THE SAME OLD STORY Of the relationship between the Old Testament and the New, Ronald Knox observed that Christs life fulfilled in every detail of the prophecies constituted one of the most impressive arguments you can find in defence of our holy religion. Elsewhere Mgr Knox noted How often a face or a scene arrests us,only because it bears some resemblance to a face or a scene we love! So it is with the Old Testament figures; they borrow their interest from the future. (Ronald Knox, Pastoral Sermons, Burns & Oates (1960) pps. 476 & 28). I was struck forcibly by these reflections while I was considering the circumstances of Our Lords crucifixion with those in which his brothers came to sell Joseph to the Midianites. First there is the situational parallel whereby the favoured son is loathed, betrayed and murdered by his brothers - the original idea in the case of Joseph, although it was not actually carried out. The parallels are even more curious, in the fact that the Josephs father sends Joseph to Schechem to see if it is well with his brothers. Then there is the legalistic temporising - Josephs brothers are persuaded by Reuben that they really shouldnt murder their brother, but that they can put him out of circulation for good by delivering him into the hands of non-jewish slavers. Similarly, the priests and scribes wish to encompass the destruction of Jesus, but they are unwilling to get blood on their hands, so they hand him over to the Romans; they ensure that the body does not remain on the cross so as to not to pollute the sabbath; and they refuse to reappropriate the blood money paid to Judas Iscariot. But even more eery is the way in which how the brothers behave mirrors the behaviour of the soldiers at the foot of the cross. The brothers, having thrown Joseph into the well, sit down to eat. The soldiers sit down and dice for Christs clothing. This in turn reminds us of Josephs coat that his brothers dip in the blood of a goat, and use it to persuade their father that their brother is dead. None of these parallels are exact, but they are like hearing variations on a theme and they are uncannily close in what they convey of the horror of both events and of the casual, indifferent and almost nonchalant way in which mankind carries out acts of godless cruelty against their fellows, their brothers, and their God.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 11:50:26 +0000
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