Breaking the Word

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow. The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men. Then the angel said to the women in reply, "Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.' Behold, I have told you." Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples.  And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me." (Mt 28:1-10)

 

 

The Angel of the Lord appeared. We see angel in the Gospel of Mathew at he time of his birth and now at his resurrection. At birth the Angel appeared to Joseph and cleared his doubts and revealed the identity of Jesus. The child that was to be born was by the Holy Spirit and Joseph was commissioned to take care of the child and also to protect him from Herod who wanted to kill the child.

 

Here also the Angel appeared but to the women who were seeking the body of Jesus. They were also looking at the human side of Jesus while the Angel revealed that he has been raised from the death and he was going to Galilee as he had said earlier. The Angel revealed who Jesus was (the women were only looking for the Jesus who was crucified) and the Angel said: Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.

 

The women were commissioned to tell the other disciples that Jesus was raised from the dead. They ran from the tomb with mixed feelings (fearful yet overjoyed). Jesus met them on their way and revealed himself to them. The message of the risen Lord is: “Do not be afraid. You will see me there”. 

…Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus,  and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews." Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that he said, 'I am the King of the Jews.'" Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. So they said to one another, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be," in order that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled (that says): "They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots." This is what the soldiers did. Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I thirst." There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished." And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit…(Jn 18:1-19:42)

 

 

“He said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.'” These words are the word of Jesus on the Cross and one of the last words. These words tell us that Jesus does not leave his people alone or divided rather he builds relationship among them. He has come to build unity and relationship among people. He came to bring people together. Even the very last act and words of Jesus to the others were to relate them to each other so that each can bring the other home.

 

‘I thirst’ were again one of the last words of Jesus. These words reflect his own situation. Though it presented the physical situation of Jesus, yet we can see in these words the longing of Jesus. His thirst was to fulfill the plan of God in his life. The physical condition of thirst was due to his suffering and agony in fulfilling the mission given to him by the Father.

 

‘It is finished’ puts him relation to the Father. The Father had given him a mission and sent him in to the world. His mission was to preach the kingdom and begin the kingdom among the people. His three years of public ministry was solely doing this. He gave primacy to God and led the people to God and to one another. He has completed this and hence he, with the sense of completion, could say it is finished.

 

The last three words of Jesus, as we see in the Gospel of John, present the three relationships: Jesus’ relationship with the others (his work for them), his relationship within himself, and his relationship with the Father.