Today Christians around the world celebrate Palm Sunday, the start of the passion week. In my home church, the children’s choirs came down the aisles with palm fronds, a group of the kids performed a sweeping, graceful liturgical dance, and we sang great old hymns with the organ and trumpets blaring. In doing this we recalled Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, as the crowd shouted “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” just days before Jesus would be crucified and rise again. (John 12:12)
It’s unlikely the crowd present on that first Palm Sunday appreciated how Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem represented an acceleration towards the divine telos of history. In fact, John 12:16 tells us that even Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand the triumphal entry until after Jesus had ascended to heaven. But here was the tip of the spear, thousands of years of waiting, finally arrived. Even as the lambs were being driven towards the city for sacrifice during the passover, the Lamb of God rode in willingly. Soon sin would be defeated once for all.
Now we wait for the final act of the divine telos: when Christ returns victorious, judges sin, and establishes His Kingdom in fullness. The final scene is described in Revelation 21: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” At the right time, Christ came to offer himself on the cross. At the right time, he will come again.
As we celebrate this passion week, those of us who name Christ as Lord eagerly anticipate his return, and proclaim the invitation Christ himself gives: “To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.” (Rev. 21:6.)
3 replies on “The Telos of the Passion Week”
David,
Thanks for the posts….though this is the first time I’ve commented, I’ve been reading for a while now.
One comment on the material from yesterday…you said, “Now we wait for the final act of the divine telos: when Christ returns victorious, judges sin, and establishes His Kingdom in fullness.” Must we wait?
I mean, obviously the final fulfillment of the kingdom will be in the coming of Christ. But do we often times use that as an excuse to…well, to just sit back? You know…Jesus did all that stuff way back then….and He will do all of this stuff later on….but for now, here we are waiting. Is it possible that Christ wants us to actually live a victorious, resurrected life; that He wants us to be the ones that help to point out sin in the world (most often by pointing out our own); that He wants us to establish His kingdom in as close to fullness as we can without His actual presence?
And thus Passover/Maudy Thursday/Good Friday/Easter become not just a reminder of what God has done, nor just a reminder of what He will do, but a reminder of what He expects in our life today?
Lee, thanks for the excellent comment, I agree with you completely. I don’t want to suggest that “waiting” means we merely passively await Christ’s return. There is an “already” aspect to the Kingdom of God as well as a “not yet.” As the Church, we embody and prefigure Christ’s coming kingdom and engage in kingdom-building even as we await its coming fullness. In fact, the reality of Christ’s immanent return solidifies the importance of being salt and light and of fullfilling the Great Commission today. What we do now matters precisely because Christ will return to establish finally the Kingdom he is now building in and through the Church.
Thanks!