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| Painting by Gilbert Katongo |
GOOD FRIDAY: Jn 18:1 - 19:42
In less than tenty four hours
Everything happened in less than twenty four hours.
On thursday, after sunset, Jesus had his last meal with the twelve apostles. Following the tradition, the night of Passover should be spent within the surroundings of Jerusalem, and so Jesus went to Gethsemane, in the Mount of Olives (Mt 26:30,36), his hiding place, which was known by Judas, the traitor (Jn 18:2). It was already night, when Judas came with a group of soldiers and guards of the Temple to arrest Jesus, and take him for interrogation. He had a religious trial, before the High Priest in the presence of the Sanhedrin (the Jewish Council). Early in the morning, he was taken to Pilate, the Roman governor, for a political trial, being accused of treason, crime for which the penalty was death on the cross. By mid-morning (nine hours - Mk 15:25), Jesus was crucified, and he died at about fifteen hours (Mk 15:34).
Reading the Gospels, we get the impression that the whole city of Jerusalem was present at Jesus' trial and that all of them shouted: Crucify him! However, if we look carefully at the facts, we discover that when most of them became aware of the situation, Jesus was already on the cross. It was a plot well organised and quickly executed, so that Jesus' followers and sympathisers had not time to react. Indeed, they were in a hurry.
Although the Romans were famous for their system of justice, the fact is that they executed mercilessly and quickly all those suspected of treason. Written when the Christian communities had already spread throughout the Empire, the Gospels avoid accusations that might offend the Romans, and put the blame mainly on the Jewish leaders; that’s why Pilate is presented as a weak governor who recognised Jesus’ innocence, but had not the courage to impose his authority, choosing to please the crowd instead of serving justice. However, we know through sources outside the Gospels that Pilate was a cruel and ruthless man who showed no mercy or compassion for anybody; in fact, he had his hands full of the blood of many innocent victims, and to kill one Jew more meant nothing for him.
A black friday
We call it Good Friday,
but it was a black friday,
when the cross stood out,
well visible to all,
as a sign of oppression
and a proclamation of evil.
We transformed the cross
into an ornamental object,
worn around our necks,
hanging on ours walls
and carried in procession
in our religious festivities.
And we forget that the cross
was an instrument of death,
inflicted on thousands of people,
and considered most shameful,
so much so that Roman citizens
were not subject to that ignominy.
A man of sorrows
In Jesus' cross, we see
the sufferings of the Son of man.
He is the man of sorrows,
who carried our pains
and was crushed by our burdens.
The cross stands out
as a continuous reminder
of the evil that fills our hearts
and floods our world.
We are no better than Judas,
or Pilate, Caiaphas, Peter
and all the others
who shouted or stood by.
Violence rules our world,
and all excuses are good
for exploitation and oppression.
The cross proves the emptiness of our vanity,
and the cruelty of our selfishness.
With arrogance and pride, we
live as the owners of everything,
trampling down upon our world,
in an attempt to go further and further
in our vain dreams of glory and power.
And we are ready to fight endless wars
to defend the indefensible:
our thirst for power and wealth.
Once victorious, we set up ourselves as judges
of the defeated, and condemn them
for crimes against humanity,
even though we did what they did,
killing thousands of innocent people.
In the footsteps of Pilate,
we speak of truth,
meaning our truth,
the truth of our interests.
We have not time for
listening to the word of truth,
and are ready to wash our hands
and proclaim our righteousness.
Good Friday
This black friday became a Good Friday,
and the curse of the cross was
changed into a plus of blessing,
because on it Jesus offered his life
in a total gift of love.
He "loved to the end" (Jn 13:1).
Indeed, "he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed" (Is 53:5).
Whenever we choose to follow Jesus,
making of our crosses a gift of love,
then the cross becomes a source of blessings.
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