Palm Sunday 2025Jesus entered Jerusalem with a tear-stained face and bloodshot eyes..."Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God."
John 12:12-15. The next day the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!” Finding a young donkey, Jesus sat on it, as it is written: “Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion. See, your King is coming, seated on the colt of a donkey.” On Palm Sunday, Jesus of Nazareth was hailed by Jerusalem as the royal Son of David – a new King Solomon. The people waved palms, a symbol of divine wisdom which was associated with Solomon, the wise son to whom King David himself gave his throne. It was Solomon about whom the Psalm was originally written: “The LORD* said to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for your feet...The LORD extends your mighty scepter from Zion... The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind: ‘You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.’” These are oracles which Solomon’s descendant, Jesus of Nazareth, applied to Himself (Mt. 22:41f): While the Pharisees were assembled, Jesus questioned them: “What do you think about the Messiah?** Whose son is He?” “David’s,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord’? For he says: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet.’ So if David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how can He be David’s son?” No one was able to answer a word, and from that day on no one dared to question Him any further. Jesus is not here implying that he is not the descendant of David, since this Psalm is originally about Solomon the son of David, and he applies it to himself. Nor, therefore, was he interpreting the Messianic oracle to say that the Messiah would not be the descendant of David, who was himself Messiah (Ps. 18:50, 2 Sam. 22:51, 23:1). Rather, it calls to mind the prophecy of Samuel, that David’s Messianic son would also be the LORD’s son: “I will be his father, and he will be my son.” (2 Sam. 7:14) The wise King of Israel was self-aware of his divinity, saying “I will proclaim the LORD’s decree: He said to me, ‘You are my son; today I have become your father.’” (Ps. 7:7). He speaks of himself as LORD and Christ (v. 2) just as the Christians spoke of Jesus: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36). When it was time for Solomon to be anointed King over Israel, his father David set him on a mule toward Gihon, a holy spring with a temple association, insofar as Eden was a temple (Ez. 28:13-14) and the river Gihon was one of the four headwaters of the sacred river in Paradise (Gen. 2:10-14). In the days of Hezekiah, its waters were redirected to the Siloam Pool outside the temple (2 Chron. 32:30). Wherever the Gihon was in the days of Solomon, Zadok the priest there anointed Solomon by its living waters. Similarly, when the time came for Jesus to be anointed King over Israel, there were similar elements: holy living waters, a Levite priest (John, the son of Zechariah), the proclamation of God’s fatherhood over the King. (Mt. 3:16-17, Mk. 1:10-11, Lk. 3:21-22). In the Matthean and Lukan accounts, it notes that Jesus saw the heavens opened and heard this proclamation. This is consistent with the testimony of Solomon (Ps. 7:7), who also heard these words, and so we are within our rights to speculate whether Solomon underwent the same rite as his descendant Jesus: water baptism followed by the anointing of the descending, in-dwelling Spirit. The fact that Our Lord taught His disciples baptism (Mt. 28:16-20, Mk. 15:16-18) among the mysteries or sacraments of the Kingdom (Mt. 13:11), and to undergo this rite themselves to the end that all Christians are like Solomon a “royal priesthood” (1 Pt. 2:9), likewise of the Order of Melchizedek (Ps. 110:4, Heb. 6:20), and children of God (Rom. 8:16, 1 Jn. 3:2), might indicate that baptism was always the form of the mystery of royal initiation. This all, then, leads to the unveiling of the new king before his people. Unlike Solomon, who rode a mule, Jesus rode a donkey, which bears a cross-like mark across its back. Matthew and John both wrote that this was to fulfill Zechariah: “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zech. 10:9). Indeed, the New Testament writers wanted their audience to be certain that the events of the Passion and Resurrection fulfilled the remaining 4 chapters of Zechariah, oracles which envisioned the Christ as a righteous conqueror of the holy land. Zechariah 14 describes the Lord standing on the Mount of Olives, descending into Jerusalem with his holy ones and opening living waters which flow to all peoples. Indeed, Jesus Himself had foreshadowed this moment before during previous visits to Jerusalem, loudly proclaiming in the temple, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’” (Jn. 7:37-38). After his final triumphal entry in Jerusalem, Jesus said that this time had finally come: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” (Jn. 12:23). So all the pieces were in place: the evangelists record that the Lord indeed descended from the Mount of Olives with his holy ones, the blessed disciples, and rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (Mt. 21:1f, Mk. 11:1f, Lk. 19:28f, Jn. 12:12f). It was there that he would be lifted up to the great judgment throne of the King: “Now judgment is upon this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to Myself.” John adds: “He said this to indicate the kind of death He was going to die.” (Jn. 12:31-33). The judgment throne, then, is the cross. His crown would be one of thorns. Zechariah’s prophecy speaks of a great battle against Jerusalem, as well as its salvation. Our Lord does not enter the city lightly, knowing the judgment was long ago rendered: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (Jn. 3:18). Those who were about to reject Him, then, would suffer those woes he’d many times threatened (Mt. 11:20-24, Mt. 23:13-39). As in the days of Noah (Mt. 24:37), a great flood was coming – of tribulations and war which would eventually swallow up Jerusalem in destruction (Dn. 9:26-27). Jesus entered Jerusalem with a tear-stained face and bloodshot eyes. As he approached the city, Jesus wept, knowing what was about to come upon them: “If only you had known on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will barricade you and surround you and hem you in on every side. They will level you to the ground—you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” (Lk. 19:42-44)... Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Seán McMahon to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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Sunday, April 13, 2025
Palm Sunday 2025
Friday, April 11, 2025
Song of the Week: "Say the Word"
I’ve been writing a lot of Christian hymns and worship music lately. “Say the Word” began as a musical meditation on words we speak at the Mass as we prepare to receive the Eucharistic presence of the Lord: “Lord, I am unworthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” These words are a variation on Matthew 8:8, where a Roman centurion declares his faith that the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, is able to heal his ailing servant simply with a word. As the faithful centurion prayed for the healing of his servant, so we pray for the healing of our own souls. I am reminded of Matthew 9:1-8, where Jesus heals a paralytic in order to prove that he has the power to heal souls by the power of divine forgiveness: “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” Then he said to the paralytic: “Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.” And the man got up and went home. When the crowds saw this, they were filled with awe and glorified God, who had given such authority to men. In our day we take forgiveness for granted perhaps, and so maybe it seems unimpressive presented beside the healing of the paralytic. Why should forgiveness take center stage as our main man’s main miracle here? Many might say that it is, in fact, harder to heal the handicapped than to forgive. I’m not so sure this is true — it is 2025, after all, and American families, let alone communities, have been tearing each other apart with reckless abandon over political disagreements for nearly a decade at this point. There are of course many other causes of schism, whether black sheep or scapegoats. There are as few new things under the sun as there are many causes for strife. The latter can often bring unendurable pain, even if the body should seem unharmed. That the profound wound of resentment, and the festering infection of hatred, can only be healed by divine intervention should be obvious if not for how blinding such an illness truly is. And such a blindness of the heart is, in fact, difficult for even the Lord to cure: “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains." (Jn. 9:41). If a Roman centurion can humble himself to beg favor of a lower-caste subject (a Galilean) of one of his empire’s many client kingdoms (the Herodian Tetrarchy); and if the Lord of heaven and earth can humble himself in the service of one of his people’s Roman occupiers; surely anything that seems impossible for man is possible with God. The eyes of Saul, who in his spiritual blindness persecuted the Christians whom he hated, were seared by the light of the Lord’s glory on the road to Damascus; he only received his sight back from one of those whom he persecuted. With a word, the Lord can do these things. So, as you sing along in prayer with “Say the Word,” listen carefully for the word our Lord has for you. Listen to “Say the Word”:...Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Seán McMahon to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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Thursday, April 10, 2025
Friday, April 4, 2025
SOTW: "Got No Sleep Last Night"// TOUR (Kind of) // Give Me Your Song Requests!
SOTW: "Got No Sleep Last Night"// TOUR (Kind of) // Give Me Your Song Requests!Song of the Week & more!
Happy Friday everyone! I’m excited to share today’s installment of the “Song of the Week” Project, “Got No Sleep Last Night”. Before we get to it… Give Me Your Song Requests!Fast approaching are the days of summer, which I will spend playing 2-4 gigs a day. That’s when the sun shines here on Martha’s Vineyard, so that’s when we make hay. While I still have some free time, please reply to this e-mail me your song requests — new covers to learn as well as your favorite original songs that have fallen off the setlist over the years. For those of you who don’t get out to the Vineyard, I plan on keeping a schedule of livestream concerts. So don’t hesitate to get involved in helping me build my Summer 2025 song list with your requests! And of course, if you’re feeling generous, your tips are always appreciated. We’re Going on TOUR! Kind ofSo at the end of May I’m driving my family out to Steubenville, OH where I was invited to attend a Former Protestant Clergy Conference at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. With all the kids in the van, we need to break up the long drive into 4 hour chunks. I’ve booked a gig at Urban Cowboy Catskills in Big Indian, NY, and I’m looking for playing and ministry opportunities in State College, PA area. Let me know if you want me to play for you — at your fav local spot, or even in your living room. We are also open to your invitation on the second leg of our journey -- would you like me to come to you? Let me know! Here’s the route so far: 5/28 Urban Cowboy Catskills, Big Indian, NY. 5/29 State College, PA. Unbooked. 5/30 - 6/1 Conference in Steubenville, PA. Upcoming Concerts:
SOTW: “Got No Sleep Last Night”To my paid subscribers, thank you so much for your support of my songwriting and ministry journey. So, we’ve got yet another newborn at home, which means no sleep. Therefore I thought it apropos to share a new tune called…“Got No Sleep Last Night”! Let me know what you think, your feedback means a lot to me... Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Seán McMahon to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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