Why is the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ good news?
The Prophet Isaiah depicts to us a mysterious Servant of God, faithful to God, yet, our Lord Jesus Christ was received violently and harshly by the people.
So in the midst of that suffering, what is the good news?
The Servant of God, Jesus Christ, proclaims that He believes in God. He proclaims that “God is my help… God is my vindication”. For as long as I am with God, I will not be put to shame.
In the world where people forget principles, faith, commitments in order to please worldly powers, it is good news to have a Servant of God who can bear anything because he believes in God, because God is his help.
And it is with God’s approval that Jesus seeks not any earthly approval.
And we see this in Jesus, and that’s good news.
In St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians (Phil.2:6-11), the death of Jesus is depicted as part of the whole process of the Son of God’s humility, love and freedom where this Son of God emptied Himself in order to be one with us.
Again, this is good news. God can go to that extent of losing everything to be with us, in order to gain us. And no human person will ever be alone. That is the good news.
The good news is Jesus’ communion with us, communion with human beings. His sufferings, His death, are all ways of assuring us that we will never be alone.
When you read the narrative of Jesus’ passion, I am sure you can identify with Jesus.
Yes, Jesus experienced these. If I may relate His sufferings with my own sufferings, I know Jesus understands, and Jesus is with me.
And if we may recall the many people who are suffering today, and if you know some of them, assure them that Jesus is with them.
If we recall the different episodes in the Passion of Jesus Christ, we see the many experiences of betrayal that He suffered.
He was already troubled. He had the supper with his friends, but in the supper, He knew that He would be betrayed by his close friends.
In the garden when He needed companions, the apostles slept. Judas came, embraced Him, not with an embrace of friendship, but an embrace that was the signal to the arresting officers. What a betrayal!
Peter, who even denied that he had known Jesus, that he had been part of his group, just to save himself.
Do you have the same experiences? You can look again to those experiences in a new light. Find the good news.
The Son of God experienced that, too. We are all invited to discover Jesus’ presence in our experiences of betrayal from friends, from family members, sad to say, even from husbands and wives, or from your own children.
We are not alone. Jesus is with us.
There was also the betrayal by Pilate, who knew that Jesus was innocent, yet his ambition prevailed over his right sense. His ambition prevailed over his right judgment, and he surrendered Jesus to be crucified. What a painful experience on the part of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is political expedience becoming the norm of betrayal of the whole community and even of the whole country.
But the good news is that Jesus is with us. He knows the sufferings of the community. He knows the sufferings of the whole nation, that leaders betray us. That is the good news. God is on our side.
My sisters and brothers, you can go to the whole narrative of Jesus’ Passion and Death, and discover how Jesus journeyed with us. Jesus was present in all our experiences, assuring us that He is never leaving us. He is with us in all our sufferings.
With us, He went through the same thing. Let us purify our own bitterness and anger, knowing how Jesus faced all of these.
Finally, Jesus’ Passion and Death is good news. The people who “killed” him thought that they were killing Him. They thought they were depriving Him of Life. They thought that they were taking away his life from him.
But from the Last Supper up to his last breath, Jesus gave His life to God and for us.
It was not a death of robbing a person of one’s life. It was a death where life was given as a gift. That’s good news.
“This is my Body for you. This is my Blood, the Blood of the New Covenant for you.” Hanging on the cross, He prayed. In the midst of all His sufferings, He prayed to God. He remained connected to God even in His sufferings. And the centurion saw and said: “This man is truly the Son of God”.
There is Good News in His sufferings, Good News that faith endures, Good News that we will never be alone, the Good News that there is Life in death.
Death is not a thief that steals life away. I can give my life for God and neighbor.
The story of Jesus Passion and Death is very familiar to us. But we need to hear it over and over again.
And we ask the spirit of light and wisdom to lead us to a discovery of the Good News embedded in the dark sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
