Posted on 04/14/2017 8:39:25 AM PDT by Salvation
During Holy Week, we ponder the events that led to Jesus death and resurrection. Among the things to reflect upon is a dramatic moment in the trial before Pilate, when the people present utter a curse upon themselves.
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. I am innocent of this mans blood, he said. It is your responsibility! And all the people answered, His blood be on us and on our children! (Matt 27:24-25)
Now of course the people did not intend it as a curse; they were convinced of their righteousness in the matter. Nevertheless, a curse of this sort becomes operative if they do in fact act unrighteouslywhich they do. Hence this is a self-imposed curse.
Care is necessary not to associate this curse merely with the Jewish people. Some have used this passage to assert that the Jewish people have suffered rightly for what they did to Christ, but of course the Jewish people were divided over Christ. Many followed Jesus and accepted Him as Messiah; all of the first converts were Jews. Other Jews rejected Jesus. Which group speaks for the Jews and which has the power to bring a curse upon the Jewish people? It seems untenable that a small group of Jews would be able to bring down a curse upon all Jews.
A better and more personal understanding of the text is that the group represents not the Jewish people per se, but the whole of humanity. For, truth be told, we have all crucified Christ. It is something we did, not some vague group of others called they. This self-imposed curse, His blood be on us and on our children! is something we have all said figuratively if not literally; we are collectively guilty of the blood of Christ.
Are we cursed or arent we? Consider the following passage written by Pope Benedict:
When in Matthews account the whole people say: His blood be on us and on our children (27:25), the Christian will remember that Jesus blood speaks a different language from the blood of Abel (Heb 12:24): it does not cry out for vengeance and punishment; it brings reconciliation. It is not poured out against anyone; it is poured out for many, for all. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. God put [Jesus] forward as an expiation by his blood (Rom 3:23, 25). Just as Caiaphas words about the need for Jesus death have to be read in an entirely new light from the perspective of faith, the same applies to Matthews reference to blood: read in the light of faith, it means that we all stand in need of the purifying power of love which is his blood. These words are not a curse, but rather redemption, salvation. Only when understood in terms of the theology of the Last Supper and the Cross, drawn from the whole of the New Testament, does this verse from Matthews Gospel take on its correct meaning (Jesus of Nazareth, p. 187).
So the intended curse becomes a blessing! As the people say His Blood be upon us and on our children! one can almost hear God responding,
You dont know how right you are! For unless my Sons blood be upon you, you have no hope. Only if His blood be upon you and your children will you ever be healed and saved. You mean these words for a curse, but I mean them for a blessing! Yes! His blood be upon you! Amen, so be it.
And thus God writes straight with crooked lines. He makes a way out of no way; when we curse, He returns a blessing instead.
Of course this is not the only time that God acted to bring blessings out of situations in which curses were really deserved:
But some of them went to the Pharisees, and told them the things that Jesus had done [raising Lazarus]. The chief priests therefore, and the Pharisees, gathered a council, and said: What are we to do, for this man does many miracles? If we let him alone, all will believe in him; and the Romans will come, and take away our place and nation. But one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that year, said to them: You know nothing. Neither do you consider that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this he spoke not of himself: but being the high priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation. And not only for the nation, but to gather together in one the children of God, that were dispersed (John 11:46-52).
When Caiaphas spoke of it being better for Jesus to die than for the whole nation to perish, he meant it as a death sentence on Jesus, but God meant it for our salvation: Jesus should die rather than all of us be lost. Caiaphas meant it for ill but God meant it for good. Yet again, God writes straight with crooked lines; He makes a way out of no way.
So consider well this curse that turned out to be a blessing: His blood be on us and on our children! Never was more truth spoken, and by it we are saved.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Or perhaps a Pope Benedict Ping as Monsignor Pope is taking this right out of Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth. And it's brilliant!
The soldiers stare, then drift away,
Young John finds nothing he can say,
The veil is rent; the deed is done;
And Mary holds her only son.
His limbs grow stiff; the night grows cold,
But naught can loose that mothers hold.
Her gentle, anguished eyes seem blind,
Who knows what thoughts run through her mind?
Perhaps she thinks of last weeks palms,
With cheering thousands offring alms
Or dreams of Cana on the day
She nagged him till she got her way.
Her face shows grief but not despair,
Her head, though bowed, has faith to spare,
For even now she could suppose
His thorns might somehow yield a rose.
Her life with Him was full of signs
That God writes straight with crooked lines.
Dark clouds can hide the rising sun,
And all seem lost, when all is won!
Admiral Jeremiah Denton,
8 year prisoner of war, 4 years in solitary confinement
Vietnam, Easter 1969
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