scenes from Holy Week
“Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”
The seven days after Palm Sunday leading to Easter are sometimes called “the Holy Week,” and each day presents scene or episodes that I think over and contemplate and I would like to invite readers to do that with me.
Sunday presented the ironically called “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem:
12On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. 14And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, 15Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt. 16These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. 17The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record. 18For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. 19The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.
They don’t see because of their preconceptions. Expectations harden our hearts.
Tuesday presented the “Turning of the Tables”
13And the Jews’ passover (which is today) was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, 14And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; 16And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. 17And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
Everything has its place in the hierarchy towards God and “sin” is its perversion, when lesser value usurps the greater.
Wednesday presents a “balance” that is also a polarity or dialectic. Mary Magdalene versus Judas Iscariot, for instance:
2There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. 3Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. 4Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, 5Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? 6This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. 7Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. 8For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.
Lazarus whom Jesus raised is in fact John, author of the present Gospel. Judas, like Caiaphas the chief priest of the Pharisees, is like the sanctimonious intellectuals who are always telling us how to “save the world” while ignoring what is nearest at hand.
Today is the Passover before Easter, so-called “Maundy Thursday” after a charming English corruption of the Latin word mandatum, from which we derive the words “command” and “commandment.” Cf. Tyndale’s sixtynth century translation of this verse from the Gosepl of John:
17 Therfore doth my father love me because I put my lyfe from me that I myght take it agayne. 18 No man taketh it from me: but I put it awaye of my selfe. I have power to put it from me and have power to take it agayne: This comaundment have I receaved of my father.
Maundy Thursday is replete with events deserving of profound contemplation, “and if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.” (John 21:25) I will limit myself to three scenes.
Thursday at sundown is the “Last Supper” that Jesus partakes in with the disciples before his arrest at midnight in the Garden of Gethsemane. At the Last Supper, Jesus performs the iconic “washing of the feet”:
Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. 9Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. 10Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit
The higher cares for the lower in love and the lower submits to the higher in love. In Paul’s analogy, Christ is like the “head” of which his disciples are his “body.”
He also institutes the Eucharist:
19And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.
Our bodies are sustained and nourished by the sacrifice of life. People don’t think about the Eucharist literally enough so it seems like superstition to them.
After the Supper, Jesus enters the Garden of Gethsemane to pray:
42Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
“A man’s heart is right when he wills what God wills,” as Aquinas says. The purpose of the prayer is not to coerce, change, or even petition God, but to change our hearts.
Then the Pharisees, led by Judas, come to apprehend him:
47And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. 48But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?
12Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him, 13And led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. 14Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.
Caiaphas is the archetypical politician and his utilitarian calculus is impeccable. Yet, as the Apostle sayeth: “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” In the Sanhedrin, Jesus is interrogated by Caiaphas and the other Pharisees who ultimately deliver him up to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.
Today is Good Friday, called “good” because, doctrinally, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ made possible the salvation of souls. What the doctrine means in reality is, of course, not settled by having established it, and the Easter mystery is an invitation for us to meditate precisely on what the doctrine means and not just what it says. For now, it is suffices to observe that this Friday is called “good” because God is present, as in:
18And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 19And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
How and in what manner God is present is part of the mystery of Easter. Many people imagine that God demanded a sacrifice like a tribute for human sin, but this is anthropomorphization. People are petty or vengeful and they suppose God must be just like them. But the purpose of Scripture is to challenge the narrowness of our conceits. Jesus’s Crucifixion was never demanded by God. Instead, it demonstrates, on the stage of history, what Plato, having observed the fate of his teacher, had already predicted would befall the Perfect Man should he ever set foot in this world. As before, there is no limit to what could be written about these proceedings so I will confine myself to a few remarks.
Modern people find it offensive, in Genesis, when God demands that Abraham sacrifice his own son Isaac on Mt. Moriah. Of course, a knee jerk reaction like this makes it impossible to understand the meaning of what is being conveyed, and God sends an angel to stay his hand in any case. But this troubling scene from the Old Testament, when it is indexed to the Gospel narrative, finds resolution even as the V7 chords resolves into the tonic. Grasping this connection discloses something about time, in which we also partake in our own lives, because we never truly comprehend the meaning of the events that we live through except in the fullness of time. When Abraham appears to betray Isaac: “My father…behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
“My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
We can see that this was to prefigure Christ’s agony when he prayed in Gethsemane: “Father, if thou be willing, let this cup pass from me…..”
He is apprehended by the Pharisees and delivered unto the Roman governor. Pontius Pilate is clearly troubled by Jesus but, as it is said, for evil to triumph, it is enough for good men to do nothing.
11And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. 12And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.
Jesus doesn’t demand belief but leaves people free. This is one of the most insidious elements to forensic investigations into “the historical Jesus.” If someone recounts a story to me, it is extremely obnoxious if I demand that he furnish empirical proof for each scene before I will hear it. In many cases, the only way I could prove what I myself was doing 20 minutes in the past is to appeal to witnesses, and if their testimony is preemptively rejected, then so too must be any hope of establishing an evidentiary basis for it. If this is impossible after only 20 minutes have elapsed, how much more after 20 centuries. Moreover, if, hypothetically, dispositive historical proof could be furnished, it would change my relationship of belief from one of trust and faith to one of logical compulsion. It may seem that this is of little moment but notice it entails an entirely different state of soul.
13Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? 14And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.
Again, Jesus leaves the people free.
19When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.
Pilate should have listened to his wife, just like Caesar should have listened to his. It represents that we should attend not only to our rational sides but also our intuitive ones.
Pilate again, impotently, tries to avoid responsibility by allowing them to free one of the prisoners:
20But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.
This illustrates the ineluctable architecture of democratic consensus, which is always conditioned by non-democratic agents.
22Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. 23And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. 24When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. 25Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. 26Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
The surest way never to escape Plato’s Cave is to imagine we are not imprisoned there and the surest way to guarantee we ourselves would have been among the hoi polloi crying for Christ’s death is to imagine that we would have known better.
16Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
17And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: 18Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. 19And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. 21Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. 22Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
The title above the Cross seems like an accident, but everything seems like an accident until we understand the causes of things and the intentions of beings. Providence—the Will of the Father—works through creatures even while they remain unaware just like the breath moves through our lungs, animating them. Before we lived out these divine intentions in an instinctive way. In the middle, we begin to lose our way. Christ represents the dawn of our ability to participate them in full consciousness—“the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
beautiful set of meditations. thank you.