"He who is not with me is against me." St. Luke, 11:23
"He suffered under Pontius Pilate." Creed.
Many years ago in Baltimore, Maryland, a man was arrested for beating his wife. According to the law he was sentenced to receive a whipping of twenty lashes, and to serve a sentence of six months. The papers carried an unusual picture, snapped in the city jail, of the wife-beater tied to a post and receiving on his bare back the twenty lashes required by law. The papers also reported that the wife was refused admittance to the whipping.
Twenty centuries ago there was a much more important scourging, in which everyone of us had a part. At that time an innocent Man had to suffer the scourging that should have been given to us. Our innocent Lord took upon Himself the punishment for all our sins. Realize what that scourging meant, and you will not so glibly and unthinkingly rattle off those words of the Creed: "He suffered under Pontius Pilate."
Picture Jesus stripped of His clothes and tied to a low pillar in such a way that He was stooping over. The leaded whips began to thud upon His innocent flesh. Welts and bruises rose on every part of His body, as it twitched with agony and pain. Several times His position is changed so that no part of His body will be without its wound. How many stripes our Savior suffered we do not know. Some saints say that He received over five thousand blows with the cruel scourge. He was one mass of torn and bleeding flesh.
Why did Pilate permit this punishment, cruel beyond all usual practice? Pilate had tried to shift the responsibility. That failed. He tried to set Christ free by placing Him beside Barabbas. That failed. To satisfy toe cruel crowds the governor ordered the scourging.
Here we have a striking example of what Our Lord tells us today: "He who is not with me is against me." Pilate was not really with Jesus. Oh, in his weak and spineless way he tried to set Christ free, not through love of Christ, but through fear of criticism for condemning an innocent Man. A just judge would have insisted on justice. Instead, Pilate tried to satisfy the Jews by inflicting these torments on their Victim.
Now are fulfilled the prophetic words: "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all." He is wounded for our sins. By His bruises we are healed. The dirge of Isaias, chapter 53, is carried out: "There is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness, and His look was as it were hidden and despised. We have thought Him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted."
What lessons we learn from the scourging! What patience and silent suffering on the part of Christ! What men will not do to protect their position. What cruelty of the rich and powerful to get rid of an opponent. What torture human beings will not try, to save their own comfort, their pocketbooks, and their skins. What cowardice, what craftiness, what cruelty. What powerful proof that he who is not with Christ is against Him.
The other principal pain of Christ was the crowning with thorns. This took place shortly after the scourging. They took off our Lord's own garments and put on Him a purple robe, made a crown of thorns and pounded it down upon His head. Anyone who has ever suffered a headache or a head wound, can understand to some degree what pain those sharp thorns caused our Lord.
There was nothing gentle, nothing considerate about this crowning. It was a mockery of Christ's claim to be king. It was a cruel jest, a devil's way of denying Christ all right to royalty. To make it more real and more ludicrous they put a reed in His hand, bent their knees before Him, and shouted: "Hail, King of the Jews." They struck Him and spat in His face. They heaped on Him every torture and insult.
Patiently and silently Jesus bore it all. As the scourging of His body made good for the sins of the flesh, so the crowning with thorns made good for the sins of the mind. How numerous, how terrible both types of sin appear, when we see the terrible torture endured for them.
Immodest dress, filthy reading matter, sexy stories, impurities of all kinds, alone and with others, in as well as outside of married life - their price was paid in the pain of every wound inflicted by the lash of the soldiers.
Pride of intellect, indifference to spiritual truth, neglect of religious reading, unkindness of thought and speech - the thorns boring into His brow made up for these. Every disloyalty to Christ, every energy, every thought that turns from Him, contributed to the agony of His aching head.
Fear of flogging, they said, was one of the best preventives of crime. In our case, the sight of the flogging that we should have received will be the best preventive of the crime of sin. Now we see what it cost Christ.
Likewise, the crown of thorns will continually keep us from sins of thought. The wife-beater in Baltimore no doubt thought twice afterwards before he lost his temper or became so enraged as to beat up on anyone. The price he had to pay for his crime was too high. You and I have not actually experienced the tortures of Christ during that night of agonies, but we have at least looked at Him long and lovingly enough to realize that it was sin that caused it all.
Make a point during this Lent to reflect so that from now on, you will be with Christ - not against Him.
____________________
Adapted from Talks on the Creed
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, 1946
No comments:
Post a Comment