From: Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
Our Confidence is Based on Christ’s Priesthood
[14] Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. [15] For we have not a
high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in eve-
ry respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning. [16] Let us then with
confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help in time of need.
Christ Has Been Made High Priest by God the Father
[7] In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud
cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard
for his godly fear. [8] Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what
he suffered; [9] and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation
to all who obey him, [10] being designated by God a high priest after the order of
Melchizedek.
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Commentary:
14-16. The text now reverts to its main theme (cf. 2:17), that is, the priesthood
of Christ. It highlights the dignity of the new high priest, who has passed through
the heavens; and His mercy, too, for He sympathizes with our weaknesses. We
have, therefore, every reason to approach Him with confidence. “The believers
were at that time in a storm of temptation; that is why the Apostle is consoling
them, saying that our High Priest not only knows, as God, the weaknesses of
our nature: as man, He has also experienced the sufferings that affect us, al-
though He was free from sin. Since He knows our weaknesses so well, He can
give us the help we need, and when He comes to judge us, He will take that
weakness into account in His sentence” (”Interpretatio Ep. Ad Haebreos, ad loc.”).
We should respond to the Lord’s goodness by staying true to our profession of
faith. The confession or profession of faith referred to here is not simply an exter-
nal declaration: external confession is necessary but there must also be commit-
ment and a spirit of fidelity. A Christian needs to live up to all the demands of his
calling; he should be single-minded and free from doubts.
15. “If we should some time find ourselves sorely tempted by our enemies, it will
greatly help us to remember that we have on our side a high priest who is most
compassionate, for He chose to experience all kinds of temptation” (”St. Pius V
Catechism”, IV, 15, 14). In order to understand and help a sinner to get over his
falls and cope with temptation, one does not oneself need to have experience of
being tempted; in fact, only one who does not sin knows the full force of tempta-
tion, because the sinner gives in prior to resisting to the end. Christ never yielded
to temptation. He therefore experienced much more than we do (because we are
often defeated by temptation) the full rigor and violence of those temptations
which He chose to undergo as man at particular points in His life. Our Lord, then,
allowed Himself to be tempted, in order to set us an example and prevent us from
ever losing confidence in our ability to resist temptation with the help of grace (cf.
notes on Matthew 4:1-11 and paragraph).
“There is no man”, St. Jerome comments, “who can resist all tests except He
who, made in our likeness, has experienced everything but sin” (”Comm. In Ioan-
nam”, II, 46). Christ’s sinlessness, often affirmed in Sacred Scripture (Romans 8:
3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; John 8:46; 1 Peter 1:19; 2:21-24), follows logically from His
being God and from His human integrity and holiness. At the same time Christ’s
weakness, which He chose to experience out of love for us, is a kind of invitation
from God to pray for strength to resist sin. “Let us adore Christ who emptied Him-
self to assume the condition of a slave. He was tempted in every way that we are,
but did not sin. Let us turn in prayer to Him, saying, ‘You took on our human
weakness. Be the eyes of the blind, the strength of the weak, the friend of the
lonely’” (”Liturgy of the Hours”, Christmas Day, Evening Prayer I).
16. The “throne” is the symbol of Christ’s authority; He is King of the living and
the dead. But here it speaks of a “throne of grace”: through the salvation worked
by Christ, the compassionate Priest and Intercessor, God’s throne has become
a judgment seat from which mercy flows. Christ has initiated for mankind a time
of forgiveness and sanctification in which He does not yet manifest His position
as Sovereign Judge. Christ’s priesthood did not cease to operate with His death;
it continues in Heaven, where He forever pleads on our behalf, and therefore we
should have confident recourse to Him.
“What security should be ours in considering the mercy of the Lord! ‘He has but
to cry for redress, and I, the Ever-Merciful, will listen to him’ (Exodus 22:27). It is
an invitation, a promise that He will not fail to fulfill. ‘Let us then with confidence
draw near to the throne of grace, and we may receive mercy and find grace to
help in time of need’. The enemies of our sanctification will be rendered power-
less if the mercy of God goes before us. And if through our own fault and human
weakness we should fall, the Lord comes to our aid and raises us up” (St. J. Es-
criva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 7).
7-9. This brief summary of Christ’s life stresses his perfect obedience to the Fa-
ther’s will, his intense prayer and his sufferings and redemptive death. As in the
hymn to Christ in Philippians 2:6-11, the point is made that Christ set his power
aside and, despite his being the only-begotten Son of God, out of obedience
chose to die on the cross. His death was a true self-offering expressed in that
“loud voice” when he cried out to the Father just before he died, “into thy hands
I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46). But although Jesus’ obedience was most obvious
on Calvary, it was a constant feature of “the days of his flesh”: he obeyed Mary
and Joseph, seeing in them the authority of the heavenly Father; he was obedient
to political and religious authorities; and he always obeyed the Father, identifying
himself with him to such a degree that he could say, “I have glorified thee on
earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do [...]. All mine
are thine and thine are mine” (Jn 17:4, 10).
The passage also points to Jesus’s prayer, the high point of which occurred in
Gethsemane on the eve of his passion. The reference to “loud cries and suppli-
cations” recalls the Gospel account of his suffering: “And being in an agony he
prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling
down upon the ground” (Lk 22:44).
Hebrews 5:7-9 is probably referring not so much to his prayer in the Garden, still
less to any prayer of Christ asking to be delivered from death, but to our Lord’s
constant prayer for the salvation of mankind. “When the Apostle speaks of these
supplications and cries of Jesus,” St John Chrysostom comments, “he does not
mean prayers which he made on his own behalf but prayers for those who would
later believe in him. And, due to the fact that the Jews did not yet have the ele-
vated concept of Christ that they ought to have had, St Paul says that ‘he was
heard’, just as the Lord himself told his disciples, to console them, ‘If you loved
me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is grea-
ter than I’ [...]. Such was the respect and reverence shown by the Son, that God
the Father could not but take note and heed his Son and his prayers” (”Hom.
on Heb”, 11).
7. “In the days of his flesh”, a reference to the Incarnation. “Flesh” is synony-
mous with mortal life; this is a reference to Christ’s human nature—as in the pro-
logue to St John’s Gospel (cf. Jn 1:14) and many other places (Heb 2:14; Gal
2:20; Phil 1:22-24; 1 Pet 4:1-2) including where mention is made of Jesus being
a servant and capable of suffering (cf. Phil 2:8; Mt 20:27-28). Jesus’ human na-
ture “in the days of his flesh” is quite different from his divine nature and also from
his human nature after its glorification (cf. 1 Cor 15:50). “It must be said that the
word ‘flesh’ is occasionally used to refer to the weakness of the flesh, as it says
in 1 Cor 15:50: ‘flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God’. Christ had a
weak and mortal flesh. Therefore it says in the text, ‘In the days of his flesh’, re-
ferring to when he was living in a flesh which seemed to be like sinful flesh, but
which was sinless” (St Thomas Aquinas, “Commentary on Heb”, 5, 1). So, this
text underlines our Lord’s being both Victim and Priest.
“Prayers and supplications”: very fitting in a priest. The two words mean much
the same; together they are a form of words which used to be employed in peti-
tions to the king or some important official. The plural tells us that there were
lots of these petitions. The writer seems to have in mind the picture of the Re-
deemer who “going a little farther fell on his face and prayed, ‘My Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt”
(Mt 26:39). St Thomas comments on this description of Christ’s prayer as fol-
lows: “His action was indeed one of offering prayers and supplications, that is,
a spiritual sacrifice: that was what Christ offered. It speaks of prayers in the
sense of petitions because ‘The prayer of a righteous man has great power’ (Jas
5:16); and it speaks of supplications to emphasize the humility of the one who
is praying, who falls on his knees, as we see happening in the case of him who
‘fell on his face and prayed’ (Mt 26:39)” (”Commentary on Heb.”, 5, 1).
To emphasize the force of Christ’s prayer, the writer adds, “with loud cries and
tears”. According to rabbinical teaching, there were three degrees of prayer, each
stronger than the last—supplications, cries and tears. Christian tradition has al-
ways been touched by the humanity of the Redeemer as revealed in the way he
prays. “Everything that is being said here may be summed up in one word — hu-
mility: that stops the mouths of those who blaspheme against Christ’s divinity
saying that it is completely inappropriate for a God to act like this. For, on the
contrary, the Godhead laid it down that [Christ’s] human nature should suffer all
this, in order to show us the extreme to which he truly became incarnate and
assumed a human nature, and to show us that the mystery of salvation was ac-
complished in a real and not an apparent or fictitious manner” (Theodoret of Cy-
rus, “Interpretatio Ep. ad Haebreos, ad loc.”). Christ’s prayer, moreover, teaches
us that prayer must 1) be fervent and 2) involve interior pain. “Christ had both [fer-
vor and pain], for the Apostle by mentioning ‘tears’ intends to show the interior
groaning of him who weeps in this way [...]. But he did not weep on his own ac-
count: he wept for us, who receive the fruit of his passion” (St Thomas, “Com-
mentary on Heb., ad loc.”).
“He was heard for his godly fear.” St John Chrysostom’s commentary is very ap-
posite: “’He gave himself up for our sins’, he says in Gal 1:4; and elsewhere (cf.
1 Tim 2:6) he adds, ‘He gave himself as a ransom for all’. What does he mean
by this? Do you not see that he is speaking with humility of himself, because of
his mortal flesh? And, nevertheless, because he is the Son, it says that he was
heard for his godly fear” (”Hom. on Heb.”, 8). It is like a loving contention between
Father and Son. The Son wins the Father’s admiration, so generous is his self-
surrender.
And yet Christ’s prayer did not seem to be heeded, for his Father God did not
save him from ignominious death—the cup he had to drink—nor were all the Jews,
for whom he prayed, converted. But it was only apparently so: in fact Christ’s pra-
yer was heard. It is true that, like every one, the idea of dying was repugnant to
him, because he had a natural instinct to live; but, on the other hand, he wished
to die through a deliberate and rational act of his will, hence in the course of the
prayer, he said, “not my will, but thine, be done” (Lk 22:42). Similarly Christ wan-
ted to save all mankind—but he wanted them to accept salvation freely (cf. “Com-
mentary on Heb., ad loc.”).
8. In Christ there are two perfect and complete natures and therefore two different
levels of knowledge — divine knowledge and human knowledge. Christ’s human
knowledge includes 1) the knowledge that the blessed in heaven have, that is,
the knowledge that comes from direct vision of the divine essence; 2) the know-
ledge with which God endowed man before original sin (infused knowledge); and
3) the knowledge which man acquires through experience. This last-mentioned
knowledge could and in fact did increase (cf. Lk 2:52) in Christ’s case. Christ’s
painful experience of the passion, for example, increased this last type of know-
ledge, which is why the verse says that Christ learned obedience through suffe-
ring. There was a Greek proverb which said, “Sufferings are lessons.” Christ’s
teaching and example raise this positive view of suffering onto the supernatural
level. “In suffering there is concealed’ a particular ‘power that draws a person in-
teriorly close to Christ’, a special grace [...]. A result of such a conversion is not
only that the individual discovers the salvific meaning of suffering but above all
that he becomes a completely new person. He discovers a new dimension, as
it were, ‘of his entire life and vocation’” (Bl. John Paul II, “Salvifici Doloris”, 26).
In our Lord’s case, his experience of suffering was connected with his generosity
in obedience. He freely chose to obey even unto death (cf. Heb 10:5-9; Rom 5:
19; Phil 2:8), consciously atoning for the first sin, a sin of disobedience. “In his
suffering, sins are canceled out precisely because he alone as the only-begotten
Son could take them upon himself, accept them ‘with that love for the Father
which overcomes’ the evil of every sin; in a certain sense he annihilates this evil
in the spiritual space of the relationship between God and humanity, and fills this
space with good” (”Salvifici Doloris”, 17). Christ “learned obedience” not in the
sense that this virtue developed in him, for his human nature was perfect in its
holiness, but in the sense that he put into operation the infused virtue his human
soul already possessed. “Christ knew what obedience was from all eternity, but
he learned obedience in practice through the severities he underwent particularly
in his passion and death” (St Thomas Aquinas, “Commentary on Heb., ad loc.”).
Christ’s example of obedience is something we should copy. A Christian writer
of the fifth century, Diadochus of Photike, wrote: “The Lord loved (obedience) be-
cause it was the way to bring about man’s salvation and he obeyed his Father
unto the cross and unto death; however, his obedience did not in any sense di-
minish his majesty. And so, having—by his obedience—dissolved man’s disobe-
dience, he chose to lead to blessed and immortal life those who followed the
way of obedience” (”Chapters on Spiritual Perfection”, 41).
9. Obviously Christ as God could not increase in perfection. Nor could his sacred
humanity become any holier, for from the moment of his Incarnation he received
the fullness of grace, that is, he had the maximum degree of holiness a man
could have. In this connection Thomas Aquinas points out that Christ had union
(that is, the personal union to the Son of God gratuitously bestowed on human
nature): clearly this grace is infinite as the person of the Word is infinite. The
other grace is habitual grace which, although it is received in a limited human na-
ture, is yet infinite in its perfection because grace was conferred on Christ as the
universal source of the justification of human nature (cf. “Summa Theologiae”, III,
q. 7, a. 11). In what sense, then, could Christ be “made perfect”? St Thomas pro-
vides the answer: Christ, through his passion, achieved a special glory — the im-
passibility and glorification of his body. Moreover, he attained the same perfec-
tions as we shall participate in when we are raised from the dead in glory, those
of us who believe in him (cf. “Commentary on Heb., ad loc.”). For this reason our
Redeemer could exclaim before his death, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30)—referring not
only to his own sacrifice but also to the fact that he had completely accomplished
the redeeming atonement. Christ triumphed on the cross and attained perfection
for himself and for others. In Hebrews the same verb is used for what is translated
into English as “to be made perfect” and “to finish”. Christ, moreover, by obeying
and becoming a perfect victim, truly pleasing to the Father, is more perfectly posi-
tioned to perfect others. “Obedience” is essentially docility to what God asks of
us and readiness to listen to him (cf. Rom 1:5; 16:26; 2 Cor 10:5; Heb 4:3).
Christ’s obedience is a source of salvation for us; if we imitate him we will truly
form one body with him and he will be able to pass on to us the fullness of his
grace.
“Now, when you find it hard to obey, remember your Lord: ‘factus obediens usque
ad mortem, mortem autem crucis”: obedient even to accepting death, death on a
cross!’” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John
The Arrest of Jesus
[1] When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples across
the Kidron valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
[2] Now Judas who betrayed him, also knew the place; for Jesus often met there
with his disciples. [3] So Judas, procuring a band of soldiers and some officers
from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches
and weapons. [4] Then Jesus, knowing all that was to befall him, came forward
and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” [5] They answered him, “Jesus of Naza-
reth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with
them. [6] When he said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
[7] Again he asked them, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Naza-
reth.” [8] Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he; so, if you seek me, let these
men go.” [9] This was to fulfill the word which he had spoken, “Of those whom
thou gayest me I lost not one.’ [10] Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it
and struck the high priest’s slave and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was
Malchus. [11] Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not
drink the cup which the Father has given me?”
[12] So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews seized
Jesus and bound him.
Jesus Before Annas and Caiaphas. Peter’s Denials
[13] First they led him to Annas; for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who
was high priest that year. [14] It was Caiaphas who had given counsel to the
Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.
[15] Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. As this disciple
was known to the high priest, he entered the court of the high priest along with
Jesus, [16] while Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was
known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the maid who kept the door, and
brought Peter in. [17] The maid who kept the door said to Peter, “Are not you al-
so one of this man’s disciples?” He said, “I am not.” [18] Now the servants and
officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing
and warming themselves; Peter also was with them, standing and warming him-
self.
[19] The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
[20] Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world; I have always
taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together; I have
said nothing secretly. [21] Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me,
what I said to them; they know what I said.” [22] When he had said this, one of
the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you ans-
wer the high priest?” [23] Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, bear
witness to the wrong but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me? [24] An-
nas then sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
[25] Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said to him, “Are
not you also one of his disciples? He denied it and said, “I am not.” [26] One of
the servants the high priest, a kinsman of the man whose ear Peter had cut off,
asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him? [27] Peter again denied it; and
at once the cock crowed.
The Trial before Pilate: Jesus is King
[28] Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was
early. They themselves did not enter the praetorium, so that they might not be de-
filed, but might eat the passover. [29] So Pilate went out to them and said, “What
accusation do you bring against this man?” [30] They answered him, “If this man
were not an evildoer, we would not have handed him over.” [31] Pilate said to
them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to
him, “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.” [32] This was to fulfill the
word which Jesus had spoken to show by what death he was to die.
[33] Pilate entered the praetorium again and called Jesus, and said to him, “Are
you the King of the Jews?” [34] Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own
accord, or did others say it to you about me?” [35] Pilate answered, “Am I a
Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me; what
have you done?” [36] Jesus answered, “My kingship is not of this world; if my
kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed
over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.” [37] Pilate said to him,
“So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was
born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness the truth. Every one
who is of the truth hears my voice.” [38] Pilate said to him, “’What is truth?”
After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again, and told them, “I find no
crime in him. [39] But you have a custom that I should release one man for you
at the Passover; will you have me release for you the King of the Jews?” [40]
They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.
The Scourging at the Pillar and the Crowning with Thorns
[1] Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. [2] And the soldiers plaited a crown
of thorns, and put it on his head, and array him in a purple robe; [3] they came up
to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. [4] Pilate
went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing him out to you, that you
may know that I find no crime in him.” [5] So Jesus came out, wearing the crown
of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man! [6] When the
chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!”
Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in
him.” [7] The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law he ought to
die, because he has made himself the Son of God.” [8] When Pilate heard these
words, he was the more afraid; [9] he entered the praetorium again and said to
Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave no answer. [10] Pilate therefore
said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to re-
lease you, and power to crucify you?” [11] Jesus answered him, “You would have
no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore he who deli-
vered me to you has the greater sin.”
Pilate Hands Jesus Over
[12] Upon this Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you re-
lease this man, you are not Caesar’s friend; every one who makes himself a
king sets himself against Caesar.” [13] When Pilate heard these words, he
brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at place called The Pave-
ment, and in Hebrew, Gabbatha. [14] Now it was the day of Preparation for the
Passover; it was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!”
[15] They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to
them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king
but Caesar.” [16] Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
[17] So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place
called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. [18] There they
crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between
them. [19] Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read, “Jesus of Na-
zareth, the King of the Jews.” [20] Many of the Jews read this title, for the place
where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in La-
tin, and in Greek. [21] The chief priests of the Jews then said to Pilate, “Do not
write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.”’ [22]
Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
[23] When the soldiers had crucified Jesus they took his garments and made four
parts, one for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was without seam, woven
from top to bottom; [24] so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast
lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the scripture, “They parted
my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
[25] So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother,
and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. [26] When
Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to
his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” [27] Then he said to the disciple, “Be-
hold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
[28] After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished said (to fulfill the Scrip-
ture), “I thirst.” [29] A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full
of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. [30] When Jesus had received
the vinegar, he said “It is finished”; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus’ Side is Pierced. His Burial
[31] Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from re-
maining on the cross of the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews
asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
[32] So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who
had been crucified with him; [33] but when they came to Jesus and saw that he
was already dead, they did not break his legs. [34] But one of the soldiers pierced
his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. [35] He who
saw it has borne witness — his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the
truth — that you also may believe. [36] For these things took place that the scrip-
ture might be fulfilled, “Not a bone of him shall be broken.” [37] And again ano-
ther scripture says, “They shall look on him whom they have pierced.”
[38] After this Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for
fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pi-
late gave him leave. So he came and took away his body. [39] Nicodemus also,
who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes,
about a hundred pounds’ weight. [40] They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in
linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. [41] Now in the
place where he was crucified there was garden, and in the garden a new tomb
where no one has ever been laid. [42] So because of the Jewish day of Prepara-
tion, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
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Commentary
1. The previous chapter, dealing as it did with the glory of the Son of God (cf.
Jn 17:1, 4, 10, 22, 24), is a magnificent prologue to our Lord’s passion and death,
which St John presents as part of Christ’s glorification: he emphasizes that Je-
sus freely accepted his death (14:31) and freely allowed himself to be arrested
(18:4, 11). The Gospel shows our Lord’s superiority over his judges (18:20-21)
and accusers (19:8, 12); and his majestic serenity in the face of physical pain,
which makes one more aware of the Redemption, the triumph of the Cross, than
of Jesus’ actual sufferings.
Chapters 18 and 19 cover the passion and death of our Lord—events so important
and decisive that all the books of the New Testament deal with them, in some
way or other. Thus, the Synoptic Gospels give us extensive accounts of what hap-
pened; in the Acts of the Apostles these events, together with the resurrection,
form the core of the Apostles’ preaching. St Paul explains the redemptive value of
Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, and the catholic epistles speak of his salvific death, as
does the Apocalypse, where the Victor, enthroned in heaven, is the sacrificed
Lamb, Jesus Christ. It should also be noted that whenever these sacred writings
mention our Lord’s death they go on to refer to his glorious resurrection.
St John’s Gospel locates these events in five places. The first (18:1-12) is Geth-
semane, where Jesus is arrested; after this (18:13-27) he is taken to the house
of Annas, where the religious trial begins and Peter denies Jesus before the high
priest’s servants. The third scene is the praetorium (18:28-19:16), where Jesus
is tried by the Roman procurator: St John gives an extensive account of this trial,
highlighting the true character of Christ’s kingship and his rejection by the Jews,
who call for his crucifixion. He then goes on (19:17-37) to describe the events
which occur after the procurator’s unjust sentence; this scene centers on Calva-
ry. St John then reports the burial of our Lord in the unused tomb near Calvary
belonging to Joseph of Arimathea.
The climax of all these events is the glorification of Jesus, of which he himself
had spoken (cf. Jn 17:1-5)——his resurrection and exaltation to his Father’s side.
Here is Fray Luis de Granada’s advice on how to meditate on the passion of our
Lord: “There are five things we can reflect on when we think about the sacred
passion. [...] First, we can incline our heart to sorrow and repentance for our sins;
the passion of our Lord helps us do this because it is evident that everything he
suffered he suffered on account of sins, so that if there were no sins in the world,
there would have been no need for such painful reparation. Therefore, sins—yours
and mine, like everyone else’s—were the executioners who bound him and lashed
him and crowned him with thorns and put him on the cross. So you can see how
right it is for you to feel the enormity and malice of your sins, for it was these
which really caused so much suffering, not because these sins required the Son
of God to suffer but because divine justice chose to ask for such great atonement.
“We have here excellent motives, not only to abhor sin but also to love virtues:
we have the example of this Lord’s virtues, which so clearly shine out during his
sacred passion: we can follow these virtues and learn to imitate then especially
his great humility, gentleness and silence, as well as the other virtues for this is
one of the best and most effective ways of meditating on the sacred passion —
the way of imitation.
“At other times we should fix our attention on the great good the Lord does us
here, reflecting on how much he loved us and how much he gave us and how
much it cost him to do so. [...] At other times it is good to focus our attention on
knowledge of God, that is, to consider his great goodness, his mercy, his justice,
his kindness, and particularly his ardent charity, which shines forth in the sacred
passion as nowhere else. For, just as it is a greater proof of love to suffer evils on
behalf of one’s friend than to do good things for him, and God could do both [...],
it pleased his divine goodness to assume a nature which could suffer evils, very
great evils, so that man could be quite convinced of God’s love and thereby be
moved to love him who so loved man.
“Finally, at other times one can reflect [...] on the wisdom of God in choosing this
manner of atoning for mankind: that is, making satisfaction for our sins, inflaming
our charity, curing our pride, our greed and our love of comfort, and inclining our
souls to the virtue of humility [...], abhorrence of sin and love for the Cross” (”Life
of Jesus Christ”, 15).
1-2. “When Jesus had spoken these words”: this is a formula often used in the
fourth Gospel to indicate a new episode linked with what has just been recounted
(cf. Jn 2:12; 3:22; 5:1; 6:1; 13:21; etc.).
The Kidron (etymologically “turbid”) was a brook which carried water only during
rainy weather, it divided Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, on slopes of which
lay the garden of Gethsemane (cf. Mt 26:32; Lk 21:37; 22:39). The distance from
the Cenacle, where the Last Supper took place, to the garden of Gethsemane
was little more than a kilometer.
3. Because Judea was occupied by Romans, there was a garrison stationed at
Jerusalem—a cohort (600 men) quartered in the Antonia tower, under the authority
of a tribune. In the Greek what is translated here as “a band of soldiers” is “the
cohort”, the name for the whole unit being used though only part is meant: it does
not mean that 600 soldiers came out to arrest Jesus. Presumably the Jewish au-
thorities, who had their own temple guard — referred to here as “officers from the
chief priests and the Pharisees” — must have sought some assistance from the
military. Judas’ part consisted in leading the way to where Jesus was and iden-
tifying the man to be arrested.
4-9. Only the fourth Gospel reports this episode prior to Jesus’ arrest, recalling
the words of the Psalm: “Then my enemies will be turned back in the day when
I call” (Ps 56:9). Our Lord’s majesty is apparent: he surrenders himself freely and
voluntarily. This does not, however, mean that the Jews involved are free from
blame. St Augustine comments on this passage: “The persecutors, who came
with the traitor to lay hold of Jesus, found him whom they sought and heard him
say, ‘I am he’. Why did they not lay hold of him but fell back to the ground? Be-
cause that was what he wished, who could do whatever he wished. Had he not
allowed himself to be taken by them, they would have been unable to effect their
plan, but neither would he have done what he came to do. They in their rage
sought him to put him to death; but he also sought us by dying for us. Therefore,
after he displayed his power to those who had no power to hold him, they did lay
hands on him and by means of them, all unwitting, he did what he wanted to do”
(”In Ioann. Evang.”, 112, 3).
It is also moving to see how Jesus takes care of his disciples, even though he
himself is in danger. He had promised that none of his own should perish except
Judas Iscariot (cf. Jn 6:39; 17:12); although his promise referred to protecting
them from eternal punishment, our Lord is also concerned about their immediate
safety, for as yet they are not ready to face martyrdom.
10-11. Once again we see Peter’s impetuosity and loyalty; he comes to our Lord’s
defense, risking his own life, but he still does not understand God’ plans of salva-
tion: he still cannot come to terms with the idea of Christ dying—just as he could
not when Christ first foretold his passion (Mt 16:21-22). Our Lord does not accept
Peter’s violent defense: he refers back to what he said in his prayer in Gethse-
mane (cf. Mt 26:39), where he freely accepted his Father’ will, giving himself up
to his captors in order to accomplish the Redemption.
We should show reverence to God’s will with the same docility and meekness as
Jesus accepting his passion. “Stages: to be resigned to the will of God; to con-
form to the will of God; to want the will of God; to love the will of God” (St. J. Es-
criva, “The Way”, 774).
13-18. Jesus is brought to the house of Annas, who, although he was no longer
high priest, still exercised great religious and political influence (cf. note on Lk 3:
2). These two disciples, St Peter and the other disciple, probably John himself,
are disconcerted; they do not know what to do, so they follow Jesus at a distance.
Their attachment to him was not yet sufficiently supernatural; discouragement has
displaced bravery and loyalty—and will soon lead to Peter’s triple denial. However
noble his feelings, a Christian will be unable to live up to the demands of his faith
unless his life has a basis of deep piety.
19-21. During this first interrogation—preliminary to his later examination by the
Sanhedrin (Lk 22:66-71)—Jesus lays stress on the fact that he has always acted
openly: everyone has had an opportunity listen to him and to witness his miracles
— so much so that at times he has been acclaimed as the Messiah (cf. Jn 12:12-
19 and par.). The chief priests themselves have seen him in the temple and in the
synagogues; but not wishing to see (cf. Jn 9:39-41), or believe (cf. Jn 10:37-38),
they make out that his objectives are hidden and sinister.
22-23. Again, we see Jesus’ serenity; he is master of the situation, as he is
throughout his passion. To the unjust accusation made by this servant, our Lord
replies meekly, but he does defend his conduct and points to the injustice with
which he is being treated. This is how we should behave if people mistreat us in
any way. Well-argued defense of one’s rights is compatible with meekness and
humility (cf. Acts 22:25).
25-27. Peter’s denials are treated in less detail here than in the Synoptic Gospels,
but here, as there, we can see the Apostles’ humility and sincerity which lead
them to tell about their own weaknesses. Peter’s repentance is not referred to
here, but it is implied by the mention of the cock crowing: the very brevity of St
John’s account points to the fact that this episode was well known to the early
Christians. After the resurrection the full scope of Jesus’ forgiveness will be evi-
denced when he confirms Peter in his mission as leader of the Apostles (cf. Jn
21:15-17).
“In this adventure of love we should not be depressed by our falls, not even by
serious falls, if we go to God in the sacrament of Penance contrite and resolved
to improve. A Christian is not a neurotic collector of good behavior reports. Jesus
Christ our Lord was moved as much by Peter’s repentance after his fall as by
John’s innocence and faithfulness. Jesus understands our weakness and draws
us to himself on an inclined plane. He wants us to make an effort to climb a little
each day” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ is Passing By”, ‘75).
28. The Synoptics also report the trial before Pilate, but St John gives a longer
and more detailed account: Jn 18:28-19:16 is the center of the five parts of his ac-
count of the Passion (cf. note on 18:1). He describes the events that take place
in the praetorium, highlighting the majesty of Christ as the messianic King, and
also his rejection by the Jews.
There are seven stages here, marked by Pilate’s entrances and exits. First (vv.
29-32) the Jews indict Jesus in a general way as an “evildoer”. Then follows the
dialogue between Pilate and Jesus (vv. 36-37) which culminates in Christ stating
that he is a King, after which Pilate tries to save our Lord (vv. 38-40) by asking
the people if they want him to release “the King of the Jews”.
The centerpoint of the account (19:1-3) is the crowning with thorns, with the sol-
diers mockingly doing obeisance to Christ as “King of the Jews”. After this our
Lord is led out wearing the crown of thorns and draped in the purple robe (vv. 4-7)
— the shameful scene of the “Ecce Homo”. The Jews’ accusation now turns on
Jesus’ making himself the Son of God. Once again, Pilate, in the praetorium a-
gain, speaks with Jesus (vv. 8-12) and tries to probe further into his divine origin.
The Jews then concentrate their hatred in a directly political accusation: “Every-
one who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar” (Jn 19:12). Finally
(vv. 13-16), in a very formal way, stating time and place, St John narrates how Pi-
late points to Jesus and says: “Here is your King!” And the leaders of the Jews
openly reject him who was and is the genuine King spoken of by the prophets.
“Praetorium”: this was the Roman name for the official residence of the praetor or
of other senior officials in the provinces of the Empire, such as the procurator or
prefect in Palestine. Pilate’s usual residence was on the coast, in Caesarea, but
he normally moved to Jerusalem for the major festival periods, bringing additional
troops to be used in the event of civil disorder. In Jerusalem, at this time and later,
the procurator resided in Herod’s palace (in the western part of the upper city) or
else in the Antonia tower, a fortress backing onto the northeastern corner of the
temple esplanade. It is not known for certain which of these two buildings was
the praetorium mentioned in the Gospel; it was more likely the latter.
“So that they might not be defiled”: Jewish tradition at the time (”Mishnah”; “Oha-
lot” treatise 7, 7) laid down that anyone who entered a Gentile or pagan house in-
curred seven days’ legal defilement (cf. Acts 10:28); such defilement would have
prevented them from celebrating the Passover. It is surprising that the chief priests
had a scruple of this sort given their criminal inclinations against Jesus. Once
more our Lord’s accusation of them is seen to be well founded: “You blind guides,
straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel” (Mt 23:24).
29-32. St John has omitted part of the interrogation which took place in the house
of Caiaphas and which is reported in the Synoptics (Mt 26:57-66 and par.), which
tell us that the meeting at Caiaphas’ terminated with Jesus being declared deser-
ving of death for the blasphemy of proclaiming himself the Son of God (cf. Mt 26:
65-66). Under the Law of Moses blasphemy was punishable by stoning (cf. Lev
24:16); but they do not proceed to stone him—which they certainly could have
done, even though the Romans were in control: they were ready to stone the a-
dulterous woman (cf. Jn 8:1-11) and a short time later they did stone St Stephen
(cf. Acts 7:54-60)—because they wanted to bring the people along with them, and
they knew that many of them regarded Jesus a Prophet and Messiah (cf. Mt 24:
45-46; Mk 12:12; Lk 20:19). Not daring to stone him, they will shrewdly manage
to turn a religious charge into a politics question and have the authority of the Em-
pire brought to bear on their side; they preferred to denounce Jesus to the procur-
ator as a revolutionary who plotted against Caesar by declaring himself to be the
Messiah and King of the Jews; by acting in this way they avoided risking the peo-
ple’s wrath and ensured that Jesus would be condemned by the Roman authori-
ties to death by crucifixion.
Our Lord had foretold a number of times that he would die in this way (cf. Jn 3:14;
8:28; 12:32-33); as St Paul later put it, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed be every one who
hangs on a tree”’ (Gal 3:13; cf. Deut 21:23).
33-34. There is no onus on Pilate to interfere in religious questions, but because
the accusation levelled against Jesus had to do with politics and public order, he
begins his interrogation naturally by examining him on the main charge: “Are you
the King of the Jews?”
By replying with another question, Jesus is not refusing to answer: he wishes to
make quite clear, as he has always done, that his mission is a spiritual one. And
really Pilate’s was not an easy question to answer, because, to a Gentile, a king
of the Jews meant simply a subverter of the Empire; whereas, to a Jewish natio-
nalist, the King-Messiah was a politico-religious liberator who would obtain their
freedom from Rome. The true character of Christ’s messiahship completely tran-
scends both these concepts—as Jesus explains to the procurator, although he
realizes how enormously difficult it is for Pilate to understand what Christ’s King-
ship really involves.
35-36. After the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, Jesus re-
fused to be proclaimed king because the people were thinking in terms of an earth-
ly kingdom (cf. Jn 6:15). However, Jesus did enter Jerusalem in triumph, and he
did accept acclamation as King-Messiah. Now, in the passion, he acknowledges
before Pilate that he is truly a King, making it clear that his kingship is not an
earthly one. Thus, “those who expected the Messiah to have visible temporal po-
wer were mistaken. ‘The kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but righ-
teousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ (Rom 14:17). Truth and justice,
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That is the kingdom of Christ: the divine activity
which saves men and which will reach its culmination when history ends and the
Lord comes from the heights of paradise finally to judge men” (St. J. Escriva,
“Christ is Passing By”, 180).
37. This is what his kingship really is: his kingdom is “the kingdom of Truth and
Life, the kingdom of Holiness and Grace, the kingdom of Justice, Love and
Peace” (”Roman Missal”, Preface of the Mass of Christ the King). Christ reigns
over those who accept and practise the truth revealed by him—his Father’s love
for the world (Jn 3:16; 1 Jn 4:9). He became man to make this truth known and
to enable men to accept it. And so, those who recognize Christ’s kingship and
sovereignty accept his authority, and he thus reigns over them in an eternal and
universal kingdom.
For its part, “the Church, looking to Christ who bears witness to the truth, must
always and everywhere ask herself, and in a certain sense also the contemporary
‘world’, how to make good emerge from man, how to liberate the dynamism of the
good that is in man, in order that it may be stronger than evil, than any moral, so-
cial or other evil” (Bl. John Paul II, General Audience, February 1979).
“If we [Christians] are trying to have Christ as our king we must be consistent.
We must start by giving him our heart. Not to do that and still talk about the king-
dom of Christ would be completely hollow. There would be no real Christian sub-
stance in our behavior. We would be making an outward show of a faith which
simply did not exist. We would be misusing God’s name to human advantage. [...]
If we let Christ reign in our soul, we will not become authoritarian. Rather we will
serve everyone. How l like that word: service! To serve my king and, through him,
all those who have been redeemed by his blood. I really wish we Christians knew
how to serve, for only by serving can we know and love Christ and make him
known and loved” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ is Passing By”, 181-182).
By his death and resurrection, Jesus shows that the accusations laid against him
were based on lies: it was he who was telling the truth, not his judges and accu-
sers, and God confirms the truth of Jesus — the truth of his words, of deeds, of
his revelation — by the singular miracle of his resurrection. To men Christ’s king-
ship may seem paradoxical: he dies, yet he lives for ever; he is defeated and is
crucified, yet he is victorious. “When Jesus Christ him appeared as a prisoner
before Pilate’s tribunal and was interrogated by him...did he not answer: ‘For this
I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth’?
It was as if with these words [...] he was once more confirming what he had said
earlier: ‘You will know the truth, and truth will make you free’. In the course of so
many centuries, of so many generations, from the time of the Apostles on, is it
not often Jesus Christ himself that has made an appearance at the side of peo-
ple judged for the sake of truth? And has he not gone to death with people con-
demned for the sake of truth? Does he ever cease to be the continuous spokes-
man and advocate for person who lives ‘in spirit and truth’? (cf. Jn 4:23). Just as
he does not cease to be it before the Father, he is it also with regard to the his-
tory of man” (Bl. John Paul II, “Redemptor Hominis”, 12).
38-40. The outcome of the interrogation is that Pilate becomes convinced of Je-
sus’ innocence (cf. Jn 19:4, 12). He probably realizes that the accusations made
against Jesus were really an internal matter in which the Jews were trying to in-
volve him; but the Jewish authorities are very irate. It is not easy for him to find
a way out. He tries to do so by making concessions: first, he has recourse to a
passover privilege, offering them the choice between a criminal and Jesus, but
this does not work; so he looks for other ways to save him, and here also he
fails. His cowardice and indecision cause him to yield to pressure and commit
the injustice of condemning to death a man he knows to be innocent.
“The mystery of innocent suffering is one of the most obscure points on the en-
tire horizon of human wisdom; and here it is affirmed in the most flagrant way. But
before we uncover something of this problem, there already grows up in us an un-
restrained affection for the innocent one who suffers, for Jesus, [...] and for all in-
nocent people—whether they be young or old—who are also suffering, and whose
pain we cannot explain. The way of the cross leads us to meet the first person in
a sorrowful procession of innocent people who suffer. And this first blameless and
suffering person uncovers for us in the end the secret of his passion. It is a sacri-
fice” (Paul VI, Address on Good Friday, 12 April 1974).
1-3. Christ’s prophecy is fulfilled to the letter: the Son of Man “will be delivered to
the Gentiles, and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon; they will
scourge him and kill him, and on the third day he will rise” (Lk 18:32f; cf. Mt 20:
18f).
Scourging was one of the most severe punishments permitted under Roman law.
The criminal was draped over a pillar or other form of support, his naked back ex-
posed to the lash or “flagellum”. Scourging was generally used as a preliminary
to crucifixion to weaken the criminal and thereby hasten his death.
Crowning with thorns was not an official part of the punishment; it was an initiative
of the soldiers themselves, a product of their cruelty and desire to mock Jesus.
On the stone pavement in the Antonia tower some drawings have been found
which must have been used in what was called the “king game”; dice were thrown
to pick out a mock king among those condemned, who was subjected to taunting
before being led off for crucifixion.
St John locates this episode at the center of his narrative of the events in praeto-
rium. He thereby highlights the crowning with thorns as the point which Christ’s
kingship is at its most patent: the soldiers proclaim him as King of the Jews only
in a sarcastic way (cf. Mk 15:15, 16-19), but the evangelist gives us to understand
that he is indeed the King.
5. Wearing the insignia of royalty, Christ, despite this tragic parody, projects the
majesty of the King of Kings. In Rev 5:12 St John will say: “Worthy is the Lamb
who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and
glory and blessing!”
“Imagine that divine face: swollen by blows, covered in spittle, torn by thorns, fur-
rowed with blood, here fresh blood, there ugly dried blood. And, since the sacred
Lamb had his hands tied, he could not use them to wipe away the blood running
into his eyes, and so those two luminaries of heaven were eclipsed and almost
blinded and made mere pieces of flesh. Finally, so disfigured was he that one
could not make out who he was; he scarcely seemed human; he had become
an altarpiece depicting suffering, painted by those cruel artists and their evil pre-
sident, producing this pitiful figure to plead his case before his enemies” (Fray
Luis de Granada, “Life of Jesus Christ”, 24).
6-7. When Pilate hears the Jews accuse Jesus of claiming to be the Son of God,
he grows still more alarmed: his wife has already unnerved him by sending him
a message, after a dream, not to have anything to do with this “righteous man”.
But the shouting (v. 12) orchestrated by the Jewish authorities pressures him in-
to agreeing to condemn Jesus.
Although technically Jesus is crucified for supposedly committing a political
crime (cf. note on Jn 18:29-32), in fact it is on clearly religious grounds that he
is sent to death.
8-11. Pilate is impressed by Jesus’ silence, by his not defending himself, and
when the procurator says that he has power to release him or to condemn him,
our Lord then says something quite unexpected—that all power on earth comes
from God. This means that in the last analysis even if people talk about the so-
vereignty of the king or of the people, such authority is never absolute; it is only
relative, being subject to the absolute sovereignty of God: hence no human law
can be just, and therefore binding in conscience, if it does not accord with divine
law.
“He who delivered me”—a reference to all those who have contrived our Lord’s
death, that is, Judas, Caiaphas, the Jewish leaders, etc. (cf. 18:30-35). They are
the ones that really sent Christ to the cross; but this does not exonerate Pontius
Pilate from blame.
13. “The Pavement”, in Greek “Iithostrotos”, literally a “pavement”, a “flagged ex-
panse”, therefore a yard or plaza paved with flags. The Hebrew word “Gabbatha”
is not the equivalent of the Greek “lithostrotos”; it means a “height” or “eminence”.
But both words refer to the same place; however, its precise location is uncertain
due to doubts about where the praetorium was located: cf. note on Jn 18:28.
Grammatically, the Greek could be translated as follows: “Pilate... brought Jesus
out and sat him down on the judgment seat”: in which case the evangelist im-
plies that Pilate was ridiculing the Jewish leaders by a mock enthronement of the
“King of the Jews”. This would fit in with Pilate’s attitude towards the Jewish lea-
ders from this point onwards (vv. 14-22) and with the purpose of the inspired writer,
who would see in this the enthronement of Christ as King.
14. “The day of Preparation”, the “Parasceve”. The sixth hour began at midday.
Around this time all leavened bread was removed from the houses and replaced
by unleavened bread for the paschal meal (cf. Ex 12:15ff), and the lamb was of-
ficially sacrificed in the temple. St John notes that this was the time at which
Jesus was condemned, thereby underlying the coincidence between the time
of the death sentence and the time the lamb was sacrificed: Christ is the new
Paschal Lamb; as St Paul says (cf. 1 Cor 5:7), “Christ, our paschal lamb, has
been sacrificed”.
There is some difficulty in reconciling what St John says about the sixth hour
with the information given in Mark 15:25 about Jesus being crucified at the third
hour. Various explanations are offered, the best being that Mark is referring to
the end of the third hour and John to the beginning of the sixth hour: both would
then be talking of around midday.
15. The history of the Jewish people helps us understand the tragic paradox of
the attitude of the Jewish authorities at this point. The Jews were very conscious
all along of being the people of God. For example, they proudly asserted that
they had no Father but God (cf. Jn 8:4). In the Old Testament Yahweh is the true
King of Israel (cf. Deut 33:5; Num 23:21; 1 Kings 22:19; Is 6:5); when they wan-
ted to copy the neighboring peoples and asked Samuel for a king (cf. 1 Sam 8:5-
20), Samuel resisted, because Israel had only one absolute sovereign, Yahweh
(1 Sam 8:6-9). But eventually God gave in to their request and himself designa-
ted who should be king over his people. His first choice, Saul, was given sacred
anointing, as were David and his successors. This rite of anointing showed that
the Israelite king was God’s vicar. When the kings failed to meet the people’s ex-
pectations, they increasingly yearned for the messianic king, the descendant or
“Son” of David, the Anointed “par excellence” or Messiah, who would rule his
people, liberate them from their enemies and lead them to rule the world (cf. 2
Sam 7:16; Ps 24:7; 43:5; etc.). For centuries they strove heroically for this ideal,
rejecting foreign domination.
During Christ’s time also they opposed Rome and Herod, whom, not being a Jew,
they regarded as an illegitimate king. However, at this point in the Passion, they
hypocritically accept the Roman emperor as their true and only king. They also
reject the “easy yoke” of Christ (cf. Mt 11:30) and bring the full weight of Rome
down upon him.
“They themselves submitted to the punishment; therefore, the Lord handed them
over. Thus, because they unanimously rejected God’s government, the Lord let
them be brought down through their own condemnation: for, rejecting the domi-
nion of Christ, they brought upon themselves that of Caesar” (St John Chrysos-
tom, “Hom. on St John”, 83).
A similar kind of tragedy occurs when people who have been baptized and there-
fore have become part of the new people of God, throw off the “easy yoke” of
Christ’s sovereignty by their obstinacy in sin and submit to the terrible tyranny
of the devil (cf. 2 Pet 2:21).
17. “The place of a skull” or Calvary seems to have got its name from the fact
that it was shaped like a skull or head.
St Paul points to the parallelism that exists between Adam’s disobedience and
Christ’s obedience (cf. Rom 5:12). On the feast of the Triumph of the Cross the
Church sings “where life was lost, there life has been restored”, to show how,
just as the devil won victory by the tree of paradise, so he was overpowered by
Christ on the tree of the Cross.
St John is the only Evangelist who clearly states that Jesus carried his own cross;
the other three mention that Simon of Cyrene helped to carry it. See the notes on
Mt 27:31 and Lk 23:26.
Christ’s decisiveness in accepting the cross is an example which we should fol-
low in our daily life: “You yourself must decide of your own free will to take up the
cross; otherwise, your tongue may say that you are imitating Christ, but your ac-
tions will belie your words. That way, you will never get to know the Master inti-
mately, or love him truly. It is really important that we Christians convince our-
selves of this. We are not walking with our Lord unless we are spontaneously de-
priving ourselves of many things that our whims, vanity, pleasure or self-interest
clamor for” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 129).
As Simeon had prophesied, Jesus would be a “sign that is spoken against” (Lk
2:34)—a standard raised on high which leaves no room for indifference, demanding
that every man decide for or against him and his cross: “he was going therefore
to the place where he was to be crucified, bearing his own Cross. An extraordina-
ry spectacle: to impiety, something to jeer at; to piety, a great mystery. [...] Im-
piety looks on and laughs at a king bearing, instead of a scepter, the wood of his
punishment; piety looks on and sees the King bearing that cross for himself to
be fixed on, a cross which would thereafter shine on the brow of kings; an object
of contempt in the eyes of the impious, but something in which hereafter the
hearts of the saints should glorify, as St Paul would later say, But God forbid
that should glory; save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (St Augustine, “In
Ioann. Evang.”, 117, 3).
18. Knowing what crucifixion in ancient times entailed will help us understand
much better the extent of the humiliation and suffering Jesus bore for love of us.
Crucifixion was a penalty reserved for slaves, and applied to the most serious
crimes; it was the most horrific and painful form of death possible; it was also an
exemplary public punishment and therefore was carried out in a public place, with
the body of the criminal being left exposed for days afterwards. These words of
Cicero show how infamous a punishment it was: “That a Roman citizen should
be bound is an abuse; that he be lashed is a crime; that he be put to death is
virtually parricide; what, then, shall I say, if he be hung on a cross? There is no
word fit to describe a deed so horrible” (”In Verrem”, II, 5, 66).
A person undergoing crucifixion died after a painful agony involving loss of blood,
fever caused by his wounds, thirst, and asphyxiation, etc. Sometimes the exe-
cutioners hastened death by breaking the person’s legs or piercing him with a
lance, as in our Lord’s case. This helps us understand better what St Paul says
to the Philippians about Christ’s humiliation on the Cross: “[he] emptied himself,
taking the form of a servant [or slave], being born in the likeness of men... ; he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil
2:7-8).
St John says little about the other two people being crucified, perhaps because
the Synoptic Gospels had already spoken about them (see notes on Lk 23:39-43).
19-22. The “title” was the technical term then used in Roman law to indicate the
grounds on which the person was being punished. It was usually written on a
board prominently displayed, summarizing the official document which was for-
warded to the legal archives in Rome. This explains why, when the chief priests
ask Pilate to change the wording of the inscription, the procurator firmly refuses
to do so: the sentence, once dictated, was irrevocable: that is what he means
when he says, “What I have written I have written.” In the case of Christ, this title
written in different languages proclaims his universal kingship, for it could be read
by people from all over the world who had come to celebrate the Passover — thus
confirming our Lord’s words: “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and
for this I have come into the world” (Jn 18:37).
In establishing the feast of Christ the King, Pope Pius XI explained: “He is said
to reign ‘in the minds of men’, both by reason of the keenness of his intellect and
the extent of his knowledge, and also because he is Truth itself and it is from him
that truth must be obediently received by all mankind. He reigns, too, in the wills
of men, for in him the human will was perfectly and entirely obedient to the holy
will of God, and further by his grace and inspiration he so subjects our free will
as to incite us to the most noble endeavors. He is King of our hearts, too, by rea-
son of his ‘charity which surpasseth all knowledge’, and his mercy and kindness
which draw all men to him; for there never was, nor ever will be a man loved so
much and so universally as Jesus Christ” (Pius XI, “Quas Primas”).
23-24. And so the prophecy of Psalm 22 is fulfilled which describes accurately
the sufferings of the Messiah: “They divide my garments among them, and for
my raiment they cast lots” (v. 18). The Fathers have seen this seamless tunic a
symbol of the unity of the Church (cf. St Augustine, “In Ioann. Evang.”, 118, 4).
25. Whereas the Apostles, with the exception of St John, abandon Jesus in the
hour of his humiliation, these pious women, who had followed him during his pub-
lic life (cf. Lk 8:2-3) now stay with their Master as he dies on the cross (cf. note
on Mt 27:55-56).
Bl. John Paul II explains that our Lady’s faithfulness was shown in four ways: first,
in her generous desire to do all that God wanted of her (cf. Lk 1:34); second, in
her total acceptance of God’s Will (cf. Lk 1:46f); third, in the consistency between
her life and the commitment of faith which she made; and finally, in her withstan-
ding this test. “And only a consistency that lasts throughout the whole of life can
be called faithfulness. Mary’s ‘fiat’ in the Annunciation finds its fullness in the si-
lent ‘fiat’ that she repeats at the foot of the Cross” (Homily in Mexico Cathedral,
26 January 1979).
The Church has always recognized the dignity of women and their important role
in salvation history. It is enough to recall the veneration which from the earliest
times the Christian people have had for the Mother of Christ, the Woman “par ex-
cellence” and the most sublime and most privileged creature ever to come from
the hands of God. Addressing a special message to women, the Second Vati-
can Council said, among other things: “Women in trial, who stand upright at the
foot of the cross like Mary, you who so often in history have given to men the
strength to battle unto the very end and to give witness to the point of martyrdom,
aid them now still once more to retain courage in their great undertakings, while
at the same time maintaining patience and an esteem for humble beginnings”
(Vatican II, “Message to Women”, 8 December 1965).
26-27. “The spotless purity of John’s whole life makes him strong before the
Cross. The other apostles fly from Golgotha: he, with the Mother of Christ, re-
mains. Don’t forget that purity strengthens and invigorates the character” (St. J.
Escriva, “The Way”, 144).
Our Lord’s gesture in entrusting his Blessed Mother to the disciple’s care, has a
dual meaning. For one thing it expresses his filial love for the Virgin Mary. St Au-
gustine sees it as a lesson Jesus gives us on how to keep the fourth command-
ment: “Here is a lesson in morals. He is doing what he tells us to do and, like a
good Teacher, he instructs his own by example, that it is the duty of good chil-
dren to take care of their parents; as though the wood on which his dying mem-
bers were fixed were also the chair of the teaching Master” (St Augustine, “In
Ioann. Evang.”, 119, 2).
Our Lord’s words also declare that Mary is our Mother: “The Blessed Virgin also
advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her
Son unto the cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring
with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, associating herself with
his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of
this victim who was born of her. Finally, she was given by the same Christ Jesus
dying on the cross as a mother to his disciple” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”,
58).
All Christians, who are represented in the person of John, are children of Mary.
By giving us his Mother to be our Mother, Christ demonstrates his love for his
own to the end (cf. Jn 13:1). Our Lady’s acceptance of John as her son shows
her motherly care for us: “the Son of God, and your Son, from the Cross indica-
ted a man to you, Mary, and said: ‘Behold, your son’ (Jn 19:26). And in that man
he entrusted to you every person, he entrusted everyone to you. And you, who
at the moment of the Annunciation, concentrated the whole program of your life
in those simple words: ‘Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me ac-
cording to your word’ (Lk 1:38): embrace everyone, draw close to everyone, seek
everyone out with motherly care. Thus is accomplished what the last Council
said about your presence in the mystery of Christ and the Church. In a wonderful
way you are always found in the mystery of Christ, your only Son, because you
are present wherever men and women, his brothers and sisters, are present,
wherever the Church is present” (Bl. John Paul II, “Homily in the Basilica of Gua-
dalupe”, 27 January 1979).
“John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, brought Mary into his home, into his life.
Spiritual writers have seen these words of the Gospel as an invitation to all Chris-
tians to bring Mary into their lives. Mary certainly wants us to invoke her, to ap-
proach her confidently, to appeal to her as our mother, asking her to ‘show that
you are our mother”’ (St. J. Escriva, “Christ is Passing By”, 140).
Bl. John Paul II constantly treats our Lady as his Mother. In bidding farewell to
the Virgin of Czestochowa he prayed in this way: “Our Lady of the Bright Moun-
tain, Mother of the Church! Once more I consecrate myself to you ‘in your mater-
nal slavery of love’. “Totus tuus”! I am all yours! I consecrate to you the whole
Church—everywhere and to the ends of the earth! I consecrate to you humanity;
I consecrate to you all men and women, my brothers and sisters. All peoples
and all nations. I consecrate to you Europe and all the continents. I consecrate
to you Rome and Poland, united, through your servant, by a fresh bond of love.
Mother, accept us! Mother, do not abandon us! Mother, be our guide!” (”Fare-
well Address” at Jasna Gora Shrine, 6 June 1979).
28-29. This was foretold in the Old Testament: “They gave me poison for food,
and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Ps 69:21). This does not mean
that they gave Jesus vinegar to increase his suffering; it was customary to offer
victims of crucifixion water mixed with vinegar to relieve their thirst. In addition to
the natural dehydration Jesus was suffering, we can see in his thirst an expres-
sion of his burning desire to do his Father’s will and to save a souls: “On the
Cross he cried out “Sitio”!, ‘I thirst’. He thirsts for us, for our love, for our souls
and for all the souls we ought to be bringing to him along the way of the Cross,
which is the way to immortality and heavenly glory” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of
God”, 202).
30. Jesus, nailed on the cross, dies to atone for all the sins and vileness of man.
Despite his sufferings he dies serenely, majestically, bowing his head now that he
has accomplished the mission entrusted to him. “Who can sleep when he wishes
to, as Jesus died when he wished to? Who can lay aside his clothing when he wi-
shes to, as he put off the flesh when he chose to?... What must be hope or fear to
find his power when he comes in judgment, if it can be seen to be so great at the
moment of his death!” (St Augustine, “In loann. Evang.”, 119, 6).
“Let us meditate on our Lord, wounded from head to foot out of love for us. Using
a phrase which approaches the truth, although it does not express its full reality,
we can repeat the words of an ancient writer: ‘The body of Christ is a portrait in
pain’. At the first sight of Christ bruised and broken — just a lifeless body taken
down from the cross and given to his Mother — at the sight of Jesus destroyed in
this way, we might have thought he had failed utterly. Where are the crowds that
once followed him, where is the kingdom he foretold? But this is victory, not defeat.
We are nearer the resurrection than ever before; we are going to see the glory
which he has won with his obedience” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ is Passing By”, 95).
31-33. Jesus dies on the Preparation day of the Passover — the “Parasceve” —
that is, the eve, when the paschal lambs were officially sacrificed in the Temple.
By stressing this, the evangelist implies that Christ’s sacrifice took the place of
the sacrifices of the Old Law and inaugurated the New Alliance in his blood (cf.
Heb 9:12).
The Law of Moses required that the bodies should be taken down before nightfall
(Deut 21:22-23); this is why Pilate is asked to have their legs broken, to bring on
death and allow them to be buried before it gets dark, particularly since the next
day is the feast of the Passover.
On the date of Jesus’ death see “The Dates of the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ”
in “The Navarre Bible: St Mark” pp. 48ff.
34. The outflow of blood and water has a natural explanation. Probably the water
was an accumulation of liquid in the lungs due to Jesus’ intense sufferings.
As on other occasions, the historical events narrated in the fourth Gospel are la-
den with meaning. St Augustine and Christian tradition see the sacrament and
the Church itself flowing from Jesus’ open side: “Here was opened wide the door
of life, from which the sacraments of the Church have flowed out, without which
there is no entering in unto life which is true life. [...] Here the second Adam with
bowed head slept upon the cross, that thence a wife might be formed of him, flo-
wing from his side while he slept. O death, by which the dead come back to life!
is there anything purer than this blood, any wound more healing!” (St Augustine,
“In Ioann. Evang.”, 120, 2).
The Second Vatican Council, for its part, teaches: “The Church—that is, the king-
dom of Christ—already present in mystery, grows visibly through the power of God
in the world. The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood
and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus (Vatican II, “Lu-
men Gentium”, 3).
“Jesus on the cross, with his heart overflowing with love for men, is such an elo-
quent commentary on the value of people and things that words only get in the
way. People, their happiness and their life, are so important that the very Son of
God gave himself to redeem and cleanse and raise them up” (St. J. Escriva,
“Christ is Passing By”, 165).
35. St John’s Gospel presents itself as a truthful witness of the events of our
Lord’s life and of their spiritual and doctrinal significance. From the words of John
the Baptist at the outset of Jesus’ public ministry (1:19) to the final paragraph of
the Gospel (21:24-25), everything forms part of a testimony to the sublime pheno-
menon of the Word of Life made Man. Here the evangelist explicitly states that
he was an eyewitness (cf. also Jn 20:30-31; 1 Jn 1:1-3).
36. This quotation refers to the precept of the Law that no bone of the paschal
lamb should be broken (cf. Ex 12:46): again St John’s Gospel is telling, us that
Jesus is the true paschal Lamb who takes away the sins of the world (cf. Jn 1:29).
37. The account of the Passion concludes with a quotation from Zechariah (12:10)
foretelling the salvation resulting from the mysterious suffering and death of a re-
deemer. The evangelist thereby evokes the salvation wrought by Jesus Christ who,
nailed to the cross, has fulfilled God’s promise of redemption (cf. Jn 12:32). Every-
one who looks upon him with faith receives the effects of his Passion. Thus, the
good thief, looking at Christ on the cross, recognized his kingship, placed his
trust in him and received the promise of heaven (Cf. Lk 23:42-43).
In the liturgy of Good Friday the Church invites us to contemplate and adore the
cross: “Behold the wood of the Cross, on which was nailed the salvation of the
world”, and from the earliest times of the Church the Crucifix has been the sign
reminding Christians of the supreme point of Christ’s love, when he died on the
Cross and freed us from eternal death.
“Your Crucifix. — As a Christian, you should always carry your Crucifix with you.
And place it on your desk. And kiss it before going to bed and when you wake
up: and when your poor body rebels against your soul, kiss it again” (St. J. Es-
criva, “The Way”, 302).
38-39. Our Lord’s sacrifice produces its firstfruits: people who were previously
afraid now boldly confess themselves disciples of Christ and attend to his dead
Body with exquisite refinement and generosity. The evangelist mentions that Jo-
seph of Arimathea and Nicodemus used a mixture of myrrh and aloes in lavish
amount. Myrrh is a very expensive aromatic resin, and aloes a juice extracted
from the leaves of certain plants. They were used as an expression of veneration
for the dead.
40. The Fourth Gospel adds to the information on the burial given by the Synop-
tics. Sacred Scripture did not specify what form burial should take, with the result
that the Jews followed the custom of the time. After piously taking our Lord’s body
down from the cross, they probably washed it carefully (cf. Acts 9:37), perfumed
it and wrapped it in a linen cloth, covering the head with a sudarium or napkin (cf.
Jn 20:5-6). But because of the imminence of the sabbath rest, they were unable
to anoint the body with balsam, which the women planned to do once the sab-
bath was past (cf. Mk 16:1; Lk 24:1). Jesus himself, when he praised Mary for
anointing him at Bethany, had foretold in a veiled way that his body would not be
embalmed (cf. note on Jn 12:7).
41. Many of the Fathers have probed the mystic meaning of the garden — usually
to point out that Christ, who was arrested in the Garden of Olives and buried in
another garden, has redeemed us superabundantly from that first sin which was
committed also in a garden, the Garden of Paradise. The comment that Jesus
was the only one to be buried in this new tomb meant that there would be no
doubt that it was he and not another that rose from the dead. St Augustine also
observes that “just as in the womb of the Virgin Mary none was conceived before
him, none after him, so in this tomb none before him, none after was buried” (”In
Ioann. Evang.,” 120, 5).
Among the truths of Christian doctrine to do with Christ’s death and burial are
these: “one, that the body of Christ was in no degree corrupted in the sepulchre,
according to the prediction of the Prophet, ‘Thou wilt not give thy holy one to see
corruption’ (Ps 16:10; Acts 2:31); the other... that burial, passion and death apply
to Christ Jesus not as God but as man, yet they are also attributed to God, since,
as is clear, they are predicated with propriety of that Person who is at once per-
fect God and perfect man” (”St Pius V Catechism”, 1, 5, 9).
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
