Tuesday of Holy Week

“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.

If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself,
and he will glorify him at once.

One key to Saint John’s passion narrative is his use of irony. As we use irony today, it is sometimes humorous and occasionally sarcastic. Dictionary.com has a useful definition, “the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend. Saint John uses that dictionary sense of opposite its literal meaning, but without humor or sarcasm. And then he pursues meaning further, into the sublime. So when we hear of glory, we can expect its opposite, which is humiliation. But – now here’s the twist – Saint John’s irony is not ironic: the humiliation of Jesus is his glory, but only the faithful may see it. When he says in the first chapter, “we have seen his glory” he is already directing our attention to the crucifixion.

This device helps us to see clearly what is really happening during the arrest, trial, torture and execution of Jesus. We come to understand there is no other way Jesus could affect our salvation.

We should understand this principle when we read the word Jews. The fourth gospel seems to be the most anti-Jewish of the gospels. John uses the word Jews where the other evangelists say Pharisees, Herodians, scribes or Sadducees. Is this gospel truly anti-Jewish? Should Christians despise the Jews?

No! The point of Jewish hostility in this story is that Jesus must be abandoned and despised by everyone including (and shockingly) his own people. They are no more responsible for Jesus’ death than the Pharaoh was for driving the Hebrews out of Egypt. This is a drama to demonstrate the infinite mercy of God and it can be seen clearly only in the darkness of appalling tragedy.

The humiliation of Jesus literally goes beyond all bounds. This man is poured out for our salvation and there is nothing left of him. In the utter emptiness that follows, the complete exhaustion of all beauty, dignity, strength and holiness, we see God’s inexhaustible glory shining brilliantly, blindingly! In the merciless treatment of Jesus we see both the full extent of human sin and the overwhelming mercy of God. There is no one who can say, “I remained strong through it all. I never lost my confidence in God.” The unnamed “disciple whom Jesus loved” and the unnamed “mother of the Lord” kept faith by remaining with Jesus but they had no explanation for what was happening at that time. Not even Mary could say, “I knew it all along.”

In Saint John’s gospel, when Jesus says, “It is finished!” we understand his self-sacrifice is complete. He is the high priest, clothed in a seamless white alb, presiding over the sacrifice of the Pascal Lamb who is himself. That is why the crowd who comes to arrest him in Gethsemane fall back when he says, “I am he!” They cannot lay a hand on him until he is ready. He will point this out to Pilate also, “You would have no authority over me were it not given to you from above.” If Pilate thought of Caesar Augustus, Jesus was speaking of his Father. Finally, on the cross, Jesus dies when he is ready, when he hands over his spirit to his mother and his disciple.

With his powerful use of irony, Saint John proves once and for all the vanity of this world’s glory, and reveals the true glory of God.