The Agony of Victory and the Thrill of Defeat

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, April 17, 2011, Palm Sunday | Carl E. Olson

Readings:
• Matt. 21:1-11
• Isa. 50:1-7
• Psa. 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
• Phil. 2:6-11
• Matt. 26:14—27:66 or 27:11-54

“The thrill of victory…and the agony of defeat.” I heard those dramatically uttered words many times when I was growing up. They introduced ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” and the start of a game, match, or competition of some sort.

The readings for Palm Sunday dramatically depict the thrill of Christ’s victorious entrance into Jerusalem, His agony in the garden, and His apparent defeat on the Cross, taking us to the cusp of His stunning victory over the grave. Those events weren’t, of course, matters of sport and entertainment, but of life and death, damnation and salvation. And they contain a wealth of paradox, filled with seemingly apparent contradictions that can only make sense because they are supernatural. They are, to put it another, part of the foolishness of God that is wiser than the wisdom of men (cf., 1 Cor 1:25).

A couple of these paradoxes are captured beautifully in today’s reading from St. Paul’s epistle to the Philippians. Christ was “in the form of God,” yet “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness…” God the Son, the Creator of all things, willingly became a man and dwelt among mankind in a specific place and time. This is the astounding truth of the Incarnation—the second Person of the Trinity assumed a human nature and was born of the Virgin Mary. It is, along with the Trinity, a central belief of all Christians, as the Catechism points out: “Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith” (par 463).

The crowds who gathered in Jerusalem to greet the Son of David did not understand the Incarnation, but knew that somehow, in some world-changing fashion, God was present with the prophet riding on a colt. They believed—at least for the moment—that He came in the name of the Lord, and that He was the Messiah promised by the prophet Zechariah (see Zech 9:9).

But how long would the thrill of this victory last? For some, apparently, not long at all. As St. Matthew describes, even those in Christ’s inner circle weren’t immune to temptation. Yet the decision of Judas to betray Christ did not thwart God’s plan of salvation, but helped bring it to fruition. As St. Paul teaches, the Son of God didn’t just humble Himself by becoming man, but by “becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

If the Incarnation is incomprehensible, the death of the God-man on the Cross is simply incredible, an audacious act of sacrificial love freely accepted by the One who is and who knows perfect Love. The Cross is not the end, but the beginning, the start of a new creation and the birth of the Church. It is not the final destruction of a life, but the only source of everlasting life.

The Easter liturgy of the Eastern Churches continually returns to a simple refrain of paradoxical joy: “By death He conquered death.” G.K. Chesterton, a master of paradox, had a character in the novel The Ball and the Cross put it this way: “The cross cannot be defeated … for it is Defeat.” Here is the true thrill of victory, not snatched from the jaws of defeat, but in and through the jaws of death. It is because of this that God exalted Christ Jesus, so that every tongue will confess that He is Lord.

Here is a final paradox to ponder: those who should recognize the Messiah often do not, while those who have little status or knowledge often do recognize Him. Judas, who lived with Christ for three years, betrayed Him to the chief priests, whose place and power blinds them to identity of the man from Nazareth. The lowly crowds, however, sang “Hosanna!”, and the Roman solders—accustomed to seeing death—exclaimed, at the foot of the Cross, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”

Perhaps this supernatural paradox could be called the agony of victory and the thrill of defeat.

(This "Opening the Word' column originally appeared in the March 16, 2008, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)