Sunday Reflections

“A Crucified Christ”

It is helpful to remember that this passion account from Matthew comes from the same gospel that we have been reading throughout this liturgical year. In this light, Raymond Brown reminds us that we must set the passion account in the context of the whole Gospel story (“The Passion according to Matthew,” A Crucified Christ in Holy Week, [Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1986]). Brown notes that Matthew opens with Herod the king, the chief priests, and the scribes seeking the death of the child Jesus and Matthew comes to an end with Pilate the governor, the chief priests, and the scribes instrumental in putting Jesus to death (34). Brown also notes that deeper meaning is found in some of those who appear in the passion narrative, if we remember earlier references to them. For instance, unlike the disciples portrayed in Mark, the disciples portrayed in Matthew profess that Jesus is the Son of God (14:33). So, their act of desertion is even more shocking. Similarly, in Matthew’s gospel, Peter has been rescued by Jesus as he began to sink into the sea (14:30-31) and has spoken for all when confessing Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”. Yet, in the passion story he repeatedly denies Jesus with his words, “I do not know the man” (27:72, 74) (34).

It might be most fruitful to focus on the last words of Jesus as he dies, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” As with the account in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is utterly alone now in his death. Judas has betrayed Jesus, all the disciples have left him and fled, and Peter has denied him three times. He has been flogged, stripped and mocked by the soldiers, and forced to carry his cross to his death. As he hangs on the cross, those passing by “derided” him and the chief priests with the scribes and elders “mocked” him. Those who were crucified with him—no good thief here—kept “taunting him in the same way.” Even nature seems to turn against Jesus as “darkness came over the whole land.” Within this context, Jesus’ last words could stand as a stark cry of despair. His last words even seem hard to reconcile when compared to the last words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” How do we make sense of this?

It is helpful to remember that Jesus was a good Jew who would have known and prayed the psalms. Psalm 22 is a particularly important psalm to examine as we meditate on the passion of Jesus. Like the situation of Jesus, the protagonist in this psalm is an innocent person who has been faithfully following God’s will. Like the situation of Jesus, he is scorned by people who mock and deride him for relying upon God. Like the situation of Jesus, he is urged to show that God will deliver him. And like Jesus, in the midst of his anguish, he cries out to God, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” As the protagonist in the psalm cries out to God, expressing all the hostility that others have for him and all the loss and pain that he experiences because of it, he continues to put his trust in God. The final verses of the psalm give testimony to this continued trust, and he asserts that he will continue to proclaim God’s name and will continue to praise God (Ps 23:23).

The words that Jesus utters in his moment of dying are the first words of a psalm that IN PRAYER gives voice to God about the terrible things that are happening, but IN PRAYER continues to trust that somehow this suffering and death will not be the last word. In this light, the last words of Jesus in Matthew’s (and Mark’s) gospels give voice to the first part of Psalm 22 and the last words of Jesus in Luke’s gospel give voice to the last part of Psalm 22. In both cases, Jesus’ last words—painful as they are in Matthew—are made in prayer to the Father in whom Jesus trusts.

Like the pattern of our first reading from Isaiah and our second reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Jesus is the suffering servant who undergoes much suffering and even death, but is raised up and exalted by God because of his continued trust in God. This is, of course, the way of all Christians—to pattern their life after that of Christ by trusting that any suffering that comes about for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel is not the end, but the pathway to new life with God.