Good Friday: The Cross, Sufferings and Death of Jesus

By Fr Eugene Lobo, SJ –

Hello and welcome to a special Good Friday Programme. Since the church does not celebrate the Holy Eucharist on Good Friday, today we shall meditate on the cross, sufferings and death of Jesus. Stay with us.

The Gospel according to St Matthew tells us: “Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside along the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him. And the third day he shall rise again.” In this passage we have the third and last prediction of our Lord regarding His death and resurrection. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the centre of biblical revelation. It is the most important Christian truth. The theme of this particular announcement, however, takes us beyond the earlier two predictions. Whereas they talked about only His death and resurrection, this one stresses the nature and details of His suffering. He explains in detail that He will be betrayed and handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn Him to death and then hand Him over to the pagans. They in turn will mock, scourge, and finally crucify Him. After that Christ will rise from the dead. So the theme of this particular prediction by our Lord is His sufferings.

We exist in a day and time when much of Christ’s work in redemption is taken for granted and the suffering that He went through is taken too lightly. We believe it’s time well spent for us to once again look face to face at the suffering he actually went through to bring you and I the deliverance we enjoy today. We spend some time going through the Gospels and living out the walk of Christ from Gethsemane to the Cross. The four Gospel writers–Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John–didn’t go into great detail, and there was a reason for it. In those days, scourging and crucifixion were very common. It was nothing to walk down the road toward the city and see someone suffering the punishment of crucifixion. However, each Gospel writer gave some detail that point out the terrible suffering.

As we study about Christ’s physical suffering, we truly experience his pain and at the same time do contemplate the agony of our saviour. What a price had to be paid for this very sin and the sinful nature of human kind. The sufferings of Jesus indicate how much God loves us, and how much Christ loves us, and continue to show that love to us. He would stand sufferings beyond that which any human body ever stood up to or ever will stand up to. We know that human beings have suffered great things, but none has had to drink of the cup that He drank of, because there was so much in the contents of that cup. We want to answer the question of what the body of Jesus endured during those hours of torture. None of the Gospels give the entire pattern in sequence, but if you’ll put them together, you’ll get the whole walk of Christ from Gethsemane to Calvary. Gethsemane is where His torture really began. There’s where He began to pay the price for our redemption. There’s where the physical suffering first began to be laid upon Him as He bore the sins of the whole world.

The sufferings of Jesus Christ were no accident or miscalculation. He was able to give in exact detail all that was going to happen to Him. Among His first recorded words are these: “I must be about my Father’s business”. Just before His death He said, “It is finished”, “it is accomplished.” It is obvious that He knew what He was supposed to do and when He had finished it. The fact that Jesus knew every single detail of His sufferings indicates that He must have suffered through them a thousand times before He actually endured them. Being omniscient, He was able to conceive of all that His suffering would be.  Jesus wanted the disciples to understand His sufferings. They anticipated the glories of the Kingdom and the Messiah–those prophecies they seemed to understand quite well. But they didn’t understand that the Messiah had to suffer first. We can’t be too hard on their ignorance because despite all that Jesus said they expected a great kingdom. The disciples were looking for a lion; they didn’t know they needed a lamb. But Jesus knew about their weakness.

The Fidelity of Christ to the Father:  The Gospel according to St Matthew says, “Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside along the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem.” There’s a resolution and conviction in His statement. The gospel of Luke says, “He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Jesus was resolute in His commitment.   He finished His ministry.  It was from there that He would begin His long ascent to Jerusalem. It was now only a matter of days until He would face His death and resurrection. While on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus again felt a need to communicate to His disciples about what was going to happen. It may have sounded shocking and strange to the disciples, but that was exactly where they were going.  Mark says that Jesus walked in front of the disciples. He was like a commander leading his troops into battle, putting Himself in the most dangerous and vulnerable position. Jesus steadfastly moved toward His death on behalf of His disciples. Their anticipation of the Kingdom mingled with their fear of death.

Jesus Predicts his Suffering.  Christ predicted in great detail what would happen to Him. But how did He know all that? There’s only one who could know, and that is God. Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. He was no ordinary man. He told His disciples to get the foal of a donkey and told them what would be said when they asked the owner for the animal. Now Jesus says that He would be betrayed. The Greek verb for “betrayed” means “to be handed over.” But it is obvious that it implies betrayal. Judas turned Him over to the Jewish leaders, thus betraying Him. The chief priests and scribes made up the executive body of the Temple priesthood that ultimately condemned Jesus Christ to death because He so threatened the security of their system. Jesus knew He would be betrayed to them. The priests rejected Christ. They were in a position to pull off a mock trial and condemn Him to death. That was no surprise to Him.

The Jewish leaders couldn’t kill Him because the Romans had removed their right to execute people. So they had to give Him over to the Gentiles, which they did after they brought some false charges against Him. Ultimately the charge was that He spoke against Caesar as recorded in the Gospel of John.   Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, couldn’t find anything wrong with Him, but he finally succumbed to crucifying Him because of pressure from the Jewish leaders. They told Pilate they would tell Caesar if he didn’t. Pilate already had many attacks against him in his relations with the Jews. If one more had occurred, the emperor probably would have removed Pilate from his position, and perhaps even would have killed him.

Once Jesus was condemned to death the following things took place: First, He was mocked. They mocked about his being a Messiah, his divinity, his miracles and healing, his teaching and his kingship. Roman soldiers put a reed in His hand, spat all over Him, and jeered at Him. Secondly, He was scourged.  They lacerated His back with leather thongs, in which were bits of bone and metal at the end. Then they laughed at Him in scorn. Thirdly they placed on his head a crown of thorns and placed a purple robe on him.  They had taken the thorny branches, weaved them into a crown and placed on his head to mock him as a king. Then he was taken in a procession through public streets and market places to be laughed at mocked and insulted and to be made an object lesson to people. Finally, he was taken to Golgotha and there they crucified him. It was a brutal act. They nailed his hands and legs and raised him high to be hanging between heaven and earth.  He was allowed to suffer in agony, with thirst, fever and the fear of death. He had no one close to him. They allowed him to die alone. The Romans crucified Him but He rose from the dead.

His Moral Sufferings: The Gospels give us the details regarding the sufferings of Jesus. Jesus’ suffering was not one dimensional. The proportion of His suffering is beyond anything we can ever consider. Many of us limit our perception of Christ’s suffering to the nails driven through His hands, the spear thrust through His side, scourging at the pillar or the crown of thorns jammed on His head. There is little question of that bringing about a great deal of suffering. First century Jewish historian Josephus told of three men who were crucified. They were left until such a time when they should have been dead. But two of them lived. So crucifixion by itself didn’t always kill its victim. That is why the executioners would scourge those whom they especially wanted to die. The resulting blood loss and exposure of the internal organs, coupled with the pain involved, would make death inevitable in crucifixion.

There was much more to the suffering of Christ than just His physical suffering on the cross. Generally our bodies have an amazing ability to cope with shock and trauma. Psychologically a person bears his suffering which can be more painful.  Prophet Isaiah tells us about the suffering servant who had neither form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him; there is no beauty that we should desire him. He suffered from being ugly and being rejected; he was despised.  Jesus suffered the sorrow of grief and the lack of esteem and respect. He suffered the internal pain of being despised and rejected. Remember who this is: Jesus, God in human flesh, was never worthy of that kind of suffering!  He suffered for others: he suffered for us.  He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and with his wounds we are healed.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.  He didn’t even defend Himself.  He was cut off from the land of the living; He made his grave with the wicked.  He suffered from being counted as a common criminal in His burial. He suffered even though he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. It is overwhelming to conceive of the proportion of the sufferings of our Lord. And that’s what was on His heart as He went up the hill to Jerusalem.

The entire Passion was very painful for Jesus. There were seven processions, after the Cenacle where he had the Last Supper. From the meal he went to Gethsemane , the Mount of Olives, then to Annas, to Caiaphas, to Pilate, to Herod, back to Pilate, to Calvary, and finally to the Grave. The worst of the processions was from Pilate’s palace to Calvary. He was taken through the public places and market squares. He had taught in those places, walked freely as a preacher, healed the sick, made the lame walk and gave sight to the blind. Now he is taken as a criminal bound to the cross. The same people, who followed him and listened to him, now laugh at him and shout “crucify him.”  Jesus suffers deeply at every step he takes during his procession.

Jesus suffered the pain of disloyalty knowing fully well that He would soon be betrayed.  Much of this suffering came in anticipation of the event. Since He knew it was going to happen, He suffered the pain before it happened. Jesus loved Judas; He walked and talked with him for three years and affirmed His love for him and gave him responsibilities. Yet Judas betrayed Him with a kiss. Christ suffered the betrayal of one who violated the intimacy of friendship. Peter his close friend and a person who promised loyalty to him unto death denied that he knew him in front of the maid, soldiers and other Jewish people. All the other disciples ran away when he needed them the most.

Jesus was rejected by his own people.  Jesus was turned over to the chief priests and scribes, and they condemned Him to death. St John says: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not”. The leaders rejected Him. St Peter says that he was the cornerstone the builders rejected. The people of His own nation–those He healed and taught–rejected Him. Such infidelity alone would be sufficient to kill a person. He was betrayed by a friend and rejected by His people. At this moment it looked as if Jesus was rejected not only by men, but also by God. He says: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  Matthew says, “All the disciples forsook him, and fled.” Jesus didn’t have anyone left. He was rejected by the people, by the disciples, and by God.  The Jews were always tribe conscious and were loyal to the group in which they lived. Now his own tribe rejects him and that would have pained him a great deal.

Jesus bore all Humiliation.   The Passion Narratives tell us that they mocked Him and humiliated him. They pulled at His beard, crammed a crown of thorns on His head, stuck a reed in His hand, put a purple robe on Him, and mocked by calling Him a king. They spat on His face. They insulted, scorned, ridiculed Him and beat him. Then they nailed Him to a cross naked before the whole world. He was nailed between two thieves. The glorious, sinless Son of God was humiliated when He should have been exalted. Yet He never retaliated. As human beings we cannot imagine what it would have been like for Him to suffer such humiliation.

There was Injustice in the entire trial and condemnation.  The Romans scourged and crucified Him because He had been condemned. He was held responsible for something He was not guilty of. If any of us were accused of something we weren’t guilty of, and it demanded a severe penalty, we would scream and shout at the top of our voice. But in silence Christ was obliged to accept the responsibility for sins He never committed. All the guilt of all the people who ever lived was put on Him. Imagine a person to be put to death for a crime he hadn’t committed.

Those four things alone–the pain of betrayal, rejection, humiliation, and injustice–would be enough to kill any man. We see Christ agonized over those things in the Garden of Gethsemane. The suffering of His soul over those things almost killed Him, prompting His body, as St Luke says,  to sweat great drops of blood. The nails in His hands were nothing compared to the pain of bearing all the sins of all the people who ever lived or the pain of enduring humiliation and rejection when you deserve exaltation.

At the same time there were the Physical Sufferings.  There was the physical injury. Scourging was a horrible thing. Forty lashes were given by both the Jews and the Romans. The Jews always stopped one short of forty because they didn’t want to break the law. The Romans gave thirteen lashes across the chest, and then thirteen on each shoulder. It usually took two men to do it because one wasn’t strong enough to continue the whipping at the desired pace. The victim’s hands were tied to a post so the body slumped. When the scourging was complete the organs would be exposed. The bleeding was often so profuse that many would die. Jesus suffered a tremendous amount of physical pain before He even reached the cross. That is why they had to force Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross for him.

Jesus dies on the Cross. The Gospels tell us that Jesus hung on the cross for three hours and died. How did Jesus die? We do not assume that He died from the nails in His hands; nor did the crown of thorns kill Him; nor did he die because of possible the suffocation. But He died from cumulative grief, anxiety, pain, and suffering.  However, the greatest suffering is not physical; it is the suffering of the soul. Isaiah, in his hymn of the Servant gives us the understanding of the degree of Christ’s suffering. That’s what Christ tried to tell the disciples, but they didn’t come close to understanding because the next thing we read is about James and John’s attempt to reserve seats in the Kingdom next to Christ. They were completely insensitive. Here among other thing that Jesus suffered was the pain of unsympathetic friends. He experienced the suffering that comes when a person needs support, but finds they’re unresponsive to the needs because they are so involved in seeking their own glory.

There was Power and authority in the Suffering of Jesus. He goes to his suffering courageously. He was aware of his suffering and knew that suffering was not the end of everything. He knew he would rise again.  So he says let us go and meet them.  He goes to his suffering with fore knowledge, being fully aware of the situation and the events that would come. He was aware that his disciples would run away. He knew that one would betray him and his close disciple and friend would deny him.  He knew that he would be alone.  Yet he knew he was not alone. His Father was with him and he being faithful to him would raise him up on the third day. That is the power He had over His sufferings. He said He would conquer death and come out victorious.

As human beings, we do not like to suffer and we don’t want to die. Sometimes, even to hear the word “suffering” makes us shiver. However, everyone who follows Christ will suffer, though we really don’t want to. Peter deeply understood this problem. Once when Jesus foretold his own suffering and death, Peter rebuked him. Then Jesus rebuked Peter in a way that he did not forget. Since then Peter learned the secret to overcoming sufferings, and he passed it on to us: We must accept suffering with a right attitude. That means we must arm ourselves with the attitude of Christ, and we must decide to die to sin and obey the will of God.

Mary is our model for witnessing suffering.  We all experience sadness through our own suffering, and have witnessed the suffering of those close to us. In The Passion we see how Mary witnessed the terrible ordeals of her own son being humiliated before the elders, dragged before Pilate for judgment, scourged nearly unto death, and finally nailed to a cross to die. We now realize the fullness of Mary’s humanity as we saw the intensity of her shock, disbelief and intense sorrow as she remained with her son into his death. In the midst of sufferings Mary comes as a tower of strength. She has the ability to endure the suffering and death of her son.  She was aware that he was the king of the universe. The angel had told her at the annunciation. Now she knows that through his death on the cross he would redeem the world. She had courageously sent her only son into the public ministry. She is the one with the help of some women followed him on his way of the cross. She is the mother who stays with him near his cross and gives him the support he needs.  When they mock him to come down the cross and that they would believe him, she wants him to stay on the cross for she has already believed in him and will make others believe at the Pentecost.

The intensity of both Mary’s suffering and her love for her son are vividly portrayed in the scene where Mary and John scurry through the narrow streets in an attempt to see Jesus. Christ appears from behind the buildings ahead. His body weakened by scourging and the crown of thorns; he bends under the weight of the cross and falls to the rocky street. Mary stops short of the scene. She slumps on a doorstep, sighing in grief, immobilized by shock and fear. She knows that her son is divine. She knows that this was to be his earthly fate. But she remains a human mother watching her child suffer.  Each of us can resolve to imitate Mary in our own lives, by reaching out in love and compassion to assist and comfort others who are suffering. At times this can be relatively easy, such as simply spending time with a friend who is suffering with a problem and may need someone to listen. At other times the witnessing of suffering may require much greater effort, such as when a loved one is dying from a painful illness. During the times when our suffering is most intense, we can remember Mary in The Passion. Yes it can be hard, and at times we may feel as Mary did- that we can’t go on. Yet Mary teaches us that through our love for others, rooted in our love for God, and faith in the resurrection and power of God’s grace, we have the strength and courage to persevere through any suffering the world presents.

You just heard a special reflection on the cross, sufferings and death of Jesus on the occasion of Good Friday. This programme helps us to meditate on the sufferings and death of Jesus. As end this programme we pray to the Lord the grace to remain close to him and await the joy of the Resurrection.