Reflections on Palm Sunday

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
That is what our life in Jesus Christ is all about, finally: to acquire His mind – the mind of the Son of God, the Incarnate Lord, the crucified and risen conqueror of death, the anointed King, the Word and Wisdom of God Almighty.

It would seem, on the surface, to be an impossible task. How can we have His mind – how can we begin to perceive and see and know according to Christ Himself.

As with all things in the Christian life, I would suggest that it begins and ends in humility. That is what St. Paul is saying in today’s epistle.

It is the utmost humility which is depicted in his hymn-like account of the Incarnation here in Philippians 2. Have this mind, St. Paul says, which was in the One who came down from glory in heaven with His Father, humbled Himself to take the form of a servant for the sake of a fallen creation, and was obedient even unto the suffering and death of the Cross that He might be exalted, and exalt us with Him – that where He is, we may be also.

His whole life was one of humility and service. And today, even in what we often refer to as the Triumphal Entry, it is manifest. St. Romanos in one of his hymns for this feast of the Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem, writes:

Lo, our King, meek and gentle, seated upon an ass
With haste hurries to suffer and to cut suffering –
The Word upon the dumb, willing it that rational beings be redeemed.
And it was possible to behold the One on the back of the ass
Who is on the shoulders of the Cherubim,
The One Who once translated Elijah in a fiery chariot,
The One Who is poor of His own will, but rich in His nature,
The One Who is voluntarily weak, yet granting power To all of those who cry out to Him:
“Thou art the blessed One Who comes to call up Adam.”

In just 6 days, He will enter the realm of Hades to call up Adam and Eve from their long exile. After 40 days with His disciples after His resurrection, He will return to His Father, and then send the Holy Spirit to empower His Body to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom to all creation.

This is our humility. To acknowledge our sin and weakness. To give ourselves to the grace of God to be transformed, recalled from our own exile and empowered to speak the truth of Christ and of the Kingdom to a perishing world. It takes humility because our pride and self-love and vainglory would keep us from our task, preferring the easy way rather than the struggle.
This is the pre-eminent week for us to lay aside all earthly care, to set our hearts and minds on the Lord Jesus as He passes through suffering and death into Resurrection and life, bestowing life on all who come to Him in faith and humility. To learn from the great love of God how to love and to be light and life to a realm of darkness, hatred and death. It doesn’t take greatness, but humility to gain the mind of the servant.