Christ’s cross and resurrection: Our only hope

For He (Jesus) was crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God. ~ (2 Corinthians 13:4)

Photo by Matheus Cavaleiro on Unsplash

When we read the story of the passion of Jesus, it is easy to see that it not only tells of a power struggle in Jesus’ time but also reflects truths about the power struggles in our time. However, even as the Passion of Christ tells of the power of human sinfulness, it also reveals the power of God’s love for all of humanity.

The passion story intricately portrays a complex power struggle among several key figures, including the Jewish religious leaders, King Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate, and Jesus himself. Each character’s actions and interactions reflect their attempts to navigate and exert authority within the social-political landscape of their time.

The Sanhedrins, led by the High Priest Caiaphas, viewed Jesus as a significant threat to their religious authority and the fragile peace that existed under Roman occupation. Jesus’ growing influence and his challenges to the established religious practices was alarming. To eliminate this perceived threat, they orchestrated Jesus’ arrest. They presented him to the Roman authorities for execution under charges of political insurrection, especially accusing him of claiming to be “King of the Jews” in opposition to Caesar. Caiaphas said, “It is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” (John 11:50)

The Roman prefect Pontius Pilate was responsible for maintaining order and enforcing Roman law. Upon examining Jesus, Pilate found no grounds for execution and sought to release Him. (Luke 13:4) Faced with mounting 2 pressure from the religious authorities and the crowds, and knowing that releasing Jesus would be an act of disloyalty to Caesar, Pilate gave in. He knew very well that Jesus was innocent, but Pilate was unwilling to stand for justice. He symbolically washed his hands (Matthew 27:24) distancing himself of the “Jesus problem.”

Ultimately Pilate hands the innocent Jesus over to be crucified, thereby protecting his own political position and interests. It is not hard to see history repeating itself again, and again, in the world today. How many world leaders today know the truth yet choose to wash their hands of the problem? How many, out of fear and self-protection, keep silent in the face of wars, massacres, systemic injustices and oppression?

Scripture teaches us, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) Surely we see this truth being played out on the world stage today. The Passion of Our Lord Jesus is a challenge to us all, and especially to those in positions of authority who have the ability to stop the current bloodshed in our world. Will those who have political, economic, or religious power stand for justice, or will they continue to sacrifice precious human lives for the sake of staying in power, like Pilate did?

Amid these political maneuvers, Jesus himself challenged traditional notions of power. His silence before Herod Antipas, and his measured responses to Pilate highlighted a form of authority not rooted in political might but rather in spiritual conviction. Jesus’ acknowledgement of kingship was framed not as a challenge to a Roman authority but rather as a testament to a “kingdom not of this world”. In other words, he was asserting a transcendental understanding of power.

Jesus embodied a form of leadership that challenges conventional political power structures, and this ultimately led to His execution by the state. However, Jesus did not simply succumb to this corrupt earthly power struggle. He chose to lay down His life (John 10:18) in order to liberate all of humanity from such abuses of power. Therefore, Jesus did not die simply to purge the world of sin and evil, but because the powers and principalities of the world sought to silence his life’s work. His witness to love, justice, peace, non- 3 violence, mercy, and truth were too dangerous to the system. Therefore, the Passion of Jesus is truly a story of how powerful love can be! It challenges, exposes, and transforms even the cruelest of our human nature into something truly redemptive and saving.

The cross of Christ stood between two others. This is a reminder that Jesus’ himself participates in our own suffering. He knows well that we are victims of power struggles and injustices, and he shares our suffering, frustration, and sorrow. Jesus has become so very much one of us that the countless tortured, persecuted, occupied, oppressed and forsaken people of the world are his sisters and brothers, his closest friends.

Professor Jürgen Moltmann puts it this way:

“Christ entered into this humiliation and forsakenness in order to become the brother of those who are humiliated and forsaken and to bring them to the Kingdom of God. He does not help them through supernatural miracles, but rather by the virtue of His suffering through His wounds.”

Again, our brother Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, from his own prison of suffering, “Only the suffering God can help us.”

“We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-15)

On the cross Christ carried all our suffering and humiliation in order that we may be steadfast in our faith, knowing that no suffering on earth can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Whatever we are facing, Christ is there with us. The cross is the ongoing revelation of God’s nature: as the One who is in solidarity with all victims of the world’s power struggles. Jesus’ weakness is our strength in the midst of any suffering, pain, oppression, or unjust political situation.

Today, in the midst of the unending war in Gaza and the West Bank, the genocide and starvation of a nation, in the face of self-serving political discourse and disrespect of humanitarian law, when we see there are no more “red lines” to cross, many Palestinians and other oppressed people of the world join Jesus crying out: “Why, O God? Have you forsaken us?”

At the same time, we are asking ourselves: “What does the Resurrection mean to us today?”

It is told of Catherine of Siena, who was a reformer and political activist in Italy in the thirteenth century, that she once cried,

“My God and Lord, were you when my heart was in darkness and in mire?” and she heard this answer: “My daughter, you did not feel it—I was in your heart.”

And St. Augustine explains in his Confessions:

“You were more intimately present to me than my innermost being, and higher than the highest peak of my spirit.”

In the complex and difficult situation we are living through today, we trust more than ever in the nearness of the crucified and risen Christ. Resurrection has taught us that suffering itself is a sign that we love life, and our pain is a protest against what God desires for us: life with dignity, life with freedom, life in all its fullness.

In anger and powerlessness, we must never lose this love of life. We must never lose hope. As long as there is a Living God, there is always hope and even empowerment. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is not only a promise of a future life of liberation and freedom, but a declaration of an end to the things of old today, including all war and strife and oppression and suffering.

The poet S. Chadwick put it this way:

When obstacles and trials seem like prison walls to be

I do the little I can do And leave the rest to Thee.

And when there seems no chance, no change,

From grief can set me free

Hope finds its strength in helplessness

And calmly waits for Thee.

Happy Easter to all of you,

Pray for peace based on justice in the land of Resurrection.

Christ is Risen

Al Masih Qam

Haqqan Qam

+Bishop Dr. Munib Younan