Thursday, April 13, 2006

Relections on the Crucifixion

It is that time of year again, when we stop and reflect upon the events of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. As a Catholic, and one who goes to daily Mass, I reflect upon these events nearly every day. When we celebrate the Eucharist, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we are in effect remembering what took place in the Upper Room, and then what took place on Calvary (Golgotha), followed by the Resurrection. It is so wrong of those Baptist fundamentalists who insist that we sacrifice Jesus over and over again at a Catholic Mass when in fact we remember and present the sacrifice again to the Father, so that He will not forget what Jesus did on our behalf. What does the Crucifixion and Resurrection mean to me? Jesus Christ was born as a man so that He could experience all of man's experiences, even though He is God. He was tempted, just as we are tempted, but as the Perfect One, He did not give into that temptation. In other words, He had enmity for Satan, and He refused to follow the way of Satan. He showed us the way because He was able to resist temptation. Jesus is the innocent man of the Scriptures, for there is reference for everything that took place in the writings of the prophets (David was also a prophet in his psalms). The men who plotted against Jesus were truly wicked, and if we were to know anything about their lifestyle, I feel certain that we would recoil over their crimes that they thought were hidden from full view. Some of these crimes are in fact documented, for there is some references to the lack of respect for one's parents, as well as other hints at wrong doing. The mere fact that they were trying to catch Jesus out by their tricks is evidence enough of the wickedness of their hearts. The Gospels mention that Caiaphas, as the High Priest also acted as a prophet when he said that one man must die to save many. Caiaphas was thinking only of the situation with the Roman soldiers. He thought that the attention that was given to Jesus would bring the weight of Rome down upon the Jews. He was thinking in terms of earthly power, yet his words do ring true when they are considered in a more spiritual way. Jesus died so that we could live through the granting of God's grace. One man, Jesus died, so that we would be saved from the chains of sin that bind us to Satan. To this day, the Jews have not accepted that Jesus is the Christ, and their lack of acceptance is due to the fact that they have not spiritually understood the nature of Messiah. At the time of Jesus, the Jews expected the Messiah to be a king who would lead them into battle against the Romans. Herod Agrippa, the one who tried to murder the infant Jesus, understood the Messiah in the same way. That is why Herod was afraid of a baby who was born to be king. He knew that he had usurped the throne from the rightful heirs of king David, and that the child was to be a member of David's royal family. He was afraid of losing his power. In the same way, Caiaphas and the other plotters were also afraid of losing power. This leads me to want to look more closely at the role of Judas Iscariot. This role is under scrutiny at the moment becuase of the news of the discovery of the missing Gnostic gospel of Judas. The manuscript mentions that Jesus was alleged to have passed on secret knowledge to Judas. Of course this is impossible because Judas committed suicide. (I will cover the subject in another post). Judas was the one because of the nature of his heart, rather than being the one who was chosen from birth to be the Betrayer. We only have a few hints about Judas Iscariot and it is enough to know that he was held in contempt by the other apostles.