Through his Passion and Death, Jesus opened gates to eternal life

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (B)     

Our first reading this Passion Sunday is generally referred to as the Third Servant Song. Taken from the Section of the Book of Isaiah known as Second Isaiah, this text is third in a series of four Old Testament passages that highlight the salvation and victory won through the suffering of the faithful servant of the Lord. Written over 500 years before Jesus’ own passion and death, this text is vitally important because it so well captures the way that Jesus himself might have understood the events of Holy Week.

The Third Servant Song speaks of a servant of the Lord whom God commissioned to teach his people. He proclaimed a message of correction and hope to a weary, downtrodden flock. Although he labored faithfully at his task, the people refused to accept his message and abused him with insults and vile taunts. He endured these insults with patience and continued his mission with courage, always certain that God who had commissioned him would ultimately vindicate his efforts. In the end, the servant’s faith is well rewarded; the anguish endured by the servant is the precise means God uses to bestow salvation upon both the servant and his people. It is truly amazing how well this passage helps us to understand the events we prepare to remember this Holy Week.

“The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them” (Isaiah 50:4a-b). Throughout his public ministry, Jesus had taught his people by word and deed. His message of repentance and salvation was backed up by the powerful authenticity of his person, the wonder and awe wrought by his miracles, and the genuine concern he exuded especially for God’s “little ones.” How wonderful his theme of justice, peace, and joy must have sounded to the ears of those beaten-down people –  every moment of his ministry was dedicated to lifting them into the fullness of his Father’s Kingdom.

“Morning after morning he opens my ear that I might hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back” (Isaiah 50:4c-5). The very core of Jesus’ being was his loving devotion to his Heavenly Father. Morning after morning, through his multiple examples of prayer, Jesus witnessed to the centrality of this relationship. Having been commissioned by his Father to win the salvation of his people, Jesus remained steadfastly faithful to that call, enduring whatever was necessary to accomplish his Father’s will. The intense love between the Father and the Son offers a privileged insight into the communion of love that is the Blessed Trinity. Jesus’ passion and death must be understood as a manifestation of his total love for his Heavenly Father, a love which overflowed into the redemption of all humanity.

“I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6). Jesus is perhaps the prime manifestation of the truth that real love always includes the willingness to sacrifice and endure suffering for the beloved.  Even through the 2,000 years of history that separates us from the events of Jesus’ passion, we must remember that his suffering and death was violent and cruel and real. Ever faithful to his mission, Jesus endured the tortures of that first Holy Week, proving his infinite love for us, and thereby winning our salvation. The great apostle St. Paul captures this best: “It is in this that God proves his love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

“The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame” (Isaiah 50:7). In fact, not only was Christ not abandoned to shame, but his Almighty Father raised him up as the gloriously reigning Lord of heaven and earth. Through his suffering and death, Jesus had won the salvation of God’s people, forever opening the gates to eternal life. This love of Christ has defeated ultimately the power of sin and death; the redemption that Christ has wrought is a perpetual offer to all those who believe in him –  the final words this Holy Week will not be sin, but love –  not death, but life!

Msgr. Fell is a Scripture scholar and director, diocesan Office for Priest Personnel.