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| On the Lord's Passion IV., delivered on Wednesday in Holy Week.
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Sermon LV.
On the Lord’s Passion IV.,
delivered on Wednesday in Holy Week.
I. The difference between the penitence
and blasphemy of the two robbers is a type of the human
race.
That which we owe to your expectations,
dearly-beloved, must be paid through the Lord’s bountiful answer to your prayers that He Who
has made you eager in the demanding would make us fit for the
performing.
In speaking but lately of the Lord’s Passion we reached the point in the Gospel
story, where Pilate is said to have yielded to the Jews’ wicked
shouts that Jesus should be crucified. And so when all things had
been accomplished, which the Godhead veiled in frail flesh986
| 986 Divinitas carnis
velamine temperata. It is not easy to render the exact force
of this phrase in English without a danger of being misunderstood. | permitted, Jesus Christ the Son of
God was fixed to the cross which He had also
been carrying, two robbers being similarly crucified, one on His right
hand, and the other on the left: so that even in the incidents of
the cross might be displayed that difference which in His judgment must
be made in the case of all men; for the believing robber’s faith
was a type of those who are to be saved, and the blasphemer’s
wickedness prefigured those who are to be damned. Christ’s
Passion, therefore, contains the mystery of our salvation, and of the
instrument which the iniquity of the Jews prepared for His punishment,
the Redeemer’s power has made for us the stepping-stone to
glory987
| 987 Gradum nobis
fecit ad gloriam. Quesnel’s reading
gaudium, though well supported by the mss., is, I think with the Ball., unsatisfactory, cf.
Serm. LI. chap. 7, per crucis supplicium gradus vobis
ascensionis parat ad regnum. | : and that Passion the
Lord Jesus so underwent for the salvation of
all men that, while hanging there nailed to the wood, He entreated the
Father’s mercy for His murderers, and said, “Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do988
.”
II. The chief priests showed utter
ignorance of Scripture in their taunts.
But the chief priests, for whom the Saviour sought
forgiveness, rendered the torture of the cross yet worse by the barbs
of railery; and at Him, on Whom they could vent no more fury with their
hands, they hurled the weapons of their tongues, saying, “He
saved others; Himself he cannot save. If He is the King of
Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we believe
Him989
.” From what spring of error,
from what pool of hatred, O ye Jews, do ye drink such poisonous
blasphemies? What master informed you, what teaching convinced
you that you ought to believe Him to be King of Israel and Son of
God, who should either not allow Himself to be
crucified, or should shake Himself free from the binding nails.
The mysteries of the Law, the sacred observances of the Passover, the
mouths of the Prophets never told you this: whereas you did find
truly and oft-times written that which applies to your abominable
wicked-doing and to the Lord’s voluntary
suffering. For He Himself says by Isaiah, “I gave My back
to the scourges, My cheeks to the palms of the hand, I turned not My
face from the shame of spitting990
.” He
Himself says by David, “They gave Me gall for My food, and in My
thirst they supplied Me with vinegar991
,” and
again, “Many dogs came about Me, the council of evil-doers beset
Me. They pierced My hands and My feet, they counted all My
bones. But they themselves watched and gazed on Me, they parted
My raiment among them, and for My robe they cast lots992
.” And lest the course of your
own evil doings should seem to have been foretold, and no power in the
Crucified predicted, ye read not, indeed, that the Lord descended from the cross, but ye did read, “The
Lord reigned on the tree993
| 993 Ps. xcvi. 10. “An ancient gloss,
but without authority from existing mss. or
ancient versions, viz., ἀπὸ
τοῦ ξύλου, was
received by S. Justin Martyr and others as a genuine portion of the
text.” Speakers Commentary in loco. Compare
also the old Latin hymn (“The Royal Banners,” H.A.M. 96,
verse 3). | .”
III. The triumph of the Cross is
immediate and effective.
The Cross of Christ, therefore,
symbolizes994
the true altar of
prophecy, on which the oblation of man’s nature should be
celebrated by
means of
a salvation-bringing Victim. There the blood of the spotless Lamb
blotted out the consequences of the ancient trespass: there the
whole tyranny of the devil’s hatred was crushed, and humiliation
triumphed gloriously over the lifting up of pride: for so swift
was the effect of Faith that of the robbers crucified with Christ, the
one who believed in Christ as the Son of God
entered paradise justified. Who can unfold the mystery of so
great a boon? who can state the power of so wondrous a change? In
a moment of time the guilt of long evil-doing is done away; clinging to
the cross, amid the cruel tortures of his struggling soul, he passes
over to Christ; and to him, on whom his own wickedness had brought
punishment, Christ’s grace now gives a crown.
IV. When the last act in the tragedy was
over how must the Jews have felt?
And then, having now tasted the vinegar, the
produce of that vineyard which had degenerated in spite of its Divine
Planter, and had turned to the sourness of a foreign vine995
, the Lord says,
“it is finished;” that is, the Scriptures are
fulfilled: there is no more for Me to abide from the fury of the
raging people: I have endured all that I foretold I should
suffer. The mysteries of weakness are completed, let the proofs
of power be produced. And so He bowed the head and yielded up His
Spirit and gave that Body, Which should be raised again on the third
day, the rest of peaceful slumber. And when the Author of Life
was undergoing this mysterious phase, and at so great a condescension
of God’s Majesty, the foundations of the
whole world were shaken, when all creation condemned their wicked crime
by its upheaval, and the very elements of the world delivered a plain
verdict against the criminals, what thoughts, what heart-searchings had
ye, O Jews, when the judgment of the universe went against you, and
your wickedness could not be recalled, the crime having been done? what
confusion covered you? what torment seized your hearts?
V. Chastity and charity are the two
things most needful in preparing for Easter Communion.
Seeing therefore, dearly-beloved, that
God’s Mercy is so great, that He has
deigned to justify by faith many even from among such a nation, and had
adopted into the company of the patriarchs and into the number of the
chosen people us who were once perishing in the deep darkness of our
old ignorance, let us mount to the summit of our hopes not sluggishly
nor in sloth; but prudently and faithfully reflecting from what
captivity and from how miserable a bondage, with what ransom we were
purchased, by how strong an arm led out, let us glorify God in our body: that we may show Him dwelling in
us, even by the uprightness of our manner of life. And because no
virtues are worthier or more excellent than merciful loving-kindness
and unblemished chastity, let us more especially equip ourselves with
these weapons, so that, raised from the earth, as it were on the two
wings of active charity and shining purity, we may win a place in
heaven. And whosoever, aided by God’s grace, is filled with this desire and glories
not in himself, but in the Lord, over his
progress, pays due honour to the Easter mystery. His threshold
the angel of destruction does not cross, for it is marked with the
Lamb’s blood and the sign of the cross996
| 996 Cf. Exod. xii. 23; and below, 1 Cor. v. 8, and Rom.
viii. 35. | . He fears not the plagues of Egypt,
and leaves his foes overwhelmed by the same waters by which he himself
was saved. And so, dearly-beloved, with minds and bodies purified
let us embrace the wondrous mystery of our salvation, and, cleansed
from all “the leaven of our old wickedness, let us keep997
| 997 Cf. Exod. xii. 23; and below, 1 Cor. v. 8, and Rom.
viii. 35. | ” the Lord’s Passover with due observance: so that,
the Holy Spirit guiding us, we may be “separated” by no
temptations “from the love of Christ998
| 998 Cf. Exod. xii. 23; and below, 1 Cor. v. 8, and Rom.
viii. 35. | ,” Who bringing peace by His blood
to all things, has returned to the loftiness of the Father’s
glory, and yet not forsaken the lowliness of those who serve Him to
Whom is the honour and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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