A reading from the prophet Isaiah (52:13-53:12)
Look, my servant will prosper;
he will be lifted up, will rise to great heights.
Just as many people were appalled at him –
he was so inhumanly disfigured
that he no longer looked like a man –
so will he astonish many nations.
Kings will keep silence before him,
for they shall see what had never been told,
understand what they had never heard.
Who would believe what we have heard?
To whom has the Lord’s power been revealed?
He grew up before the Lord like a sapling,
like a root in arid ground.
He had no beauty, no majesty to attract us,
no appearance to win our hearts;
he was despised, shunned by the people,
a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering,
one from whom people avert their gaze,
despised, and we held him of no account.
Yet ours were the sufferings he bore,
ours the sorrows he carried.
We thought of him as smitten,
struck down by God and afflicted;
yet he was wounded for our rebellions,
crushed on account of our evil deeds.
The punishment that made us whole was on him:
his wounds brought healing to us.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
each taking our own way,
and the Lord laid upon him
the iniquity of us all.
Afflicted and humbled, he never opened his mouth;
like a lamb led to the slaughterhouse,
like a sheep dumb before its shearers,
he never opened his mouth.
Forcibly, without justice, he was taken
and who gives a thought to his fate?
He was cut off from the land of the living,
the sin of his people visited upon him.
He was given a grave with the wicked
and his tomb is with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
no deceit upon his lips.
It was the Lord’s good pleasure to crush him.
If he gives his life as a sin offering,
he will see his descendants and live long.
Through him the Lord’s good pleasure will succeed.
After his anguish, he will see the light and be content.
By his knowledge my servant,
the righteous one, will justify many
by taking their guilt on himself.
Hence I shall give him a portion with the great
and he will share the spoil with the mighty
for having exposed himself to death
and for being counted among the rebellious.
Yet he was bearing the sin of many
and interceding for the rebellious.
This majestic poem about death and resurrection is the fourth and last song of the suffering servant. It combines words of God, addressing ‘my servant’ at the beginning and the end of the song, with words of the people and words of the prophet. While the third song had begun to speak of the abuse of the servant, this song adds to the experience of suffering the question of meaning, for the servant, who was ‘wounded for our rebellions’, is said to ‘justify many’ and to ‘take their guilt’ on himself. This should be understood as a particularly profound reflection on the meaning of innocent suffering. The poem ends with the prospect of triumph. The fourth song of the suffering servant is the first text which comes to mind when the words of Paul are recalled, that Christ Jesus died ‘according to the Scriptures’ (1 Corinthians 15:3), words also taken up in the Nicene Creed.
Psalm 31 (30) The psalmist says: ‘Into your hands I commit my spirit’. Despite becoming an ‘object of scorn’ he is confident of salvation.
A reading from the letter to the Hebrews (4:14-16 5:7-9)
Since in Jesus, the Son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has gone through to the highest heaven, let us hold firm to our profession of faith. For the high priest we have is not incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, apart from sin. Let us, then, approach the throne of grace with confidence to receive mercy and to find grace in time of need.
During the days of his flesh, he offered up prayer and entreaty, with loud cries and with tears, to the one who had the power to save him from death, and, winning a hearing by his reverence, he learnt obedience, Son though he was, through his sufferings; when he had been perfected, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation.
The Letter to the Hebrews describes Christ as the high priest of the new covenant, one who is trustworthy and merciful. He has been put to the test just as we are. He is like us in all things but sin. The final verses of this reading recall his prayer in Gethsemane, where he ‘learnt obedience’. Coming to ‘perfection’ he offers salvation to all who obey him.
The passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John (18:1 – 19:42)
After he had said this, Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Judas the traitor also knew the place, since Jesus had often met his disciples there, so Judas brought the cohort to this place together with officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, all with lanterns and torches and weapons. Knowing everything that was to happen to him, Jesus came forward and said, ‘Who are you looking for?’ They answered him, ‘Jesus the Nazarene.’ He said, ‘I am he.’ Now Judas the traitor was standing among them. When Jesus said to them, ‘I am he,’ they moved back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, ‘Who are you looking for?’ They said, ‘Jesus the Nazarene.’ Jesus replied, ‘I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, let these others go.’ This was to fulfil the words he had spoken, ‘Not one of those you gave me have I lost.’
Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword back in its scabbard; am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?’
The cohort and its tribune and the officers of the Jews seized Jesus and bound him. They took him first to Annas, because Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it was better for one man to die for the people.
Simon Peter, with another disciple, followed Jesus. This disciple, who was known to the high priest, went with Jesus into the high priest’s palace, but Peter stayed outside at the door. So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the door-keeper and brought Peter in. The girl on duty at the door said to Peter, ‘Are you not also one of that man’s disciples?’ He answered, ‘I am not.’ Now it was cold, and the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire and were standing there warming themselves. Peter stood there too, warming himself with them.
The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered, ‘I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in the synagogue and in the Temple where all the Jews meet together; I have said nothing in secret. Why ask me? Ask those who heard what I taught; they know what I said.’ At these words, one of the officers standing by gave Jesus a slap in the face, saying, ‘Is that how you answer the high priest?’ Jesus replied, ‘If I have spoken wrongly, attest the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?’ Then Annas sent him, bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.
Simon Peter stood there warming himself, and they said to him, ‘Are you not also one of his disciples?’ He denied it saying, ‘I am not.’ One of the high priest’s servants, a relation of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with him?’ Again Peter denied it, and at once a cock crowed.
They then led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the Praetorium. It was early morning. They did not go into the Praetorium themselves to avoid becoming defiled and in order to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and said, ‘What charge do you bring against this man?’ They replied, ‘If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.’ Pilate said, ‘Take him yourselves, and try him by your own Law.’ The Jews answered, ‘We are not allowed to put anyone to death.’ This was to fulfil the words Jesus had spoken indicating by what kind of death he was going to die. So Pilate went back into the Praetorium and called Jesus to him and asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Jesus replied, ‘Do you ask this on your own account, or have others spoken to you about me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? Your own people and the chief priests handed you over to me: what have you done?’ Jesus replied, ‘My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my officers would have fought to prevent me being surrendered to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate said, ‘So, then you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this, to bear witness to the truth; and everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’ And so saying he went out again to the Jews and said, ‘I find no case against him. But you have a custom that I release to you one prisoner at the Passover; would you like me, then, to release to you the king of the Jews?’ At this they shouted back, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas.’ Barabbas was a bandit.
Pilate then had Jesus taken away and scourged; and the soldiers, twisting thorns into a wreath, put it on his head and clothed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him and saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ and slapping him in the face.
Pilate came outside again and said to them, ‘Look, I am going to bring him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.’ Jesus then came out wearing the wreath of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said, ‘Here is the man.’ When they saw him, the chief priests and the guards shouted, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ Pilate said, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him: I find no case against him.’ The Jews replied, ‘We have a Law, and according to that Law he ought to die, because he has claimed to be Son of God.’
When Pilate heard them say this he was more afraid. He entered the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, ‘Where are you from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate then said to him, ‘Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?’ Jesus replied, ‘You would have no authority over me at all if it had not been given you from above; that is why the man who handed me over to you has the greater guilt.’
From that moment Pilate sought to set him free, but the Jews cried out, ‘If you set this man free you are no friend of Caesar’s; everyone who makes himself king is defying Caesar.’ Hearing these words, Pilate had Jesus brought out, and seated himself on the chair of judgement at a place called the Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha. It was the day of preparation for the Passover, at about noon. Pilate said to the Jews, ‘Here is your king.’ But they shouted, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him.’ Pilate said, ‘Shall I crucify your king?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’ So at that Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
They then took Jesus, and carrying the cross for himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side, Jesus being in the middle. Pilate wrote out a notice and fixed it to the cross; it read, ‘Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews’. Many of the Jews read this notice because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the writing was in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, ‘Do not write “King of the Jews”, but “This man said, I am King of the Jews”.’ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written, I have written.’
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus they took his clothing and divided it into four shares, one for each soldier, and his tunic. His tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top right through; so they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but let us cast lots about it, whose it shall be.’ This was to fulfil the words of scripture:
They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothes.
That is what the soldiers did.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
After this, Jesus knowing that everything had now been completed and, so that the scripture should be fulfilled, he said:
‘I am thirsty’
A jar full of sour wine stood there; so, putting a sponge soaked in the wine on a hyssop stick, they held it to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the wine he said, ‘It is completed’; and bowing his head he gave over his spirit.
It was the day of preparation, and to avoid the bodies remaining on the cross during the Sabbath – since that Sabbath was a day of special dignity – the Jews asked Pilate to have their legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who had been crucified with him. When they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, so they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water. The one who saw it has borne witness, and his witness is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth – so that you also may believe. For this happened that the scripture should be fulfilled,
None of his bones shall be broken;
and again, in another place scripture says,
They will look on the one they have pierced.
After this, Joseph of Arimathaea, who was a disciple of Jesus – though a secret one through fear of the Jews – asked Pilate to let him remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave permission, so he came and took it away. Nicodemus came as well – the same one who had come to Jesus at night-time – and he brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about fifty kilograms. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. In the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Since it was the day of preparation for the Jews and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
The account of the passion and death of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel offers a depth of reflection on these events. This is a considered meditation on the deepest reality of what happened to the Son of God. At the garden Jesus, ‘knowing everything that was to happen to him’, takes control, and those who come to arrest him prostrate themselves before him, as is appropriate before the light of God. Both Caiaphas, who had spoken earlier of the expediency of killing Jesus (John 11: 50), and his father-in-law Annas, are involved in interrogating Jesus. Pilate raises the issue of the kingship of Jesus, but Jesus has come ‘to bear witness to the truth’. At Golgotha John has the poignant scene of the mother of Jesus, and the disciple Jesus loved. John repeatedly points to the fulfilment of Scripture, as when the garments of Jesus are shared out. The dying words of Jesus are in fact ‘it is completed’. The piercing of the side of Jesus is another part of the narrative which is unique to the Fourth Gospel, and to which the evangelist solemnly testifies. Like the paschal lamb, ‘none of his bones shall be broken’.
To what extent is John’s story a revelation of the ‘glory’ of the Son of God?
May the different accounts of the Passion engage our minds and hearts.