BIBLE STUDY: March 4th
The meeting opened with prayer.
After a short introduction, we proceeded to consider the ninth & tenth Stations.
The Ninth Station: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.
Luke 23:27-31
27
A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him.
28
Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children,
29
for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.'
30
At that time people will say to the mountains, 'Fall upon us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!'
31
for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?"
This incident is recorded only in Luke's Gospel. It was noted that an important theme throughout Luke's Gospel is the need for the Christian disciple to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. After relating the incident of Simon of Cyrene shouldering the cross behind Jesus, Luke draws our attention to the women following behind and weeping for Jesus.
What Jesus was warning the women about was the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred in 70 AD when the city was completely razed to the ground. The hardships of the famine in the besieged city would be horrendous and the rape, pillage and destruction followibg the fall of the city would be terrible.
In giving his warning, Jesus alludes to Hosea 10, the second half of verse 8: "Then they shall cry out to the mountains, 'Cover us!' and to the hills, 'Fall upon us!'"; here the prophet is foretelling the fall of the northern kingdom Israel under the Assyrians.
As the Lucan passage is short, we read another passage - a lamentation over Jerusalem after it had fallen to the Babylonians in 587 BC - to help put Jesus' warning into context, as both Jesus and the women would be familiar with the passage. We noticed the similarity between Christ''s "Daughters of Jerusalem", and the "O daughter Jerusalem" of the lamentation:
Lamentations 2:13-22
13
To what can I liken or compare you, O daughter Jerusalem? What example can I show you for your comfort, virgin daughter Zion? For great as the sea is your downfall; who can heal you?
14
Your prophets had for you false and specious visions; They did not lay bare your guilt, to avert your fate; They beheld for you in vision false and misleading portents.
15
All who pass by clap their hands at you; They hiss and wag their heads over daughter Jerusalem: "Is this the all-beautiful city, the joy of the whole earth?"
16
All your enemies open their mouths against you; They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, "We have devoured her. This at last is the day we hoped for; we have lived to see it!"
17
The LORD has done as he decreed: he has fulfilled the threat He set forth from days of old; he has destroyed and had no pity, Letting the enemy gloat over you and exalting the horn of your foes.
18
Cry out to the Lord; moan, O daughter Zion! Let your tears flow like a torrent day and night; Let there be no respite for you, no repose for your eyes.
19
Rise up, shrill in the night, at the beginning of every watch; Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your little ones (Who faint from hunger at the corner of every street).
20
"Look, O LORD, and consider: whom have you ever treated thus? Must women eat their offspring, their well-formed children? Are priest and prophet to be slain in the sanctuary of the LORD?
21
"Dead in the dust of the streets lie young and old; My maidens and young men have fallen by the sword; You have slain on the day of your wrath, slaughtered without pity.
22
"You summoned as for a feast day terrors against me from all sides; There was not, on the day of your wrath, either fugitive or survivor; Those whom I bore and reared my enemy has utterly destroyed."
It was admitted that the picture painted in the lamentation was grim. Some thought that "Must women eat their offspring, their well-formed children? " was in some way metaphorical. But it was observed that such happenings are attested during severe sieges. Indeed, in Josephus' account of the Roman siege of Jerusalem, he explicitly states that this was done:
.... and it was now become impossible for her any way to find any more food, .... She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, "My poor baby! for whom shall I preserve you in this war, this famine, and this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives, we must be slaves! The famine also will destroy us, even before that slavery comes upon us; yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other. Come on; be my food, and be a fury to these seditious rebels and a byeword to the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews." As soon as she had said this, she slew her son; and then roasted him, and ate one half of him , and kept the other half by her concealed. [Titus Flavius Josephus, "The Wars of the Jews," Book 4, chapter III, section 4]
One person, Jesus, is being executed for sedition (as the Romans see it); hence "the wood is green"; but when there is general sedition and the Romans suppress a whole nation - when the wood is dry - the suffering will be far more terrible. Jesus, though in excruciating pain himself, is more concerned at the fate of Jerusalem and its women and children. So he stops and warns them.
It is also a reminder to us that we can become so preoccupied by concentating on the passion of Jesus, that we forget the manifold sufferings and injustices in the world around us. If we really love Jesus, we should do his will and thus do what we can through work and prayer for those suffering in the world today.
The Tenth Station: Jesus is crucified.
Mark 15:23-27
23
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it.
24
Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
25
It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.
26
The inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews."
27
With him they crucified two revolutionaries, one on his right and one on his left.
See also Matthew 27:33-38, Luke 23:33-38, and John 19:17-22.
We considered the account of all four evangelists. We noted that only Mark and Matthew mention Jesus being offered bitter wine to drink; Matthew says it was mixed with gall, while Mark says it was mixed with myrrh. The point was that it was given as a sedative to numb the pain. it is probably not recorded in the other two Gospels because it was a common practice and there was nothing odd about this. However, both Matthew and Mark do tell us that Jesus did not drink the wine offered him. It will be recalled that at the Last Supper, after giving the Apostles the 'Cup of Blessing', the cup of his blood, he told his Apostles that he would not drink the fruit of the vine again until he drank it in his Father's kingdom. Therefore he refused to drink the wine at this point.
The different versions of the inscription above Jesus were noted. Luke does not even mention it; Mark gives simply: "King of the Jews", thus showing that as far as the Romans were concerned, he was being punished for sedition. Matthew adds the name "Jesus" to the inscription, while John gives: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." It is likely that John's is the correct version and, indeed, John goes to elaborate upon it, namely, that it was in three languages (in Latin: Iésus Nazarénus, Rex Iudæórum) and that the chief priests of the Jews objected to the wording. The other two evangelists merely concentrate on the essential part of, the reason he is being executed.
We considered why Pilate might not have acceded to the wishes to the chief priests to amend the inscription to read "He said he was the King of the Jews." Probably Pilate wants to show his contempt both for Jesus and for the Jewish mob.
All, except Luke, mention that the soldiers divided his garments and cast lots. A condemned prisoner was stripped naked before being fastened to a cross, and it was normal for the soldiers crucifying the criminal to divide up the clothes of the condemned person among themselves. Thus they would also have divided the clothes of the other two condemned criminals amongs themselves. There were three naked men nailed on crosses for passers-by to mock.
Only John gives the detail: that the clothes were divided into four parts, one for each soldier, and that they cast lots for his tunic. John also quotes from Psalm 21 (22): 19 "they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots." (This is the same psalm whose first line will be said by Jesus on the cross: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" - we shall consider this when we meet on 18th March.)
Mark's timing of the crucifixion at nine o'clock in the morning (literally: at the third hour) seems odd as we saw last week that John says they set out for Golgotha at around noon (the sixth hour). Mark, in verse 33, says that darkness came over the whole land at the sixth hour (noon) until Jesus died three hours later. Mark is possibly confusing the beginning of the process of the execution, i.e. Jesus being brought before Pilate, with the actual moment of crucifixion. It is generally considered that John's timing is likely to be more accurate.
Only Luke adds the words: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." Clearly the soldiers crucifying him had no idea that he was the Son of God. They were just carrying out what for them was another routine crucifixion of a condemned criminal. But we considered that Jesus was not praying only for the four soldiers in the crucifixion squad; he was praying for Pilate and the Jewish leaders also. Some considered that in as much as Jesus was dying to take away our sins and the sins of the whole world, we were all in some way responsible for his death and that, therefore, his prayer is for all mankind. He is asking his Father to forgive us all.
For next week
Those present were reminded that next week shall
be considering Stations 11 & 12: Jesus promises his kingdom to the repentant thief; The crucified Jesus speaks to his
Mother and the disciple. It was suggested
that members look at the scriptural passages concerned beforehand.
Conclusion
(Payer of St Alphonsus Liguori)
I love you Jesus, my Love, above all things;
I repent with my whole heart for having offended you.
Never permit me to separate myself from you again.
Grant that I may love you always,
then do with me what you will.
Amen.
Our Lady - pray for us.
St Peter - pray for us.
Most of the scripture texts on this page are taken from the New American
Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C.
