The center point of all history

Passion Sunday (A)

“And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him off to crucify him” (Mt 27:31). With these somber words, St. Matthew begins his account of Jesus’ crucifixion. The forces of sin and darkness that had conspired against Jesus throughout his ministry were now to have their way — Jesus would die on the cross, the most painful and humiliating means of execution allowed in the Roman Empire. But, the supreme irony of all this was that this very death, the seeming moment of evil’s triumph, would become the center point of all history, the moment when the power of sin and darkness would suffer its ultimate defeat.

The tradition of reading St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ suffering and death on Passion Sunday has existed in Rome since the reign of Pope Leo the Great (440-461). It is this account which guides our reflections this Passion Sunday.

St. Matthew recalls that Jesus was crucified at a place called “Golgotha” (the Place of the Skull). According to Roman practice, the condemned person was forced to carry the crossbeam from his place of imprisonment to the place of execution. Once they arrived on site, the condemned person was tied or nailed (or both) to the crossbeam which was then hoisted onto the vertical pole. Once raised upon the cross, death was often a slow, agonizing process as the victim eventually succumbed to either suffocation or dehydration.

Once Jesus had been lifted onto the cross, St. Matthew recalls that the soldiers cast lots for his clothing; by law, the execution squad received the condemned person’s clothes as a sort of “gratuity.” They offered Jesus some gall-laced wine which he refused to drink. Above his head, the soldiers inscribed the charge for which the Lord had been condemned, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” (Mt 27:37). To the Jewish people this charge would have suggested blasphemy and to the Romans, insurrection; the supreme irony, however, was that the charge was completely true — Jesus is the King of all creation.

We next learn of three groups that mocked Jesus as he hung dying on the cross. First, the passers-by mocked him, “Save yourself, if you are the Son of God” (Mt 27:40); blinded by their own hatred and ignorance, they failed to recognize it was Jesus’ perfect obedience to his Father’s mission that had led him to the cross. Jesus would prove himself God’s faithful Son by remaining on the cross, not by using his power to abandon it.

Next, the chief priests and leaders of the people jeered, “So he is the King of Israel! Let him come down from the cross now and we will believe him!” (Mt 27:42). These religious and political leaders failed to understand that David’s throne had been re-shaped into the cross; from the cross, Jesus would reign as King forever — the Lord’s promise to David through the Prophet Nathan had been fulfilled (see 2 Samuel 7:8-16).

Finally, St. Matthew records, “from noon onwards, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon” (Mt 27:45). At that time, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). Jesus’ words emphasize two important truths: first, the reality of this event. Mocked, beaten, nailed to the cross, and dying, Jesus suffered horribly for our sins. The agony of his torments caused him to wail out in pain — the price for our sins was terrible indeed. But second, Jesus’ words affirm his complete trust in his Heavenly Father and the mission he had given him. What the crowd of Jesus’ day would have understood was that the words, “My God, My God . . .” were the opening lines of Psalm 22, a psalm which recounts the terrible sufferings of an innocent man who nevertheless never loses faith in God. Even though he suffers greatly, he knows that the Father will save and raise him up. Jesus’ last words turn out to be a prayer of trust in his Heavenly Father, after which “he gave up his spirit” (Mt 27:50).

And then, as signs of the universal significance of this event, we learn that the earth quaked (the foundations of the world were shaken), the veil of the Temple was torn in two (a new era of salvation history had begun; God would no longer deal with his people from the Temple in Jerusalem, but through the community that his Risen Son would establish, i.e. the Church), and the bodies of the holy ones rose from their tombs (their salvation had come; the price of Adam’s sin had been paid). At the end, the Roman centurion supervising the whole event became the first of countless people throughout the ages to speak the words proclaiming the true meaning of what had occurred, “Truly, this was the Son of God!” (Mt 27:54).

Msgr. Fell is director, diocesan Office for Priest Personnel