Gospel: Luke 19: 28-40; 22: 14 - 23: 56
We might well wonder why Jesus goes to Jerusalem, knowing that it will likely lead to his arrest and eventual execution. In the past he had escaped previous attempts on his life in his home town of Nazareth and elsewhere. But here Jesus does not seek to escape or avoid his impending death. Here, Jesus embraces the fate that awaits him.
The first thing to be said is that Jesus is a faithful Jew. It is the feast of Passover which is a pilgrimage festival to Jerusalem. Like any faithful devotee of the Jewish faith, Jesus goes to celebrate the Passover with his people. He had already made preparations for the feast, and he was going to have the Passover meal with his friends one last time.
But more importantly, Jesus could not avoid his death any more than we can. At some point we all come face to face with our mortality and eventual demise. Jesus provides us with a model for facing that eventuality. Yes, there is some anxiety about it, but Jesus accepts his fate and his death with calm and serenity, forgiving everyone who has wronged him and entrusting himself to God. We must face our own death in this way too, with hope of a resurrection to come.
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