We non-Bible reading Catholics do not realize Jesus was praying a Jewish prayer in his agony, psalm 22, verse 2: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” From where else would a good Jew quote a prayer? If ever he felt abandoned by God and humans, it was then. Enemies from two camps despising each other put aside their differences to silence this threat to their rule, Roman conquerors and temple officials. We cannot understand why they hated him so, believing that they should have seen him as a miracle worker who preached so encouraging a message that the crowds clung to him. Why hurt a holy man?
Jesus is quoted in the Gospels as speaking about no other subject more than the Kingdom of God. We would have thought he repeated the rules for chastity more than anything else, the way we do when we think of what religion should be. But it is a sad commentary on our idea of discipleship that we have little idea of what this kingdom was, and why the Romans especially saw it as subversive treason. And the scribes and Pharisees as well rejected it, or at least his credentials to preach it in pubic, taking away their following and making them look bad in comparison.
Jesus had a burning passion to enlighten his fellow Jews. Basing his preaching mission on their Scriptures, he taught that the God of the Hebrews, the only God, had all the world as his domain. That meant that the Roman colonizers, whose authority was maintained by force and violence, were really not in charge. In fact, not only Jesus but many who held Roman rule in contempt, such as the Zealots with their dagger-wielding insurgency, saw the Romans as the devil incarnate. To be assured that their cruelty did not belong in a world Jesus preached as God’s kingdom or rule or domain was a lifting of a load from their shoulders. No wonder Pilate and Herod and the Praetorian Guard had to get him under control.
That was one part of the conspiracy. The other was some of the temple leaders in Jerusalem, led by Caiaphas and Annas. When you read the 23rd chapter of Matthew, where Jesus virtually tars and feathers the religious leaders for their hypocrisy, devouring widows’ savings while piously parading the streets in ceremonial garb, you see why they had to find him guilty of any charge for which the Romans had capital punishment. He publicly humiliated them for their excuse of leadership. It did not matter to them that he miraculously healed hundreds. They dismissed these healings as works of the devil. And so, he was summarily crucified.
A famous Protestant sermon described the wood of the crib as the wood of the cross. Jesus became human in Nazareth and Bethlehem to voluntarily suffer execution so that there could be no doubt of God’s stunning will to forgive the mega-sin in which we sinners share. We ask why his life had to end so tragically. Little children taken into church emotionally ask why the man is hanging in pain up there. This is why. Jesus took on all that is human except sin to raise up our humanness above our sin. Then God raised him from the dead, something that the conspirators in fierce denial claimed never happened. They paid money to spread the lie that his disciples came and stole the body.
Children gather at the crib, both in church and at home. Maybe they identify with the helpless newborn who needs what they need, who looks like them. I am not suggesting we make them see the connection between his birth and his death. There is time enough for that later. But how sad it would be for us adults to miss the link, draining all the meaning of God’s becoming human to rescue us from our human misuse of our free will. Where we still use the word despite our secular thinking, we say sin. We can let Christmas be plucked of its intensity by caving in to the merchandising, although that too can be an avenue of love between giver and receiver of the delightfully wrapped trove beneath the tree. God’s gift to us all is his indescribable mercy, forgiving us for what crucified his son. During Pope Francis’s Year of Mercy, we take that mercy and extend it to people around us who may have hurt us. Have a blessed Christmas!