Excerpted from 2024 Lenten Guide: Terror and Amazement, a Lenten Guide for Lectionary Year B from the North Carolina Council of Churches.
Mark 1:1-11
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight,’ ”
so John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And the whole Judean region and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
“Hosanna!”
“Save us now!”
These were the cries of a suffering people seeking deliverance—a people who tossed their cloaks and palm branches in Jesus’s path, symbolically anointing the one they believed would redeem them from Roman oppression. Such an anointing, bestowed as it was by the common people and not those with earthly authority, meant not the establishment of a kingdom of ostentatious wealth and prestige or of military might, but one of justice and liberation.
Two thousand years on, the Palm Sunday story challenges us to turn traditional expectations of power and might on their head in order to answer the cries of the oppressed. The story challenges us to seek an anointing that empowers us to accompany others amid their suffering, working to ease that suffering rather than to exploit or rejoice in it. The story challenges us to openly and unapologetically advocate for the liberation of the marginalized in our midst, even (and especially) in the face of political pushback and public scrutiny.
Prayer: Spirit of liberation, Redeemer of the oppressed, we pray that as our communities place the palm branches of trust at our feet, you will anoint us to meet that trust with grace and humility, persevering in the midst of uncertainty. We pray that those we serve “in the name of the Lord” will find our service to be a blessing and that we may be faithful stewards of our faith as we unite in the work of compassion, justice, and equity. Amen.
