Gospel for Sunday, April 13: Palm Sunday: Passion of the Lord – Luke 22:14-23:56
14 When the hour was come, he took his place at table, and the apostles with him, 15 and said, “I have longed to eat this Passover with you, before my passion, 16 for I tell you, I will eat it no more, until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And taking a cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take it and distribute it among yourselves, 18 for I tell you, from now on I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God comes.”
19 Then he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 Likewise after he had eaten dinner, he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
21 “But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. 22 The Son of Man goes away, according to what is appointed; but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!” 23 Then they began to ask each other which of them would do this.
56 Then they went back and prepared aromas and fragrant oils. On the Sabbath day they observed rest according to the commandment.Lk 22:14-23:56
Dear sisters and brothers of Misericordia, I am Carlo Miglietta, a doctor, biblical scholar, layman, husband, father and grandfather (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it). Also today I share with you a short thought meditation on the Gospel, with special reference to the theme of mercy.
THE PASSION OF JESUS ACCORDING TO LUKE
THE NARRATIVE OF THE PASSION
Luke certainly uses Mark for this section, but introduces a decidedly personal approach to understanding the mystery. He omits anything that might disturb the orderly succession of the story; he eliminates particularly harsh or violent scenes; he emphasizes Jesus as a Teacher and Evangelizer; the reader is not so much invited to witness this drama of Jesus from afar, as in Mark, but to follow the example of Simon of Cyrene, and carry his cross himself, close to him; the reader sees himself in Peter’s weakness and in the hope of the good thief.
1. The plot against Jesus (22,1-6):
a) The temporal annotation (“it was near the… Passover”) actually has a theological value.
b) Luke notes the progression of the hostility of the Jews against Jesus (11,53-54; 20,19.20; 19,48; 22,2). Responsible for the death of Jesus are the leaders of the Jews, but above all “Satan” (22.3; 4.12): it is the “hour” of the “empire of darkness” (22.53).
2. The Last Supper (22.7-38): Jesus performs a prophetic mime: as he now gives his own bread and wine, so soon he will give them his body and his blood. The Lord’s Supper is transmitted, in the New Testament, according to two traditions: the “Palestinian tradition”, of the Aramaic-speaking churches, reported by Mark (Mk 14.22-25) and Matthew (Mt 26.26-29), and the “Antiochian” tradition, of the Greek-speaking churches, reported by Paul (1 Cor 11.23-29) and Luke, also very ancient. According to Luke:
a) Jesus freely gives his life for his own.
b) The sacrifice of Jesus is evoked by the explicit mention of the Easter liturgy, which only Luke has (22,15-18), and by the ritual of the cup, sign of the Covenant (Jer 31,31).
c) Recalling the oracles on the Servant of IHWH (22.37 -> Is 53.12) but leaving aside the sacrificial aspects, Luke sees in the death of Jesus essentially the typical end of the prophet, a martyrdom. d) Luke emphasizes the human aspect of abasement and service (22.24-27). e) This coherence in the gift and service (Phil 2.7-8) makes Jesus and his followers pass into the glory of the Kingdom (22.28-30).
3. Jesus in Gethsemane (22.39-46):
a) Luke emphasizes the humanity of Jesus, referring only to his sweating blood (22.44).
b) Jesus is the model of the believer in prayer: prayer is a choice of fidelity to the Father, whatever his will.
c) To describe Jesus’ state of mind, Luke does not use the vocabulary of the tradition of Mark and Matthew (astonishment, anguish, sadness), but a word borrowed from sports language: agony. Jesus is no longer a “petrified” man (as in Mark) or “prostrate” (as in Matthew), but a “stretched out” man.
4. The arrest of Jesus (22,47-53):
a) Luke exonerates the pagans by failing to report the presence of their “detachment of soldiers” (Jn 18,3).
b) Jesus is the non-violent Savior.
c) Since the kiss had become a liturgical gesture in Luke’s time (1 Cor 16,20; Rm 16,16), the evangelist avoids discrediting it, insinuating Judas’ kiss but not describing the gesture.
5. Peter’s denial (22:54-62):
a) Luke describes the betrayal in a softer way: he omits the “he denied before everyone” of Mt 26:70 and the “he began to curse and swear” of Mk 14:71 and Mt 26:72.74.
b) It is no longer the cock’s crowing that evokes the memory of the “word of the Lord”, but the gaze of Jesus.
6. The Jewish trial of Jesus (22:63-71):
a) Luke also omits to report that they spat in Jesus’ face and that they slapped him. When they say to Jesus: “Guess who hit you?” (v. 64), they are trying to hit Christ precisely in his prophetic mission.
b) Luke, unlike the other Synoptics, does not describe a legal process: according to Luke, it is a theological confrontation between Judaism and Christianity: Jesus is condemned because he presents himself as “the Messiah” (22:67), “the Son of Man” (22:69), “the Son of God” (22:70), already “from this time” (22:69).
7. The Roman trial of Jesus (22:1-7.13-25):
a) The accusation made against Jesus is political: he subverts the people, contests the duty to pay taxes to Caesar, proclaims himself king.
b) Luke emphasizes that the responsibility for the death of Jesus lies only with the Jews, and not with the pagan Pilate: – Pilate recognizes Jesus’ innocence three times (23:4.14-15.22); – Pilate tries to save Jesus first by sending him to Herod (23:14-15), then by trying to exchange him for Barabbas (23:18-19); – Luke is the only one to specify: “Pilate decided that their request should be carried out… and he abandoned Jesus to their will” (23:24-25).
c) The irony of the exchange between Barabbas and Jesus (23:18-19): it is a question of choosing between “Bar abba”, “son of the father”, perhaps in the sense of “son of n.n.”, of an unknown father (or “Bar rabban”, “son of the master”), and the true Son of the Father, the only Master.
8. Jesus before Herod (23.8-12): Luke in his Gospel shows a particular interest in Herod: this episode is mentioned only by him, but it seems plausible, perhaps learned from Manaen of Antioch, “childhood companion of Herod the tetrarch” (Acts 13.1) or from one of the women following Jesus, “Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward” (Luke 8.3).
9. Towards Calvary (22.26-32):
a) Luke makes Simon of Cyrene the model of the disciple who “takes up his cross daily” and “goes after” Jesus (9.23; 14.27).
b) The “great crowd”, mentioned only by Luke, is also a model of the disciple: it is the type of the sinner who converts (18.13) in the face of Jesus’ passion (23.48), as Jesus requires (23.28); the people who “stood by and watched” (23:35), “thinking about what had happened” (23:48), “his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee” who “watched from afar” (23:49) are the example of the disciple who meditates on the mystery of Jesus’ death on the cross.
10. The crucifixion and death (23:33-49):
a) The death of Jesus is the realization of the Father’s saving plan: Luke expresses this by condensing many quotations from the Psalms into these verses (Psalms 22:19; 69:22; 31:6; 38:12; 88:9).
b) Jesus on the cross is not only the figure of the martyr who forgives, but the figure of God’s love for man.
c) On the cross, Jesus is vilified as a failed “Christ” (23:35.39), as a defeated “king” (23:37-38), as a powerless “Savior” (23:35.39): it is the proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus, who reigns not in power, but in sacrifice and in kenosis, in emptying, from the wood of the cross. Even in the temptations of the desert, Satan had proposed to Jesus a messianism of power.
d) Promptly welcoming the repentant criminal, Jesus brings about the final conversion (15:2). e) The presence of Jesus arouses a division that forces one to take a position.
f) Contemplation (23:48) of the Crucifix leads to conversion.
g) On the lips of the dying Jesus, Luke does not put the anguished words of Ps 22, but words that express the serene and trusting abandonment of Jesus in the hands of the Father, the prayer of Ps 31 (23:46).
h) The extraordinary signs (darkness, breaking of the veil of the temple) accompany the death of Jesus, they do not follow it: they explain the meaning of that death, they are not its fruit.
i) Luke says that Jesus “gave up his spirit” (23:46): the verb ek-pneumo suggests not only the exhalation of the last breath, but also, as in John 19:30, the emission of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the innocent martyr: the centurion, seeing him die, does not say as in Mk 15:39 and Mt 27:54: “Truly this man was the Son of God”, but: “Truly this man was just” (23:47).
11. The burial of Jesus (23:50-56):
a) With the figure of Joseph of Arimathea, Luke emphasizes that the Gospel of Jesus had spread to every area.
b) There is a parallel between the first and last appearance of Jesus in Jerusalem: also at the presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple (2.22-35) there was a Jew, Simeon, “a righteous and God-fearing man”; the “amazement” (2.33) of Jesus’ parents at hearing Simeon’s words will correspond to Peter’s “amazement” (24.12) at the sight of only the burial cloths in the tomb.
c) In Luke there is a “theology of burial cloths”: the “sign” of the birth of the “Savior, who is Christ the Lord”, is this: “a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (2.11-12); the sign of the resurrection of Jesus, whose body had been “wrapped in a shroud” (23.52-53), are the “only burial cloths” (24.12), without the body of the Lord, found by Peter in the tomb.
d) “It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was already dawning”: (23,54): the great “light” (2,9) that appeared at Christmas is about to be definitively lit in the Easter of Resurrection: Jesus is the “sun that rises to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” (1,79), “a light for revelation to the Gentiles” (2,32).
THE MEANING OF THE PASSION OF JESUS
The Incarnation of Jesus is not primarily to take away the sin of the world, but to fulfill God’s creative plan (Jn 1:1-3; Col 1:16-17; Eph 1:4): God created man out of love, but being infinite, unlimited, eternal, to create someone who could be his partner in love and who was therefore other than himself he had to create him finite, limited, mortal. Pain, illness, death, are therefore not a “punishment”, but are part of the biological order, of our being creatures and therefore “non-God”, and therefore deprived of his perfection (cf. CCC, n. 302 and 310). But God “suffers” in seeing his beloved subjected to finitude and death: for this reason, already while he creates us, God plans the incarnation of the Son, through which he himself will become finite, will take upon himself the limitation of man and of creation until death and, through the mystery of his resurrection, will bring human finitude into the eternity and immensity of his divine life. The Cross is therefore not the place where a vengeful God asks for satisfaction for the offenses suffered, but the maximum expression of God’s love for us, the culminating moment of God’s bending over humanity to embrace it and save it. In the death and resurrection of the Lord, evil, pain and death have been conquered forever. The great mystery is therefore not the reason for the pain, but how God loved us so much as to become one of us, to suffer with us, to die with us, to make us his children, participants in his own life (Rm 8,17).
Happy Mercy to all!
Anyone who would like to read a more complete exegesis of the text, or some insights, please ask me at migliettacarlo@gmail.com.