The Desert Father
Saint Antony the Great once tested a group of monks by asking them, beginning
with the youngest, the meaning of a certain passage of Scripture. In response to their answers, he said, “You
have not understood it.” Finally, he
asked Abba Joseph, who said, “I do not know.”
Then Abba Antony said, “Indeed Abba Joseph has found the way, for he has
said: ‘I do not know.’”[1] As we celebrate our Lord’s
triumphal entry into Jerusalem, we must all resist the temptation to think that
we understand fully the meaning of this extraordinary day that begins the week
in which the God-Man will enter into the dark and disorienting despair of death
and then rise gloriously in triumph. Before the Passion of the Lord, we must all
have the humility to say, “I do not know.”
We can certainly
all understand the crowds on Palm Sunday welcoming their anticipated liberator
from the oppressive rule of foreigners as they cheered, “Hosanna! Blessed is He
Who comes in the Name of the Lord, the King of Israel!” Throughout His earthly ministry, the Savior
faced and rejected the temptation to become an earthly ruler. But when, by the
end of the week, it had become clear that He was not going to settle the score
with the Romans, the crowds called so boisterously for His death that Pilate
went along with their desires. Ironically,
it was in the aftermath of the Lord’s raising of Lazarus from the dead after
four days, by which He showed that He is “the resurrection and the life,” that
the chief priests and Pharisees decided that they had to destroy Him. “Crucify Him!
Crucify Him!” they said to Pilate, for “We have no king but Caesar!”
Perhaps we can
understand religious leaders so obsessed with gaining earthly power that they would
commit such blasphemy and call for the murder of someone they perceived as a
threat, but it is more difficult to accept how the Savior’s own disciples
betrayed, denied, and abandoned Him. As
their rabbi and friend, He withheld nothing from them, explaining the parables
and performing many miracles in their presence.
He served them in humility, stooping down to wash their feet and
patiently teaching them by word and deed.
But they too abandoned their Lord when they saw that, instead of
conquering the Romans, He was apparently going to be destroyed by them.
Were Jesus Christ
merely a religious teacher of good character, His death after being betrayed,
denied, and abandoned by those closest to Him would be terribly tragic, but
life is full of such tragedies. Since He
is the Eternal Word of God Who spoke the universe into existence, however, His
Passion is simply incomprehensible. The
Lord Who said that His Name is “I AM” when He spoke to Moses through the
burning bush “emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant…He humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:7-8) Who can claim to understand
such mystery? The only begotten Son of
the Father offered Himself in free obedience on the Cross, the Tree of Life, to
disappear into the pit, the opaque abyss of death, as fully as any other human
who has departed this life. His cry from the Cross, “My
God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” shows that He experienced the
depths of human helplessness and horror.
He felt as alienated and abandoned as any victim of torture and brutal
execution, as anyone rejected and abandoned by those He loved most, as anyone
struggling to breathe His last in the midst of unbearable physical and
psychological pain.
Our Savior experienced all of that as the
God-Man. In ways that we must not
imagine that we can even begin to comprehend, the fully divine Son of God
suffered, died, was buried, and descended into Hades, the shadowy place of the
dead. He was able to do so because He is also fully human. Since He is also fully divine, we dare to confess
the unfathomable mystery of a Person of the Holy Trinity freely experiencing the
negation, weakness, despair, abandonment, and suffering that is our common lot
in this world of corruption. Our Savior,
the God-Man Jesus Christ, is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the
world. He is the Lord Who reigns from
the Cross. His death does not change the eternal nature
of God, of course, but reveals that sacrificial love beyond all human understanding
is characteristic of God. “For God so
loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life." (John 3:16) The Son does not pay a ransom or debt to
appease the Father’s anger or sense of justice, but freely offers up Himself to
the Holy Trinity (including Himself) out of love for the salvation of the
world. His sacrifice is not that of a
mere human satisfying a religious or legal obligation, but of the God-Man who
walks with us “through the valley of the shadow of death.” Because of His Cross, we trust He is with us when
we cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Because
His suffering love extends even into the darkest corners of the loss and
despair suffered by even the most wretched of His children, we may say with the
Psalmist, “If I should descend into Hades, You would be there.” (Ps.
138:8)
Today we commemorate the triumphal entry into
Jerusalem of the Savior Who emptied Himself in sacrificial love for our
salvation beyond all human understanding and definition. Even as we entrust ourselves to Him, we must
have the humility to say “I do not know” in recognition that the deep mystery
of His Passion is infinitely beyond our understanding. He does not conquer the
corrupting power of sin and death with ideas, arguments, or brute force, but by
selfless love that knows no bounds and extends even to those who betrayed,
denied, abandoned, tortured, and crucified Him.
And He does so as One Who is fully human and fully divine. He
reveals Who God is, for He is God. The
divine nature is completely beyond our comprehension, but the God-Man has
graciously shared His life of infinite love with us. We know Him not by even the best words, thoughts,
or feelings, but by opening the eyes of our souls to behold His glory, the
glory of One Who died on the Cross because He loves us and refused to abandon
us to the corruption and decay of the tomb.
Holy Week is not a
time for rational theological speculation and argument; neither is it a time to
try to make ourselves feel a certain way. It is, instead, a time for entering into the deep
mystery of the love of our Lord, of the great “I AM” Who remains infinitely beyond
our full comprehension. Today He rides
into Jerusalem on a humble donkey as the crowds welcome Him as a conquering
hero. But they do not really know what
they are doing or what kind of Savior He is.
As we begin this Holy Week, let us have the humility to recognize that
we are not that much different from them.
We too are quick to reject or at least ignore Christ when His Cross does
not serve our agendas and preferences. We too have our preconceived notions about
what kind of Savior we want and how He should fit into our lives. We too cannot make sense of a Lord Whose
Kingdom comes through what appears to be complete and shameful failure
according to any conventional standard.
That is precisely
why we need to stand and kneel in stunned silence this week as we follow the
Lamb of God to His great Self-Offering for the salvation of the world. Let us resist the temptation to assume that
we have His Passion all figured out.
Instead, like Abba Joseph, we should say, “I do not know” before the
deep mystery of His unfathomable love. Let
us lay aside our earthly cares and distractions this week, so that we may
follow the advice of St. Paul, who wrote, “The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for
nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
[1] St. Antony the Great, as cited in The
Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Benedicta Ward, trans., (Cistercian
Publications, 1975): pg. 4, para. 17.
