Homilies for Palmarum

On the Epistle:

Today’s epistle lays out for us exactly what the ministry of confirmation in a parish is all about. And despite what you nine might be thinking, it is not about correct answers to a set questions. Rather, listen to what St. Paul said: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The whole task of catechesis - the church’s instruction of her baptized children - is geared toward nothing less than imparting to you, shaping in you, forming in you the mind of Jesus Christ.

That is, we want and pray that as a result of the time we have spent together in His Word, that you will have been changed. That you will now look at yourself, at this world, and most of all at God with new eyes. That you’ll see what you didn’t see before. That you’ll see with the mind of Christ.

Looking at yourself, you’ve hopefully learned two things. First, that you are totally and hopelessly sinful - just like the rest of us. That your native bent is to put yourself first and to do only what pleases you. And with that you’ll have learned how much God condemns that very mindset that says: “Me first! I! I! I!” But second, that you know despite your sin how very precious you are to God and how He was determined to rescue you and how He did that rescue in His Son.

Looking at the world, you’ve hopefully learned a few things as well. First, that when you put a whole bunch of folks together who all like to pretend that they are god, you’ve got trouble. There is that feature of the world to beware of. But second, that it was no less than that world which God loved so much that He gave His Son. When you look at another human being, it is the Church’s hope and prayer that you look at that person as a sinner whom Christ redeemed, a sinner whom Christ thought of infinite worth. And so you’ll not ignore the wrongs and the injustices of the world - you’ll strive with might and main against them - but you’ll do so with humility. With humbleness of soul, knowing that you share the same sinful flesh with everyone else and that with everyone else, you have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. And you’ll work hard at making sure that others come to know how much God loves them in Jesus too.

Finally, looking at God, you’ve learned a lot. That He is your Father who loves you and provides for you every day and to whom you have the duty of thanking, praising, serving and obeying. That the Father has given you a Savior, Jesus, and that all your sins were laid on Him and that He rose in victory to destroy your death and bring you home to Himself in eternal life. That the Father and the Son have sent the Holy Spirit to live in your heart and constantly renew your faith. That your God is not a grasping deity, but an overflowing fountain of goodness, who pours out His love constantly, and in Baptism poured that life into you and will do the same in His Supper.

“Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The servant-mind. The mind of Him who did not grasp His equality with God, but humbled himself to the death of the cross - for you. Have that mind, that way of looking at yourself, your world, your God, and the prayer of the Church on the day of your confirmation will be realized.

It’s with joy that we will shortly hear your own confession of the faith that has been imparted to you. God’s blessings, you four! Amen.


On the Passion:

"And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom." No other detail of the Passion history opens up its meaning for us more than that little tidbit about the curtain.

The curtain separates. Divides. On the one side there are the sinners. On the other there is God the All Holy. And that curtain was an absolute barrier that no Jew ever forgot. Only the High Priest one day a year might go behind the curtain - and then not empty handed. He always carried blood. On that day, the Day of Atonement, he would splash the blood of a witless animal upon the altar as an atonement or "covering" for the sins of the people.

You have to have atonement. Sinners cannot live or breathe in the presence of the Holy One. His presence destroys them. Wipes them out. He wants us to have life, and the only life that is real life is living in communion with Him. But we've got one huge problem: when we sinners enter His presence, His very holiness wipes US out. Ga-zam! We're gonners.

The only way that Israel could live with such fearful holiness was the constant stream of blood, and then the blood that was carried once a year behind the curtain to be spilled upon the holy place. The never ending streams of blood reminded Israel that the only reason they were not dead sinners already was because God in mercy provided substitutes.

Yet, even with the blood, the priest didn't go behind that curtain without some precautions. He went with a rope around his foot. In case he didn't come out alive, in case the holiness of God struck him down, they could still PULL him out without danger to themselves. They knew that forgiveness had been secured only when the priest showed himself alive again, coming out from behind the curtain after pouring out the blood.

But we're getting ahead of the story. All of this pointed towards the last, final, pure and holy offering. Our Lord Jesus through His suffering and death entered not into some earthly temple that was only a picture of the real thing, but He went into the very holy of holies in heaven where the Blessed Trinity dwells in inexpressible joy and unbearable light.

He carried into that holy of holies His sacrifice, His body and His blood offered into death. Not some dumb animal that never knew what it was to live in the unbroken yes to God's will, but His real human body and blood that won their way through every trial and test and in which He still prayed: "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." With THAT blood He entered into heaven. And He no sooner passed the veil into heaven itself with His blood, then there is a ripping sound. The temple curtain that separated the most holy place comes tumbling down. Ripped from the top - understand, where only God could reach it. And it is gone.

Do you see what it means? The barrier between the All Holy God who alone is life and all mankind is now history. Torn in two by the blood of Jesus offered even unto death and carried by Him into the REAL holy of holies in heaven.

Thus He secured forgiveness for you, for me, for all the world. We show it architecturally with this open arch. Lo, the altar stands before you, and between it and you there is no barrier, not anymore. The blood of Jesus covers your sin - all of it. All that would separate you from the Holy Trinity has been forgiven in the suffering and death of the Son of God. And so He beckons you to come to Him without fear. He has only eternal life to give you.
And the only sin that goes unforgiven is the one you will not allow Him to forgive, the one you insist on keeping as your own and dealing with yourself, instead of letting lie under the blood of Jesus.

On the day you were baptized He gave you the birthright to eat and drink from His altar His body and blood, with the promise that thereby your sins are forgiven, His eternal life enters you, and you and He are made one. His life becomes your life and into you goes the body and blood that do not and can never die again.

The people of Israel knew that the sacrifice availed for them when the High Priest showed up still alive from the other side of the veil. Such appearing happened for the world on the day of the Resurrection whose full joys we will celebrate fully next week.

On this day, young people whom Jesus made His own in their Baptism, will make their profession that He is theirs and they are His and that it will be that way, by God's grace, till death. They will promise above all to come frequently to this Table, where the feast of the Veil ripped open is celebrated weekly. They will joy to gather about the Table today and He will enter them with the promise of both forgiveness and the life that never ends. We will rejoice too as we join them in acclaiming the Lamb whose death has made us His own, whose blood has forever torn down the barrier between us sinners and the Holy Trinity, even our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the Spirit all glory, laud and honor forever! Amen.