He Emptied Himself
Homily for Sunday, April 13, 2025: Palm Sunday of the Passion of Our Lord
Today we get two Gospels for the price of one. So I’ll keep this short
Two Gospels today, and what a contrast they are.
We begin with his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, with palm branches and shouts of joy, Hosana to the Son of David! This is the scene of a conquering hero entering the city to secure his victory and claim his throne!
But instead of victory, our conquering hero faces arrest, torture, and execution. The throne he comes to claim is the Cross – the most excruciating, the most degrading and shameful capital punishment the Roman government could inflict.
Jesus himself prepares us for this as his disciples argue among themselves over which of them is the greatest. It’s a scene which comes up throughout the Gospels, but Luke sticks it here in the middle of the Last Supper narrative. After sharing with them his own body and blood as bread and wine, after instructing them to do this in remembrance of me, Jesus impresses on them to follow his example: I am among you as one who serves, he says; let the leader be as the servant.
By placing it at this point in the Gospel, right at the institution of the Eucharist, the Source and Summit of our religious life, Saint Luke is reminding us that this model of servant-leadership is also fundamental to our faith.
Saint Paul makes this point too, in our second reading. Jesus has emptied himself of his divinity and took the form of a slave, he says.
This text from our second reading today, what scholars call the Christ-Hymn, is not actually written by Paul. It’s thought to have been a well-known hymn which Saint Paul quotes in his letter to the Philippians – a kind of early Creed which Christians probably knew by heart and could easily recite as the core principle of their faith.
That Jesus, divine in nature, took on himself our lowly and humble human nature, even to the point of death on the cross. And he calls on his Church, on all of us, to follow his lead.
Fortunately, the story does not end there. Saint Paul goes on to say that because of this, God greatly exalted him. He promises that we too will be exalted in similar fashion.
We haven’t got to that part of the story yet. Tune in next week.