1. Agony “Friend, do what you are here for.”
Jesus appears to be telling Judas to get the dirty deed over with. But what if He was seeing the potential His FRIEND had to still choose good? Did not Jesus, when talking with the rich young man, “look at him and love him”, and asked Him to give up everything and follow Him? And wasn’t He disappointed then too? He calls Judas “friend”, and we know that Jesus always spoke the truth. Jesus saw that what Judas was really there for, the possible crowning glory of his life, possibly the thing “he was for”, the thing his whole life had been leading up to, this moment of decision, this time when glorious sacrifice was within his reach … but he chose otherwise. Judas did NOT do THE thing he had been created for.
2. Scourging “After he had Jesus scourged, Pilate handed Him over to be crucified.”
Pilate puts off his moment of decision. He tries to wriggle out of the terrible confrontation. He knows Jesus is innocent, and yet tries to pacify His enemies. He wants to do the right thing without any sacrifice. Sadly, the moment comes, and there is no way out – God asks ALL from us. Pilate decided not to give all, and so handed over the innocent Man to die.
3. Crowning with Thorns “In the end, Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified.”
After more delays with Jesus’ humiliation by the soldiers, the result is the same. Jesus’ enemies demand everything. God, at certain times, does not make things easier for us – the price we must pay to do the honourable thing is total – it may demand our time, our career, our life, our good name, our family and loved ones – but we must be ready to give it all up.
4. Carrying the Cross “Whoever would save his life, will lose it; whoever loses his life for My sake, will save it.”
Jesus makes the point perfectly clear – there is NO compromise, either from God or His enemies – they will demand all from us. At some point we will have to make this decision. We are getting ready for this – we must be placing ourselves, all that we have and all that we are, at the service of a great ideal, at the service of Jesus Christ. Everything in the material world is just that, material. We are called to SACRIFICE ourselves for something higher. This question, this demand WILL be made of us at some point. We WILL have to be ready.
5. Crucifixion “They took Jesus’ body, and in accordance with Jewish burial custom, bound it up in wrappings of cloth with perfumed oils.”
Jesus was perfect, perfectly good. He was worthy of the love shown Him, of the honour paid to His lifeless body after His death. When I die, and I look back at those who might be mourning for my departure, will I feel worthy of it? Or will I cringe at any respect or charity that I simply do NOT deserve? Will my loved ones be mourning the loss of a coward? A compromiser? A liar? A failure in the things that really mattered? Will I have to return in anger to take my corpse and fling it into the fires of hell in bitter despair at seeing a life that was wasted, because it wasn’t GIVEN away? Despair at time misspent, because I sought to REST instead of to SERVE?
Dear Jesus and Mary, please help me to love sacrifice, to live in true love, to spend ALL my life in doing good.
ROSARY and LECTIO DIVINA, Michael127 