The Good Friday celebration includes, of course, the text of the Passion of Jesus (John 18:1 – 19:42).
The version is that of John, he who was present up to the very end as events unfolded.
He was there at the time… we come more than 2000 years after.
We know well – too well, perhaps – what happened.
Reading about the Passion on the left page of our Bible,
we know that, on the right page, we will read that Jesus rises from the dead!
Can were capture something of the reality of what Jesus has experienced?
The Passion of Jesus – it is… humanity at its most contemptible… and at its most noble, its most… divine!
Some people call this… a drama… they identify the ‘actors’…
‘Actors’ of the 1st century…
Betrayal (Judas)
Triple denial (Peter)
Blind religious leaders (scribes and Pharisees)
Escapist authority in power washing its hands (Pilate)
The guilty freed, his condemnation assumed by the innocent (Barabbas)
Sycophant attitude of a servant who slaps the innocent (an official at the High Priest’s residence)
Shameful absence of friends (the apostles)
‘Actors’ of the 21st century…
OUR betrayals…
OUR denials…
OUR blindness…
OUR escapism and lack of responsibility…
OUR substitution of guilt for innocence …
OUR subservient attitude…
OUR shameful absence…
The contemporary scene can take on all the shadows and dark aspects of the original one.
But this is not the ending… it has never been…
“Because he poured out himself to death,
the righteous one, my servant, shall make many to be accounted righteous.” (Isaiah 53:12,11)
The innocent one, the righteous one, has made us innocent and righteous.
His humanity betrayed and beaten has uplifted and ennobled our humanity.
Being saved… is nothing less!
And the cost to Him… was no less!
Note: Another reflection, on a different theme, is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/vendredi-saint-annee-c-2022/