PASSION WEEK MEDITATIONS

Theme: Unless I cleanse you, you have no part in me (St. John 13:8)

On seeing Jesus beside River Jordan, John the Baptist bore witness thus: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That in one sentence is the mission of Jesus Christ. The Passion Week dramatises the mission as no other week does.
On Palm Sunday, he cleansed the temple, rebuking the merchants, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”Very powerful words indeed, more powerful than the lashing whip.
Is not the cleansing of the temple a sordid reminder of the cleansing we the temple of God need? We have become moving malls and shopping windows, displaying worldly vanities and crass materialistic values. Instead of becoming the house of prayer, we have become the den of merchandise. The words that Jesus spoke should ring in our ears and lead to repentance.
On Monday he pronounced judgment on abundant show and inner barrenness. Jesus thought there was fruit on the tree but there were only abundant leaves. Many of us have abundant leaves – born into ancient Christian families that go back to the days of St Thomas, a list of genealogy that commands awe, get elected to almost every other ecclesiastic office, knowledge of liturgy and cannons. Yet we produce no fruit. When Jesus look for fruit, will he be disappointed and say ….
On Tuesday he cleansed the disciples’ little faith. The disciples marvelled that the tree Jesus cursed withered overnight. He uses this occasion to demonstrate the greatest lesson of prayer: “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt … say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
This is the most misunderstood of verses; and also the most criticized by atheists and agnostics. Remember, faith is not the exuberance of emotion, but the certainty of things unseen (the Reality). It is the certainty of the spiritual Reality, which is God Himself, and the spiritual realm and the spiritual laws. Like Newton’s Laws of Motion, the spiritual realm has its laws, which people of all religions are aware of. You need experience of God and the spiritual realm to gain the confidence and certainty that the Bible speaks of. You need first-hand experience of God, His mind and His will, and be constantly God’s companion through prayer. Then your will and God’s will converge, and you pray for the very things God desires.
One day, the famous writer P. G. Wodehouse, when he was a boy, walked into the church as the Priest was reading this verse. He wanted to get rid of his stammering for which he was laughed at. That night he prayed with all the faith he could muster that his stammering should disappear. The next morning when he got up, he was so thrilled that his stammering had disappeared. But when he started talking, he began to stammer. What disappeared instantly was his faith and he became an atheist. But much later in his life, he admitted that he would never have been a famous writer and amassed a fortune but for his stammering. Your physical handicap, your illness or your momentary financial difficulties could be a source through which God could send you showers of blessing.
On Tuesday, he lashed out at hypocrisy offering the Pharisees an opportunity to be cleansed. St Matthew (23: 13-39 ) records the 8-fold woes on hypocrisy:
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

You devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.

You travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

Blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’

You pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.

You cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.


You are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’”

His public ministry begins with Beatitudes or the 8-fold blessings, and ends in the solemn warning or the 8-fold woes upon hypocrites. That is the character of the Kingdom of God – blessings upon the pure in heart, the humble, the merciful, the forgiving, and the true seekers of God and judgment upon the proud, conceited hypocrite.

On Wednesday, he prepared for the Great Cleansing to follow on Thursday and Friday. All great human and divine endeavours need preparation in silence, stillness and solitude. As man and God, Jesus needed the same.
On Thursday, he instituted the Holy Communion, the sacrament of empowerment, rooted in purging and cleansing. In the Sermon on the Mount, he taught his disciples the fundamentals of the Kingdom of God; in his farewell discourse, he taught them the mystery of the kingdom. He illustrated the mystery first by cleansing them with water and word and then taking them through the experience of Union with God. Simple yet profound is the mystery: the disciples abiding in Jesus, and Jesus abiding in the Father, and the Father in Jesus and in them. It is a Spiritual Union words have no power to express. A mystery can only be experienced, not expressed; and the Holy Eucharist remains at the heart of dynamic Christian living.

When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.

On Friday, he cleansed the human race by his precious Blood, offering them salvation. The immortal 7 sayings on the Cross reveal the unique person that Jesus Christ is:
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
God is agape, the transforming, transcending trans-territorial love that reaches out to everyone who cares to receive it. `The bird will sing even for the hunter who shoots her down,’ wrote a poet. That is an iota of God’s love. God loves all his creation, even those who crucify him! It is in search of them that he came into this world. If this love does not touch you and forgive those who offend you, this Good Friday has no meaning for you.
And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

On the Cross and in excruciating pain, he found time to save a life from going into hell. Pain has not dimmed his humanity or his divinity. God’s goodness knows no boundaries.


Now there stood by the Cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.
Renouncing is not abdicating responsibility. He was always on his Father’s business but at her hour of need, he was there, helpless he may seem to the world but helpful to those who have eyes to see.
, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Thus begins the 22nd Psalm written by David centuries ego as inspired by the Holy Spirit. The psalm begins in despair and ends in triumph, prophetically describing the agony on the Cross and celebrating Redemption accomplished by His Precious Blood.
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth.
Everything that Jesus did was on the Divine Calendar. The following two verses reinforces the revelation.
So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’”
Seeing everything that happened – the darkness at noon, the earthquake and the supernatural witnessing – the Roman Centurion exclaimed: Truly, he was the Son of God!

On Saturday, he cleansed the grave, proclaiming the Good News to the departed.
On Sunday, he brought Immortality to the human race, offering them the New Life.
Let this Passion Week and Easter be a transforming experience in witnessing Jesus Christ by your life, word and deed.