Trinity Episcopal Church

April 5, 2009 - Passion Sunday

This week we will especially be reflecting on the meaning of the cross. I don’t mean figure it out in our heads but understand it in our hearts. Today’s reading is the centerpiece of our service; a story so sacred and passionate that we really didn‘t even need to hear a sermon. Mark’s Gospel tells a powerful story of how the religious leaders turned Jesus over to Pilate and the Roman Empire who cruelly executed him. The Temple priests (Caiaphas and his henchmen) were threatened by the teachings of Jesus. Jesus said we don’t have to go to the Temple and slaughter a lamb or a pigeon as a sacrifice to God. God is more interested in what’s inside of us.

The Temple priests had a monopoly on God. They forced taxes on people who attended festivals. They imposed laws and rules on the people who came to worship God. They used their high religious positions to advance their political agendas. And in the center of the Temple the priests hid God in a room, in a gilded box. Only Caiaphas, the High priest, could go behind the curtain into the special chamber called the “holy of holies” and meet with God on behalf of all the people who waited outside.

Before Jesus died on the cross he said “It is finished” and then Mark writes “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” That meant that God was no longer in a box, hidden in the back room of the Temple. The curtain came down, like the Berlin wall. Now everyone could come to meet with God…anytime and anywhere! And the only sacrifice God is interested in now is the offering of our hearts to Him. And then we find out that we were the ones living in a box, and God just lifted the lid to life.

Trinity Episcopal Church

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April 5, 2009 - Passion Sunday