Tuesday of Holy Week
John 12:20-36 All except the final verses 34-36 of this text are used also on the Fifth Sunday in Lent and were commented upon above at that place. There we considered the two symbols that are used in this text to signify the death of the Johannine Jesus. His death is compared to the “death” [...]
Monday of Holy Week
John 12:1-11 Monday of Holy Week is introduced with this account that is only in the Fourth Gospel, about an anointing of the feet of Jesus by Mary, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus, whom Jesus, according to John 11:1-44, had resurrected from the dead. The account makes a major contribution to the plot [...]
Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday), Cycle C
Human suffering is obviously the red thread that runs through all of these texts selected for Lent 6 when next Sunday is observed as Passion Sunday. The extensive selections from the Lukan passion account, the influential “Christ-hymn” of Philippians 2:5-11, and the end-of-Lent setting in the Church Year focus attention on the human suffering of Jesus for his people, suffering that he did not avoid. Within a Christian worship service near the end of the season of Lent, the suffering of the Servant of Adonai (Isaiah 50:4-9a), and of the psalmist (Psalm 31:1-5, 9-16) are appropriately placed into juxtaposition with the suffering of Jesus.
