Every time I read & hear the Passion of Jesus my attention is drawn to different aspects of it. In my reading of it over the last few days I became very aware of the various relationships mentioned within it.
“They took him first to Annas, because Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.” These men were related by marriage.
“One of the high priest’s servants, a relation of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said,
O. Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” The high priests servant was a relation of Malchus who had his ear cut of.
“Simon Peter, with another disciple, followed Jesus. This disciple, who was known to the high priest, went with Jesus into the high priest’s palace.” This was a disciple who was known to the high priest, he is not named but it is another relationship.
“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas.” Clopas has been identified as possibly a brother of St Joseph. This would mean that this was Mary’s sister inlaw, Jesus Aunt by marriage.
Then of course we have the relationship between Mary & Jesus, Mother & Son. This is the central human relationship in the passion. No one more than Jesus mother could feel the pain that he was made to suffer.
“Judas the traitor knew the place well, since Jesus had often met his disciples there.” This line stood out for me as well because it revealed the relationship that Judas had with Jesus. These men were were friends, they had places that they spent time together. Jesus went to places to rest, these men were with him. It also reveals for me how painful the betrayal of the relationship was for Jesus.
I think when I read the passion I am actually looking for where in it that history could have been changed. I’m looking for where someone could have done something differently. What could have saved Jesus from being crucified. If one person had spoke in his favour could it have been enough? Pilate attempted to save Jesus by making suggestions to the Jews but when the Jews said that Cesar would not be happy Pilate opted for protecting his own position.
There is a marketing book called Tipping Point and the essence of the book is that it only takes one customer to move the entire market. It actually takes many but at some point one more customer seems to tip the scales and the whole market follows. I wonder who that person was in relation to wanting Jesus to be crucified. You see this individual doesn’t know that they are the one that tips the balance. That creates the groundswell that makes what is going to happen unstoppable.
It’s something we can all think about today. Could I be the one person who can make the difference for Jesus? Rather than being the person that tips the scale to his crucifixion, can I be the first that says no. I’m not going with this, I’m going to speak up and say this is wrong. It’s remarkable to think that we as individuals can make the difference.
Saint John Henry Newman in his prayer about vocation says: “God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission- I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught.” We have all been put on this earth to be that person that prevents the groundswell calling for, causing Jesus to be crucified, to suffer. We have the capacity today to turn the tide. To save Jesus. It only takes one person, to decide no more sin for me! Reflecting on the suffering of Jesus today we must recognise that our choices will make a difference. If we sin we cause God pain, it’s the pain of loss, it’s the pain of losing a loved one. When we think about the pain caused by Judas coming to a place that was special in his relationship with Jesus to betray him there, I think we could all relate to how we would feel if someone we loved betrayed us. Perhaps in our own home, perhaps a family member. This is how it affects God, it’s being cut of from us, he suffers when we are not present to him. When we don’t pray, when we don’t attend Mass, when we don’t go to confession.
The reason that I highlight the various relationships in today’s passion is this. No one is on their own. We are all in relationships with others. Sometimes close relationships, sometimes distance. However the one thing that is certain is that how we live impacts on others. You just don’t know how what you say and do can influence others. The impact we have as individuals ripples out through our connections. Things we say or do can affect people we don’t even know because of these interconnected relationships that we have. Just as in the story of the passion, we have relationships that ripple out to people & generations we might never know. From this passion today I think we can go forward knowing that we can make a difference, we can be the person that doesn’t allow the scales to tip towards sin & we can also acknowledge that we have no idea how many people this can influence. We have seen how a virus has the ability to infect the world in a matter of months. We also have the capacity to infect the world as Christians. The joy of being a Christian is contagious and we have our role to play. We can be certain of the joy of Jesus that we are doing all we can to prevent his suffering.
Lord make us your instruments. Amen
Gospel
John 18:1-19:42
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ
Key: N. Narrator. ✠ Jesus. O. Other single speaker. C. Crowd, or more than one speaker.
N. Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kedron valley. There was a garden there, and he went into it with his disciples. Judas the traitor knew the place well, since Jesus had often met his disciples there, and he brought the cohort to this place together with a detachment of guards sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees, all with lanterns and torches and weapons. Knowing everything that was going to happen to him, Jesus then came forward and said,
✠ Who are you looking for?
N. They answered,
C. Jesus the Nazarene.
N. He said,
✠ I am he.
N. Now Judas the traitor was standing among them. When Jesus said, ‘I am he’, they moved back and fell to the ground. He asked them a second time,
✠ Who are you looking for?
N. They said,
C. Jesus the Nazarene.
N. Jesus replied,
✠ I have told you that I am he. If I am the one you are looking for, let these others go.
N. This was to fulfil the words he had spoken, ‘Not one of those you gave me have I lost.’
Simon Peter, who carried a sword, drew it and wounded the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter,
✠ Put your sword back in its scabbard; am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?
N. The cohort and its captain and the Jewish guards seized Jesus and bound him. They took him first to Annas, because Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had suggested to the Jews, ‘It is better for one man to die for the people.’
Simon Peter, with another disciple, followed Jesus. This disciple, who was known to the high priest, went with Jesus into the high priest’s palace, but Peter stayed outside the door. So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who was keeping the door and brought Peter in. The maid on duty at the door said to Peter,
O. Aren’t you another of that man’s disciples?
N. He answered,
O. I am not.
N. Now it was cold, and the servants and guards had lit a charcoal fire and were standing there warming themselves; so Peter stood there too, warming himself with the others.
The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered,
✠ I have spoken openly for all the world to hear; I have always taught in the synagogue and in the Temple where all the Jews meet together: I have said nothing in secret. But why ask me? Ask my hearers what I taught: they know what I said.
N. At these words, one of the guards standing by gave Jesus a slap in the face, saying,
O. Is that the way to answer the high priest?
N. Jesus replied,
✠ If there is something wrong in what I said, point it out; but if there is no offence in it, why do you strike me?
N. Then Annas sent him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.
As Simon Peter stood there warming himself, someone said to him,
O. Aren’t you another of his disciples?
N. He denied it, saying,
O. I am not.
N. One of the high priest’s servants, a relation of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said,
O. Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?
N. Again Peter denied it; and at once a cock crew.
They then led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the Praetorium. It was now morning. They did not go into the Praetorium themselves or they would be defiled and unable to eat the passover. So Pilate came outside to them and said,
O. What charge do you bring against this man?
N. They replied,
C. If he were not a criminal, we should not be handing him over to you.
N. Pilate said,
O. Take him yourselves, and try him by your own Law.
N. The Jews answered,
C. We are not allowed to put a man to death.
N. This was to fulfil the words Jesus had spoken indicating the way he was going to die.
So Pilate went back into the Praetorium and called Jesus to him, and asked,
O. Are you the king of the Jews?
N. Jesus replied,
✠ Do you ask this of your own accord, or have others spoken to you about me?
N. Pilate answered,
O. Am I a Jew? It is your own people and the chief priests who have handed you over to me: what have you done?
N. Jesus replied,
✠ Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this kind.
N. Pilate said,
O. So you are a king, then?
N. Jesus answered,
✠ It is you who say it. Yes, I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.
N. Pilate said,
O. Truth? What is that?
N. and with that he went out again to the Jews and said,
O. I find no case against him. But according to a custom of yours I should release one prisoner at the Passover; would you like me, then, to release the king of the Jews?
N. At this they shouted:
C. Not this man, but Barabbas.
N. Barabbas was a brigand.
Pilate then had Jesus taken away and scourged; and after this, the soldiers twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him and saying,
C. Hail, king of the Jews!
N. and they slapped him in the face.
Pilate came outside again and said to them,
O. Look, I am going to bring him out to you to let you see that I find no case.
N. Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said,
O. Here is the man.
N. When they saw him the chief priests and the guards shouted,
C. Crucify him! Crucify him!
N. Pilate said,
O. Take him yourselves and crucify him: I can find no case against him.
N. The Jews replied,
C. We have a Law, and according to that Law he ought to die, because he has claimed to be the Son of God.
N. When Pilate heard them say this his fears increased. Re-entering the Praetorium, he said to Jesus
O. Where do you come from?
N. But Jesus made no answer. Pilate then said to him,
O. Are you refusing to speak to me? Surely you know I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?
N. Jesus replied,
✠ You would have no power over me if it had not been given you from above; that is why the one who handed me over to you has the greater guilt.
N. From that moment Pilate was anxious to set him free, but the Jews shouted,
C. If you set him free you are no friend of Caesar’s; anyone who makes himself king is defying Caesar.
N. Hearing these words, Pilate had Jesus brought out, and seated himself on the chair of judgement at a place called the Pavement, in Hebrew Gabbatha. It was Passover Preparation Day, about the sixth hour. Pilate said to the Jews,
O. Here is your king.
N. They said,
C. Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!
N. Pilate said,
O. Do you want me to crucify your king?
N. The chief priests answered,
C. We have no king except Caesar.
N. So in the end Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
They then took charge of Jesus, and carrying his own cross he went out of the city to the place of the skull or, as it was called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified him with two others, one on either side with Jesus in the middle. Pilate wrote out a notice and had it fixed to the cross; it ran: ‘Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.’ This notice was read by many of the Jews, because the place where Jesus was crucified was not far from the city, and the writing was in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. So the Jewish chief priests said to Pilate,
C. You should not write ‘King of the Jews,’ but ‘This man said: “I am King of the Jews.”’
N. Pilate answered,
O. What I have written, I have written.
N. When the soldiers had finished crucifying Jesus they took his clothing and divided it into four shares, one for each soldier. His undergarment was seamless, woven in one piece from neck to hem; so they said to one another,
C. Instead of tearing it, let’s throw dice to decide who is to have it.
N. In this way the words of scripture were fulfilled:
They shared out my clothing among them.
They cast lots for my clothes.
This is exactly what the soldiers did.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother,
✠ Woman, this is your son.
N. Then to the disciple he said,
✠ This is your mother.
N. And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.
After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed, and to fulfil the scripture perfectly he said:
✠ I am thirsty.
N. A jar full of vinegar stood there, so putting a sponge soaked in the vinegar on a hyssop stick they held it up to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the vinegar he said,
✠ It is accomplished;
N. and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
It was Preparation Day, and to prevent the bodies remaining on the cross during the sabbath – since that sabbath was a day of special solemnity – the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other. When they came to Jesus, they found he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water. This is the evidence of one who saw it – trustworthy evidence, and he knows he speaks the truth – and he gives it so that you may believe as well. Because all this happened to fulfil the words of scripture:
Not one bone of his will be broken;
and again, in another place scripture says:
They will look on the one whom they have pierced.
After this, Joseph of Arimathaea, who was a disciple of Jesus – though a secret one because he was afraid of the Jews – asked Pilate to let him remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave permission, so they came and took it away. Nicodemus came as well – the same one who had first come to Jesus at night-time – and he brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, following the Jewish burial custom. At the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been buried. Since it was the Jewish Day of Preparation and the tomb was near at hand, they laid Jesus there.