THE MAN OF CALVARY

THE MAN OF CALVARY

Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua

Calvary is often referred to as Golgotha, a place of the skull. In Greek it is Κρανίου Τόπος (Kraníou Tópos) while in Latin, it is Calvariae Locus. The English word Calvary is derived from the Latin. The four canonical gospels mentioned the location Golgotha: “And they brought him to the place called Gol’gotha, which means the place of a skull (Mark 15, 2; Matthew 27, 33; Luke 23, 33; John 19, 17). John refers to this crucifixion site, Golgotha, as a place “near the city” (John 19, 20) and “outside the city wall” (Hebrew 13, 12).  Calvary appears like the end of the earthly journey that Jesus Christ started from the Incarnation. The fullness of the humanity of Jesus was played out from Gethsemane to Calvary. This is a drama of what can possibly happen to a person in this earthly sojourn. 

In my previous publication, namely “The King of the Jews”, I reflected on how the innocent children had to pay the price of martyrdom in the bid to kill the infant Jesus by Herod. The argument for the mission of Christ seemed to be centred purely on the need to die to redeem the world.  Jesus could have prevented his tragic death if he wanted to. He had the power to command the annihilation of his executioners. That Jesus died the way he did shows that he actually laid down his life freely. The drama that culminated in Calvary is an invitation for each and every one of us to have a deeper reflection on our humanity and our pilgrimage to our final destiny.

Gethsemane (Greek Γεθσημανἰ, Gethsēmani Hebrew: גת שמנים‎, Gat-Šmânim, Aramaic: גת שמני‎, Gath-Šmânê) literarily means “oil press”. This is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem where Jesus and his disciples visited often. Jesus prayed there in the night before he was arrested (Matthew 26, 36; Mark 14, 32). Gethsemane revealed the deep anguish of Jesus (Luke 22, 43-44) and the pain of abandonment by loved ones and trusted friends. In the crucial moment that he invited his apostles to watch and pray with him just for one hour, they slept as if that was the right time for what William Shakespear would call “a honey dew of slumber” (sleep). People who are worried do not sleep, the apostles either did not worry about the agony of Jesus or they do not understand what he was going through. Jesus had to remind them to watch and pray because the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Let us note that even in that critical moment, Jesus did not express anger. He did not tell the disciples that he was disappointed. This attitude should sustain our dialogue “ad intra” no matter the horrible situation. 

  
Jesus was so humble to the extent that it was difficult to differentiate him from his apostles. The soldiers needed Judas who was Jesus’ treasurer, financial secretary and bursar to show them the master in the community of Jesus. The betrayal with a kiss shows some level of intimacy. Some scholars have suggested that Judas thought that Jesus would escape miraculously and then make some good money from the Jewish authority. That Jesus gave himself up made Judas commit suicide instead of asking for pardon from the God of mercy and compassion. Jesus did not even show anger when he told Judas: do you betray your master with a kiss? Many people today still betray their friends and masters with a “Judas’ kiss.” Whenever, prayer is neglected there is a tendency to take to violence. Among the things that led to the fall of Peter was the neglect of prayer. Peter substituted prayer with violence. He used the sword but Jesus rebuked him and told him that those who carry the sword perish with the sword. The second thing that caused Peter to fall was his separation from Jesus, which caused him to lose the warmth of his presence and he became cold. Instead of returning to Jesus for warmth, he sought creature comfort by warming himself by the fire. Once he lost Jesus, he lost his integrity and fell apart when he was accused of being one of the disciples; he swore three times that he does not know Jesus. The cock crow reminded him that Jesus had told him that he would deny him three times before the cock crowed.

Jesus suffered emotional and physical trauma on his journey to Calvary. Pilate yielded to political pressure and delivered Jesus to the will of the people (Luke 23, 25). Jesus had already been scourged (John 19, 1), as was customary before crucifixion. After they had mocked Him, they put his own garments back on him, and led him away to crucify him” (Matthew 27, 31). “Two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with him” (Luke 23:32). This was a fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 53, 9; Hebrews 13, 12). The route to Calvary is today called Via Dolorosa, meaning, “Way of Sorrows.” “He went out, bearing His own cross” (John 19, 17). “They pressed into service a passerby coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross” (Mark 15, 21; Luke 23, 26).

In the painful journey to Calvary, it appears that the men who should have been close to Jesus were nowhere to be found. The women did not abandon Jesus. Veronica wiped his bloody face. The other women wailed and wept. This was the only occasion Jesus spoke after carrying the cross between Gabbatha and Golgotha when he exhorted the women, “daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.” Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us,” and to the hills, “Cover us.” For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry (Luke 23, 28–31)? That Jesus fell three times on the road to Calvary is a demonstration of the desire to persevere in life.

We can learn a lot of lessons from the Man of Calvary through the players in his life: From Judas, we learn not to gamble that doing bad could produce a good outcome as this is still the philosophy of the greedy and corrupt ones. From Peter’s denial and fall, we learn the virtue of humility and dependence on God rather than self. From the women we learn the virtue of perseverance and courage. The women were not afraid of what the soldiers would do to them. If we believe in a just course, the fear of death would not deter us. The women indeed have provided us a lesson on the need of martyrdom in supporting those we love and trust.

Only God has the power to defend justice. Our dependence on God will lead us to obedience to his call, which will form our integrity. It is only God who can deliver us from the snares of the human hunters who seek to devour us. We must never give up in life. The will and desire to survive based on our Faith in God who loves those who are just, is our only weapon against the snares of the fowlers. Jesus the man of Calvary is a lesson for us in every moment of pain and challenges in our mission. The need to be resilient in the course of our mission is very important. We should learn from this experience of Jesus that only God can not disappoint us. Human beings can only support us to a point where their human strength will wane so “do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save” (Psalm 146, 3).