Todays Sunday School lesson is John 19:1 - 5, with supporting Old Testament references Jeremiah 23:5 - 6 and Zechariah 6:9 - 15. The passage from John is part of a series of Holy Week lesssons, leading up to Easter. Emotionally, I find the selection from John hard to read, just as it was hard for me to watch the movie Passion of the Christ, because it portrays of the suffering of one I love. This is Johns account of the torture of Jesus at the hands of Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, BEFORE he was convicted of any crime.The passage ends with Pilate presenting the beaten and bloodied Christ, mockingly dressed in a purple robe and crown of thorns, to the Jewish authorities, announcing, Behold the man! This phrase is from Zechariah 6:12, when the prophet announces the future king. Pilate, being a Gentile, could not have known that he was fulfilling OT prophecy, but John would have recognized the reference. Of interest, the Greek word translated man was not the usual word for a male person, but a more general term, what we might call a human being. Johns account makes it clear that Pilate wanted to release Jesus, and, some scholars believe that, in a perverse way, his torture of Jesus may have been intended to elicit sympathy from his accusers. He may have been saying, Look, hes just a human being - not a god; not a king; humbled and beaten. He deserves pity, not death. If so, his effort must be counted among the monumental failures of history. For Christians, the passage has great meaning. Christ willingly submitted to humiliation, torture and death on our behalf. He became the ultimate sacrifice. He became the one Jeremiah called God is our Righteousness, the only one who could make sinful mankind righteous before God. His suffering was the punishment which should have been ours. He calls upon us not only to look to him, but to look with compassion on others who suffer. I will close this blog with a quote from the book, Jesus of Nazareth, by Pope Benedict XVI, who said that it is ...the wounded, the victims of violence, who have been the image of the God who chose to suffer for us. So Jesus, in the throes of his passion, is an image of hope: God is on the side of those who suffer.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 12:51:38 +0000
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