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Good Friday, Cycle C
Sisters of St. Joseph
Motherhouse, Chestnut Hill, PA
March 29, 2013
Passover Then and Now
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P.
Amato
Preparation
Day
It
was a very busy day – the day before a major holiday. It was as busy as the day
before Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve.
There
was shopping to be done and dinner preparations to complete. The house needed
to be cleaned and guests to be welcomed.
Businesses
had customers to serve and transactions to complete before the start of the
holiday at sunset.
In
his account of Jesus’ passion, the evangelist John notes that it was the
preparation day before the Sabbath – and that year it was also the Passover
feast.
Literally
everyone was busy – too busy, I might add, to notice what was taking place in
“official” Jerusalem.
In
John’s telling, there are no taunting crowds demanding Jesus’ blood
Jesus’
arrest and trial, taking place in the middle of the night, are “handled” by
Pilate, his soldiers and the Jewish authorities.
As
a result so few people witness Jesus’ death that John can identify them by
name.
The Passover
in Process
Some
scripture scholars believe that John’s account is the most accurate description
of what happened on that first Good Friday.
In
short, the death of Jesus was not the headline of the day in Jerusalem.
The
depiction of massive crowds clamoring for Jesus’ death in the other three
gospels was probably not the case – Pilate and his forces would not have
countenanced that.
To
them, the “Jesus incident” was a Jewish matter that concerned them only in so
far as it could disturb public order.
As
was their modus operandi, they took
care of it as they would any other problem – directly, expeditiously, and
mercilessly.
And
so, scholars conclude, Jesus died alone, quietly, and out of the way.
A New Passover
in Process
So
while Jerusalem went about the business of Passover, God was putting into
motion a second Passover.
As
a brisk trade in the buying and selling of lambs for Passover was taking place
all over the city, the Lamb of God was being slain just outside the gates.
While
preparations for the Passover Seder continued, the new Passover was completed
on a cross, planted on a hill near the city’s garbage dump.
During
the Jewish community’s celebration of their journey from slavery to nationhood,
God was calling his people to a new exodus from death to life.
Let It Be What
It Is!
This
Good Friday continues to be a day of preparation.
The
events of this day are not an end in themselves, but the means to a much
greater event: God completes the work of his second Genesis, in which he
recreates humankind in the Paschal mystery.
This
Good Friday is God’s calling us to a second Exodus journey, marked in the
slaying of his Son, the Lamb, who becomes for us the new Passover Seder.
In
our own experience, the darkness of Good Fridays past and present can be seen
in our broken promises, lost hopes, unanswered prayers, severed relationships,
grief, and death.
And
today is our exodus from the slavery of all that pain and sin to the freedom of
compassion and forgiveness. It is our “passing over” from this
at-times-all-too-painful life to a life in God.
Conclusion
And
so, today our own city carries on its business, nearly oblivious to why we have
gathered in this church to remember.
Jesus
hangs on his cross and the world walks by. On this busy spring Good Friday, God
is again transforming humanity at its very core.
And,
alas, humanity once again seems too busy to notice! Or do we?
