The passion of Christ
Thomas Anchanikal

Good Friday Prayer Service and Passion Narratives hold great appeal for devotees. Ever since the Crucifixion, Christ’s passion and death have been the subject of Biblical research, critical studies and analytical conclusions for many. For Christians, it is the core of their worship.

The Crucifixion of Christ draws millions of people around the globe to lead the life of the love of God for mankind.

The death of Jesus on the Cross reveal to us a surprising god, a fellow sufferer unveiling the mystery of destruction, annihilation and death that surrounds us. God in Jesus refuses to exercise power and might as we understand it, and identifies Himself with every human being.

Becoming a powerless, vulnerable, silent and hidden God, he enters into the pain, weakness, sinfulness, corruption and betrayal of honesty in human life. God in Jesus absorbs in Himself the concentrated venomous onslaught of sin and transforms it to be a worthy dwelling place for God.

The passion and death of Jesus should always remind us of how much Jesus suffers in his humanity. This is the axis of Christianity. But the teaching and preaching of many Christian leaders sometimes leave us with a very glorified picture of Jesus—mostly divine and scarcely human.

The Church has even taught that during his life, Jesus lived constantly in the consciousness of a beatific vision. On such an interpretation, we can imagine Jesus choosing Eleven Apostles and then looking around for a shifty character to make up the total so ‘that the scripture might be fulfilled’.

It cannot be doubted that Jesus loved Judas and knew him intimately and chose him in good faith as his disciple and entrusted him with the delicate responsibility of providing for the little band of apostles.

Therefore, the betrayal by Judas was for Jesus the most hurtful incident in His passion, for it is only those who are closest to us can inflict the greatest pain. And it is for sure that when Jesus prayed on the Cross, ‘Father forgive them for they do not know what they do’, he included Judas too. It goes to Judas’ credit that he soon came to realise the enormity of his crime.

To find Judas and Judas-like betrayals, we need not read the passion of Christ in the Bible. So many of us are busy plotting such betrayals. And we are so convinced of the righteousness of our cause that we neither show any concern for the victims nor give a second thought to our actions. How can a superpower unleash an armed combat on another nation, justifying the action in the name of curbing terrorism while killing more innocent civilians than terrorists?

Judas is really the prototype of the financial advisers of any organisation or a nation which believes that a balanced economy is the sine qua non for development and progress. Judas had this innate quality as we can see from his reaction when Mary (the sister of Lazarus) anointed the feet of Jesus with a costly ointment.

Why this waste, could it not be used for the poor (marginalised) to create a balanced society? Such men are not rare even in the Church administration. Judas is like the market forces ruling our societies—even our religious organisations. They ensure us with sufficiency of food, drink, shelter, educational and cultural opportunities. But these are bereft of the detonable message of Good Friday: love thy neighbour.

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