An Easter Book of Days

Christianity must face up to the fact that one death was at the heart of anything it wanted to say. The disciples of Jesus believed that he was the Messiah, the chosen one of God, the Saviour of the World and yet the culmination of his life was death. The death of Jesus is so important for the Gospel writers that it absorbs most of their energy.

When the emperor Constantine adopted Christianity in the 4th century, his mother Helena made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with all the resources of empire at her disposal. One of her early projects was to find the True Cross. She concluded that the site of the crucifixion was deliberately obscured by the building of a pagan temple over it. Today, the True Cross has no clear location but fragments of wood claiming to be of the cross are preserved throughout the world.

Easter is a time of paradox. We celebrate new life, but only by facing up to a death. We acclaim the love of God but revealed in the most brutal and bloody of events. We are brought to the foot of a place of torture and shame, only to discover that it is a place of victory.

The name Judas has entered the English language as the name of a traitor. Judas is portrayed in the gospels at several points as being out of sympathy with the actions of the other disciples and appears to be increasingly alienated from Jesus. Of course, all the Gospel writers know what is going to happen to Jesus! While Jesus was in Bethany, Judas went to the Temple authorities and asked for payment to betray Jesus – the notorious 30 pieces of silver. This is why, in some traditions, the Wednesday of Holy Week is known as “Spy Wednesday.” On the Thursday, Judas identifies Jesus by greeting him with a kiss.  

Given the extraordinary role given to Judas in the Gospels, it is not surprising that Judas became something of a hate figure in tradition. In art, he is often shown clothed in yellow, the colour of cowardice and a colour that became associated with people of the Jewish faith in Christian anti-Semitism.  

How then are we to regard the betrayer of Jesus? Are we to condemn him for his treachery or acknowledge that he will have had his motives, perhaps even being redeemed by the fact that he played his part in salvation history? 

Judas’ real sin was not in turning Jesus over to the authorities but in his despair so that he believed he could not be forgiven or restored.  

All four Gospels bear witness to a tradition – ‘the Paschal Privilege’ – by which one prisoner can be released from penalty as a mark of respect for the Jewish festival. Pilate invites the crowd to choose between Jesus and Barabbas. The crowds are best understood as representing the whole of humanity rather than one section of it. In doing so, it highlights the contrast between the innocent Messiah, whom we are prepared to crucify, and the blood-stained bandit, whom political expediency encourages us to let off.  

Perhaps the point of the story lies in the fact that Jesus dies in the place of Barabbas. He finds freedom as Jesus goes to death in his place. From this point of view, we are all of us Barabbas, in whose place Jesus has died.  

Samuel Crossman, the 17th century Anglican priest and hymn writer, expressed the idea in the hymn: My Song is Love unknown

Matthew, Mark and Luke, but not John, all recount, almost in passing that as Jesus was taken to be crucified, the Roman soldiers compelled a man from Cyrene, Simon, to carry the cross of Jesus. The fact that all three evangelists name Simon suggests that he might be a figure well-known to the early Church and it demonstrates the tightly woven nature of the early Christian community.  

Although Simon is compelled to carry Jesus’ cross, Simon very quickly came to be seen as a companion who came to the rescue of Jesus in his suffering, and therefore as the archetype of the person who comes to assist those in need. Simon comes alongside Jesus at a time of great need and assists in bearing the weight of the cross. Sometimes, when we are in greatest need, God will send a Simon to come along side us, and to assist in carrying our burdens. 

This is the relevance of Simon for us all. None of us is freed from the burdens of life simply because we are people of faith. Friendship and companionship are huge sources of strength and comfort in the path of life, and Simon’s example provides both inspiration and hope. 

The evangelist Luke describes Jesus’ encounter with a group of women during the walk to Calvary. Luke records them weeping for Jesus and it is possible that the events described as involving a woman called Veronica may have happened in some shape or form – the gentle act of wiping Jesus’ face in the midst of the push and shove of the crowds.  

The legend of Veronica – who is remembered in the sixth station of the cross – goes much further. Veronica shows mercy to Jesus by seeking to wipe his brow, and this act of mercy is rewarded with a miracle. The imprint of Christ’s face is left on the veil that she uses.  

It’s hard to know how this legend of Veronica began and to think they have any historical foundation. However, there is one relic, the Shroud of Turin, that some researchers suggest that when folded to show only the face, matches descriptions given of the veil.  

Although no image now – with the possible exception of the Shroud of Turin or a Veil of Veronica – claims to be an exact representation of the face of Jesus, images of Jesus reflect his human incarnation and bear quiet witness to the truth that Christ, for Christians, is fully God and fully man.  

Mary appears several times in the accounts of Jesus’ life, often playing a crucial role. She is a central figure in the nativity narratives but also at key moments in Jesus’ life – when he gets lost as a child in the Temple, at the first miracle in Cana of Galilee and, according to John, at the foot of the cross. We can only begin to grasp the grief of Mary in this scene. Christians have meditated on it for generations, inspiring some of the greatest music and art that the world has known.  

Mary’s place in the drama of the Passion reminds us of the very real and human dimensions of the story of salvation, and the depth of her obvious love can assist us in exploring the extent of God’s love for us all. The witness of Mary is that human love is drawn into the divine, and the human love and divine love are inextricably linked. As we ponder the love of Mary, the mother of the Lord, let us give thanks for love, and pray that it may be manifest in our lives.  

Christ was not alone in being crucified on Good Friday. The Gospels record various details of two rebels who were crucified on either side of Jesus. Luke records that one of the criminals shouted insults at Jesus, goading Jesus that he should have saved the three of them if he was the promised Messiah. The other, it is recorded, rebuked the first, speaking of the innocence of Christ in contrast to his own guilt. It is this second criminal who then turns to Jesus in a confession of faith: “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.” In response, the Lord makes a promise “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise,” 

In the centuries which followed there has been much curiosity about who the two criminals might have been. The apocryphal gospels fill in some of those details and eventually a whole life story is constructed. They were two brothers, Gestas and Dismas, living a life of crime. Among their exploits was an attempt to rob Mary and Joseph as they fled into Egypt with the infant Jesus many years before.  

What is striking is the contrast between the two criminals. One, filled with anger amidst his pain, still rails that things are not working out in his favour, and is prepared to chide Jesus; the other expresses repentance, simply asking for Jesus’ mercy.  

Let us pray that God will grant us a true spirit of repentance.  

All four Gospels mention Joseph of Arimathea, the man who is bold enough (and influential enough) to approach Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus to be released to him. Joseph oversees the removal of Jesus’ body from the cross, wrapping it in a linen shroud and laying it in a fresh unused rock tomb. Such a tomb speaks of the high-status links of Jesus and his disciples. To be laid in a rock tomb demanded significant resources, and even nobility often shared such a last resting place.  

Although Joseph of Arimathea’s presence in the Gospels is limited to his action in securing a burial for Jesus, tradition has provided a far more extensive set of connections with Jesus. Was he in fact a close male relative of Jesus, perhaps Mary’s uncle and therefore great-uncle to Jesus? Might he, as a wealthy trader, have brough his young great-nephew on of his trading journey’s which underpins the legend of Jesus visiting Britain himself? After Jesus’ death, Joseph is said to have returned to evangelise Britain, founding the first church at Glastonbury.  

Whatever we make of the legends, we can perhaps take away the learning that the early Church may have been quite a tight knit circle of a couple of families, committed to Jesus as much by ties of family, as by commitment to Jesus as Messiah. They lived in community and community involvement remains important for Christian faith and discipleship today. In becoming Christians, we become part of a community that stretches back through the ages to those first families who put their trust in Jesus.  

The first recorded witness to encounter the risen Lord is Mary Magdalen. Many stories are told about Mary and she is named 12 times in the four Gospels. She appears to have been rescued by Jesus from a miserable existence, and both Mark and Luke record that Jesus had driven seven possessing demons out of her. She clearly travelled with Jesus and appears alongside Jesus throughout the story of the Passion, being one of those standing near the cross during Jesus’ execution.  

In John’s Gospel, it is Mary who first comes to the tomb on Easter morning, and who discovers it empty. She accompanied by another woman, and they believe the news of the Resurrection, in stark contrast to the disciples, who are depicted as fearful and unready to believe.  

Mary, having reported the empty tomb to the disciples, Peter and John, stands in the garden weeping. There she encounters the risen Lord, but, in her sorrow, confuses him with the gardener. It is only when Jesus calls her by name that she realises who he is. It is interesting that the first witnesses of the Resurrection are all women, at a time when women’s testimony was not as trusted as male witnesses.