“Let the Same Mind Be in You”

(note: this was preached on April 5, 2009, Palm Sunday; but not posted until the next day, hence the date)

Rev. Alice Hildebrand
Sunset Congregational Church, UCC
First Congregational Church of Deer Isle, UCC
Mark 14:1-15:47

We began our worship this morning in joyous and playful celebration of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Each year on this Sunday before Easter, we let go of our solemn, church-going selves for a moment, and re-create the joy of the crowds welcoming him on that day. Today we have also listened to Mark’s account of Jesus’ anointing at Bethany by an unnamed woman who somehow knew what was coming next, even as the disciples still didn’t quite take it in.  Her faithful witness is lifted up to our remembrance by Jesus, although for many, many centuries the church has not remembered her, despite Jesus’ words. We have heard the plotting of Judas Iscariot, the friend who is also the betrayer.  Now we are in Jerusalem.  Here Jesus will spend his last days. Listen to Mark, chapters 14-15.

“On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’  [Jesus told them, and] the disciples … went to the city, and … prepared.” Jesus and the disciples celebrated the Passover meal together, which we will remember as we celebrate communion this morning.  Jesus spoke to them of his coming betrayal and death, saying, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’”  They began to be distressed and said to him one after another, ‘Surely, not I?’  He says to them again that one of them will betray him.  They eat their meal, and sing a hymn together.   They go out to the Mount of Olives.

“And Jesus said to them, ‘You will all become deserters… But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.’”  Peter protested that he will not desert Jesus.

And they go on to Gethsemane, where Jesus prays, “‘Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.’” And the disciples, who Jesus has asked to watch with him through the hours of the night, keep falling asleep. Jesus comes to them and says, “ ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.’ Immediately, while he [is] still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, [arrives]; and with him there [is] a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders…

“Then Jesus [says] to them, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me.’  And all of the disciples flee for their lives, deserting him.

Jesus is taken away, first to the chief priests; then the next morning, to the whole council of the Jewish religious authorities.  They hand him over to the Romans, who decide to crucify him.

“Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace …And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him.  And they began saluting him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’  They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

“…They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha … And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it.   And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take.

“It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, ‘The King of the Jews.’

“…When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, … ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ …
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

“And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. … There were also women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.

“ When evening had come, … Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council [of the chief priests of the Jews] … went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. … Pilate … granted the body to Joseph…Joseph bought a linen cloth, and taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.

“Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid.”

From Paul’s Letter the Philippians 2:1-8 – “If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

“who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,

“but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,

“he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.”
Amen.