This day begins at Bethphage (place of figs), with the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. We began with enthusiasm, happiness, and with hosannas to the great king. We enter the church; slowly the palm branches go down, and as we read the passion narrative the cross of Jesus comes up. The king, who sat on a young donkey that walked on the garments and branches laid on the road, is now hanging on a cross, naked. The enthusiasm and happiness of people have turned into a feeling of sadness and mourning. The words from Zechariah 9:9, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey" is replaced with the words from the servant song in Isaiah 53:2, "He had no form or beauty that we should look upon him, and no majesty that we should desire him.”
Celebrated author of the book The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, in his book, Like the Flowing River, suggests that life is composed of three distinct moments: ‘a lot of people’, ‘a few people’, and ‘almost no one’. How true it is of the life of Jesus. Jesus was found with large multitudes, that he could not move, he had to get into a boat to preach. He had no time to even to eat. He had a few as his companions at the last supper, or during his arrest. Finally we find him all alone flat on the ground sweating blood in the Garden. The multitude has disappeared; the eleven have abandoned and slept; and here is Jesus all-alone. The loneliness will get worse on the cross; it would seem that even God has forsaken him, God too haven’t heard his prayers.
We must come in terms with the fact that at crucial moments of life we may have to stand alone; and at such moments it is easy to fall prey to bitterness, a strong feeling to give up, etc. Khalil Gibran says, “Man is a solitary island.” Many walk into an island, they come for various reasons, some go satisfied, some go happy, some go disappointed, and some go sad—but the island remains alone.
The passion of Jesus brings us to Mount Calvary, to the foot of the Cross. People find it difficult to see the divine in that man who is beaten up, carrying the cross, and being crucified. They would have more willingly accepted him as the messiah if he had to come like king David, or like king Cyrus, who liberated the Jewish people from Babylonian captivity and allowed them to return to their homeland. On the contrary, in Mark 14 we find Jesus dining with a leper called Simon in Bethany. The Torah condemns a leper as an unholy person, and those who come in contact with him. Jesus was not only in keeping with their expectation of the messiah but also unclean and unholy. The crowd shifted side and the disciples fled the sight.
Arguably, there is no other text so close to the identity of Jesus as Philippians 2: 6-11. It is written before the gospels were written. The Letter to the Philippians, along with Paul's other letters, was written before the Gospels, with scholars generally placing Paul's letters in the 50s CE and the Gospels in the 70s-100s CE. It is a hymn that the first Christians sang. It is the oral tradition of those who lived with Jesus; it is what they saw and experienced. The Kenosis hymn goes says, Though he was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God, He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and Gave into death, death on a cross. To know and believe in a God this way is a serious paradigm shifting process; for them then, and for us now.
Being motivated to sacrifice a little, and at times even our lives, is the call of the passion of Jesus. Journeying with Jesus on his passion and the events that led to it, bring us face to face with two groups of well-determined and motivated people. Both have well defined missions to accomplish. There are the leaders of the people, the high priests, the Pharisees, etc. planning, plotting and scheming to kill Jesus. They are so well motivated that they will not rest until it is accomplished. On the other side we have Jesus, motivated, as he says, to do the will of his father who sent him and from whom he is come. He knows what will happen, he is waiting for his hour. He too will not rest until his mission is accomplished.
Two sides: one looking for an opportunity to kill, another waiting for his hour to die. The maxim of every war, every capitalistic business is, kill but don't die. You may destroy others, but don't get destroyed. Brutally put, but its true. It is the military dictate and of every country. It is the business rule of every corporation. We teach it to our kids, through the games they play. We remind ourselves of it often in our management programs through an icebreaker. Think of the game ‘saving your balloon’. You have to protect your balloon while shooting down others balloons. The management lesson from it is, to be alive on this planet, kill, but don’t die.
Gandhiji, in his nonviolent campaign, always maintained, there is no cause big or worthy enough to take another's life. Many great have, faced with violence and retaliation have held on to this difficult dictum. Albert Camus, a French philosopher and political activist, though he was an absurdist, who found no meaning/purpose in life, along with Gandhi confessed, “There may be causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for.” Never destroy or kill others’ peace of mind, business, family, and life, instead look for opportunity to die a little for the same, and build them up. Sacrificing a little for the sake of the other must be our greatest motivation.
The toughest and cruelest challenge as we walk with the suffering Jesus and see him crucified is to still believe that he is God, and stand firm on his side. Saint Philip Neri, a 16th century Italian saint, used to pray, ‘Lord, beware of this Philip, or he will betray you!’ Put it more prayerfully, ‘watch me, O Lord, this day; for, abandoned to myself, I shall surely betray thee.” This is so true of our human reality. Left to Judas, left to peter, left to the apostles, left to ourselves we would betray our master; we would betray God in our thought, speech, and actions.
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