Word of God and Salesian Life by Fr Juan José Bartolomé SDB
The witnesses of the Resurrection felt a need to explain the tragic death of Jesus, and from this need the accounts of the Passion arose. The witnesses claimed to have seen him alive. They felt they had to put on record the fact that he was executed, and to narrate the circumstances of his death in a way that would make sense of their paschal experience, for themselves and their listeners. For the account to be convincing, they had to do more than just report the chronicle of events. Mark shows how the facts fulfilled what was written in the Scriptures (Mk 14, 27.62; 15, 34). This was how God had willed it should be, and as Jesus himself had foretold (Mk 8, 31; 9, 11; 10, 33-34).
The cross was a stumbling block for the fidelity of the disciples. It was also the supreme moment of revelation of Jesus’ divinity (Mk 15, 39), and it became an obstacle to the faith of those who heard about it after the death of Jesus. Those who believe in the Crucified One will also believe in the Son of God. The authentic believer was one who became a witness to Jesus’ death and proclaimed his divinity, even though he had not lived with Jesus. This should be a matter for serious reflection for people who have lived for a time with Jesus but have not accepted his cross. The disciple of Christ who reflects today on the tragic end of the Lord should reflect also on the sad end of his first disciples. Today’s disciples should not pretend to be better than those first disciples. The Cross of Christ continues to be the obstacle that must be overcome.
Read: understand what the text is saying, focussing on how it says it
We are indebted to Mark for the oldest written account of the passion and death of Jesus. He follows the probable sequence of events and his report is honest, almost like a court report. It is more, however, than just a simple account of what happened. He pays little attention to the effect of the events on those who took part, including Jesus, apart from what happened in Gethsemane (Mk 14, 32-42). Sometimes he includes seemingly unimportant details, for example, the insults offered before and during the crucifixion (Mk 15, 16-19.29-32), and the tearing of the Temple veil (Mk 15, 38). He does not hesitate to mention embarrassing events such as the betrayal by Peter and the other disciples (Mk 14, 10-11.17-21.26-31.66-72). The actual death is reported with a precise detail: “it was the third hour when they crucified him.” (Mk 15, 25). The first chroniclers were not greatly interested in relating what their listeners already knew. They were more concerned with explaining their deeper significance. They focussed, accordingly, on facts that showed clearly how the ancient prophecies were fulfilled. In this way they demonstrated that what happened to Jesus was in accordance with a precise plan of God.
The account opens with a reference to the imminence of the Jewish festival and the conspiracy of the authorities (Mk 14, 1-2). Mark begins by linking the feast of Passover and the death of Jesus, a death that was preceded by conspiracy and intrigue. In contrast to this sombre beginning is the devout gesture of the woman of Bethany who anticipates the anointing of the body of Jesus in preparation for his burial (Mk 14, 3-9). The disciples thought the money should have been used for the poor, but Jesus accepted the woman’s gesture with the comment, “You have the poor with you always.” (Mk 14, 7). The poor can wait, but not Judas who handed over his master in return for money (Mk 14, 10-11). These three brief scenes form a good introduction to the account. All are ready – the executioners, the victim and the traitor.
The account of the Passover supper (Mk 14, 12-31) shows that Jesus is completely aware of what is happening and in complete control of events. He knows where he is to celebrate the feast and he allows his disciples to make the necessary preparations (Mk 14, 12-16). He foretells, both before (Mk 14, 17-21) and after (Mk 14 26-31) the institution of the Eucharist (Mk 14,22-25), his betrayal by Judas, his abandonment by all the disciples, and Peter’s repeated denial. Alone, even though the disciples are still with him, Jesus sums up in a gesture of total communion the gift of his life, by giving himself beforehand to all in the form of bread and wine. And notice – he does so, knowing that they are not worthy, for he knows that they will not remain faithful.
He handed himself over to his closest friends in the supper-room, and immediately afterwards he was handed over to his adversaries in the garden (Mk 14,26-31). But Gethsemane was not only the place of betrayal and arrest – it was also the place of his supreme trial. And while Jesus was fighting for his life, and asking to be spared the will of his Father, his disciples slept, and God remained silent. If he is to remain the Son of God, Jesus is left with no other choice than to do, not his own will, but the will of the Father (Mk 14,36), and to be handed over “into the hands of sinners” (Mk 14,41). He allows himself to be betrayed with a kiss (Mk 14, 45), captured by an armed crowd (Mk 14, 48), and abandoned by God and by his followers.
The account of the trial is central to the whole account of the passion and is therefore more detailed. In fact, Jesus had to undergo two trials. Before the high priest in his palace (Mk 14, 53-72), Jesus cannot avoid answering the question of his identity, a question which is central to the whole gospel. The reply is held back by the evangelist to this crucial moment of the account. He is the Messiah. He has the power of God at whose right hand he sits, and he will come again (Mk 14, 61-62). His admission is unequivocal. The Jews understood it and condemned him for blasphemy.
Meanwhile, the narrator tells us, Peter was busy denying the Lord. The servant-girl accused him of being one of them on account of his accent. His triple denial follows literally the prediction of Jesus (Mk 14, 30.72). He was condemned to death by the Jewish authorities (Mk 14, 64), and brought before Pilate (Mk 15,1-20). Here the accusation was changed from blasphemy to political sedition, so that Pilate would condemn him to death. Jesus showed little interest in replying to Pilate’s questions. He did not tell Pilate if he was King of the Jews, nor in what way he was King (Mk 15, 2.4). Rejected by his own people (Mk 15, 13) he was now at the mercy of the soldiers who offended him with insults and derided him (Mk 15,16-20). Jesus reacted with silence, without losing his dignity, and accepting his fate.
The scene of the crucifixion and death follows (Mk 15, 21-41). It focuses more on anecdote than on the essential. On his way to the place of execution they offer the assistance of a passer-by from Cyrene, and a drink to relieve the pain. They share his garments among them, and they crucify him between two thieves. Even as he hangs on the cross, he is still insulted. There is no greater loneliness than that of feeling abandoned even by God (Mk 15, 34). The bystanders continue to mock him, shouting out the charge on which he had been condemned (Mk 15, 32).
His death is described factually: there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour (Mk 15, 34.37), the veil of the Temple was torn in two, and the pagan centurion professed faith in him as the son of God. This sequence of events may seem unlikely, from a historical point of view, but the narrator’s intention is clear – in his moment of greatest weakness and powerlessness, as Jesus is dying, abandoned by his followers and rejected by his people, it is still possible to have faith in his divinity (Mk 15, 39). It was not his miracles nor his preaching, nor his disciples nor the admiration of people that led to faith in Jesus, but his death on the cross.
The account of the passion ends with a brief scene, that of Jesus’ burial (Mk 15, 42-47). The fact that a stone was rolled in front of the entrance to the tomb shows, in a manner beyond doubt, the triumph of death over Jesus, and the infidelity of his disciples. The mention of the women who were present at his burial confirms the authenticity of the death of Jesus and the silence of God.
Meditate: apply what the text says to life
After listening, yet again, to the account of the passion, it might be more appropriate to let the heart speak, to remain silent and allow no word to take us away from the drama of the cross, or get in the way of our contemplation of Christ crucified. Often the less said, the better the understanding, in respectful contemplation. Moreover, we are generally unhappy in speaking about death and suffering. In the words of St John Paul II: “Modern man, despite his achievements, feels in his personal and collective experience the abyss of abandonment, the temptation of nihilism, the absurdity of so much physical, moral and spiritual suffering.” He is unable to make sense of this suffering, and does not reflect upon that fact that “all these sufferings were taken upon himself by Christ in his cry of anguish, and his trusting abandonment to his heavenly Father.” Even Christians who celebrate the Passion of Jesus as our salvation, are not convinced that in and through the passion, “night has been transformed into day, suffering into joy, and death into life.”
We should not be too surprised at our inability to find our salvation in the cross of Christ. The death of Christ on the cross was then, and continues to be today, a scandal. Like the first disciples, the believers of today find it hard to accept that the violent and unjust death of his Son could be the way chosen by God to come to our help. We fail to understand that this ignominious destiny was inevitable. We cannot comprehend that God’s love should be revealed in such dreadful deeds. The death of Jesus is all the more illogical because of the brutality and injustice that brought it about. We find it hard to acknowledge that God was behind all that happened to Jesus on the Cross.
It is bad enough that we do not understand the reason for his death. What is worse is that we fail to acknowledge that we are among those who caused it. What happened during the lifetime of Jesus is still happening today. The few followers who accompanied him during his last days in Jerusalem were quick to abandon him as inexorably he drew near to Calvary. Then and now, the place of Jesus’ death is the place where his followers betray him. The enthusiasm which Jesus had awakened in his disciples, died within them even before he died on the cross. There no longer seemed to be any benefit in following someone who was heading for such a bad end. We can understand very well those disciples who were unable to look at the spectacle of the cross. We are so like them ourselves that we even sympathize with them!
It is possible that today we find even greater difficulty, because in our time death is something we prefer to forget, as long as it does not concern us, and we are not interested in injustice and disorder, provided they don’t touch us. We share with those first Christians an unwillingness to accept that it is in the death of Jesus that we obtain eternal life and our final salvation. We think of the death of Jesus as something that happened in the past, two thousand years ago, and we run the risk of failing to recognise that it concerns us directly. We know that others killed him and so we do not feel responsible for his death. The fact that it happened long ago and far away, and that others were actively involved, allows us to distance ourselves from any feeling of guilt and adds to our indifference. We absolve ourselves from the sins we commit, and we do not feel responsible for the harm we do to others, because we refuse to acknowledge that we are saved in the cross of Christ. However, whether we like it or not, if we do not find our salvation in the cross, we will not find any other way, not to mention any better way, in which we can feel that we are saved by God.
We, therefore, the disciples of today, like the disciples of two thousand years ago, are the worst enemies and the most unwilling believers of the salvation that God has brought to the world through the cross of Christ. We lose God’s saving power if we let the cross of Christ fall from our hands and from our hearts. We may not realize it, but we think it would be easier to understand God without the cross. We would prefer a God who responds to our own image and meets all the desires of our hearts. The fact that we are unable to understand a God who loves us on the cross of Christ, need not stop us from feeling loved. The cross of Christ is the proof of God’s love, but it makes it more problematic, not more intelligible. We could never have imagined such love!
The cross puts an end to all man’s attempts to tame God. On the cross God’s personal freedom will remain always supreme and beyond our comprehension. On the cross God has proved his determination to remain faithful despite our unwillingness. And God’s option for the cross is not the hardest thing we come up against in our lack of understanding. Worse still is that we cease to believe in God’s love for us, because we do not appreciate the means he has chosen to show his love. If we do not value the cross of Christ, if we forget it or ignore it, how can we ever understand God’s reasons, the reasons for a love that is seen only in the cross of Christ? Nobody can ever feel truly loved by God, if he does not accept God’s way of showing his love. It would be really sad if, because we do not accept it in our minds, we were to reject it also in our hearts. If we do not accept the cross of Christ, then we do not accept God’s salvation.
And yet, this problem is as old as the following of Christ. From the time that Jesus called people to share his way of life and his destiny, his plans and his daily routine, he discovered that they followed him to the cross, but not all the way to the end. They left him there, alone. The one who promised fidelity most was the very one who denied him. One of those with whom he had shared his life, was the one who handed him over to his opponents. Living with Jesus night and day was not enough. The knowledge acquired on long journeys with him as he preached the kingdom was insufficient. Their enthusiasm and faith did not reach far below the surface. At the foot of the cross, to the great shame of the disciples, the only one to proclaim faith in him was a stranger, the man who had been responsible for his crucifixion.
The end of Jesus and the disciples who followed him should make us think. If we say we are living with Jesus and do not accept his cross, then we ought to reflect on the fact that all the disciples failed and the only one who stood by him was a pagan. Mark puts on record that the first Christian was born when a man declared faith in the dying Christ as the Son of God. The disciple of Christ who today remembers the tragic end of the Lord, should remember also the tragic, almost farcical, end of the first disciples. We have no reason to think that we are any better than those first disciples. The cross is still the great test to be overcome. It is the proof of Jesus’ fidelity and should also be the proof of our fidelity to him. Bearing this in mind will help us to celebrate the upcoming feasts with greater responsibility. Our faith will not be free of doubt until we accept the cross of Christ.