The
Deaths of Jesus
One
of the most difficult things for us to believe about Jesus is that
he
was truly human. We find it much easier to believe that he was God
and treat his humanity as a superficial pretence covering over his
divinity. Yet, it is essential to realize that he was truly human
and this is seen most clearly in the ways in which his death is described.
Mark
is the earliest and the most stark of the gospels. He never tries
to conceal the weakness of the disciples or the humanness of Jesus.
As the end approaches, in his account, the disciples all leave Jesus,
Peter denies him three times, the people jeer him and he cries out
in utter anguish, "Father, Father, why have you abandoned me?"
He dies roaring. There is no relief for him. There is no rehabilitation
of his delinquent disciples. Indeed, he had a hard death.
Matthew's
account is very similar to that of Mark. By the time that Luke wrote
his gospel the severity of the account had been toned down considerably.
Luke is a compassionate man with a horror of conflict and of violence.
In his account an angel consoles Jesus in the Garden. Jesus dies reaching
out to marginalized people. He consoles the women of Jerusalem. He
prays for his executioners, "Father forgive them for they know
not what they do." There is one good thief in this account to
whom Jesus promises forgiveness and paradise. Then Jesus commends
his spirit into the hands of the Father. This Jesus had an inspiring
death.
In
the Johanine account written still later Jesus has a very good death.
Jesus is ever in dignified command of the situation and there is no
unfinished business. He calmly asks, "Who are you looking for?"
when the arresting party come to get him. They fall down in his presence.
There is no agony reported; he is majestic throughout: "It is
for this hour that I came into the world." he said. Jesus is
not abandoned. John and the women are present at the foot of the Cross.
In the end he declares, "It is consummated."
People
also die in different ways. Some die suddenly or violently or in great
fear. Others die well prepared and conscious of what is happening.
Still others pass from life to death with the ease of a ripe fruit
falling from a tree. The human Christ is with people in this experience,
however it comes.
It
is one of the unique things about Christianity that this death is
at the center of its salvation story. It is the story that brings
us to face, and not try to dodge, this most profound reality. It is
the reality that suffering and death, whether faced with horror or
acceptance, is the road to day-to-day restoration and final resurrection
in our lives.
