Lesson 14 – Sufferings, Death, Resurrection

Sufferings, Death, Resurrection

“By His Wounds We are Healed”

Peace be to you

The Creed:

In this lesson we continue with The Creed, which links together the Birth of our Lord, His Cross and His Resurrection:

• We consider in this lesson particularly His Sufferings and Resurrection.
• And we begin with the Agony of Our Lord.
• Here we are dealing with a Great Mystery.  Our blessed Lord Suffered Mentally and
• We touch upon first His Mental Sufferings in the Garden of Gethsemane.
• The time was immediately after the Last Supper.  There is only one recorded time in the life of our Blessed Lord when He sang.  And that was after the Last Supper when He went out to His Death.
• He then told His Apostles that they would all be shaken during This Hour.
• Remember that our Lord always spoke of His Crucifixion and His Sufferings in terms of Hour, His Glory in terms of Day. Evil has it Hour, God has His Day.
• As He entered that garden into which He had often gone to pray. He told his Apostle that they would be scandalized in Him that night because the shepherd would be struck
• And they were scandalized indeed, for a short time after The Agony, they fled. But He told them however when He went in “I will go before you into Galilee when I have Risen from the Dead.”
• Such a promise was never made before, that a dead man would keep an appointment with his friends after three (3) days in the tomb.
• Though the sheep would forsake the Shepherd, the Shepherd would not forsake the sheep.

The Gardens – contrast – Eden vs. Gethsemane :

• As Adam lost the heritage of Union with God in The Garden- So now our Blessed Lord ushers in our restoration in a garden.
• Eden and Gethsemane are two gardens around which revolve The fate of Humanity.
• In Eden Adam sinned, in Gethsemane Christ took humanity’s sin upon himself.
• In Eden Adam hid from God, in Gethsemane Christ interceded with His Father.
• In Eden God sought out Adam in his sin of rebellion, in Gethsemane the New Adam, Christ,  sought out the Father in submission and resignation.
• In Eden a sword was drawn to prevent entrance into the Garden of Eden and thus immortalize evil, in Gethsemane our Lord told Peter to shield the sword that He had carried.

Sin Bearing and Sinless Obedience.

• Now there are two elements that are bound up together in This Agony: Sin Bearing and Sinless Obedience.
• He goes far from his Apostles, about as far the scriptures say as a man could throw a stone.  What a curious way to measure distance.

Human Will vs. Divine Will:

• And our Lord threw himself upon his face saying “My Father – if it be possible let this Chalice pass me by”-  only as Thy Will is- not as Mine is.”
• Notice how the two Natures of Our Lord are involved here.
• He and The Father were One – so He did not pray, “Our Father if it be possible let this Chalice pass”  but  My
• Unbroken was the Consciousness of His Father’s Love
• But on the other hand, remember that He is man as well as God, His Human Nature recoiled from death as a penalty for sin.
• It was very natural for human nature to shrink from the punishment which sin deserves.
• So, the prayer to have the Cup of Passion Pass, was human.
• In other words, the “No” was human
• The “Yes” to the Divine Will was the overcoming of that human reluctance to suffering for the sake of Redemption.
• Our blessed Lord now takes upon Himself the Sins of World – as if He Himself were Guilty.
• This is very difficult for us to understand because we always think of Physical Suffering as a greater evil than Moral.
• Furthermore, we become so used to sin – we do not realize its horror.  The innocent understands sin much better than the sinful.
• The one thing from which man never learns anything by experience, is sinning.
• The sinner becomes infected with sin; it becomes so much a part of him that he may even think of himself virtuous, as the feverish think themselves well at times.

Current of Sin:

• It is only the virtuous, who stand outside of the current of sin – who can look upon evil as a doctor looks upon disease, to understand the full horror of evil.
• It is also impossible for us, to realize how God felt, the opposition of Human wills to the Divine Will.
• I wonder what example we could find to illustrate that?
• Perhaps the closest is, when a parent feels the strangeness of the power of an obstinate will of one of his children.
• That child can resist and spurn persuasion, love, hope and fear of punishment.  What a strong power abides in a body so slight in the mind so childish.
• This is faint picture of men, when they have sinned willfully.
• What is sin for the Soul but a separate principle of wisdom working out its own ends as if there were no God?
• Antichrist is nothing but the full-unhindered growth of self-will.
• That’s what our Lord had to face in the Garden, the opposition of all human wills to the Divine Will.

He Became a Sin Bearer

• So in Obedience-  now to the Father’s Will – our Lord takes upon Himself the iniquities of all the world, to become a Sin Bearer.
• There never was a sin committed in the world for which He did not suffer.
• The sin of Adam was there, and as the head of the humanity he lost for all men the heritage of God’s Grace.
• Cain was there, purple in the sheet of his brother’s blood.
• The abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah were there.
• The forgetfulness of his chosen people who fell down before false gods, were there.
• The coarseness of pagans who had revolted against the Natural Law, these pagans were there too.
• All sins were there.  Sins committed in the country that made all nature blush.
• Sins of the young for whom the tender heart of Christ was pierced.
• Sins of the old who should have passed the age of sinning.
• Sins committed in the darkness where it was  thought the Eyes of God could not pierce.
• Sins committed in the light that made even the wicked shudder.
• Blasphemy seemed beyond His lips – as if He had spoken them.
• And from the North and the South and the East and the West – the foul miasma of the world’s sin rushes upon him like flood.
• Samson like – He reaches up and pulls down the whole guilt of the world upon himself as if He were Guilty.
• Paying for the debt in our name, so that we might once more have access to the Father.
• He was – so to speak mentally preparing Himself for the Great Sacrifice.
• Laying upon His Sinless Soul the sins of a guilty world.
• I say every sin was there – your sin was there, and so was mine.
• And is it any wonder then, that there began to pour from His Body the Drops of Blood, which fell upon the ground like beads forming a Rosary of Redemption.

Sin Blood:

• Sin is in the blood – before the Remission of Sin-  Blood had to be poured forth.
• He was guiltless.
• He prayed and suffered in our name.
• Then came Judas, Our Lord had to understand even false brethren. Judas threw his arms around the neck of our Blessed Lord and blistered, His Lips with a kiss.

The judgment by man:

• Our Lord is now made a buffoon – for in the night, as He is also tried before two (2) religious judges, Annas and Caiaphas.
• In all our blessed Lord was tried before four (4) judges.
• Two (2) of them were religious judges, they belonged to the Jews
• Two (2) were civil judges, Pilate and Herod.
• Pilate was a Roman, a Gentile and Herod was a Nedamite.
• The judges could not agree, on why He should be condemned.
• Different charges were made in different courts.
• In the religious court our Blessed Lord was condemned of Blasphemy.
• In the civil court our Blessed Lord is condemned of treason.
• For the religious judges – He is found to be too religious, too divine, too unworldly
• And for the civil judges He is found to be too political, too human, too worldly.
• They cannot agree on why He should be condemned.  They can only agree that He should be.

Sign of Contradiction

• Simply because He is to be condemned on contradictory charges, one because He is too divine and the other because He is too human where would there be a fitting punishment- Except the Sign of Contradiction which is The Cross.

The Trials:

• Let us take a brief scene from each of these trials.

–    The trial before the religious judges:

• Caiaphas was unable to find any reason why he could condemn our Lord.
• He introduced false witnesses, but the witnesses could not agree among themselves.
• Caiaphas finally resorted to an oath. He put our Blessed Lord under it, and with all of the sternness he could muster, and annoyed by all the contradictions of the witnesses that he had heard, he said to our Blessed Lord “I adjure thee by the Living God to tell us, whether thou art the Christ the Son of God?”
• And when Caiaphas asked that question – if He was Christ the Son of God – remember that his mind was not like our.
• When we hear the word Christ we go back to His Earthly Life, not Caiaphas, Caiaphas was going back to all of the prophecies.
• He was going back to the book of Genesis.

I Am

• He knew how the Messiah had been foretold and so the question was:
• Was He the messiah? Was He the Son of God?  Was He clad with divine power?  Was He the word made flesh? Was it true that God with sundry times and of diverse manners spoke to us through the prophets in these last days was speaking through him the Son and so He asked: Art thou the Son of God?
• And our Lord answered, “ I Am ! ” With sublime consciousness and majestic dignity He announced that He was the Messiah and the Son of the living God.
• And when He said “I Am” – I am sure that Caiaphas remembered that when God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai those were the human words that God used of Himself.  “I Am – Who Am.”
• Our Lord now speaks to Caiaphas again and says: “Moreover I tell you this you will see the Son of Man again when He is seated at the Right Hand of God’s Power and comes on the Clouds of Heaven.”
• Notice our blessed Lord affirmed His Divinity– then His Humanity and both under the personal pronoun “ I ”.
• He is telling Caiaphas someday he will be judged. Caiaphas now finds our Blessed Lord guilty, He render his garments as a token of the fact that he had heard blasphemy because Christ was making himself God.
• But Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin and the people could not put our Blessed Lord to death, that power belonged to the Romans
• And so they hustled our Blessed Lord as a prisoner off to Pilate.  He has several trials before Pilate and Pilate sends him off to Herod.
• But it is interesting to note the charge that is brought before Pilate against our Blessed Lord.  In the trial of any ordinary human being there is a continuity of charges.
• Our blessed Lord was found guilty of blasphemy.

What’s the Charge:

• Now when the prisoner is brought to a higher court you would think that He would still be condemned of blasphemy, but he is not.  Why not?
• Well because if Caiaphas and his friends told Pilate that our blessed Lord had made himself God, Pilate would laugh at them.  Pilate was a pagan, He would say “I have my Gods, you have yours. I sprinkle incense before mine every morning.”
• They therefore had to find some other charge.
• Now the charge that they would bring against our Blessed Lord would be treason.
• He would be too political, He would too human, He would be too worldly.
• It must be remembered too that Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin hated the Romans.
• The Romans had conquered their country, Roman judges were seated in judgment, Roman coinage was in their pockets, Caesar’s henchman were all over the city of Jerusalem and all through the land that was Holy.
• They hated the invader, they hated Rome.
• Now when they bring our Blessed Lord before Pilate – And he asks – What charges do they bring against the man? They said that “they had found him guilty of perverting the nation- refusing to give tribute to Caesar” –
• – Refusing to give tribute to Caesar.  Caesar whom they hated.  Pilate knew that they did not love Caesar but in order to win a release after many incidents in the trial they finally said to him: “Thou art no friend of Caesar if thou doest release him.  The man who pretends to be a king is Caesar’s rival ”.
• Pilate was afraid of being reported to Rome, what would Tiberius do to him? Would he unseat him?

Guilty – Condemned to Die:

• But Pilate tried to save our Lord he called our Lord innocent seven (7) times
• Now he scourges our Blessed Lord, brings Him out before the people and says: “Behold your King.”
• And up against that mob of devastator came a wave of voices saying “We have no King but Caesar!”
• And then Pilate gave up Jesus into their hands to be Crucified.
• Our Lord is now led to Calvary.
• And once on those heights He offers His Hands to his executioners, Hands from which the world’s Graces flow.
• The first dull knock of the hammer is heard in silence.
• Mary and John hold their ears as the sound is unendurable.  The echo sounded as another stroke.
• And then the Cross is lifted, slowly off the ground and then when a thud that seems to shake even Hell itself it sank into the pit prepared for it and our Lord has mounted His Pulpit for the last time.

He spoke seven (7) Words from the Cross:

• He spoke seven (7) words, that is to say seven (7) times, we cannot give you the seven (7) words – for want of time.
• The first word of our Blessed Lord was – For All who would Crucified – For All who brought Him to Death  “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
• It is not Wisdom that saves : it is Ignorance
• And then after Hanging three (3) hours on the Cross, our Blessed Lord now prepares to Surrender His Life.
• Remember that He had often said: “No man takes my life away from Me, I lay it down of Myself.”
• It is to be noted therefore, that when our Blessed Lord came to the Seventh Word – The Scriptures say that He spoke those words in a loud voice to show that He was The Master of His Own Life.
• And just as planets – only after a long period of time complete their orbits and then come back to their starting point as if to salute Him who sent them on their way, so now He who is the Prodigal Son who left the Father’s House – wasted His Life and His Blood for Our Sakes – was preparing to Go Back Home and He lets fall from His Lips the Perfect Prayer:

Perfect Prayer:

• “Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
• There is a Rupture of a Heart – to a Rapture of Love – He bows his Head – and Dies.

The Garden and Tomb:

• Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea come to take him down from The Cross and then embalm Him in hundred pounds of spices.
• And it is interesting what Scripture says – “… in the same quarter where He was Crucified there was a Garden…”.
• The word Garden hinted at Eden – in the Fall of Man – as it also suggested – through its flowers in the springtime – the resurrection from the dead.
• In that garden was a tomb in which, in the language of scripture, no man had ever been buried.

Born of a Virgin Womb ; He is buried in a Virgin Tomb and as Crashaw    said  “and a Joseph did betroth them both”.

• Nothing seems more repellent than to have a Crucifixion in a Garden and yet there would be compensation, for the Garden would have its Resurrection.
• He was born in a Stranger’s Cave and so He is Buried in a Stranger’s grave because Human Birth and Human Death are equally foreign to Him.
• Dying for others – He is placed in another’s grave.
• His grave was borrowed, borrowed for He would give it back on Easter as He gave back the beast, which He rode on Palm Sunday, and when He said “The Lord has need of it.”

The Resurrection:

• And when He rose from the dead,  He made many appearances as we have already said and one of the appearances of The Resurrection for which we did not give many details was a week after.
• All of the other Apostles had seen our Blessed Lord. They had become convinced but only after much evidence and after much doubting and our Blessed Lord comes into the upper room and says “Peace be to you.”
• Now Thomas had refused to believe.  Thomas one of the Apostles, He said “I will not believe until I have seen the mark of nails on His hands, until I have put my finger into the mark – of the nails – and put my hand into his side.  You will never make me believe!”
•  Now our blessed Lord appeared, He speaks to Thomas.  “Let me have thy finger.”  “See, here are my hands.”  “Let me have thy hand, put it into my side, cease thy doubting and believe.”
•  And throwing himself on his knees He said to the Risen Savior “Thou art my Lord and my God!”
• Oh there are some who will never believe even when they see.
• Thomas thought that He was doing the right thing and demanding the full evidence of sensible proof, but what would become of future generations if the same evidence were to be demanded by them?
• Suppose you would not believe The Resurrection until you could put finger into His Hand and a hand through His Side.
• The future believers our Lord implied must accept the fact of The Resurrection – from those who had been with him.
• Our Lord thus pictured the faith of believers after the Apostolic Age, when there would be none who would have seen it but their Faith would have a foundation because the Apostles themselves had seen the Risen Christ.
• How would we know there was a Resurrection?
• Simply because the Church was there. The Church was there with the Apostles, they saw the Resurrection.

• Thomas was there, the doubter.  Thomas believed and He believed in the name of all who could not see sensibly but could accept the testimony of those whom Christ sent out to preach the Gospel of The Resurrection to all nations.

The story is not over. In the next lesson we will touch on His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father – Our Lord.