Friday, April 15, 2022

We Know the Rest of the Story

 


Deacon Kevin Gingras
Apr 15, 2022
Good Friday

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041522.cfm


On my ride home from work, I used to tune in to WBZ 1030 so I could hear Paul Harvey tell us some interesting narrative that always ended with a crazy twist and his famous tagline: “and now you know the rest of the story!”

That’s the only way I could see the Good in Good Friday, we know the rest of the story.  For a moment I’d like us to imagine if we were one of Jesus’ close followers on that original Friday over 2,000 years ago.  Imagine, for a moment while all this was going on in today’s Gospel we didn’t know the rest of the story.  What would be going through our thoughts as the story unfolded.

We would probably be wondering when Jesus is going to relieve us from our oppression from the Romans. To gather his army and fight, what an honor it would be to fight the Romans next to the Messiah!

The first big moment is when we go to the Garden of Gethsemene.  We’ve been around Jesus a lot, we know he always prays before something big and we know it’s close - really close.  This could be it.  We see Jesus going off to pray with his inner circle of disciples, perhaps He’s also planning.  The soldiers arrive just as Jesus comes back.  Peter strikes first, and we might think this is it, this is the moment.  No, Jesus puts a quick end to it and even heals the man whom Peter struck with his sword!

Things get pretty chaotic from that moment on.  We don’t see much of Jesus for a while but know he has been brought into the High Priest’s area.  At one point we see somebody run off weeping, it looked like Peter but we can’t be sure.  We thought Peter would be one of Jesus' generals why would he leave like that?    

Next, we see Jesus being brought, bound to the praetorium to face Pontius Pilate.  This is not going as we thought it would.  Pilate asks the crowd what crime has He committed and some Jewish leaders our shouting how they want Jesus crucified.  They want Pilate to kill Him!  Pilate clearly doesn’t want any part of this.  After a bit, Pilate asks to release one prisoner as is his custom during Passover.  He brings forth Jesus and Barabbas.  Barabbas was a murderer, a rebel.  Surely the crowds will choose Jesus to be released right?  This wasn’t the moment, that’s OK, Jesus can reorganize and move on from this.  But no!  The crowds want Barabbas.  Pilate brings Jesus back in.  We sit in dismay and shock at what has just taken place.

A while later there is some movement and Pilate brings Jesus back out.  At least we think it’s Jesus, He’s barely recognizable after the scourging.  Pilate proclaims “Ecce Homo” - behold the man.  He looks barely human now.  The chief priests and guards begin to scream “crucify him”!  Pilate clearly doesn’t want to but the crowd wins out, it looks like Jesus will be crucified.

We watch as Jesus carries his cross to Golgotha and is crucified with two other criminals.  Perhaps Jesus was just a false prophet, perhaps he wasn’t the savior we wonder.  Our minds are swimming.  We watch Jesus die on the cross.  We leave distraught and beating our breasts.  How could this have happened this way??

Fortunately, we do know the rest of the story so we know how it could happen and we know why it had to happen.  Our first reading from Isaiah tells us:

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured…

But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; by his stripes, we were healed…

We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way;

Jesus was our new high priest.  His garment, his tunic, the one they cast lots for so as not to destroy it, was seamless like the tunic the high priests wore.  Josephus writes regarding the high priest's garment: 

Now this vesture was not composed of two pieces, nor was it sewed together upon the shoulders and the sides, but it was one long vestment so woven as to have an aperture for the neck.

Jesus was also the new and perfect sacrificial lamb.  Being without sin He was an unblemished lamb.  

It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon. And Pilate said to the Jews, “Behold, your king!”

It would take too long to get into the details of why but know that this was about the same time the priests in the Temple would start to slaughter the lambs for the Passover, just as Jesus was being led to slaughter.

Jesus was also was indeed the Son of God.  When Moses asks God who to say sent him God says “I AM”.  When guards say they are looking for “Jesus the Nazorean” he responds “I AM”.  He responds with such authority, the authority of God, that they turned away and fell to the ground.

We must remember we have an eternal new high priest.  One that sacrificed, not a lamb for us, but instead Himself.  A fully human yet also fully divine high priest; the Son of God.  The reading from Hebrews tells us:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.

St. Leo the Great, knowing the rest of the story said:

No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ. His prayer brought benefit to the multitude that raged against Him. How much more does it bring to those who turn to Him in repentance. 


2 comments:

  1. Amen. Wishing you and yours a blessed Easter season.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you good Deacon, hope you and your family have a blessed Easter as well!!

    ReplyDelete