Holy Week – Jesus does not want to die
By Robert Fontana
As Passover approaches, Jesus knows that the triumph and success of his entry into Jerusalem and the prophetic cleansing of the temple are fragile gains. He is teaching in the temple every day, but all is not well. The people are listening to him, but the religious leaders are not. He correctly surmises that they are looking for an opportunity to kill him (Mark 11:18) just like prophets in the past had been hunted down, imprisoned, and killed.
In fact, from the moment he decided to go to Jerusalem, Jesus knew his probable fate:
“He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.” (Mark 8:31)
But it is not only the response of the religious leaders which worries Jesus; there is dissension among the Twelve. Judas is disenchanted. A few days earlier, while all were having dinner at the home of Lazarus, Lazarus’ sister Mary had anointed Jesus with a costly perfume. Judas outwardly rebuked Mary for this waste, but the real target of the attack was Jesus. How could he have allowed Mary to do such a thing? (John 12:1-8)
Judas is growing disillusioned, and Jesus knows it. It may be that Judas was greatly disappointed that Jesus did not claim his kingship after the heady days of his entry into Jerusalem and establishing himself in the temple. We know that the mother of James and John wanted her sons to sit at Jesus’ left and right in the coming kingdom. We also know that after the “Last Supper,” an argument broke out among the disciples about which of them was the greatest. (Luke 22:24-28) And even after Jesus died and had risen from the dead, some of his disciples asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) Was Judas sorely disappointed that Jesus did not turn out to be the Messiah that he was hoping for?
Jesus does not want to die. That is clear from Mark’s account of the passion. In fact, judging from Jesus’ plea to
God in Gethsemane, he is clearly asking for the proverbial miracle at the last moment to save him from his fate:
“Abba, Father,* all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.” Mark 14:36
John 12:27 seems to echo this sentiment: “I am troubled* now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.”
But it was not to be. Judas is bitter. He agrees to lead the temple guards to the garden, away from the crowds, where Jesus is gathering with the Twelve. When Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, Jesus is arrested, and the apostles are stunned and flee for their lives.
Though Jesus had often warned them that suffering and death would be his lot in Jerusalem, the Scriptures show clearly that the disciples were totally unprepared for Jesus’ Passion. We must assume that Mary, too, is caught unaware. She and the others had thought that all the ingredients were in place for a peaceful revolution by Jesus and his followers. They must have told one another, “If the high priests and scribes would just join in, the people are ready to make Jesus their king.” (John 6:15) No one anticipates Judas’ actions.
So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” Now [none] of those reclining at table realized why he had said this to him. Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or, “Give something to the poor.” (John 13:27-29)
Events move quickly. The next day Jesus is beaten, judged a blasphemer, and handed over to the Romans to be crucified. Not all of his disciples flee. Mary, his mother, the unnamed male “disciple that Jesus loved,” Mary’s sister, Mary Magdalene, and some of the other women follow the events closely. They are aghast at what is unfolding. Jesus is accused of being a revolutionary plotting to overthrow the Romans. He is sentenced to death, tortured, and executed in the normal way for enemies of the state: crucifixion.
What anguish and torment Mary suffers as she follows the events from Jerusalem to Calvary! She is not present in any of the gospels along the Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrow that Jesus walked carrying his cross. Popular devotion has placed her there in the Stations of the Cross, and rightly so, for she does follow her Messiah-Son, horrified about what the religious leaders and the crowds are saying about him; horrified at his condemnation; horrified at his tortured body; and utterly devastated as she gazes at his dying body hanging from the cross.
