The crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus

 Today we celebrate Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week. Yes we’ve already known this story before where our Lord Jesus Christ enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey in triumph where a large crowd greets him with cut branches from palm trees, waving them at the Messiah, shouting “Hosannah’s” yet a few days later those shouts would turn to “Crucify him, crucify him!” So for today’s Sunday Gospel, we fast-forward to the Crucifixion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ. You can read it in your Bibles in Matt. 27:33-54.. 35

“33 When [the soldiers of the Governor] came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of the Skull), 34 they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall. But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it. 35 After they had crucified him, they divided his garments by casting lots; 36 then they sat down and kept watch over him there.

37 And they placed over his head the written charge against him;

“This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” 38 Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on the right and the other on his left….41 Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said, 42“ He saved others; he cannot save himself. So he is the King of Israel! Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.

43 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 The revolutionaries who were crucified with him also kept abusing him in the same way. 45 From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 46 And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

47 Some of the bystanders who heard it said, “This one is calling for Elijah.” 48 Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge; he soaked in wine, and putting it on a reed, gave it to him to drink. 49 But the rest said, “Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him.”

50 But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, and gave up his spirit. 51 And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, rocks were split, 52 tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 54 The Centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus feared greatly when they saw the earthquake and all that was happening, and they said, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”

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Today’s scripture reading brings us directly to Calvary with our Lord Jesus Christ already nailed and hanging on the cross. Yet even while hanging on the cross and literally bleeding to death, the Jews led by the chief priests and scribes continued to mock him. Of course, this is because they don’t know that our Lord Jesus Christ was truly the Son of God. They even placed a sign, which says, “This is Jesus the King of the Jews.”

At this point, our Lord Jesus Christ was already totally exhausted and about to die. At exactly 3 o’clock, the Holy Hour, our Lord Jesus Christ cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Engulfed by the throes of death, the people surrounding him in Calvary heard his anguish… that God has forsaken him. Most theologians submit that this was the time that God himself withdrew his presence from his dying Son. Jesus, the man was about to die.

But we all know that our Lord’s last words were, “Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit.” Then his life on earth was over. Yet despite his feeling of being abandoned or forsaken by God, Jesus never abandoned his Father and gave up his spirit to God his Father. But the death of Jesus was to be an unforgettable one because at the exact moment of his death, there was an earthquake where rocks were split in two and tombs were opened and the temple veil was torn into two from top to bottom… and the bodies of many saints inside their tombs were raised.

The temple veil is no ordinary thin veil… it is a very thick veil that surrounded the Holy of Holies in the temple. That it was torn into two is a message to all Christians who believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is truly the Messiah… that God dwells in us through the Holy Eucharist. He no longer dwells in temples because man, for as long as he believes and follows the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ can also become a temple of God.

While today’s Sunday gospel is about the Crucifixion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must remind our Christian brethren that Holy Week doesn’t end in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. It ends with the resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday…, which he prophesied when he was on the temple that on the third day, he would rise again.

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