Jesus went out with his disciples across
the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples
entered. Judas his betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met
there with his disciples. So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from
the chief priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and
weapons.
Jesus, knowing everything that was going
to happen to him, went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?” They
answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.” He said to them, “I AM.” Judas his betrayer
was also with them. When he said to them, “I AM, they turned away and
fell to the ground. So he again asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They
said, “Jesus the Nazorean.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I AM.
So if you are looking for me, let these
men go. This was to fulfill what he had said, “I have not lost any of those you
gave me.” Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s
slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to
Peter, “Put your sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the
Father gave me?”
So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish
guards seized Jesus, bound him, and brought him to Annas first. He was the father-in-law
of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had counseled
the Jews that it was better that one man should die rather than the
people.
Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Now
the other disciple was known to the high priest, and he entered the courtyard
of the high priest with Jesus. But Peter stood at the gate outside. So the
other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, went out and spoke
to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.
Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter,
“You are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the
slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire that they had made,
because it was cold, and were warming themselves. Peter was also standing there
keeping warm.
The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples
and about his doctrine. Jesus answered him, “I have spoken publicly to the
world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the
Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me? Ask those who heard
me what I said to them. They know what I said. When he had said this, one of
the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, “Is this the way you
answer the high priest?” Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify
to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” Then Annas
sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm. And
they said to him, “You are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and
said, “I am not.” One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the one
whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”
Again Peter denied it. And immediately the cock crowed.
Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the
praetorium. It was morning. And they themselves did not enter the praetorium,
in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover. So Pilate came
out to them and said, “What charge do you bring against this man?” They
answered and said to him, “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed
him over to you.”
At this, Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves,
and judge him according to your law.” The Jews answered him, “We do not have
the right to execute anyone, “ in order that the word of Jesus might be
fulfilled that he said indicating the kind of death he would die. So Pilate
went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Are you the
King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others
told you about me?”
Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own
nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus
answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong
to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being
handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” So Pilate said
to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I
was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone
who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is
truth?”
When he had said this, he again went out to the Jews
and said to them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I release
one prisoner to you at Passover. Do you want me to release to you the King of
the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this one but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was
a revolutionary.
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged. And the
soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him
in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And
they struck him repeatedly. Once more Pilate went out and said to them, “Look,
I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in
him.”
So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the
purple cloak. And he said to them, “Behold, the man!” When the chief priests
and the guards saw him they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said
to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him.”
The Jews answered, “We have a law, and according to
that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” Now when
Pilate heard this statement, he became even more afraid, and went back into the
praetorium and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus did not answer him.
So Pilate said to him, “Do you not speak to me?
Do you not know that I have power to release you and I
have power to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over
me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who
handed me over to you has the greater sin.” Consequently, Pilate tried to
release him; but the Jews cried out, “If you release him, you are not a Friend
of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”
When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out and
seated him on the judge’s bench in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew,
Gabbatha. It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon. And he
said to the Jews, “Behold, your king!” They cried out, “Take him away, take him
away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief
priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
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. here 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.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
Now since it was preparation day, in order that the
bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of
that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and
that they be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to
Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one
soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed
out.
An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is
true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may come
to believe. For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled:
Not a bone of it will be broken. And again another passage says: They will look
upon him whom they have pierced.
After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple
of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of
Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body. Nicodemus, the
one who had first come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh
and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds.
They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial
cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. Now in the
place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new
tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. So they laid Jesus there because of
the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by.
+ + + + + + +
Reflection:
Today is Good Friday. Why is it called Good
Friday, in spite of the fact that on this very day Jesus died on the cross? We call this
day Good Friday because Jesus made the greatest sacrifice for all of
us—and that is to die on the cross for our salvation.
Before breathing His last, Jesus’ final words were: “It is finished.”
After all the suffering inflicted on Him by the Roman soldiers, after all the
betrayal and denial by almost all of His disciples, after all the persecution
by the Pharisees, scribes, Sanhedrin, and the powers that be—it is now
finished. Mission accomplished, in other words.
It is no mystery why Jesus had to undergo such torture; it was all for
us, for our salvation. Out of love for us all, He willingly went through these
sufferings. Being God, He could have chosen to bypass this terrible chapter of
His earthly life, but Jesus saw that we were in great need of His love and
mercy. So, He gave His life as a ransom for us all. What have we done so far to
reciprocate His love?
Some of us are so enslaved by this world that we no longer have time for
God. We don’t have time to worship Him at Holy Mass or communicate with Him in
prayer. This Good Friday, let us begin to change this cycle of worldliness into
godliness. Let us aspire to know more about God—for we will never go wrong with
Him. — Marino J. Dasmarinas
