✍️ The Crucifixion

So they took Jesus, ¹⁷ and carrying the cross himself^[g] he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. ¹⁸ There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle…

They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. ⁴¹ 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. ⁴² So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by…

John 19:17-18; 40-42

We have reached the end of the Sorrowful Mysteries. The Son of God has been crowned, and now he is being lifted up. St. Matthew’s account of the crucifixion reads like this,

Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, if you are the Son of God, [and] come down from the cross!”…⁴² “He saved others; he cannot save himself. So he is the king of Israel! Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

— Mt. 27:40, 42-43

Once again, as Bishop Barron would say, we have a “delicious irony”, the Chosen People of God are now mocking the Chosen One.

When we compare this passage to the passage we read earlier this week in the Book of Wisdom, it appears that Matthew’s account is following the pattern outlined in chapter 2 of the Book of Wisdom,

“He professes to have knowledge of God
    and styles himself a child of the Lord…”

“He judges us debased;
    he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure.
He calls blest the destiny of the righteous
    and boasts that God is his Father

Let us see whether his words be true;
    let us find out what will happen to him in the end.
For if the righteous one is the son of God, God will help him
    and deliver him from the hand of his foes…”

“Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
    for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”

— Wis. 2:13, 16-18, 20.

We will not spend much time in Matthew’s Gospel, but I want to highlight this parallel between Wisdom and Matthew’s Gospel. I want to point this out because many protestants believe these books are merely “good stories” or “fruitful reading” but lack any evidence of inspiration. The Protestant reader who, like myself before becoming Catholic, may not know the fullness of scripture might find this to be an incredible discovery. But now that it’s been shown, I want to focus our attention on this particular passage in John:

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.

—John 19:41

When we think of the word “Garden” we may think of the Garden of Gethsemane. This is completely valid. Another Garden may also come to mind, the Garden of Eden. The place where Adam and Eve are first tempted is a garden. Note that John’s Gospel points out that the place of suffering for both Mary and Jesus contains a garden. At the beginning of Creation, the garden contains two perfect beings, male and female. Now, at the hinge of salvation history, we find two perfect beings also in a garden, Mary, the Mother of God, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

But what do we know about the “tomb” or “cave” in which Christ was laid? While there may be a biblical typology for this, I would like us to leave the Bible for a moment and explore the writings of the Greeks that preceded Christ. For this, we turn to the Greek thinkers, Plato/Socrates.

In the famous dialogue known as “Plato’s Cave”, Socrates is in a debate with a man about the nature of truth. Socrates presents a story about reality, in which the characters are chained to a wall in the darkness of a cave. Behind them is a torch and men with cutouts of various animals and things that cast a shadow on the wall in front of them. Socrates then asks what would happen if one of the men escaped and crawled out to the cave to discover the sun, the light of the world. Socrates then asks, another question: what would happen if this man, now informed by the light of the world, entered back into the cave to tell the other “prisoners”, how would the prisoners respond:

And so, let’s say he is with the captives and gets put into the position of interpreting the wall shadows. His eyes are still adjusting to the darkness, and it may take a while before they are. Wouldn’t he become a laughing-stock? Wouldn’t they say, “You have returned from your adventure up there with ruined eyes!” Would they not say that the ascent was a waste of time? And if they had the opportunity, do you supposed that they might raise their hands against him and kill this person who is trying to liberate them to a higher plane?¹

In the Garden of Eden, we see a similarity. Adam and Eve are not prisoners. They are creatures enjoying paradise. In the Garden, there are two trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. A serpent, a symbol of deception, enters into the Garden and tempts Eve, who then leads Adam astray. They are then banished into darkness.

In Plato’s cave, a man attempts to escape the darkness by seeking the light. When he enters back into the cave to save the captors, they kill him. In both situations, mortal man has shown that he desires to obtain knowledge by illicit means. He is tempted to become God in the Garden by breaking God’s command, and he is tempted to become the Savior in Plato’s cave by his will and intellect. Both situations ultimately lead to their demise.

In the Cave, the prisoners seek to murder the man who seeks to illuminate their minds. In the Garden, they are banished to a life of hard labor, birth pains, and ultimately death. That is until the Word becomes flesh. In short, without grace, knowledge becomes a death sentence.

One day, an angel, rather than a serpent, enters our world and offers the woman, Mary, the gift of being the Mother of God. Rather than Plato’s cave dweller obtaining the light by sheer will, the Light of the World will enter into our world, first by way of the garden, second by way of the cave, and third by way of conquering Hell. Earlier in John’s Gospel, it says,

And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.

— Jn. 3:19

When we return to the scriptures we find three major Gardens referenced in the text, The Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Garden of the Crucifixion. Then, as the scriptures say, he was brought down from the cross and buried in a tomb. He then goes and preaches to “the spirits in prison”.

St. Peter writes,

In it [Jesus] also went to preach to the spirits in prison,^{[f] 20} who had once been disobedient while God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water.

— 1 Pt. 3:19-20

In the creed we say, Christ “descended into hell.” When we read Plato’s cave narrative, it is not to say that Jesus went into Plato’s cave in a literal sense. But in a metaphorical sense, it seems that God’s wisdom to reach the Gentiles even reaches back into the philosophical insights of the Greeks. Christ entered the world of sin and darkness as the Light of the World. Plato’s man went back into the cave to liberate the captives, and they killed him also. But Plato’s man stayed dead. Adam and Eve remained outside the Garden. It is only Jesus, the King of the Universe, who is capable of entering the Garden of Eden and Plato’s Cave and conquering both.

There is much to discuss on the Crucifixion, after all, it is where all of our lives changed. For example, at the epicenter of human history, we find two perfect beings, one the perfect creature, the Mother of God, and the only Eternal Son of God the Father. Christ is promised the Cross, and Mary a sword that will pierce her heart. This too confounds us, because in our minds, “If I work hard and do the right thing, I won’t suffer.” Here we learn, not only from scripture but also from Plato, that the Good, the True, and the Beautiful are hated by the world. The closer one gets to holiness, the more the world reviles them.

As we close out this series, we remember that if we are to be Jesus’ disciple we too must, like Simon of Cyrene, take up our cross and follow Christ to Golgotha. But as we approach, Rosary in hand, and cross on our back, we see a woman, veiling her holiness and praying. Who is she, and who is she praying for? It is Mary, our heavenly Mother, God’s most magnificent creature, praying for us at the hour of our death, just like she did for Christ all those years ago.

Keep praying…

— DR.

1. The Allegory of the Cave, trans. Eyer, Shawn.