Palm Sunday invites two competing responses. Undeniably, there is an element of joy in observing this feast. Celebrated when spring is returning with milder temperatures, winter rigors and Lenten seriousness are past, and days are becoming sunnier, there's a lift in people's spirits. Yet, in a contrast that the soft loveliness of spring makes sharper, the tone of the liturgy is somber. You can't miss the tragic undertones in the description of the procession with palms as the people shout Hosanna, for we know that Jesus's tragic death lies ahead. Yet the darkest shadow across Palm Sunday is the passion account (this year Mark 14:1–15:47) read in the liturgy, a detailed account of Jesus's humiliation and his abandonment by the Father and the leaders he himself chose. Jesus died a criminal's death!

         Readers of the Gospel should not be surprised at the seriousness blending with the joy. Jesus's conflict with those anti-human forces standing in the way of the Kingdom of God come to a climax in his  anguished and lonely death. More than the other evangelists, Mark portrays Jesus's "obedience unto death" (Phil. 2:8) with unrelieved starkness. There is a terrible absence here—of the Father and of the disciples he loved. Jesus experiences the depths of human alienation from God.

         Yet absence is only half the story. Jesus goes to his death deliberately, following a divine script. Jesus foretold his disciples' abandonment of him in Mark 14:27: "All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be dispersed.'" (Zech. 13:7) Importantly, his humiliating death transcends the glorious messianic expectations of his time and invites people to see him introducing a kingdom ultimately more glorious than a purely nationalist one. In a subtle touch that repudiates the mighty Roman Empire then occupying Palestine, a Roman centurion reacts to Jesus's death: "Truly, this man was the son of God!" (Mark 15:39) There are two levels of causality in Mark's Passion story, the human and the divine. On the human level, religious leaders, Roman administrators, and Jesus's disciples act freely and seemingly determine events. On the divine level, however, their malicious or cowardly actions are turned to God's purposes. Jesus triumphs, and we live from his resurrection.

What to Look for as You Listen to the Passion Account

        Take seriously—and take home!—what you "notice" as you listen. What stands out for you? Three things stand out for me. The first aspect is the extraordinary shift in the portrait of Jesus; he goes to pieces before our eyes, torn between obedience to the Father's will and the natural desire to escape the pain and humiliation of death. The second, and most significant for Christians, is the supper hosted by Jesus and shared with his disciples in this fraught moment, enabling him to touch, heal, and be present to his followers down the ages. For all Christians, and especially for Catholic Christians, Jesus's gathering and self-giving brands forever the Eucharist with God's love for us in Christ. The final thing to notice is the "apologetic" intent in Mark's Gospel (and the other Gospels) to shift the blame for Jesus's death away from the Roman judicial process that actually found him guilty onto Jewish authorities in order to serve the interest of the Gospel in the wider world. In the first century the Roman judicial system was viewed as absolute and its sentences as final. That system branded Jesus as a common criminal. Easier to say the Romans simply allowed a sectarian quarrel to play out; Jesus was killed by his own group. The unfortunate result of this shift was to lend credibility to the later and false Christian accusation that the Jews killed Jesus. Ironically, the accusation fueled violence against the very people who were and remain his "brothers [and sisters] according to the flesh" (cf. Rom 9:3, 5).