By Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 | Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9 | John 18:1-19:42
Our Lenten journey concludes with the greatest narrative ever written: the Passion according to John. The story cannot simply be read; it cries out to be entered. Each verse calls readers more deeply into the drama. No matter how many times we’ve heard it, it is always new, as God’s Word is always new, pouring its living water upon parched, world-weary disciples. Are we ready this year, this day, this very hour, to take up the invitation to enter the Passion?
The Judeans and the Empire appear to be having their day of victory. As Jesus is arrested by an absurdly large contingent of Temple police and Roman soldiers, the disciples scatter, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus is herded, like countless truth-tellers over the centuries, into the backrooms of power to be questioned, beaten, mocked and prepared for execution. Pilate, the imperial representative, supremely confident in the power of empire to defeat any royal wannabe, hauls Jesus into the palace to mock him and also to mock the Judeans’ captivity to Roman rule. The Judeans are willing to put up with Pilate’s pranks so long as the scapegoat is dispatched.
And, of course, there is an entirely different way to understand what unfolds before us. It is in fact the empire and the Judeans who are on trial in the court of God’s Messiah. Far from being afraid of the threat of crucifixion, not the slightest bit cowed by mocking and beating, Jesus, the Light of the World, stands in silent judgment of all that dwells in darkness and sin. Before the scene is completed, it is Pilate whose fear is revealed, and the Judeans whose loyalty to empire rather than to God is “confessed.”
And what about ourselves, Jesus’ often weak and confused disciples? Will we, like Peter, deny our discipleship in the face of questioning? Will we scatter and hide like most of them? Will we praise Jesus in his death without real expectation of Easter, like Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea? Or, perhaps, like the Beloved Disciple and the women, we will dare to vigil at the Cross, not seeing death, but rather the coming to birth of God’s re-created people, born of the blood and water shed at Gologotha.
As Lent comes to an end, let us dare to enter the story once again. Let us not be afraid to know ourselves and one another as God knows us–weak, often afraid, yet seeking God’s presence, yearning ever more deeply to do God’d will in the world. And let us wait in expectancy of the empty tomb, God’s refusal to allow evil the last word.
This reflection was written by Wes Howard-Brook and Susan Ferguson Johnson in the reflection booklet, Transforming Encounter, Radical Discipleship: A Lenten Journey, 2004. Photo is by John H. Wright. To read any of the reflections and resources from throughout Lent 2012, click here.
Extremely powerful! Thank you to Pax Christi for the profound good you have done and are doing, in this world.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful reflection. The authors state that this story is always new, and I found new and beautiful images for reflection in their term ‘back rooms of power’ and the judging of the Judeans, the Empire, and all who dwell in darkness and sin and ‘who are on trial in the court of God’s Messiah.’ May God continue to bless the work of the authors and of the Pax Christi leadership.
The daily reflections during Lent have been sincerely appreciated I am blessed to be a member of Pax Christi.
I am 55 years old and a cradle Catholic. I would not hold myself out as anything approaching a model Christian. I was and am very unhappy with the blundering of the Vatican and the American bishops going back right after Vatican 2 in instituting idiotic and unnecessary liturgical “reforms”; I have been appalled by the helplessness of the Church in the way abortion has become an unabated crime in the US and in many countries; I am almost as appalled at the sex crimes of so many Catholic clergy and even nuns during the watch of Paul VI and JP II; I am further outraged with the way America’s war lust goes basically unopposed by the institutional church. I say all this so you have an idea of my religious and world view.
Now to the point and your meditation. I believe in ecumenical dialogue. I believe in a simple rule regarding that dialogue; both sides must be honest and put all their cards good and bad on the table. If the Jews want us to take responsibility for persecutions, the Inquisition, and discrimination then they have to take some responsibility in the death of Jesus Christ. It appals me that so many Christian theologians are wiling (although they do not admit to the consequences of their speculations) to jettison basically the whole of the NT. What do I mean by that? Play this Bible game I call “Scribes and Pharisees”. Pick up any good English translation of the NT and open anywhere at random in the four gospels: you will find that if you do it 10x in about 5 will land on a passage where Jesus and the S&P are in conflict. The business about laying the passion and death of Jesus off on the Romans is not historical revisionism; it is historical propaganda.
So a question to you: what role do you think “the Jews” or “some Jews” or “Jewish leadership” had in Jesus’ arrest, passion, and death?