Homilette for March 14, 2008

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

(John 10:31-42)

Reading the Passion according to Matthew on Palm Sunday and the Passion according to John on Good Friday, we will notice several differences between the two narratives. Most striking will be the way Jesus dies. In John he calmly bows his head and says, “It is finished.” In Matthew, after crying out almost desperately, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Jesus shrieks again and gives up his spirit.

A subtler difference between the two is the way the so-called Jewish trial of Jesus in John’s gospel is truncated. The narrative pictures only Annas, a former high priest, and some temple guards with Jesus. No one presents testimony regarding Jesus although Annas is said to question him. Matthew’s account, by contrast, pictures a crowded room of Jewish leaders along with the sitting high priest Caiaphas judging Jesus. Two evidently false witnesses accuse Jesus of threatening to destroy the Temple, and Caiaphas directly asks Jesus if he is the son of God. How might we explain these discrepancies?

Since we have no transcripts of the proceedings, we cannot say what exactly took place at the proceeding. However, we can note a few things that will aid our appreciation of the gospel traditions. On reason John’s account does not speak of normal trial procedures if that throughout the gospel Jews come forward with similar accusations and questions that we find in Matthew’s proceeding before the Jewish council. In today’s gospel passage, for example, the Jews accuse Jesus of making himself to be God. Also to be noted today is Jesus’ testimony that the Father has consecrated him as if he were a temple. This statement relates to his famous prediction that when the Jews destroy “this temple,” meaning his body, in three days he would raise it up (cf. John 2:19) – the crux of the charge that Jesus threatens to destroy the temple in Matthew’s Jewish trial. Thus, we see that both gospels attest to the same basic accusations against Jesus although at different times and in different ways.

The breadth of meaning offered by Jesus’ passion and death exceeds our ability to understand the events. Yet we may appreciate them more by attentively listening to the gospel readings on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. We will notice certain similarities and subtle differences. The similarities assure us that our belief in the events’ power to save has solid foundation. The differences indicate the manifold ways that salvation touches us.