Sixth Sunday in Lent (Passion Sunday)

This week is Passion week and the Gospel reading assigned is the whole of the Passion narrative recorded in Luke’s Gospel.  It is a very long reading spanning two chapters, but it is a wonderful opportunity to grasp something of the enormity of Jesus’ sacrifice and love for us.  What strikes us about the whole narrative covering the last supper, the arrest, the trial, the crucifixion and the death of Jesus?  The answer is more than words can tell here but, for me, two words stand out.  Those two words are ‘humble obedience’.  In an age when the church celebrates intellect, fluent oratory and leadership perhaps we neglect these two crucial (this word is derived from cross) qualities.  Jesus had unlimited intelligence, great oratory skills and outstanding leadership qualities but He also had phenomenal humility and obedience to see him through his Passion.  This Holy Week let us exercise these God-given gifts and see how our world responds.  Let me leave you with the Epistle reading for this week: “Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus had.  Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God.  He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of slave and appeared in human form.  And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross”.  AMEN.