Saint Matthew’s Passion

This year because of the coronavirus crisis all processions are forbidden in the Holy Land also. Normally on this day in Jerusalem the local Latin-rite Christians and pilgrims go to Bethphage on the Jericho side of the Mount of Olives and process first up to the top of the Mount and then down the steep descent into the garden of Gethsemane, and then up the winding hill through St. Anne’s Gate, into the Via Dolorosa of the Old City.

They are remaking the journey made by Jesus two thousand years ago. He came riding on a donkey, the animal that symbolised peace, not on a horse which always symbolised war. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem who presides over the ceremony these days prays for sustained peace, and the cessation of the present plague undoubtedly, because of the continuing sufferings there and everywhere.

A Passion Narrative

 Of course passion means suffering. That is why today’s reading is called a passion narrative. Here Jesus is presented as the suffering lover of peace, and for a brief moment is honoured as such. Very soon as the story progresses he is betrayed and arrested immediately as a very dangerous criminal. Swords and clubs are used to take him at night to avoid a possible riot in his defence.  Why was he arrested anyway? On what charge? Why was it that his nearest and dearest deserted him? And why should the Romans have been involved in what seemed to be just a religious controversy between typically fractious Jews? What claims did he make that so many should have united to destroy him? In ordinary terms it should have been just one more horrible human tragedy. Yet after he had been publicly discredited and executed his importance lived on. Our narratives explain why. Ultimately the questions boiled down to who Jesus was? Each year we listen to a different evangelist’s account. And this Liturgical Year A we listen to it in St.Matthew’s version. We need to recall the historical and geographical setting.

The Essential Data

The Palestine in which Jesus lived was a small turbulent province of the Roman Empire. The Romans had been there since 63 BC. The Jews never ceased to hate their presence. The ordinary people as always were the cannon fodder for exploitation. They lived poorly and paid taxes, collected for the Romans and for the Jewish leaders, and for the upkeep of the Temple. The populace was divided into the haves and the have nots. After the Romans who were at the top of the social tree came the rich high priests, basically Sadducees. These worked  with the Romans and lived very comfortably. Then there were the Pharisees, and the separatists from ordinary Judaism living as monks at Qumran, on the shores of the Dead Sea. There were probably also terrorists, called zealots, who lived in caves of the Arbela above the sea of Galilee. These had been dispossessed of their lands for not paying their taxes, and continued to make life as hard as possible for the occupying Romans and their collaborators. Most people lived in poor rural places, like Nazareth, with the daily grind to make a living. Their social lives probably centred on the synagogue. That is the setting in which Jesus grew up, and when the time came for him to go public he would have encountered members of these groups who made up the social life of his day. 

His basic claim 

He presented himself as the prophet of the imminent coming of the kingdom and God and taught people how to prepare for it. In doing so he was to touch the lives of many in his world through his healing and teaching. The poor and deprived loved him; he associated with those despised as ignorant or alien. The Law enforcers hated him. The High priests came to fear him. And the Romans destroyed him. Between them all there was collusion. And this collusion is recounted in our passion narrative.

   It was impossible to ask for basic political and social change without disturbing the fabric of society. Healing the sick, feeding the hungry, attracting the deprived who were expecting a better life, involved conflict. Soon he was accused of being a false prophet, misleading the people, giving an alternative interpretation of the Law that governed them all. He interpreted the Sabbath rest differently, and accused the leaders of abusing the Temple. He lived out his own role as the faithful Son and true spokesman for God. In a world where religion and politics were closely intertwined he was perceived to be setting up an unacceptable contrast society. Love as he understood it was the guide to life.  The Pharisees were his main enemies outside Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem it was the Sadducees and chief priests and scribes- many probably Pharisees.. The priestly leaders were the aristocrats. They colluded with the Romans to keep the status quo just as it was. And the casualty was Jesus. For the Jews he was a false prophet to be punished by death (Dt 18:20). For the Romans he presented a threat as a potential rebel. So they nipped the danger in the bud. Calvary and the tomb should have ended it all, and the world could have gone on as it always did. The Gospels narrated why it did not. 

Why Holy Week and Easter?

Because of the resurrection Christians never forgot their Master. Everything he was and said and did showed forth the purpose of life. He was the perfect exemplar of selfless love. When those who accepted him lived the way he did then the world was different. Egoism is the world of sin, a world askew, and can be changed only by a change of heart. But accepting  this one is going to be crucified. The Passion illustrates it perfectly. The Gospel writers want us to hear this message of Jesus. Everyone colluded in the death of Jesus through fear or envy or avarice or indifference. He alone evinced total goodness, dying for the values he preached and forgiving those who did not even know they needed forgiveness.

Conclusion

We are at the beginning of Holy Week. We are all imaginatively in Jerusalem this morning, and that is where the Church wants us to be.  As this corona crisis continues everyone knows what patience and good will it takes to help everyone cope with what is everyone’s suffering. All humanity is affected.  Amen. 

Fr. Richard J. Taylor