“Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, while before Thy face I humbly kneel…” So begins a traditional prayer of the Catholic Church, the “Prayer Before a Crucifix.” What is the image of Jesus you see when you kneel before a crucifix? Is it a simple, bare bones image of Christ in his pain? Or a gentler image that evokes tenderness with tears? Or is there an element of the glory to come in the dying Savior?
The Passion According to St. Luke
Because of the shame in the culture of such a death, Christians in the early centuries seldom used the image of Christ on the cross for devotion. It was too raw, too horrible. For the first three centuries, the threat was too real that any individual Christian might also die on a cross for believing in Christ crucified. Yet today, Christ crucified and his image become the focus in this, the holiest of all weeks.
We enter Holy Week this year through the gate of St. Luke’s story of Jesus’ Passion. Luke’s two-part narrative, his Gospel and his Acts of the Apostles, gives a somewhat different perspective on Jesus’ final days from the narratives of Matthew, Mark, or John. Luke’s Gospel was probably written between 70 and 80 AD, forty or fifty years after Jesus died and arose. It was written in a time of relative safety. It was written to encourage people to live in a way that contrasted radically from any of the other cultures of its day. As such, it focused on Jesus’ goodness, his fidelity to law, and his overcoming evil through fidelity, compassion, and truth.
All through his Gospel, Luke writes like a feature story journalist. He isn’t arranging evidence for Jewish Christians that Jesus really is the Messiah (Matthew). He isn’t writing the bare bones facts for Christians under siege (Mark). He isn’t writing to show Christ’s glory, even in the middle of his death (John).
Luke is writing about the “good and gentle Jesus” who suffered and died, yes, but clearly within His Father’s love. From the cross, he does not cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” but rather “Into Your hands I deliver up my Spirit.” It is in Luke’s Gospel that we hear Jesus respond to nails in his body with, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
A Holy Week Challenge
I understand that before Vatican II, the Gospel of Matthew was read every Palm Sunday, the Gospel of Mark every Monday of Holy Week, the Gospel of Luke every Tuesday of Holy Week, and the Gospel of John every Good Friday. Now, the Palm Sunday Gospel is Matthew in Cycle A, Mark in Cycle B, and Luke in Cycle C. John’s story of the Passion continues to be read every Good Friday.
This Lent I attended a retreat at St. Meinrad provided to us Oblates by Father-Abbot Kurt Stasiak, OSB. He began with a collection of crucifixes dear to him and likened each one to one of the Gospel stories of the Passion. We then read and noticed the details of the Gospels of Mark, Luke, and John. The experience not only deepened my Lent, but it is transforming how I study and pray from Scripture. It leads me back to St. Meinrad to immerse myself in the Triduum this coming week.
I would like to challenge readers to read the Passion narrative in the Gospel of Luke and in at least one other Gospel this week. Attend to the details. They make a difference.
The Passion Narrative is chapters 22-23 in Luke, 26-27 in Matthew, 14-15 in Mark, and 13, then 18-19 in John.
Read and pause to compare and contrast. What are the details you notice? Consider the scene in the garden. In Matthew 26:36-46 and Mark 14:32-42, how does Jesus pray? How long? What do the disciples do? How does Jesus respond to them?
Read Luke 22:39-46. Jesus’ prayer and the depiction of the disciples are different. How does that difference create a slightly different perspective for you? Read John 18:1—all that John says about Jesus at Gethsemane before his betrayal.
As you weave the details together in this scene, how does it become more real to you? What do you think the evangelist was trying to tell us by the details he selected for his narrative?
Luke’s Picture
Some Scripture scholars believe that Luke first wrote the Passion narrative, then wrote the rest of the Gospel and Acts to demonstrate what led Jesus to be able to die as he did. Luke portrays Jesus as core conforming to both Jewish and Roman law—and thus innocent of all wrongdoing. Yet he also portrays Jesus throughout his Gospel as living with an openness and compassion for others that was in great contrast to his culture. Luke’s focus, when you look at the details, is the good and gentle Jesus.
Luke, who tells of the Prodigal Son, the Widow of Nain, and the Good Samaritan in his narrative of the “Good News,” also is the evangelist who describes the disciples with tact and continues to be merciful to them through the Passion narrative. He does not rebuke them for sleeping at Gethsemane, nor does he separate Jesus from them for more than a stone’s throw. He never mentions they fled. Instead, he has them present on Golgotha as Jesus is taken down from the cross. He even provides a rationale for their terror by including a conversation in the Upper Room about swords and Jesus’ healing the man’s ear which “one of them” (we know Peter from another Gospel) cut off.
In the garden, Jesus is sweating blood, but the Greek word used to describe his distress was the word used for the intensity of athletes before a great contest. In Luke, Jesus has a conversation with his Father on his knees. The Father responds to his distress by sending an angel. When Judas comes, he does not betray Jesus with a kiss. Jesus volunteers his identity, maintaining control enough of the situation that violence is put away and Judas is saved from such public incrimination.
The story of the trial in Luke maintains the picture of the good and gentle Jesus. It continues on the way of the cross. Luke alone has Jesus stop to lament over the daughters of Jerusalem. They seem to not be followers, but they still are concerned for Jesus. The other evangelists lack this scene of support from the citizens of Jerusalem. As he is crucified, Jesus says, “Father, forgive them.” This is followed by the scene with the “Good Thief”.
On the cross, Jesus dies with a sense of trust in the Father. There are followers there. The rending of the curtain in the temple comes before his death, for Luke has only goodness follow his passing. The cross is an awful event, but Jesus himself brings goodness and mercy into it–even as suffers and dies.
It is the same story as in Matthew, Mark, and John, but it is filled out with some different details.
This year Luke speaks deeply to me. Good and gentle Jesus, bringing healing, even in the middle of horror. Not abandoned, though alone. As in John, not overwhelmed by evil. As in Matthew and Mark, still, for the day, seemingly defeated–but not really.
Luke may not speak to you this year. Find a passion narrative that touches your heart. Spend Holy Week immersed in that story.
Or begin to compare and contrast the Gospels to see what adding the details together does to enhance the power the Passion has on you. You might look at the Last Supper or the Prayer at Gethsemane or the Arrest and Trial or what Jesus says from the cross or….let the Holy Spirit guide you for the Gospel to speak to you exactly where your heart can hear its Word.
Walk with Jesus
Whether you dig into the Passion Narratives or not, I encourage you to walk with Jesus this holiest of all weeks. Enter into the mystery of a God who loves us so much, that he gives his life to both demonstrate there is a price to pay for our sins and to demonstrate for us HOW to overcome evil with love.
Go to church. Pray. Ponder. Love.
Many blessings!
Prayer Before a Crucifix
Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus,
while before Your face I humbly kneel and,
with burning soul, pray and beseech You to
fix deep in my heart lively sentiments of
faith, hope and charity; true contrition for
my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment.
While I contemplate, with great love and tender
pity, Your five most precious wounds,
ponder over them within me and calling
to mind the words which David, Your
prophet, said to You, my Jesus:
“They have pierced My hands and My feet,
they have numbered all My bones.”
Many thanks to Archabbot Kurt Stasiak, OSB, for what I learned on retreat and Raymond Brown, SS, for his small book, Crucified Christ in Holy Week: Essays on the Four Gospel Passion Narratives. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1986) They both contributed mightily to this reflection.
