“Crucify Him”: What a God, and what a Humanity!
Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14—27:66
The drama that unfolds today, Passion Sunday, reveals the fragility of our human nature in the face of death, and reveals the power of grace in those who remain standing despite betrayals, denunciations, and death in cold blood. Indeed, “Crucify him” sums up the betrayal that God turns to forgiveness of sins and salvation!
God finds himself in the dock today, in the narration of our first reading, from Isaiah. The returnees from Babylon, the survivors of a long exile, take God to task for an explanation as regards whether God has mutated from one who loves and keeps his covenants forever or not. Israel construes the experience of exile in Babylon as a sign of divorce and repudiation, and God retorts: “Thus says the Lord: ‘Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?’” (Isaiah 50:1). The exile stares Israel in the face: a huge deception for Israel. And, God borrows the mouth of a prophet to make his case, no matter how unconvincing it may be to Israel, because Israel’s mind is made up that God is unjust to allow the exile to take place. After all, an invisible God, a Spirit-God, is simply incapable of comprehending human beings and feeling pains, Israel surmises.
The explanation of God, in our first reading, bears a lot of lessons for human relationships with God—the indispensability of resilience and fidelity if we must remain standing before betrayals and deceptions. Isaiah says: “The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning, he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting”. The imageries of “tongue,” “weariness,” rebellion,” “back,” “cheeks,” and “spittle” all bear the hallmark of the experiences of Israel in slavery in Egypt and the treatment the Israelites meted out to God on their way to the Promised-Land. When they cried to God, in Egypt, he heard them and liberated them from servitude to the Egyptians: “Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert” (Isaiah 50:2). The reward God receives, as gifts for leading Israel out of slavery in Egypt, are complaints, seditions and infidelity. Even now, today’s reading, that they are on their way back to the land of Israel from Babylon—it is another déjà vu! Do human beings ever learn?
If anything, God’s consistency speaks volumes—he saves despite all. Isaiah reassures us of God’s fidelity and unconditional love: “The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame”. Salvation, from all circumstances, belongs to God. Human complaints do not hijack God’s salvation because it is in his nature to save. Little wonder he speaks through a prophet, whose name means God-saves (Isaiah). But does it make any difference? Will human beings ever understand God?
“Crucify him,” in today’s Passion reading, is the verdict humans mete out to God when he became one of us—human. Isreal refuses to listen and to understand the workings of an invisible God, a spirit-God, and when he takes flesh to live among us, still the complaint continues that Israel is insecure with his presence: “It is better for one man to die than for the whole nation to be destroyed” (John 11:50; 18:14). “Jesus” —God-saves— as the Son of God fared worse than Isaiah: he was killed.
Our Gospel today narrates the pain, humiliation, and death of God. Yet, do we really think that God cares? Do we not continue to blame God for whatever ills us and never see anything good from God when the going gets tough? Do human beings ever learn anything from God?
Indeed, Jesus’ disciples flee at his arrest; Judas leads the executioners to arrest Jesus. Although he is God-man, the envoys from the authorities spit upon Jesus, and he takes many a beating; Peter denounces him, and God his Father is nowhere to be found! As a matter of fact, our responsorial Psalm says it all: “My God, my God, why has thou abandoned me!” In spite of this, Jesus refuses to confront violence with violence while acknowledging that his Father would send armies to defend him, should he request it. Jesus orders Peter to re-sheath his sword while he heals the ear of the person Peter chops off. What more can God do to win human fidelity and to escape the human blame game for every ill and trial that befalls them?
There are many explanations for “evil” or whatever we consider unpleasant. Paul, in our second reading, uses the events of Christ’s life to teach us what our response to “evil” should be, if we are Christians: “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave . . . becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”. The point is whether human beings would leave God in the driving seat of their lives when the chips are down. When all is well, not many remember God, but we ask his whereabouts when things don’t add up. We are selective in our criticism of him; his example doesn’t make it to our imitation list.
“Crucify him” is the human parting gift to God-man, Jesus, who carries their diseases, raises their dead, walks on the sea, and stills their storms. “Crucify him” is the reward Jesus receives for multiplying bread for the hungry to eat, taking the side of the poor against their oppressors, for restoring the dignity of prostitutes, women, tax collectors and sinners. “Crucify him” is the last hymn to Jesus, before whom demons convulse, cringe, and vamoose, but human beings crucified him pitilessly! What a God, and what a humanity!
After celebrating so many “Passion Sundays,” are we ready to confess, like those at the foot of the cross, “Truly, this was the Son of God!” Can we, like the women, spend some time in gratitude for our salvation: “But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary remained sitting there, facing the tomb.”
Assignment for the Week:
Do not complain all week.