Insights from Tissot's work, Volume II

(Back to Volume I)

THE FIRST FOUR DAYS OF HOLY WEEK

"Preface - Tissot’s preface to Holy Week and what follows is very moving.  “There were to be struck the last grand blows; there was to be prepared the supreme catastrophe.  A divine reformer, Jesus came to attack that jealous aristocracy which arrogated to its own profit a monopoly of all doctrinal influence.  He would apparently be beaten in the conflict, but this defeat of a day would be the starting point of a final victory and the glory shed on His last hours by His presence in Jerusalem would mightily aid in the diffusion of the truth.”
P7 - Jesus and the disciples arrive at Bethphage by the Mount of Olives, approaching Jerusalem, where the Jewish leaders want Him dead, nothing less.  Try to place yourself in this situation.  The most powerful people in the country want you dead and have considerable resources and a huge network.  At an earlier time, the wrath of Jezebel after Elijah’s great victory on Mount Carmel was enough to make the mighty Elijah run for his life, in 1 Kings 19; “he requested for himself that he might die; and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers””.  Though I use the word mighty - and who would argue - his power was in his humility.  Elijah thought he was the only believer left alive “… and I, even I only, am left; and they seek to take my life, to take it away.” (1 Kings 19:10).  God appears to him as a still small voice, and tells him there are yet 7,000 faithful.  God gives him strength and tells him that His work will continue.  In the end Elijah does not die but is taken up into heaven, and returns to meet Our Saviour on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration.  Do not despair.  Not in the slightest.
Tissot concludes that Bethphage was a strategic stronghold from his visits there, the topography and the remains, and the use of the word ‘castellum’ in the latin form of Matthew.  

Some commentators find a problem with the Gospels where an ass or a colt or both are mentioned, and speculate that the Gospel writers are trying to fit this to the prophesy in Zechariah 9:9.  He solves this quite naturally by having Jesus riding on a colt that has never been ridden, and the ass, its mother, is brought to keep the colt calm.  Tissot disarms one critic: “Strauss thinks it a good opportunity for holding the Evangelist up to ridicule, claiming that he made Jesus Christ ride on two animals at once, whereas the difficulty is really of the slightest, admitting of three or four quite acceptable explanations.”  I wonder indeed if this reflects on Jesus Himself and the unbreakable connection with His mother the Blessed Virgin Mary.  There is no need to accept such an inference, but it does no harm to think of it.
P11 - Jesus - and the twelve disciples, surely surrounding Him closely - descend the Mount of Olives, in the rejoicing crowds of the larger group of disciples.  Tissot draws for us the very path leading to Jerusalem, a well-worn and irregular country path.
P15 - Jesus enters the Temple to the praise of children (Matthew 21:15)!  “Hosanna to the son of David!”  How perfect of the Evangelist to bring this detail to us.  And the counter-detail that the chief priests and scribes were sore displeased.
Tissot notes that to reach the Temple from the town, “Jesus must necessarily have passed over the so-called Xystus Bridge into which opened the Royal Porch on the south of the Temple.  This porch was recently completed by Herod and had 160 columns and a large cupola supported by four huge columns and it was a shady and popular area with the Pharisees and Sadducees, and their ‘adepts’.  The goings-on of some visiting celebrities could be observed as it looked into the Court of Gentiles.”  Of course all this splendour is razed to the ground in the lifetimes of many present, as Jesus foretells in the Olivet discourse.

MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK

P16-24 - Jesus is in Solomon’s arcade and He clears the Court of the Gentiles of those buying and selling, and forbids the carrying of water through the Temple.  Tissot explains that were several dimensions to this act.  Between Solomon’s Porch and the outer wall there was always a space set aside for animals to be brought in and inspected (blemished animals are not an acceptable sacrifice) and also a passage along which they were taken for purification, beneath which there were porticoes for money-changers and animal merchants.  Over time, this business encroached greatly on other parts of the Temple, disturbing their purpose and profiting from it.  The crowds and noise had spread widely and the filth contaminated the water cisterns that were designed to collect rainwater from these areas.  The Temple had become unfit for prayer, for worship; it had become a barrier between men and God.  Jesus alone had the courage, in fact the authority, to restore order “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”  This would have embarrassed the priests, who had stood by while this abuse had got out of hand.
P24 - The healing of the lame takes place in the Court of Women.  As noted, this does not mean women were segregated, but that only men were allowed any further into the Temple.  At seven in the morning, Tissot notes that the Temple is full of the poor.  The Feast of Tabernacles at this time has become a scene of crowd entertainment, with the Talmud recording acrobatics, juggling and singing feats.  The gradual exaggeration of this most important Feast is an example of how the Law had come to swell to ridiculous extent by absorbing trivial details while matters of love of God and neighbour were neglected.  Jesus sees to the things that matter; he heals those who have truly come to seek God.
P25 - Gethsemane.  In the evening of this busy day, “He went out unto Bethany with the twelve.”  They passed through one of the northeast gates of the Temple, through the Sheep-gate, then going down the valley of Jehoshaphat and past an area of tombs hewn into the rock.  Here there were gardens and caves where He would go with the disciples.  One garden had an oil press, called Gethsemane, (from the Hebrew words gat and shemanin meaning respectively a place for a press, and oils) and it belonged to a friend of Jesus.  Olive oil is used for light, nourishment and health.  Jesus will later himself be crushed in this garden and He will sweat drops of His own blood.  Along this path Jesus and the disciples would cross the Kedron brook and pass along a pine-shaded road where shopkeepers would sell offerings for the Temple.  The path ran to the Mount of Olives and then to Mount Scopus, which was reserved as a resting place for Galileans during the Feast of Pentecost, and so was a natural place for Jesus to frequent.  Bethphage is along this road, and Bethany - the home of Martha and Lazarus, Jesus’ close friends - a further half an hour.  The air would be permeated with the smell of incense from the Temple.  It is the same route King David took when usurped by his son Absalom.

TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

P28 - Greeks seeking Jesus.  A group of Greeks, possibly Cypriot Gentiles, ask Philip if they can see Jesus.  Philip finds Andrew, a fellow Bethsaidan and probably used to mixed nationalities, and together they go and ask Jesus.  It hints of the mixing of Jewish and Hellenistic cultures that had been taking place.  Gentiles interested in Judaism may well have started going to the main Jewish feasts as they saw their Jewish friends going to Passover and the Feast of Weeks (aka First Fruits and also Pentecost, since it is about 7 weeks or 50 days after Passover and the time commanded by Moses to present the first fruits of harvest).  So the same Greeks may well have still been present at Pentecost to hear God’s message in their own tongue, and I think Jesus’ oblique answer is saying that - that His hour is come, and that after a corn of wheat dies there will be much fruit.  Tissot says that there seems to be no doubt that the Greeks approached via the grandest of all the approaches, across a grand bridge of three spans from the acient Millo bastions to the Royal Porch os Naos Basilica built by Herod thirty years previously incorporating 72 ornate colums, and he draws this scene as well as he can.  He notes that after the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, huge quantities of masonry were flung into the Tyropean valley and covered with rubbish by order of the Romans to discourage the Jews and early Christians.  Then in later centuries, starting with Empress Helena, the rubbish was cleared and much of the masonry re-used in new churches.  Hence Tissot finds masonry with identical workmanship in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Basilica of the Nativity at Bethlehem and the El-Aksa Mosque.

P32 - The voice from heaven.  Tissot places Jesus on the Chel at this time, the platform at the top of the 12 steps leading up from the Court of the Gentiles.  Gentiles were forbidden to climb this but Jesus could preach to the Gentiles from atop it.  What does Jesus ask?  For the Father to glorify His name.  We can hardly do wrong to ask the Father to glorify Himself through us, though that means humbling ourselves.  In response, a voice from heaven resembling angels and thunder speaks "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again."  At what other times does God speak like this?  At Jesus' baptism, and at His Transfiguration, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased", and Jesus' voice to Saint Paul on the road to Damascus seems to have the same quality.  We are half way through the week of unleaved bread before Passover, and Jerusalem is packed to hear this appeal from Jesus to His Father, and His Father's response - Our Father's response.  There would be many witnesses, and Tissot illustrates this dramatic scene in 'The Voice From Heaven'.  Despite many still refusing to believe on Him despite His miracles, it is clear that a growing number of the leaders did believe but would not say so because the Pharisees would excommunicate them, and "they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:42-43).

P34 - Tissot supposes that the events cause the Pharisees to challenge Jesus publicly in the Court of the Gentiles as he is going from group to group teaching them (Luke 20:1-8).

P38 - Render up to Caesar what is Caesar's.  Tissot notes an interesting point, that the Pharisees, who had now inserted spies into the crowd to catch Jesus unawares - which fails of course - ask not whether tribute should be paid, but whether it was lawful for it to be paid.  He notes that Jews had never refused to pay tribute to their 'souzerain' so they are asking a hypocritical question.  He notes that the coin will no longer have the inscription it once had 'Jerusalem the Holy' but will now have an inscription to Emperor Tiberius, which others believe would have asserted him to be Divine.  What the Pharisees think is a crafty legal point, Jesus makes very simple, and will repeat again shortly; His Kingdom - God's Kingdom - is not of this world.  God wants your heart, not your money.  Money is necessary for the world to function, but the widow's two coppers are worth far more than the rich man's bundle of notes.  On p39, this persistent questioning comes to an end as Jesus rewards one insightful scribe who has probably been sent to ask yet another compromising question, but instead expresses his trust in Jesus, when Jesus sets out the two greatest commandments - Love God, and love your neighbour as yourself.  Note that these statements have already been made by Moses, in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, which in the same breath says you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge; Jesus comes not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it.

P43 - In the afternoon, Jesus is in Solomon's Porch lamenting the blindness of the leaders of the Jews and being scathing of their hypocrisy and poor leadership.  He is also mournful, because His flock is so woefully cared for: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

P47 - It is the evening of Holy Tuesday and Jesus is leaving the Temple for the last time, having poured out His truth and anguish.  One of the disciples points to the wonder of the Temple.  The Temple complex would have been the height of a twenty-storey building and it would have seemed like it would last forever.  One of the remaining stones weighs 400 tonnes yet there are no gaps between the masonry, and it could hardly be repeated even today.  This is the work of the Jews especially under Herod who employed 10,000 workers and 1,500 priest workers for the inner Temple.  Perhaps this disciple, sensing the extraordinary tension between Jesus and the Pharisees, and hearing the proclamations of Jesus against them, wants to restore some kind of peace, thinking that Jesus will soon take control, and he notes how wonderful and permanent the Temple is even if the current stewards are crooked and blind.  It reveals, however, what Jesus has always known; that the end is coming for those dead-end believers of following impossible rules, and it will give way to a new beginning for believers in the truth of God's message and mercy.  This momentum of proud and selfish beliefs now epitomised by the Temple of gleaming veined stone and polished metal will come to an abrupt end in a generation.  The Romans will fell all the trees in a 10-mile radius to built their assault platforms in A.D. 70, as here.  In its place a new selfless and beautiful Temple will be provided for all mankind by the sacrifice and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for those who choose Him.  Believe on Him, whatever the appearances of worldly power might be.

P50 - Mark 13:10 "And the gospel must first be published among all nations."  That is quite a detailed requirement and in effect a prophesy.  The Gospels were written before the destruction of the Temple according to many scholars and as noted above.  The more I read on this, such as C.E. Hill's 'Who Chose The Gospels?', the clearer it is that they spread around the ancient world very quickly, and that the four canonical Gospels vastly outweighed any other accounts that might have existed.  "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."

P51 - After sitting down contra templum at the Mount of Olives, they went back to Bethany.  This night, He is in the house of Simon the leper.  Mary Magdalene anoints His head as He is set to eat.  This anointing must be separate to the anointing of His feet in Luke 7:36, since that occurs at the house of a Pharisee, while this one is the house of Simon the leper - not something that would be mistaken.  Judas, who John tells us is the purse-holder, is enraged of course, but his discontent has been growing for a long time.  He chooses now to talk treachery to the Jews.

WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

P55 - The Jewish leaders had already decided to kill Jesus when His miracles and words had become a threat to their authority.  Tissot supposes that the question now was one of opportunity, and whether they could detain Him and carry out a judicial process - with an execution - after Passover had finished, when the crowds and spectacle had subsided.  Judas' appearance probably made them think Jesus was an easier target than they thought and brought forward their bloodthirsty inclinations, with the result as we know that "Jesus was put to death at the most solemn moment of the feast and therefore with the greatest possible éclat."

P57-58 - Luke tells us that during those nights, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives to pray.  Tissot finds it compelling that He must also have been drawn to Golgotha at some times to pray, knowing what was planned, and although Jesus prayed at all times, He shows us with His actions that retreating to pray at a high place is holy and good.

JERUSALEM

Tissot pauses before going into Christ's Passion to give us several pages of narrative and illustration of Jerusalem as it would have been in 33 A.D., how the Romans built over Golgotha, and how it appeared in the late 19th Century when he was there.  I will reproduce three of the illustrations here.  They are extraordinarily detailed and painstaking.  These are not artist's impressions, these are an outpouring of knowledge, the best Tissot could gather.  I am not at all convinced that knowledge has improved.  Take the area labelled (D) below.  These are part of the walls of Nehemiah*.  Tissot also relates that the houses within were owned by Joseph of Arimathea, who we know was very wealthy.  This area appears on his 'Plan of Jerusalem' further below and the walls have a particular shape.  Now, try and find this on a modern map on the internet.  Mostly, there is nothing placed here on illustrations.  There are indeed reports of ancient walls of Nehemiah in this location but modern Jerusalem has built over and around this whole area.  The best match I can find is Plate 102 in "The Holy Land in Geography and History" by Townsend MacCoun dated 1897 (contemporary with Tissot) here, though it is less detailed.  I see nothing recent of this quality.  I don't think Tissot invented this, and I think he has tapped a more detailed source, which he alludes to by saying 'English explorers' on p71, and it is a fact that considerable archaeological work was being done in the late 19th century.  I have no idea where he got information about houses owned by Joseph of Arimathea.

Tissot's 'Southeast Angle of Jerusalem' - annotated

(A) The Second Temple.

(B) The Antonia Tower, where Herod was situated.

(C) The three arches of the Xystus Bridge, the main entrance to the Temple.  It should be noted that Jerusalem is on two hills: to the west of this bridge, Mount Zion, and to the east, Mount Moriah, with the Tyropean Valley in between, hence the need for this viaduct at point (C).  The landscape has been much levelled over time.

(D) Part of the walls of Nehemiah.

(E) The East Gate.

(F) The Sheep, or Lion, or St Stephen Gate.

(G) The Bridge over the Brook Kedron, where according to tradition Jesus will soon be pushed off in the darkness.

(H) The red timber bridge that each High Priest would build anew - over this bridge would pass the 'scapegoat'.

 

* The book of Nehemiah explains that after Ezra was allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, Nehemiah returned to rebuild the city walls, taking 52 years.  The account is thrilling and very personal - families were assigned breaches in the wall and made to live in them so that they would have an incentive to get it finished!  The book of Nehemiah begins with his sadness at Israel still being in exile and this was noticed by King Artaxerxes who clearly respected him, and the King asks him if there is anything he can do.  Nehemiah prays quickly to God, an arrow prayer, and is allowed by the King to return to Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:4-8).  In fact, he is even given supplies and documents of safe passage!  I will also add that the prophesy in the Book Daniel of the 'seventy sevens' hinges on the date of the edict of rebuilding the city walls long before anyone would know they would need rebuilding, i.e. the date of Nehemiah's document, and we have a good idea when that was; in short, it means that the date of Christ's crucifixion is predicted exactly from 600 years beforehand.  Some say Daniel was only written 200 years before Christ (which would still be an astonishing prophesy) but this isn't supported by the Dead Sea scrolls, where there are more copies of Daniel than Jeremiah, suggesting it was already very well established by the time of the Qumran community about 200 B.C.  

THURSDAY OF HOLY WEEK

P66 - Tissot tells of the night scenes that he depicted, that they "were of very special value to me, in that they enabled me to bring out not only more picturesquely but with a more vivid truthfulness that sense of oppression which was so eminently characteristic of all the machinations of the Jews against the Saviour."

P66 - I love Tissot's response to his critics who say there is not enough of the 'ideal' in his work.  "The ideal is truth in its completeness: truth of facts, truth in the interpretation of facts and of their higher meaning."  Consider, Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life." (John 14:6).  Couldn't he just as well have said 'the way and the light and the life', or 'the way and the life', or some other form of words?  He didn't.  He chose to tell us that He is the truth.  And He is God.  On the other side there are lies, and they have a Prince.  Do you think God will ever want you to lie?  Jesus' statement in Matthew 5:33-37 against swearing oaths means Christians should be known for their telling of the truth always; we don't have to say "and this time I mean it", because that is from the evil one, and it means all the other times - and future times - are doubtful.  On the bus the other day I overheard a conversation between two women.  One was saying that she was in a shop and her phone data wasn't working and it meant she couldn't transfer or spend money with her phone, and was a little stuck.  The man next to her spoke up and first offered her his phone to use; he then offered to buy her the thing she needed; and then simply offered her cash, as much as she needed to get out of the fix.  She said "He was a Christian".

P69 - The sheer scale of the Passover festival and the astonishing amount of sacrifice is given some space here.  "King Agrippa, wishing to know exactly how many people came to Jerusalem for the festivals, said to the priests: 'Set aside one kidney for me from each lamb sacrificed. The Rabbis set aside six hundred thousand kidneys, which as each lamb offered represented ten persons, gives a total of six million Jews."  This is from the Jewish Pesachim section 64b, but this commentary notes that the number '600,000' has a hyperbolic meaning in Jewish culture and in reality is a lower number.  On the other hand, the same section of the Pesachim also states that every Paschal lamb had more than 10 people registered to it, so whatever the true number, it is still very large indeed.  There could be no greater apex than this.  God has made it so.  And a sacrifice like no other would soon change the world forever.

P72 - The concept - and practice - of the 'scapegoat' was central to Jewish practices, and now seems barely mentioned at least in the west.  The scapegoat ritual is prescribed in Leviticus 16 and found in other cultures too, though this doesn't devalue it.  We are all made in the image of God so there is no surprise that some reflections of God can be found in all societies.  Belief in Jesus Christ  - that He was to come, that He did come and died to take away our sins, that He was resurrected and that He will come again - is what matters most, and came out of Israel.  The scapegoat is sent to 'Azazel', and there are various interpretations in Christian and Jewish thought about the meaning of Azazel, which could be a form of the words ‘escape goat’, or a place or an entity where sin abides.  Perhaps it is a combination of these, for the purpose of the scapegoat is to take the sin away to another place.  It is a gift from God that the sin can be removed in this way, leaving the home safe and clean.  In some interpretations the goat is not harmed, though in others it is thrown down a cliff (sound familiar?  Nazareth?).  Since we are embodied creatures living in a material (as well as a spiritual) world, material symbols are important, and they may even be more than symbols, material-spiritual.  As Tissot reminds us, “The scapegoat wore tassels of scarlet wool, which had been fastened onto his forehead by the High Priest, with scarlet bands.”  Think of the rivulets of blood running down the forehead of Jesus on the cross, thanks to the crown of thorns so thoughtfully fashioned and placed by his accusers.  Just as God intended.  God does not wish evil, but brings good out of evil, and does so most perfectly when our heart is turned to His will.
The red wooden bridge pictured above on the way out of Jerusalem is red because it is the bridge by which the scapegoat leaves, so deeply rooted is this tradition.

P78 - The man carrying a pitcher of water.  Jesus sends Peter and John to prepare the room, the same two who will visit his empty burial room on that magnificent Sunday morning yet to come.  Tissot recognises that this man carrying a pitcher of water is unusual, since this is usually the role of a woman.  Other authors such as Shuzako Endo point to tell-tale indications of Jesus being a friend of the Essenes.  These were a group of ascetic men who lived in the desert near the Dead Sea at the time of Jesus, and were quite possibly the same group responsible for the Dead Sea scrolls, and clearly would carry their own water.  Endo speculates that Jesus encountered them at least when He was in the wilderness for forty days, which he is confident took place in the same territory as the Essenes and the scrolls.  The Essene Quarter in the southwest of Jerusalem is also where the 'upper room' of the Last Supper is located by long tradition.  Jesus' pre-arrangement with some Essenes is therefore easy to imagine.  Tissot thinks this man must be close to the disciple John and that John recognises him, but I think the Essene explanation is attractive and sufficient.

P79 - Everyone eating out of one dish is a kind of covenant in the East, and therefore any offence between two parties is aggravated if they share the dish with this grievance on their hearts - not far from the words of Matthew 5:23-25, to settle your grievances before you come to the altar.  I am struck by Tissot's observation that the disciples wonder if it is them who might betray Jesus, so sure were they by now that Jesus knew their hearts better than they did themselves; and that they accepted their sinful nature as well as their good nature.

P85-86 - Luke mentions a cup at the beginning of the meal, and one at the end.  Jesus gave the cup at the beginning and said "divide it amongst yourselves", as if He does not drink it and the disciples pass the cup around.  Whereas, for the bread and the cup at the end of the meal He gave 'unto them', and Tissot reads this as Jesus giving each one in turn His body and blood as a token of their Master's infinite love for them.  As we do for Holy Communion now.

The cups of wine.  There are cups mentioned in the Last Supper accounts in the Gospels.  There are four cups of wine that should be drunk at a Passover meal, which is the kind of meal Jesus asked to be prepared.  At the end of the Last Supper, Jesus says that He will not drink wine again until His kingdom comes.  Does this mean the final cup comes after the cross, when He comes again in glory?  Or was the crucifixion the final cup, a cup of suffering?  Scott Hahn explores this in his book 'The Fourth Cup' and concludes that Jesus drinks this final cup of suffering and vinegar on the Cross.  Jesus Himself refers to His cup of suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, as if it will shortly come.  He avoids drinking wine mixed with gall before the crucifixion (more below).  He drinks 'vinegar' - sour wine - on the Cross before saying that 'It is finished.'  The Greek work used by the evangelists for vinegar here is in fact ὄξος, oxos, 'sour wine', and I think 'sour wine' is a better translation than vinegar, which in the West usually means distilled acetic acid which is unfit to drink even in desperation, rather than off-wine which was still drunk in ancient times.  I think this drinking of something less than wine, in this fallen Earth, is very significant.  It indicates the cup of suffering that we must drink to enter God's kingdom.  Then, there will be a existence that is joyful to all our senses. 

Jesus says in Matthew 26:29 "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."  Sour wine on the Cross does not convey a sense of 'new', nor was He drinking it with them.  His sacrifice was finished - hallelujah! - and now we have entered a period of preparation.  I find an attractive idea in the symbolism of the Jewish wedding, with which of course Jesus and his followers would be completely familiar, and an analogy Jesus Himself uses several times.  Recall that there is first a betrothal, and then a year must pass while the groom prepares a home for the bride - Joseph was betrothed to Mary when she became pregnant, but they had not yet begun living together.  Wine is drunk twice.  The first cup of wine is drunk at the betrothal ceremony, in the bride's house.  We are the bride, and Jesus drank His wine with us at the Last Supper.  The second is drunk when the nuptials are completed, i.e. after a time of preparation, when the couple are truly united, in the groom's house - their marriage home.  This time is to come.  It is spoken of in Revelation Chapter 19.  Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us.  "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you."  Think of the best wedding you have ever been to.  Multiply it beyond imagining.

Meanwhile, we will come to the wine mixed with gall shortly.

P87 - "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me."

P91 - "No-one cometh unto the Father, but by Me."  Once I spoke to someone who found this statement challenging, perhaps because nobody really likes ceding to someone else's authority; or at least that is our inclination as protectors of our own egos.  By the way, we go to really great lengths to protect our egos, to construct explanations that put us in the clear and mean we can hold onto our gut feelings, which includes convincing ourselves we are not egoistic.  To follow Jesus is to abandon yourself and follow Him.  It is for your own good.  You do not erase yourself, but you set aside your self-protections to allow Him in to make you better.  I will leave it there as this requires more work, but that is a starting point.

If you accept Jesus as the Son of God, that the Father is in Him and He in the Father; that sin is our barrier and we can't lift it ourselves; and that He takes away this sin wearing red tassels of His blood - then it is simply a fact that He is the only way to the Father.  It is a gentle and loving statement.

P92 - Recalling John 14:17-18 "Even the spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth in you, and shall be in you.  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."

P92 - Tissot's painting of Philip, who can't understand the words of Jesus, is lovely; Jesus is anxious that they understand fully, and Tissot has Him tenderly holding Philip and actioning that his eyes be more fully opened.

P94 - Note that the Tower of Shiloh is another same for the Tower of Siloam, where 'innocent' people died; that is to say, it had likely become a topic of much discussion as to why these deaths had occurred - surely there should be some reason of guilt.  The thinking then was that you faced some justice in this life as a result of your sins or those of your parents, considering, for example, John 9:2-3 "And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."  His blindness was not about him, it was about God, so that God could show His power in curing it, and persuade many.  Do not think your own affliction is about you either, and bear it patiently as God does His work.

P95 - The agony in the garden.  It seems to me that for Jesus to forgive all our sins, He must experience them as well as their punishment, and that makes me shudder on account of my own catalogue of sins.  He must wade through the whole world's sins for aeons.  I never want to sin again if Our Lord has to bear it; not just Him experiencing some pain for it, but for Him to know my every thought, word and deed and their effects on others, knowing sin is abhorrent to God.  I find Andrew Lloyd-Webber's 'Gethsemane' utterly moving, a part of 'Jesus Christ Superstar'.  While Lloyd-Webber takes many liberties with the Gospels, the overall effect is profound in my opinion, and as the song 'Gethsemane' progresses, the pain swells compellingly when he has Jesus cry 'Take this cup away from me', and then after weary contemplation, with a final, solid resolve, 'I will drink your cup of poison'.  Drops of blood are shed, the result of the most extreme stress on the human body, and we have already talked about Gethsemane the ‘olive press’.  I can find issues with all of the media portrayals of Jesus, but the merits often outweigh the issues.

P98 - Thinking on Peter carrying swords - the disciples knew that the Jews wanted Jesus dead, probably for some time.  The culture was one where violent resolution to problems was not uncommon.  Law enforcement was the Temple Guards and they would hardly help these troublemakers who have upset their leaders.  When the crowd later arrives to arrest Jesus, they certainly have swords.  There was a very bloody rebellion as a result of the tax raised by Quirinius in 6 A.D. involving Judas the Galilean (or 'of Gamala') for example, and the Sicarii are described several times by Josephus as being violent 'cloak and dagger' killers, including of those Jews that they felt were not zealous enough.

P100 - Tissot records "According to a tradition quoted by Saint Ignatius in a tetter to Saint John the Evangelist, Saint James the Less, who was in the garden with Jesus, resembled Him so much that one might well have been taken for the other. It was perhaps for this reason that the Jews required of Judas that he should identify Jesus with a kiss."

P104 - Shortly after Jesus' arrest, Tissot writes "Jesus had just been nearly strangled with barbarous brutality", and his painting seems to show Him in chains with a band around His neck.  These seem to be the details from Bretano's account of Bl. Catherine Emmerich's visions that find their way into Mel Gibson's Passion film - you can see this in the English translation of Bretano's account here on pp126-127.  Interestingly, p127 of Bretano's account has it that Saint Peter is the one who is chased but slips away by letting loose his outergarment, which sounds very much like Mark 14:51 where 'a certain young man' flees the scene naked after the mob try to apprehend him by his linen garment.  Most commentaries have this 'young man' as likely John Mark himself, the writer of the Gospel, a relative youth compared to Saint Peter, and it is hard to imagine Saint Peter concealing one, perhaps two swords under 'nothing but a linen cloth', so I don't think it is Saint Peter.  Saint Mark is recorded as the interpreter of Saint Peter by Papias (60-130 A.D.) as here (Peter is 'agrammatoi' - without grammar, i.e. illiterate, as we are told in Acts 4:13), and Peter himself alludes to Mark being his assistant later on (1 Peter 5:13).  We know Mark accompanies Saint Paul too although Paul is unhappy with Mark after Mark quits a trip to Pamphylia (now southern Turkey) causing a rift between Paul and Barnabas; though all are reconciled later.
Psalm 110.  If Jesus does indeed fall into the Brook Kedron then He fulfils Psalm 110:7, as Tissot suggests.  Jesus has already quoted this Psalm more than once in His ministry - it is very short but clearly loaded with meaning.  Is it not amazing how many prophetic words have been hidden in plain sight for over a thousand years?  It mentions the priest 'Melchizedek', to whom Abraham gave offering after a string of victories, who some believe could be Shem; but this account (very detailed) presents this as a deliberately corrupted interpretation of the Septuagint which emerged in the Masoretic text of the Old Testament between the 7th and 10th centuries A.D.  I have to say this is well beyond my capability.  The site argues that Jesus is the heavenly Melchizedek, and the attempt to present Shem as Melchizedek is to water-down Jesus' importance.  It does seem important to understand Melchizedek, but another day.

P108 - Tissot explains any possible confusion between Annas and Caiaphas, with the disciples being remote from these particular events.  The Gospel of John - who follows the crowd at a distance with Peter - is the only one to mention the stop at Annas' house.  Annas is the father-in-law of Caiaphas and has assembled the Tribunal in his own house, which is reached first.  The case needs to be heard by the High Priest, so they carry the proceedings to Caiaphas' house.

P113-114 - While the Gospels do most of the talking here, Tissot notes a further sorry state of the Jewish leaders' mentality in the rending of the High Priest's clothes.  Once it was a sign of terrible distress - such as during the awful siege of the Samarians in 2 Kings 6:30, where the King of Israel had secretly been wearing penitential sackcloth under his robes.  Now, it had been codified to a pathetic level, with no emotion "A small knife was hung from the waistband with which the operation was performed and a slit a few inches long cut in the mantle and lightly caught together again, rendered it yet more easy.  The rent in the garments must be made standing, it must moreover be in the front of the robe, starting from the neck and on no account from the fringe. Furthermore the rent must be a hand's breadth long and must be made in all the garments, of which ten were generally worn, except in that next the skin and in the tallith (Maimonides)."

FRIDAY

P116 - Midnight passes in humiliation for Jesus as pictured opposite p116, an image of powerlessness surrounded by menace.  Being powerless is not the same as being weak, however.   Dostoyevsky, because of his illegal political activities, was condemned to be shot, pardoned at the last moment, and sent to the Gulag for four years.  In those extreme conditions Dostoyevsky found faith, and he made John 12:24 the epigraph to The Brothers Karamazov: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”  Suffering enables one to reach the deepest truths.  Say thank you for suffering, however hard it may seem.

P117 - We are reminded of how distant the joys of Bethany must now seem to Our Lord, now in the 11th hour since he was taken prisoner, then already racked with agony, now condemned by the Jews and tortured by the mob.  Yet surely His thoughts were lifted to the fulfilment of prophesy after prophesy: Job "They have gaped upon me with their mouth, they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me" and Isaiah "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting."  For us, all for us.

P119 - Tissot knows exactly when cocks crow in the Holy Land.  The third time is at 3 o'clock in the morning.  Jesus looks at Peter and Peter suddenly knows the awful broken-ness of his own promises and fear.  It must have been a look of the greatest pity and friendship.  We know Mary's sorrow at the cross will bring her close to death.  Peter bears his agony of betrayal and cowardice from this night until Sunday morning when he runs to the tomb.  He has to explain to the disciples and Jesus' friends what has happened, racked with guilt.  Jesus knows that Peter has to endure this, and he will be stronger.  Jesus has prayed for Peter to survive his sifting.  None of us is given more than we can bear, though we imagine our own agonies the most keenly.

P122 - Two people betray Jesus.  Two people suffer remorse.  One has hope in Jesus and becomes the head of the Church.  One hangs himself.  Peter's agony must have been very great, and he surely did not see the resurrection coming, but he trusted so firmly in his Master that he knew anything was possible.  Judas repents of his actions (Matthew 27:3) and wishes to undo his part in the deed, but he cannot.  He tries to save himself but cannot.  Only Jesus can do that.  Some entertain the thought that Judas could have appealed to Jesus' mercy at the moment of his death; we can't know.  Origen thought that Judas hanged himself so that he would precede Our Lord and be able to plead forgiveness and mercy (here), but Origen says that you cannot choose such instant repentance; it must have a time and a place, and the devil had inflated Judas' sorrow to an overwhelming degree.  Some see Jesus instruction 'what you are about to do, do it quickly' (and even the choosing of Judas, the only Judean, in the first place) as a sign that Judas' action was destined.  Jesus has to die, or we are not saved.  It seems a bottomless sorrow when someone ends their own life, or tries to.  If Jesus wept with indignation, even rage, at the sorrow of the grieving women, how much more must He lament the premature end of a life.  Jesus is coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His Kingdom will have no end.

P130 - Tissot gives a very detailed account of the Antonia Citadel and the Praetorium.  He takes it as true that the Scala Sancta or sacred staircase that was at Jerusalem is the same as that now in Rome, next to the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.  See my page on relics.

P134-135.  Jesus taken before Herod.  In one more attempt by Pilate to avoid putting Jesus to death, he refers him to Herod Antipas, who has arrived from Tiberius for the great feast.  Tissot concludes that he is either at the Palace of the Asmonians, situated on the left of the Temple at the foot of Mount Sion, or at the Palace of his father, Herod the Great, which is situated a little further to the west.  Tissot defends against critics "certain rationalistic authors" who think the Gospel accounts of this scene are incorrect. He states that "it is very evident that there were in reality two scenes when Christ was mocked: one referred to by Saint Luke only, the other by Saint Matthew and Saint Mark, but not by the other two Evangelists, so that instead of as alleged contradicting, the Gospel accounts supplement each other."  This seems quite natural to me, since they all have different physical and experiential perspectives.  Since the disciples, at least many of them, are in hiding at this point, they may well each relate things of which they were certain.  They will recall Jesus’ words “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.”

P137 - The scourging at the pillar.  Tissot's representation of the scourging of the face (front) and the back are uncompromising.  Tissot prefers the interpretation that Jesus was scourged with a plain whip, forty times less one, which would be in the Jewish tradition, though it could have been with a more severe Roman whip that had embedded objects and a different number.  In any event it is severe; I have read that the term 'forty times less one' in Jewish understanding reflects the completeness of the number 40, in that 40 is the maximum number of strokes a person could survive.  In that sense, 40 strokes less one means bringing someone close to the point of death, rather than a precise number.  I do not doubt it.  “The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows." (Psalm 129:3).

P139 - The purple robe Jesus wore.  Tissot writes that "the cloali or mantle worn by our Lord Jesus Christ on His way to death was a chlamys or short military cloak and not really, as is generally supposed, a purple robe properly so-called. The text of Saint Matthew is perfectly clear on this point.  The scarlet robe referred to in chap, xxvii, v. 28, was very evidently just a loose garment of coarse wool dyed red, such as the Roman soldiers wore over their armour and which obtained for them the nickname of chlamydati in the comedies of Plautus."  This was, of course, the symbolic colour of sin for the Jews.

P142 - The ‘Ecce Homo’ arch.  Pilate presents the weary and beaten Jesus to the crowds, saying ‘this is the man’.  Jesus’ silent and dignified self-possession makes great the uneasiness of Pilate.  Tissot notes that the arch of this name (in his time and now) must be incorrect, since it is too far from the Praetorium, though, if I understand the text correctly, Jesus may well have passed through it on His Via Dolorosa.  On p144, Tissot speaks of several arches that held up the Palace of the Governor, one of which is (in his day) walled into the Chapel of the convent of the Nuns of Zion.

P144 - Tissot holds that Pilate thought that the pitiful state of Jesus would move the crowd away from their death-wish.  Pilate had punished and humiliated Him thoroughly; perhaps he was trying to emphasise that He was a man, not a king or the Son of God, so the Jews can surely hold no further complaint.  Finally he resorts to the release of a prisoner.  Barabbas.  Interestingly, Tissot quotes an Armenian Gospel which pitches the name of Barabbas - “son of the father” - even more directly against the name of Jesus the Christ.  He refers to Origen who asserts that according to certain versions of the Evangelical text, Barabbas also bore the name of Jesus. “In fact, the Armenian text reads thus: “Which will you that I release unto you?  Jesus Barabbas or Jesus which is called Christ?””

Tissot reminds us of the ‘intrigues of the Sanhedrin’, in other words their pernicious seeding of Jesus’ guilt amongst the crowd.  Tissot pits the coarse jokes and swaggering boasts of Barabbas against the solemn teaching of Jesus.

P146 - Tissot describes the physical appearance of the Gabbatha (the Lithostrotos) and the Ecce Homo loggia.

P147 - Pilate finally yields to the crowd and Jesus is condemned to death.  Pilate washes his hands; though it is his decision, he knows this is innocent blood and and tries to remove himself from it.  The Jews cry that His blood will be on them and on their children; that is what Jesus wants too if they will only see the truth, and some will do so shortly.  It echoes the prophetic statement of Caiaphas that it is better for one man to die than for the nation to perish.  God is at work all the time, whether we cooperate or not; but how much better when we do!   I have mentioned Jesus Christ Superstar, and in the musical the triumphant signature refrain is played loud and strong the moment that Pilate issues his death sentence.  You are left in no doubt that there is the greatest possible triumph here.  Jesus Christ has achieved the right to be killed so that we can be saved by Him.  All of this time, the last 33 years, have been the outworking of the most subtle yet powerful plan to rescue mankind, a plan hidden in the plain sight of Scripture, which could have been thwarted at any point, and which the most powerful and clever people did indeed try to thwart.  It is indeed fitting to be in awe of this moment.  But wait.  Think of Our Saviour's human nature.  He has been beaten, savagely.  Humiliated, completely.  Rejected and despised by His own people.  He has sweated blood less than 24 hours ago in agonising torment.  He is parched, exhausted, dizzy, his body torn and His blood spilled over the Forum.  It is still far from over.  He still has to carry a cross to Calvary in the midday sun and die on it.  His human nature must think it is impossible.  Yet He must continue.

As noted on my relics page, tradition has it that Jesus slips on the top step of the Scala Sancta and tumbles down the stairs injuring His body still further.  Tissot explains his well-researched map of the Via Dolorosa, and again refers to the ‘so-called’ Ecce Homo arch.  The current arch is historic, just not the original.

Tissot’s attention to detail here is extraordinary and fully consistent with the different perspectives seen in p141, p145 and p150.  He recreates the area of the Praetorium in exquisite detail based on his research.  I insert below an annotated form of his 'Bird's-eye-View of the Forum'.

The whole area depicted is the public Forum.  This is where, earlier, the crowds demand Jesus' crucifixion.

A. The pillar of scourging, with fresh blood.

B. The ‘Ecce Homo’ loggia, or balcony, when Pilate presented the bound and beaten Jesus to the crowds.

C. The ‘Gabbatha’ (Hebrew) or ‘Lithostrotos’ (Greek) - the raised platform whence Pilate declared the death sentence on Jesus and the two thieves, who stand in front of him.  It was a requirement of Roman Law that death sentences be proclaimed in the open air.

D. The large Antonia Tower and Citadel, within which is Pilate’s Praetorium and Herod's Palace, symbolising the authority of Rome and Herod.  In front of this expression of the world's greatest power and authority stands the small and seemingly powerless figure of Jesus.  Power is not what it seems.

E. The entrance to the Forum.

P148 - Tissot is satisfied that Jesus' wounds would have caused the red cloak to stick to his body and cause fresh bleeding when removed.

P151 - I have discussed the Title above the Cross (Titulus Crucis) on my 'Artefacts' page.

P152 - Tissot notes that nine sanctuaries each claim to have a nail from the true cross, and nine nails would be needed to make the cross and to nail Our Saviour to it, though there are legends about Saint Helena's uses for some of the nails suggesting not all are still in human hands.  He also notes that "the early Fathers of the Church do in fact speak of cords and some even say chains" with which Our Lord was fixed to the cross, which would mean that the nails through the hands would not necessarily have to take the weight of the whole body.

What shape was the cross - could it have been a 'T' shape, or just a stake?  I have considered that here.  It is a cross.

A MEDICAL ANALYSIS OF JESUS SUFFERING

In the 1980s, Doctor Frederick Zugibe, Chief Medical Examiner, Rockland County, New York, updated his comprehensive discussion of many different medical aspects of Jesus' passion, including carrying out calculations and physical tests on cadavers nailed through the palm and the wrists, especially in relation to the Shroud of Turin.  This collated 38 years of medical investigation.  Some points are summarised here.

The Agony in the Garden

Zugibe describes the condition ‘hematidrosis’ whereby the sweat glands can exude blood under situations of ‘an extreme anxiety reaction with fear as the inciting factor’ followed by a relaxation into a state of resignation, together causing a bloody sweat.  Reports of this go as far back as Aristotle.  Therefore when the Gospel of Luke refers to ‘the sweat of Him like great drops of blood falling down’, there is no reason to doubt it.  Zugibe notes that this is more important than we might think, because “Christ not only displayed severe physical suffering during the Way of the Cross, but also that he previously suffered severe mental anguish that drains or attenuates the physical strength of an individual to the point of total exhaustion.”

The Scourging

I think this requires little explanation; it is a form of torture intended to bring prolonged pain and the dread of each stroke, loss of blood, tissue damage and edema (swelling).  Zugibe adds that the victim would also be exhausted and extremely thirsty.  He suposes that the victim would be tied low down on a column and would be hoisted to his feet every time he fell, but this seems less plausible than being tied from above.

The Thirst

This is no ordinary thirst.  Zugibe says that His words “I thirst” are a gross underestimation, and he relays a historic account from 1247 of a young turk crucified in Damascus; “His worst agony was thirst.  An eyewitness told me that he looked constantly from side to side imploring someone to give him a little water.”  Jesus had been deprived of water from the time of the Last Supper; he suffered the severe sweating of blood and water in the Garden of Gethsemane, the sweating and pleural effusion (fluid around the lungs) from the scourging, the sweating from the pains of the crowning of thorns, carrying the cross, stripping his garments, and hanging on the cross; and pulmonary and other edemas (fluid accumulations) in the extremities.  It would “certainly induce an agonizing thirst.”

Blood and Water

Zugibe notes 11 different hypotheses for how both blood and water could have exited Jesus’ side when pierced by the lance as emphatically described by the Apostle John.

P155 - The Via Dolorosa.  Tissot notes that a centurion on horseback would lead the way, to whom had been confided the superintendence of the execution, given by Tacitus gave the title of the exactor mortis or death overseer, whilst Seneca calls him the centurio supplicio praepositus which may be translated the centurion who presided at executions.  It is a steep climb in places, typically 30 minutes, who knows how long here.  For me, this is the hardest time.  Jesus is is shattered.  It is possible to be brave and stagger on sometimes; but then having to apply all your strength to lift a cross - exhausted, parched, beaten, cut all over, fallen down stairs, mocked, rejected - how can any man do it?  Jesus has to, or we will not be saved.  I believe He has a human nature and a Divine nature.  I do not believe God made this any easier for Him than it would be for us.  These final ounces of strength have to come from love.  There are ways out, just allow yourself to collapse, or try to run, try to fight, it will all end quickly.  Love does not allow it.  The impossibility remains.  Heave-ho.  His lungs are now bursting too, His mouth drier with every breath, and it is getting hotter all the time.  He falls after a time in His own sweat and blood.

P157 - Jesus meets His mother.  Tissot's picture below is moving.  He explains that while this is not written in the Gospels, it is the strongest of traditions.  He explains how Mary and the others could have been at the Forum and then cut across the backstreets to get onto the crowded route.

Jesus Meets His Mother.  Vol. II, p157.

P159 - Simon of Cyrene carries the cross.  This Simon came from Cyrene, a province situated on the northern coast of Africa, where there was a very numerous colony of Jews.  Saint Mark adds that he was father of Alexander and Rufus, which proves that all three were known to the Evangelists at the time of the compilation of the sacred text.  It is held that Alexander and Rufus were converted to Christianity later and became deacons of the early church.  In Romans, Saint Paul says "Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord" and the Roman martyrology includes Simon of Cyrene amongst the Saints.  Some even say that he became Bishop of Bostra in the Syrian Desert and was burnt to death by the heathen authorities.  It is possible Simon is 'Simon the tanner' mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.  Tissot discusses whether the Cyrenian carries the Cross the rest of the way alone or whether he shared the burden with the Master, with the latter being the prevalent belief amongst the early Christians.  It is also suggested that we owe to Simon and his two sons the account of all that passed until the arrival of the Master at Calvary.

P160-161 - Tissot gives an account of what is traditionally held regarding the Saint known as Veronica ('vera icon'), being an influential woman connected with the Jewish authorities.  He quotes from Bretano's account of Bl. Catherine Emmerich noting these details are 'more or less probable'.  The women have more courage to show their sympathy for Jesus, and weep for Him, and shortly he says "Weep not for Me, but for your children", referring no doubt to the coming destruction of Jerusalem, of which He has prophesied.  This world is not the world God intended for us, far from it, but it the one our ancestors chose, and Jesus is rescuing us.  While the destruction will happen, it feels as though Jesus is trying to warn them, these ones who are His, whom He has wished for so long to take under His wing.

P172 - Tissot supposes that the disciples would not have remained hidden in the Tombs of Hinnom but by now would have skirted the town and be on the hills to the west, overlooking Calvary, deeply moved by the unfolding drama, yet unable to approach, with the exception of John who has been by the side of Our Lord's Blessed Mother since Jesus' trial.

P173 - Tissot relates an old Greek tradition stating that Jesus was lowered into an old cistern while preparations were made for the Cross, including boring holes for the nails and attaching the footrest.  This is not the cistern where the True Cross was later found by Saint Helena, since that has steps leading in, but a distinct feature that is now known as the 'Prison of Christ' within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, at the northeast extremity, where it can be seen today.

P174-5 - Tissot relates the process of the ritual Passover sacrifice in the Temple in great detail.

At this point, Jesus is literally dying of thirst and in intense pain and mental torment.  The temptation to drink the drugged wine - a common practice - to relieve all three of these impossible burdens is stronger than we can probably ever imagine.  Let us hope we never have to.  But as recorded in the same two Gospels, He has told his disciples that He will not drink wine again until He drinks it with them in His Father's Kingdom.  This is a great temptation to thwart God's plans even now, to break the truth of God's Word, and He does not succumb.

Tissot gives important context: "in the opinion of the populace [these drinks] were intended to mitigate the sufferings of those condemned to death and this thought was suggested by a passage in the book of Proverbs 31:6-7 « Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.»  Amongst the Romans a drink of this kind was called sopor, on account of its power to benumb and in some cases to deaden the senses entirely.  The task of preparing this beverage was reserved to ladies of the highest rank."

P179 - Tissot agrees with the probable use of cords to bind the arms and possibly the torso, which would have increased the sources of pain and held the condemned in place for the driving of nails.

P180 - It is related that Origen, Tertullian and other Church Fathers assert that the Crown of Thorns was put back on Jesus' head on the Cross.  Tissot feels that the Romans would certainly do this given that Pilate has titled Him as 'King of the Jews'.

Tissot reminds us that Mary is here, looking on in her own agony; the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Panagia, the Theotokos.  Each time a nail is struck, it is driven into her heart as well as her Son's body.  Simeon told her this would be so.  In a few hours, tradition has it that when Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate and bravely asks for the body of Jesus, he implores Pilate that it will console His mother who is collapsed and dying of grief.  Through her suffering, the hearts of many would be revealed.  I think the revealing of hearts is not (just) a reference to those nearby to her - these include those who might have helped crucify Jesus; those who found sympathy with Our Lord and His mother; those who wished they could reverse the whole appalling situation; or even those who found it unimportant.  This 'many' has to be a reference to far more people, in fact to most if not all of us.  Only through this agony, most keenly felt by her, can we have the Passion, the sacrifice, and then the Resurrection; and every heart who turns its attention to this can choose to be saved.  It must not be ignored.  As C.S. Lewis puts it in Mere Chritianity, "You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse….  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

P182 - Were there three nails, or four - in other words, was there one nail through both feet, or one through each foot?  Tissot discusses various pieces of evidence and it seems the case for three appears later and is possibly hagiographic; it puts the body in a twisted pose that conveys suffering, and Tissot says that it did not appear in art until the 13th century, with the earliest Greek paintings showing the feet being apart.  It is not that important.

Tissot notes Saint Justin (Martyr) referring to the 'horns' of the cross (the extremities) and this seems to be his Dialogue with Trypho, which includes a section on horn symbology and the cross.  In English translations (and I give three different versions here) there is a horn that is either a 'seat' or a 'support' to the crucified, or they are 'upborne' by it.  The original Greek is here (at this page we have Moses, Israel, horn, Amalek - i.e. it looks just like the English counterpart where 'horns' are discussed) but it is beyond me to decide if it means a seat or some other projection!

P182-183 - Tissot discusses various theories that have circulated about the numbers 2, 3, 5, 12, 13, 14, suggesting this was a reason for proposing three nails at some point.  Like him, I think we should leave such mysticism and continue with our subject.

The feet of Our Saviour Jesus Christ were low enough for them to be embraced by Saint Mary Magdelene, the fact of which every tradition agrees.  The Cross is pulled up into place and every movement causes fresh pain and suffering until the final slip and thump of the cross into the hole prepared causes Our Saviour to be jolted through His raw flesh.  For Mary and the followers, "their hearts are crucified with Him, they feel as if their own last hour had come."  Wedges are hammered into place to make the Cross vertical and hold it secure, shock after shock.

 

The sky is strangely darkening.

 

Jesus, remember me, when You come into Your Kingdom

The thieves are installed at either side, already tied to their cross-beams.  The crowd and the thieves mock Jesus mercilessly.  But one thief goes quiet.  He rebukes the other thief cursing Jesus "Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?"  He has remorse, for his crime and for Jesus' treatment.  The power of the Master, the power of love, is felt.  He confesses his sin.  "And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.  And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.  And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."

 

"Today".

 

What sweet words for the thief to hear.  He has faith in Jesus, he confesses his guilt, and he asks unworthily to join Him.  He is, of course, accepted.  I have heard it said that this shows that there is no need for 'works', because the thief cannot move and so his faith alone is enough.  But look - while the thief has only a little time left, he turns around - repents - and he works the only muscles left that he is free to move, and he lifts his head and produces his voice to declare Jesus his Saviour.  Nobody but the Son of God takes people into paradise.  He acts on his faith.  He does a good work.  He speaks it loud enough for those by the Cross to hear, including the Holy Women whom Luke then consults to write his Gospel.  His act is written for the rest of time and its power speaks to millions of people.  Did he think he had any power at all?  I expect it seemed like none.  Yet God has power.  Do God's work and see what power God has.  Remember it is not yours, and do not think your ego is doing the heavy lifting; it is not you but God who will give you Grace after you give Him your will.  The thief has faith, and does works, and is saved.  To whom much is given, much is expected; he simply did what he could.

 

"Today".

 

The repentant thief can see Jesus' Kingdom is a long way away.  There is no sign of an immediate triumph here or a Kingdom about to come.  He is resigned to a shameful death and to darkness and he hopes Jesus will spare him a thought whenever the Jesus does come into his Kingdom, because he can see the love and authority and patient kingly bearing of this humble Jesus.  He has a very precious piece of hope.  The thieves also know what is coming now, everyone knows what a crucifixion is.  There have been thousands in living memory in Judea.  The most cruel and painful and degrading death the Romans or anyone else could come up with.  It usually takes three days to die on a cross, while wild animals leap at you and birds peck your eyes out.  It is now 2 or 3 hours after midday, and the day will end at the 6th hour after midday.  Yet Jesus has told the thief that not only will he be in paradise, the greatest blessing, but he will be there today.  It dawns on the thief that Jesus' Kingdom is right around the corner, and he will only have to endure a few hours, a small yet potent blessing.  He will endure it gladly now, resolutely.  Jesus knows what is coming next, because He knows Scripture; it is plain and clear in Scripture.  The Passover lamb will be gone by the morning: Exodus 12:10.  Not one of the bones of the Passover lamb will be broken: Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12 and it is sung in the Psalms, the hymn-book of Jesus, Psalm 34:20.  Jesus knows that He will die later this day before His bones are broken.  He also has Divine knowledge, because it has been given to Him to lay down His life and take it up again (John 10:18).  I don't think for a second that this made any aspect of His Passion any easier for Him though.  In fact, He would have had a temptation that we don't have; to lay down His life when it got too bad, or to perform a miracle of the kind he was tempted with when in the desert for forty days.  No.  He is the Victor.

 

"Paradise".

 

Is paradise heaven?  It comes from a Persian word pardes meaning 'garden' and its variants crop up through the Bible referring to lovely gardens as well as a place hopefully in our future.  Paradise is a Greek word, because the Gospels were written in Greek, the language of international culture, art and science of its time.  When Genesis (Hebrew) was translated into Greek around 250 B.C. in the Septuagint, the word we now read as 'garden' of Eden was written as 'παράδεισο' of Eden or 'paradeiso'/paradise as you can see here.  It is fair to think that this understanding was very important to the Evangelists of the 1st century and their audience.  Paradise is a very, very good place to be.  From our perspective, and that of the repentant thief, it must be before Christ will return to judge the living and the dead, at which time we look forward to our new, utterly joyful lives in the new Kingdom of Heaven and Earth, where there is no pain, only love.  What happens between our bodily death and the start of the new Kingdom?  There is a good place to wait, and a bad place to wait.  It is not spelled out, and I think it would do us no good to know exactly, as if we were entering into some kind of contract, where the goodness of our hearts becomes currency for buying a nice plot in the afterlife.  No.  It is enough to know that if you are going to paradise, today, then you are going to a good, good place, because your heart has turned to Christ, to love itself.  Whatever catalogue of sins the thief has chalked up, they are gone in that encounter.  One encounter of your heart with God's.  Is paradise the new Kingdom of Heaven and Earth?  It doesn't look like it, not yet; the best is yet to come, and it is better than paradise. 

 

As Tissot notes, nothing more will trouble this thief, now a repentant thief.

 

P188 - The Romans had a law, 'de bonis damnatorium' which allows the executioners to take the clothes of the condemned, which they do.  Tissot explains that this could be done in a way that gives each of the four soldiers a quarter, with the best quarter being the seamless garment for which they drew lots.  All four Gospels record this.  The division of clothes and casting of lots is foretold - once again - in the Psalms, long before there were any Roman laws.  Only yesterday they were singing Psalms on the way down the hill from the Last Supper, thinking of some kind of victory around the corner.  Perhaps these very words are echoing in their minds as they watch what seems to be an unbelievable nightmare.  Certainly they will discuss it in the days to come.  Certainly they do not understand yet, but in a few days their dismay will be overturned forever.  These disciples, for the most part afraid and confused like mice, will become lions.  They will all die for their faith apart from John - the only one of the twelve with the courage to be at the Cross.  Remember what Shuzako Endo said.  Something electrified the disciples - there is no other explanation.

P190 - Jesus has been under armed guard since His arrest and His body will remain so for three more days, so there is no chance it will be revived or whisked away by the disciples, even if they tried.

P190 - Tissot's famous painting "What Our Saviour saw from the Cross" shows with his usual accuracy an extraordinary amount of detail that we can gather from the Bible and from his exploration of the area as well as tradition and other texts.  The Holy Women look on with the Blessed Virgin firmly in the centre.  Heavily-clothed onlookers are either horrified or self-satisfied (as he protrays the Pharisees riding past on their horses).  Jesus looks directly at a freshly-prepared tomb in the Garden of Joseph of Arimathea.  Later today, after Joseph pleads for His body,  it will become His tomb.  Tissot paints huge amounts of detail without writing it all down in the narrative, and I notice that closest to the tomb are two men clothed only in a single sheet each, not in a pose of dismay.  On Sunday morning the Holy Women pictured will come back here to try and anoint the body properly, since today they will only be able to do the barest of jobs in the circumstances, and it will haunt them that their Rabbouni has been left this way.  When they do, they will find a tomb empty of Jesus' body, with two men in white inside.  I know that God sees everything.  But He also gives us to understand that sometimes He sends Angels to do something or have a right close look at what is going on.  I think it is also important that we tell Him what is going on in our prayers, too.  And every one of us has a guardian Angel that is in communication with God.  So I think it is possible that God has more sophisticated ways than we imagine when we say "God sees everything".  I will leave it at that for now, but I am cautious of blanket statements about God that (inadvertently) place Him in a situation where He seems to have less choice about how He runs His creation.  Saint Paul tells us that Angels are in our midst in Hebrews 13:2.  I think Tissot has placed two of them in this picture.

P191 - Tissot presents various stories about the nature of the wood used for the Cross, but he doesn't think any exotic or supernatural explanations are necessary.  The type of wood found in the relics at Florence, Rome, Pisa and Paris is pine, which would be found in the region.

 

At this point, Tissot's book is full of illustrations illuminating every detail of the moments around Jesus' death.  The pictures are gripping.

Here I place the words of Saint Fulton Sheen in his Life of Christ: "Mary, Magdalen, John; innocence, penitence, and priesthood; the three types of souls forever to be found beneath the Cross of Christ."

Consider again John 19:27 says "that disciple took her unto his own".  In Greek this is 'τὰ ἴδια' or ta idia.  This term for 'his own' appears in two other places in John's Gospel - his epic prologue verse 1:11 "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him", then in John 16:32 "Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me."  It resonates that this should mean 'his own people', not 'returning to a house'.  Here in His last few words at the Cross, Jesus tells us that Mary is the mother of the Christian people.  Thanks be to God.

P194 - Tissot notes an important tradition that Mary's suffering was such that at one point she was led away from the platform, quite overcome and trembling with anguish.  He notes that, if so, Jesus was not spared the ordeal of being completely and utterly alone, apparently forsaken by Heaven and earth alike.  It is at this point that He cries "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!".  This is yet again a Psalm, Psalm 22, which speaks so closely of the crucifixion from over a thousand years distant.  We can only imagine to what extent Jesus feels this abandonment, and to what extent He feels the presence of God the Father and His Holy Spirit.  Some think that He has the full human feeling of complete abandonment and helplessness.  Yet our intellect and our will through our faith can overcome even this obstacle, and if we struggle for words, they are all there in Scripture.

P195-196 - "I thirst".  We have already mentioned the great physical thirst.  Jesus thirsts for our souls, to bring us to complete safety and happiness.  A branch of hyssop is used to bring some sour wine to his lips.  I have tried to grow hyssop, and it is a colourful and aromatic herb in the garden.  It rarely amounts to more than a bush, though, and Tissot has had the same question I had when first reading this, that it would be hard to lift a sponge of vinegar on top of a flexible branch of hyssop, and the sponge would just smear Jesus' face.  The Greek text, however, allows for the stalk of hyssop to be placed on the sponge rather than vice-versa, and Tissot holds this view as you can see in his illustration; he has observed that the hyssop stalk forms a long flexible tube and that such a tube was placed into a sponge and held up, allowing Jesus to suck up some sour wine.  No mystery or pious invention is required.

The Victory

IT IS FINISHED.  Vol. II, p196

From Page 200 to Page 239 Tissot writes the most touching and accurate account of the events of that Good Friday, Holy Saturday and early Easter Sunday up to the point where the Holy Women approach the tomb again.  He reflects on the thoughts and feelings of all those closest to the Cross.  I recommend you read it, and there is no point me repeating or summarising it.  He does a great service to the reality of these hours that change the world forever.  I merely make a few observation below.

P199, 200, 205 - Tissot has no problem drawing in the earthquake, the rending of the rock and the appearance of the dead in Jerusalem.  He paints them with as much persuasiveness as all his other work.  He says "Even at the present day an extraordinary fissure in the rock of Golgotha can still be seen in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: it is alluded to by Saint Cyril of Alexandria, and it has the peculiarity that instead of running, as is usual in ordinary convulsions of nature, in the same direction as the strata of the rock, it is a perpendicular rent, or one at right angles with the layers of the rock of Golgotha.  Competent authorities have declared this strange fissure to be the result of a miracle and when their testimony is compared with that of the Gospel narrative, the same conclusion is forced on us."

P202 - The strange darkness needs to be approached carefully.  Tissot writes "We are all well acquainted with the celebrated sentence of Dionysius the Areopagite said to have been uttered at the very moment when these awful events were occurring: « Either the God of nature is suffering or the framework of the world is falling to pieces ».  It probably was a darkness spreading over all the earth which led Dionysius to pronounce these remarkable words.  Moreover Tertullian, in his « Apology », did not hesitate in addressing the Roman authorities to refer to the phenomena in question as well known facts recorded in the public archives."  The statement by Dionysius seems to be a quotation from Apollophanes that is then refererred to by Psuedo-Dionysius much later, and is questioned here , but Tertullian's statement is emphatic, as here.  There is another similar reference attributed to Phlegon, but when you hunt it down it becomes doubtful, as here.  For me the Gospels are sufficient, and Tertullian backs the Gospels with reference to the Romans' own archives.  The Gospel writers would have to survive critics who numbered most of the Jewish nation who were present for the Passover, a huge influx of international visitors and a good number of Romans.  They all would have noticed the sky being strangely dark.

Once we are over that, we can think more deeply about the power needed to atone for our sins.  Christ's human suffering was very real and almost to death, yet it can only be a faint shadow of the real cost. 

P203-204 - The centurion, Longinus.  It seems likely, as Tissot notes, that the name 'Longinus' is a paraphrasing of the Greek word for 'spear' rather than the centurion's given name, something like 'Veronica' likely derives from 'vera icon'.  Nevertheless this does not diminish the fact of the centurion nor that he pierced the side of Jesus with a lance because Pilate wanted to be sure that He was indeed dead, when the two thieves were still alive.  The trained and practised centurion will thrust through the lungs and into the heart efficiently, and Tissot's painting is the most vivid and convincing portrayal I could imagine.  Tissot relates various stories about Saint Longinus and how he became a saint thereafter, and whatever you make of them, Longinus would surely have followed Jesus from the Tribunal through the Via Dolorosa and heard every word He said, including those at the Cross.  The medical basis for blood and water flowing from Jesus' side are explored by Chief Medical Examiner Zugibe here (as above), and some draw the parallel that at exactly the same time Jesus side is pierced, the blood of sacrifices in the Temple is being washed with water through a drain out of the side of the Temple.  The new Temple replaces the old Temple once again; and, once again, the disciples will surely reel with surprise and then delight and then courage when the full weight of realisation hits them in the days to come.

P233 - Tissot states that while the Crown of Thorns would have been removed by the faithful, the cross, nails and title were Roman property and nobody would risk breaking the law to take them, explaining why they remained at the site to be discovered later by Saint Helena.

P236 - Tissot is confident about the type of mechanism used to seal the tomb, i.e. a 'millstone' rock that is rolled in a slot across the opening, since he has seen similar mechanisms at the 'Tomb of the Kings' in the north of Jerusalem.  Tissot notes that the initial anointing must have been hurried since the Sabbath (indeed, the Passover itself) would be upon them by 6pm and all work would have to stop.  This makes it very important to undertake more anointing on Sunday morning.  An agonising time to wait.

P241 - There is time on Saturday evening, after the Sabbath, to buy the necessary spices.  Perhaps the initial anointing was using whatever they had to hand, and Joseph of Arimathea might have quickly bought some spices along with the linen he bought in which to wrap Jesus (Mark 15:46).  It could only be a hasty arrangement, since even 12 hours ago nobody foresaw this, and even once it had happened they might have expected Jesus to be left on the cross for days.

P256 - Emmaus means 'hot springs' and there are several modern candidate places.  Tissot judges that it is modern El-Kubeibeh (or Al-Qubeiba) which is exactly the distance specified.  Tissot quotes Renan when he says of Luke's account of Jesus secretly accompanying disciples forlornly heading out of Jerusalem, "It would be difficult, says Renan, to add one word to this account, one of the most refined and delicately shaded in any language."  Tissot is speaking of Ernest Renan 1823-1892, a contemporary of Tissot, who wrote 'The Life of Jesus'. 'The Apostles' and "History of the Origins of Christianity" to name three books.  I cannot find the quotation Tissot gives in any of these three, but Renan also wrote many letters and may well have corresponded directly with Tissot.

P260 - Tissot notes something interesting.  In John 21, the disciples go to Galilee as instructed and wait for Jesus, but the waiting is too much for Peter, and in the evening he says "I'm going fishing" (John 21:3), and the others follow.  He is a leader and a man of action.  In John 21:5, Jesus appears on the shore while the disciples, led by Peter, have gone fishing (unsuccessfully until Jesus shows up).  He asks them "Children, have ye any meat?" and the word 'meat' in the Greek is 'προσφάγιον' (prosphagion) and in the Latin is 'pulmentarium'.  The KJV uses 'meat' widely for 'meal' or 'food' but - warning - English Bibles get this word wrong and some even translate it as 'fish'.  Tissot notes that pulmentarium is a simple food made of beans and vegetables served as an accompaniment to most meals and Biblehub gives prosphagion as 'something eaten in addition to bread, i.e. a relish' - it sounds like Brazilian feizoada, or Bulgarian lutanitsa.  In this way, I think it could actually be humorous - almost as if Jesus says 'Do you have any sauce to go with your meal?'  They say 'no', perhaps a little annoyed because it shows up their inability to catch any fish themselves.  Rely on Jesus to put it right.  When they pull in a tonne of fish, Peter realises who it is first and jumps right out of the boat.  What a wonderful Saint Peter.  This time he beats Saint John in the race.

P262 - Tissot contrasts the two natures of Saint Peter and Saint John.

P263 - Tissot is in no doubt that this draught of fishes is additional to the one at the start of Jesus' ministry where He calls the disciples, and it does seem surprising that anyone would question that.  It seems clear to me, as to Tissot, that there were two miraculous draughts of fishes, two multiplications of loaves and fishes, two incidents where demoniacs were cured, two healings at a distance (the nobleman's daughter and the centurion's servant), and for that matter two times when Jesus was anointed by Saint Mary Magdalene before He was crucified.  Attempts to conflate them assume there are errors and this merely complicates the straightforward explanation that the events are as described.

P264 - The meal prepared by Jesus shows us a glimpse of our reward once we have finished fishing for souls.

 

The Fulfilment of Scripture

P198-199 - Tissot notes 16 chief prophesies about Jesus that are in Scripture - what we now call the Old Testament.  I used to think it was a stretch to pick out a phrase or two from Scripture that you could apply to Jesus' life, death and resurrection, but I have become convinced of the opposite - the whole of Scripture is telling about God, and the most important message within it is that He is coming to save us from this sinful exile that our ancestors chose.  It is in plain sight but also hidden.  Look at Psalm 110 - surely a mysterious collection of words, yet one that King David has had carefully scribed and printed and sung and which cascades down from his Bronze Age reign to the present.  People must have recited it with a great deal of mystery.  The Psalm makes complete sense once we encounter Jesus (a good narrative is here).

 

There are various lists of just how many fulfilments of Scripture are accomplished by Jesus.  This source lists 301 fulfilments.  That averages as one in every three pages of the Old Testament.  It is very rewarding to discover one yourself; in the course of my (thin) studies I was thrilled to discover Psalm 31 (that is, I read it carefully for a change), especially verse 5: 'Into your hand I commit my Spirit'.  When you put these words at the Cross, the rest of the Psalm comes into sharp focus.  Sing some Psalms.

 

Tissot begins by recalling the start of this passage from the Wisdom of Solomon 2:12-24, one of the books held as deuterocanonical by Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism - see for yourself:

    "Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, because he is annoying to us; he opposes our actions, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training.  He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the Lord.  To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, because his life is not like that of others, and different are his ways.  He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure.  He calls blest the destiny of the righteous and boasts that God is his Father.  Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him in the end.  For if the righteous one is the son of God, God will help him and deliver him from the hand of his foes.  With violence and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience.  Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”
    These were their thoughts, but they erred; for their wickedness blinded them, and they did not know the hidden counsels of God; neither did they count on a recompense for holiness nor discern the innocent souls’ reward.  For God formed us to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made us.  But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are allied with him experience it.

 

God most certainly did deliver Our Lord.

 

THE RESURRECTION

Can you answer these two questions easily?  Why did Jesus have to die, and why did He rise from the dead?

 

Let us start with two easier questions: did He die, and did He rise from the dead?  I think the facts of the matter are easier to grapple, and I think it is quite possible to conclude “Yes” to both of these questions.  These points are argued very well in many places such as Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Christ”.  There is no doubt He existed, and Nicky Gumbel in the Alpha programme points out that there is more documentary evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ, and at an earlier date, than any other historical figure.  Blessed Fulton Sheen makes the case just as well in his “Life of Christ” and gives much evidence about the expectation and reality of the Messiah from sources spanning the known world.  It is safe to proceed and only revisit this question if there is some new and extraordinary evidence to the contrary.  That He died is in no real doubt based at least on the medical evidence we are presented with; there would be no revival and even less a healthy walking individual less than 48 hours later.  We are told, without any word to the contrary, and there were plenty of naysayers, that he was pierced in the heart with a lance.  Those that tortured and executed him were skilled and had very good reasons to do their job properly, and would have been severely punished if they had not.  This goes as well for the guarding of the tomb; the soldiers would have been killed if they had allowed the body to be removed.  In Acts 12:19 we read that Peter's jailors are executed after he miraculously escapes and in Acts 16:27 we read that the Roman jailor, fearing the consequences, was about to kill himself after discovering that Paul and Silas had been miraculously freed.  The Bible records that the Jews spread the story that Jesus' body had been removed, but could it be possible that His body was actually removed by bribing the guards?  The empty tomb would not be a secret for long and no bribe would pay for the punishment that would follow.  I think it is certain that the guards did their job.  Even to the most sceptical eye, the evidence in the Gospels has survived the negative perspectives of the Jews and the Romans at the time, and many since.  Tens (possibly hundreds) of thousands of people were in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion who could point out errors.  A large portion were surely still there 48 hours later.  The network of Jesus’ disciples - mostly simple men and women - simply could not sustain an elaborate fiction.  It would bring them no power, wealth, honour or pleasure, unlike some other ‘religions’.

 

Why did Jesus have to die?  The question quickly moves to 'why has God made the world this way?'  Why hasn't He made it perfect to begin with, with people who can't sin?  Why give them the choice to make a bad mistake?  Why is the sacrifice of Jesus the only way to bring everything back into order, why not just snap His fingers?  The first point to make is that God has made it this way and no other way.  He is a God of truth and power and of justice, and He has created a world where there will be justice.  Would you rather He created one of permanent injustice, or chaos?  It is to His glory that this world will deliver His plan of bringing to Him all those souls that want Him.  Even allowing for rampant free will and our ancient inclination towards sin, He has no need to invent another world.  It means that we, the way we are now, are all very precious and this world, this garden, is precious too.  It is not for us to imagine that God should have done it some other way, that we understand God, or how you can create a self-consistent world or give it a trajectory to perfection.  When the problem of evil is thought through, or the problem of suffering, we find that the consequences of protecting people from every harm, even if you follow it just a little, means no free will, and no Earth as we know it to enjoy - no plate tectonics, no weather or sea or mountains or animals, and especially no other people, because they all might harm us.  And if we are harmed, can we shake our fist at God, or declare He is bad or we don't believe in Him?  That puts off the moment when we really have to take Him seriously, but it is only a postponement.  We have free will and that is crucial and we have an Earth (and a universe) and bodies with which to enjoy it and enjoy one another.  It also means we can make serious mistakes and be hurt by accident or design.  God made heaven and earth and it was 'very good', not perfect. There is a purpose in this life and if we knew it fully we would just try to defeat it like the original Adam (male and female).  God tells us enough to allow our stubborn selves to submit to His loving grace and turn our hearts slowly and surely to Him.  That said, there is some poison in this world.  Jesus draws out the poison so that we are not killed by it.  Each of us can draw out some poison too, when we suffer in His name, which means every time you are kind, truthful, generous, caring, fair - and the world rejects you for it.  Because of our stubborness and selfishness, and because the world has a history and a geography and a society that is amazing, this drawing out of poison has to take a real form, one that uses the world.  The cure has to stand out like nothing else could, yet it cannot be something so out-of-this-world that we have no choice but to accept God.  If God projected a physically impossible banner across the sky at all times saying that He is present, then there would be no choice, and it is essential that we choose God, use our free will.  God doesn't want robots.  You don't have to 'feel' it, you have to 'do' it. The feelings will come and may surprise you, but you have to do it first and last.  Jesus' rescue mission was planted in history and Scripture thousands of years ago.  When He achieved the crucifixion and resurrection there was no mistaking it.  You are not forced to believe, but you have more than enough to persuade you.  Think how thunderstruck the disciples would have been when they start to realise that the Exodus, lamb, cross, manna, Ark of the Covenant, the Word of God, the Psalms of King David, the exile and return, all of these things pointed to Jesus Christ, to His death and resurrection.  For over a thousand years they have been celebrating a mysterious sacrifice to rescue their people.  Now the sacrifice is standing in front of them and the rescue is grander, and for more people, than they could possibly have imagined.  Their minds are blown wide open and light floods in.  And the best is yet to come.

 

I think the greatest witness to the resurrection is above and beyond the details we have.  I find those details compelling, but there is something greater here, and permit me to build up the story again before we get to it.  God wants us to choose Him, to choose Life.  “Choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deuteronomy (again) 30:19); “Verily, Verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.” (John 6:47).  I do not think you can prove God with an argument of logic.  You can get close, and it is a good thing to contemplate God, but do not ever think He will submit to your rules, which are an abstraction of the reality He has granted you.  Saint Thomas Aquinas worked hard on this, and the existence of a benevolent God was Rene Descartes' second most important principle after "I think, therefore I am" (original text).  Yet God has provided us an easier way and a better way through His Son, something that cannot be ignored, a set of circumstances that defy normal explanation, that stick out of history like a garden in the desert.  At first they seem just bizarre, surely with some imagined or self-serving folklore, puzzling in their characteristics; but certainly intriguing.  As you draw closer you start to see the patterns and the details and the warmth, the light, the truth, that draws you closer still.  The disciples were drawn to this.  They left their families and livelihoods at considerable risk (and actual rejection).  The Prophets spoke of the Messiah, but in the minds of a great many this had been bent into a king of this world who would conquer and rule nations like kings of old, though the Bible never promised this.  We get to Holy Week and they are pitching their hopes on some triumphant revolt, pointing to the grandeur of the Temple, perhaps a campaign peppered with miracles, though they know their Jesus of love is not like that, and they puzzle all the more.  Then a momentous meal with what Jesus calls the drinking of blood - yes, blood, even His blood.  They think, "But haven't we've always been told that the blood of a creature contains its life and we shouldn't touch it?"  Yes you have.  They sleep off their passover meal and wine in Gethsemane to find Jesus utterly haggard, sweating blood and at once desperate and frustrated yet still loving.  Then all very quickly a crowd marches on them from Jerusalem, He is arrested and then shamed and tortured while they can only agonise from afar, though Peter and John take the risk of getting close.  They are scared to death; scared of death.  The horrifying events unfold and they are powerless.  It gets worse as the Friday progresses and the sun rises on blood and hate, noise and curses, heat and thirst.  A few days ago it was triumphant palm leaves and cheering crowds.  Then He dies in the worst possible way, the most humiliating way.  Grief on top of tragedy.  Disbelief.  Already confused, already scared, now fearing the recriminations, with no idea what to do next.  No friends it seems in the Jews, no friends in the Romans.  The sky is black.  Peter returns, having to explain his bitter tears of regret.  The Virgin Mary and the Holy Women have barely enough time to clean off the worst of the blood and filth and anoint and dress the body with whatever things they could quickly find.  Joseph of Arimathea appears with fresh linen with which to wrap the body and offers the tomb he has had newly made nearby in his garden.  The women turn and see him and they register the details; they probably realise this is enormous charity from an unlikely source, but for now their hearts are drained of any possibility for joy and Jesus receives a numb and unexpected burial in someone else’s tomb.  There seems to be nothing inspiring, no triumph, just black.  The weight hangs on their souls.  John returns to the disciples, virtually carrying the Blessed Virgin Mary whose heart and soul has been pierced as truly as the body of her Son.  They gather in a room in Jerusalem and wait, while one of them watches the door.

 

There is another viewpoint.  As Tissot draws it (What Our Saviour saw from the Cross), there are two men in white clothes who have been sitting near the tomb all the while.  They see some different things, things that those at the cross are also seeing and hearing through a fog of grief and bewilderment.  The two men hear Jesus forgiving sins, even now, forgiving all those who have done this, and forgiving and saving one sinner hanging to His right, at once ordinary and special, who sees the Master and does whatever little he can for Him.  It turns out to be one of the most powerful requests, one that will reverberate always, until Jesus comes again.  “Jesus, remember me, when You come into your Kingdom.”  The two men in white hear Jesus speak from the Psalms of King David, those lovely melodies of praise, pleading, frustration, peace, every emotion turned to God.  The two men see how this lamb on this cross mirrors the lambs splayed for roasting and eating a short distance away in the Temple and how His innocent blood runs down the wood and down His face like the scarlet tassels of the Scapegoat.  They see Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus come near, troubled and overcoming their fear for something much greater.  The honour of giving this humble and inspiring man a decent burial, who speaks and acts as if God Himself, is worth risking their great positions.  The two men see the broken hearts of the Holy women, and most of all the Mother of God, who can barely stand.  The women's grief is lessened slightly when they see that someone will take care of the body and not leave it for the dogs.  Joseph brings some linen and they have had the presence of mind to gather spices as best they can while the world goes mad around them.  They see the young fisherman-disciple John yearning for his Master and also carefully taking in the details of the events, conscious that the other men have fled, and galvanised at the last when Jesus asks him to take Mary as his mother.  The words have an astonishing authority and power that he will dwell on for a long time to come, and he will recall them when he is tested himself.  The two men in white see Jesus give up His spirit with a mighty groan before the Romans come to break the legs of the condemned.  All these details they observe, which will slowly and solidly emerge from this fog like sailors approaching an island shrouded in mist.  Tomorrow, Saturday, they will start to ask one another what each one saw, or heard, and what they thought about it.  Some will abandon Jerusalem and start to leave and wander out towards Emmaus, trying to work out what has happened.

 

This picture is one where the sin of mankind has been forgiven and taken away.  If nothing else had happened, Jesus' sacrifice might have become clear on its own, as the events of His life were put alongside the words of the Prophets and the Psalms, even the whole of Scripture.  But more likely the hubbub would have died out.  This was not the first or last claimant to be the Messiah.  Those confused and scared individuals would return to their families.  A few people would hold Jesus Christ dear in their hearts and be saved, but not very many.  Holy Saturday does not seem like the start of a revolution.  But a few days after the crucifixion, the disciples have indeed changed.  A revolution does indeed happen and before too long it inspires the whole world.  The Acts of the Apostles is world's most startling action sequence of real life.  Ordinary men and women go out and light fires everywhere, and cannot be stopped.  How?

 

I have already introduced Shuzako Endo’s conclusion.  Something electrified the disciples.  There is only one explanation on the table.  Jesus was resurrected.  There can be no other explanation.  The disciples are willing to go to their deaths, because death does not matter any more.  You should not choose it, but its threat has no power.  They have seen the proof, and felt the proof, and heard their beloved Master again when they thought that voice of love and strength and comfort could never again be heard.  They are transformed by the resurrection.  Shortly, their human talents will be multiplied by the Holy Spirit, too.

 

On Sunday morning, as soon as they can after observing the Sabbath, the Holy Women decide to go to the tomb and give Jesus' body the second anointing with the new materials they have gathered on Saturday evening. They have no idea how this will work.  They are grief-stricken and probably exhausted.  There is a stone over the tomb and guards outside it.  What can they do?  But they have learned from Jesus too, that with God anything is possible, that your belief counts for all.  The Mother of God remembers an earlier time when Jesus seemed to be lost for three days, and Simeon who said her heart would be pierced and her Son would cause the rise and fall of many in Israel, and this hasn't happened yet.  They have their own wells of determination and circle of support that means they have the collective strength to go out and face the impossible for their beloved Master.  They strike out before the sun is even up and never mind the rock or the guards.  Faith is what matters.  Still the men don’t want to go near the tomb and help move the rock.  When the women get there, amid tears of sorrow, frustration and bold determination, it is a puzzling scene.  The tomb is open.  The guards are dazed.  There are what seem to be angels and strange light.  They will relay this to the men later who will write accounts that seem to have some differences, but only those resulting from witnesses to a scene as breathtakingly wonderful and incredible as the crucifixion was horrific, who each see a different part of the whole.  At first, their focus is on Jesus’ dead body.  The Magdalene reaches what seems to be a new low of despair when she clearly sees His body is gone, amongst these odd circumstances; clearly someone has taken it, and a displaced stone, folded linen and even mysterious figures are secondary.  Her beloved teacher is gone.  No!  They’ve taken Him?  Another insult to the greatest man who ever walked the earth?  But wait, here is someone, seems like a gardener (after all, they are in Joseph of Arimathea’s garden).  She begs him to tell her where they have taken the body.  And then the most precious words anyone can ever hope to hear; her own name spoken by her Lord.  “Mary.”  “Rabbouni!”.

 

It has begun.  The wildfire of faith that sets people’s hearts on fire with love has begun.  The crucifixion meant that mankind would no longer have to be banished from Heaven and denied the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth that is to come.  Jesus takes our sin from us, if we just let Him.  To do this means loving Him, not just a feeling but a decision to follow His commandments, which are simple; to love God and to love your neighbour as yourself.  He gave much teaching by examples, real and metaphorical, so that we can turn our hearts to Him and away from our selfishness, our hearts that are already formed with an understanding of love.  So that we Choose Life.  Not everyone will choose it and some will choose the material and sensual rewards of themselves in this lifetime.  Material things are useful and you should strive to enjoy life, but to choose pleasure, honour, power or wealth as your goals, to put them above God or your neighbour - that inclines the attitude of your heart downwards and inwards at a cost to others, and to the Earth.  After your pride or appetite is satisfied, you will find that these goals are empty of happiness, and then you might find that you have nothing else.  If you incline your heart upward to God and devote yourself to other people’s happiness, then you find satisfaction.  When everyone does this, in the new Kingdom of Heaven and Earth, your happiness is guaranteed by those around you, and their happiness guaranteed by you.

 

If there were no resurrection, I would not be writing this now.  I would not be praying to God that Jesus remembers me too when He comes into His Kingdom.  I know He will, as long as I keep His commandments, and I also know that if I fail from time to time then He will forgive me and take me back every time I ask Him.  I want to sing in heaven for God, better than I do now - for God, because it would be a bit ambitious to think other people would like it, but a parent loves to hear their child sing.  I want to learn the piano for the same reason and I could play a quiet accompaniment to the real musicians.  I want to cook nice food for other people, and - more so - with other people.  I want to plant and grow and nurture the food that is cooked, in a lovely garden where we can walk and talk and look after things, with birds and bumble-bees.  All my family will be there and so many more I haven’t yet met. If I want to be quiet I can carve some wood and think about God and people I love, which is easy because it is everyone.  Really, I don’t have much of a clue of how good it will be, but it must be better than the best day ever on Earth.  We are talking about the presence of God after all; the presence of love itself, and capable of anything.  Sometimes, now, we can really enjoy Earth, and this is when our connection with God is only a shadow of what it should be, or nothing if we choose to look the other way.  How much better it will be.  Yet do not be in a hurry.  God has given you a mission that He has entrusted to no-one else, and like Simeon He will let you know when it is done.  Meanwhile if you are suffering, puzzled like Job, exhausted like Elijah, scared like Gideon, know that it will be rewarded in the next life, more and more and more than you can imagine.  If you are persecuted in the name of truth, or justice, or love, or by greed or envy or any other bad motive, then you are trying to be like Christ, who received every insult and injury for us, so we can be His family.  I want that family.  As far as I can I want to find it and make it here on Earth, too.

 

Thank you and Bless you Jacques James Tissot, 1836-1902.  He kept painting pictures of God's work until his last.

 

When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

~ St. Paul of Tarsus (Romans 8:15–17)

 

Oh, if only the suffering soul knew how it is loved by God, it would die of joy and excess of happiness!  Some day, we will know the value of suffering, but then we will no longer be able to suffer. The present moment is ours.

~ St. Faustina Kowalska

 

I do not desire to die soon because in Heaven there is no suffering.  I desire to live a long time because I yearn to suffer much for the love of my Spouse.

~ St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

 

By suffering we are able to give something to God.  The gift of pain, of suffering is a big thing and cannot be accomplished in Paradise.

~ St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcino