppressive Roman Empire officials. No time for this is more appropriate than Lent 6 (Passion Sunday), when we realize that when God's People (both God's earlier People the Israelites-Jews and God's later People, we who are Christians) suffer, God also suffers with them.
Common:
Psalm 31:9-16
Lutheran: Psalm 31:1-5, 9-16
Our use of this Israelite individual lament within our Christian worship services on Lent 6 (Passion Sunday) each year is an indication that we perceive that deliverance from human suffering is still a future expectation for us - at the Easter appearance of Christ Jesus our Lord and at our own "Easter" appearance. With the psalmist, we also cry to the Lord (Yahweh for the psalmist, Christ Jesus for us) for deliverance here and now.
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Most of us who participate in Christian worship services and hear this text on the Sunday prior to Good Friday each year probably associate the claims of daily direct inspiration, of suffering at the hands of ruthless tormentors, and of confident trust in the Lord God in this portion of the third Servant Song of the Isaiah tradition with Jesus the Christ as we perceive him. As Christians, we can certainly interpret the Israelite Scriptures in any way that we wish, and it is quite understandable that we think about Jesus as we read and as we hear this text. However, it would be helpful if we would share in some way with the congregation before this text is read that the Suffering Servant Songs in the Isaiah tradition have a meaning and a context of their own in which they portray the israelite prophetic tradition in its ideal form. In the suffering of God's chosen Servant, God also suffers. In this sense, the Old and the New Testaments, the Israelite and the Christian Scriptures, and Jews and Christians are brought closer together.
Philippians 2:5-11
Probably no other text in our Bible is used as frequently and in as many different situations of the Church Year as is this text, this great Christ-hymn. It can be an Advent text, a Christmas text, an Epiphany text, a Lenten text, and a text for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost. In each of these situations we should place the emphasis on the most appropriate aspect of the text. For this Lent 6 (Passion Sunday), we should stress the suffering of Jesus in human form and his courageous willingness to go to Jerusalem. On this Sunday before Good Friday we should stress his willingness to go tb Jerusalem, even though he knew that the oppressive Roman military forces there would probably seize, torture, and crucify him because they feared that Jesus' oppressed fellow Jews who were filled with hope by Jesus' courageous public proclamation that Yahweh, rather than Caesar, is Lord would revolt against them. Through our use of this Philippians 2:5-11 Christ-hymn, we proclaim that in the suffering of Jesus the Christ we proclaim the suffering of God and in our proclamation of the glorification of Jesus the Christ we proclaim the glorification of God.
Matthew 26:1--27:66
(Or Matthew 27:11-54)
Not only is this prescribed text (both in its full and in its abbreviated form) too lengthy to be effective as a reading within the context of a well-rounded worship service; more seriously, its use on Lent 6 covers the entirety of Holy Week and presupposes that the congregation need not and will not assemble again corporately until Easter Sunday morning. The longer reading covers the events of the entire Holy Week. The reading on Lent 6 (Passion Sunday) should be limited to Matthew 26:1-16. Then the events of Holy Week can be relived and reactualized throughout the week as the story unfolds, and the emphasis on Lent 6 can be on Jesus and his relationships with the woman in the house of Simon the leper and with Judas Iscariot.
Even a brief comparison of Matthew 27 with its antecedent in Mark 15 indicates the significant tendency within the Gospel traditions to exonerate the oppressive Roman authorities and to transfer to the Jewish people culpability for the suffering and death of Jesus. The following are the most notable Matthean additions to the Markan tradition that transfer blame to the Jewish people.
1. The account in 27:3-10 has Judas Iscariot throwing down the thirty pieces of silver in the temple. The temple authorities are portrayed as callously lacking in compassion even for Judas who supposedly had helped them.
2. Matthew 27:19 adds to the Markan account the incident of Pilate's wife warning him to avoid judgment of the righteous man Jesus. She had been alerted to this in a dream, a Matthean theme as the dream revelation to Joseph in Matthew 1:20-24 indicates. In this text God is said to have given the revelation to the wife of the Roman official; God is not said to have provided revelation for any of God's own Jewish people.
3. Only Matthew 27:24-25 among the Four Gospels has Pilate wash his hands of the responsibility for Jesus' crucifixion. Only Matthew 27:24-25 has all of the Jewish people take the responsibility for Jesus' crucifixion upon themselves and upon their children. Although it is not inherently impossible that Pilate may have washed his hands to signify his non-culpability after he had given the order to have Jesus crucified, it is hardly conceivable that he would have made a public spectacle of his illegal decision and of the impotence of Roman justice when pressured by the demands of a mob from within a subjected population. Also, it would have been physically impossible for the entire Jewish nation to have spoken with one voice as if in unison, except in a literary drama. Even if the entire Jewish nation could have spoken in unison, it is not likely that it would have requested for itself in perpetuity the full responsibility for the death sentence imposed by an oppressive occupation force on a popular leader from among its own oppressed people. For a more extensive discussion of the anti-Jewish polemic in Matthew 27:24-25 and in Matthew 27:43, please see Norman A. Beck, Mature Christianity: The Recognition and Repudiation of the Anti-Jewish Polemic of the New Testament (Susquehanna University Press, 1985), pp. 159-161.
4. Only Matthew 27:43 has the Jewish leaders add the words, "He has trusted in God. Let God rescue him now if God wishes to have him. For he said that 'I am God's Son.' "
5. Matthew 27:51b-53 adds to the Markan account that when Jesus died "The earth was shaken and the rocks split. And the tombs were opened and the bodies of holy ones who had fallen asleep in death were raised, and when they had come out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and were seen by many people."
6. Only Matthew has in 27:62-66 the intensely anti-Jewish story of the guard detachment at the tomb of Jesus.
These Matthean additions to the Markan account absolve the Roman official Pilate more fully from any responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus. All of the Jewish people are made to accept, even desire, the blame for themselves and for their children for this travesty of justice. The Jews are represented in an even more reprehensible way at the cross and at the tomb of Jesus, and symbolic miracles of resurrection/resuscitation are associated with Jesus' crucifixion in the holy city.
As responsible Christian leaders during these final years of the twentieth century, we have an obligation to re-trace the tendency within the Four Gospel traditions to exonerate the oppressive Roman authorities and to blame the Jewish people for the suffering and death of Jesus. Since we are not in danger, as the leaders of the early church were, that the oppressive Roman Empire officials will seize, torture, and crucify us if we say anything against them, we can now in our proclamation of the gospel transfer the blame for the suffering and death of Jesus back after nineteen centuries where it belongs, from the oppressed Jewish people, to the oppressive Roman Empire officials. No time for this is more appropriate than Lent 6 (Passion Sunday), when we realize that when God's People (both God's earlier People the Israelites-Jews and God's later People, we who are Christians) suffer, God also suffers with them.
