We have finally arrived at Holy Week; the pivotal events of our salvation. On Palm Sunday and Good Friday, we will read of our Lord’s passion and death. The Passion accounts are more than simple stories of an execution. For 1st century Jews and Christians, it would have been full of symbolic and literal meanings.
The Passion occurs during the Passover. The Passover meal commemorated God’s freeing the Israelites from slavery to the Egyptians through the sacrifice of a lamb. Here Jesus is the true and perfect sacrificial lamb who frees us from slavery to sin so that we might pass from death to life. It is the blood of the new covenant better than the covenant with Moses. The veil torn in two in the sanctuary of the Temple tells us that the Temple is no more; the Mass is now the source of salvation. Christ’s words in the Garden, “...not as I will but as you will,” show the cause of our salvation: Jesus’s sacrifice of perfect obedience and love to the Father.
Judas’s final scene is telling. He admits that he has sinned he essentially asks that the Jewish High Priest offer sacrifice to cleanse him. They reply, “...what is that to us?” They offer no forgiveness to him (they do not have the power) and so Judas, with no other option, destroys himself. He did not believe that Christ came to forgive even his transgression. The choice between Barabbas and Jesus is very symbolic. Barabbas is another name for “Jesus.” So in essence the Jewish people were asked to choose: Barabbas, a killer, and Jesus, the Son of the Father.
The only known seamless garment in Judaism was worn by the High Priest and it was a seamless garment for which the Roman soldiers cast lots. Jesus calls himself “I AM” three times, which was originally said by the High Priest three times on Yom Kippur. In fact, John’s Gospel stresses that Jesus is the new High Priest. He both restores the priesthood and fulfills it, passing it on to his Apostles.
Finally, we hear from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Many people are taken aback by this statement. We read this and think that Jesus has despaired. It is the opposite: Jesus is beginning Psalm 22 which ends, “For he has not spurned or disdained the misery of this poor wretch; did not turn away from me, but heard me when I cried out.” The Psalm describes the vindication by God for those who suffer injustice. This is just a small snippet of the myriads of meanings and allusions in the Gospels.
I hope that this is a blessed and fruitful Holy Week for all.