Through the homeland of Jesus

-18- Through the Homeland of Jesus Fr Joseph Kappil The city of Jerusalem which crucified the Son of God

We are on a pilgrimage to bring back to memory the last days of Jesus in the city of Jerusalem. In the previous issue we were with Jesus, plunged in the depths of grief, sweating blood and praying with all his heart, in the garden of Gethsemane. Though he prayed to the Father that the cup of suffering might pass from him, he surrendered himself fully to his will. After his prayer in Gethsemane Jesus resolved to accept the challenge and entered with strength of soul into the "hour" of his passion. In Gethsemane he began shedding his blood. This shedding of blood continued in the palace of the High Priest , the court of Pilate and on the streets of the city of Jerusalem. In Golgotha it reached its climax. In this issue we shall go along the paths where Jesus shed his blood as he journeyed from Gethsemane to Golgotha. Let us finally participate in the self-offering of Jesus standing at the foot of the cross on Golgotha.

Jesus once looked at Jerusalem and lamented: "Jerusalem which kills the prophets"! On the first Good Friday this cry was totally realized in the case of Jesus,the great Prophet of prophets.

In Gethsemane, Jesus was delivered into the hands of his enemies by the deceitful kiss of Judas, the betrayer of his Master. With the exultant air of having captured a big criminal the soldiers bound Jesus, led him out of Gethsemane and across the Kedron valley and took him to the palace of the chief priest. St John alone says that they took him first to Annas. Annas was chief priest from 6 AD to 15 AD. Besides, he was also the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest of that year. Those who first began to question and try Jesus were the scribes, the elders of the people and chief priests assembled in the palace of the high priest, Caiaphas. See no ? marked in the map attached for the route along which the soldiers led Jesus from Gethsemene to the palace of Caiaphas.

The palace of Caiaphas was close to the Cenacle situated on an elevated site in Jerusalem. It might have been around 11 pm when Jesus was taken to Caiaphas' palace as Jesus must have begun the paschal supper at sunset as per the Jewish custom, that is, at about 6 p.m.The paschal meal must have been over by about 9 pm. And then to reach Gethsemane he must have taken about 15 minutes.His prayer in Gethsemene must have lasted 1 1/2 hours. Thus it must have been 11 pm by the time he was arrested and taken to Caiaphas’ palace.

The prevalent Jewish law did not permit the trial or passing of judgement on a culprit at night.However, in the palace of Caiaphas were present a number of lawyers, leaders of people and the chief priests. They conducted a trial of sorts and sent Jesus to the lockup in the basement of the palace where those in custody were usually accommodated. The soldiers stood on guard. Caiaphas made all the arrangements to conduct a trial early the next morning, that is, on Friday. Very early on Friday morning the members of the Sanhedrin assembled to begin the trial.

The 70-member-Sanhedrin is the Supreme Court of the Jews. The leader and chairman of the Sanhedrin is the high priest. Bringing Jesus from the basement prison to the presence of the Sanhedrin, the false testimonies of the witnesses kept ready beforehand, the trial that Caiaphas subjected Jesus to-all this had one and only one purpose: to declare Jesus guilty and condemn him to be crucified and thus do away with him.

Without entering into the details of the trial, we intend to follow Jesus along the path by which they led him. The entire judiciary pronounced Jesus guilty of death. They had planned and prepared all the charges to be made against him and took him from Caiaphas’ palace to Pilate’s headquarters. Pilate was the Roman Governor who had the responsibility of the administration of the Judean provinces under the Roman empire. Only the Roman Governor was entitled to condemn a prisoner to death. That was why Jesus was taken to Pilate. The route that led to Pilate’s court to Caiaphas’ palace is marked ƒ in the map.

The Roman Governor was officially accommodated in the city of Caeserea on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. However, on important occasions , on festival and feast days, when Jerusalem would be teeming with people, it was the responsibility of the Roman Governor to supervise the law and order situation. So on such occasions, he would come to Jerusalem with his regiments of soldiers and camp there. It is commonly believed that he used to camp in the "Anthonia" castle built adjacent to the north western side of the Temple precincts. Pilate desired to stay clear of disputes regarding religious matters. But on this occasion when it seemed impossible to do so, he began to question Jesus. He could not find any fault in Jesus; neither could her wriggle out of the critical situation. But then an opportunity presented itself. He had heard that Jesus came from Galilee. He decided to make use of this fact. Since the district of Galilee belonged to the administration of Herod Antipas, he sent Jesus to Herod to be tried by him. Jesus was taken to Herod’s court. This route is marked (6) in the map.

Herod was camping during the paschal festivities in the castle that belonged to the royal Hesmonean family which was situated in the centre of Jerusalem. When Herod met Jesus he treated him with much contempt and derision. Without pronouncing any judgement, he sent him back to Pilate. The route marked ? indicates this return journey.

Pilate did try very had to get out of the responsibility of condemning a man to death without finding any deserving fault in him. But the Jewish mob kept clamouring for the death of Jesus. When every means seemed blocked, Pilate loudly declared that he was not guilty of this death penalty and washed his fingers with a few drops of water as a token. He signed the death warrant of Jesus. Now we follow Jesus who is going with his cross to the place of his crucifixion. This last journey of Jesus is marked ?in the sketch appended. There is a distance of about 1 kilometer from Pilate’s headquarters to Golgotha. The criminal is never taken by any shortcut to the place of his death. Rather it is through the most crowded streets and along round- about routes that he is led away, for only then will he be seen by a vast number of people.

The place of crucifixion
It is outside the city. Its name in Hebrew is "Golgotha." It means the place of skulls. It is a high, huge rock. With granite chipped away from three sides, the remaining chunk of rock stands erect and looks like a human skull from a distance. This stands outside the city walls. No one should be killed or buried within the city. Otherwise the city will become unclean.

The crucifixion
It can be said that there is no death more cruel and terrifying than crucifixion. Crucifixion was a Persian manner of putting a man to death. They had a reason to crucify a man on a wooden cross. Since this earth is pure and sacred, a man who has committed great crimes should not die falling to the ground, or else the earth would be contaminated. Such criminals, therefore, are hung on the cross and left to die there. The criminal condemned to such a death is first scourged with a cord with nails or bone bits attached to its end till he is exhausted. The criminal must himself bear the cross to the place of crucifixion. As he goes along carrying the cross, the soldiers keep whipping him with the scourge. A plaque with the crime inscribed on it, is hung around his neck. The condemned man may fall several times out of sheer exhaustion with the cross on his shoulders. At every such fall he would be treated to a cruel scourging by the soldiers. On reaching the place of crucifixion, the culprit is stripped naked, and laid on the cross placed on the ground. Both the arms are stretched to either side and nailed to the cross. Then, as the cross is raised and dumped into the pit prepared for it, the whole body, bruised and mangled already, suffers a horrible shaking up. This produces a death agony. The culprit nailed to the cross suffers heat, hunger and thirst, anguish of mind and body and at times suffers for hours together. If death takes long to come, his legs are broken beneath the knee. Once he dies hanging thus on the cross, the corpse is left to become the food of vultures and birds of prey; from below the dogs tear it to pieces.

This is the horrible punishment that Jesus accepted. The route from Pilate's castle (Anthonia fortress) to Golgotha which Jesus traversed carrying the cross, is known today as "Via Dolores", meaning the Way of Sorrow. The 1st and 2nd Stations of the Cross which we observe as a devotional practice according to our traditional belief, are situated on the spot where once stood the Anthonia fortress.The stations from 3 to 9 are along the streets of the city of Jerusalem. The last five are within the church that encloses Golgotha and the sepulchre of the Lord.

There is a solemn way of the cross conducted on every Friday at 3 p.m. along the route which Jesus traversed bearing his cross, led by Franciscan priests. All the pilgrims who are in Jerusalem at the time, take part in this devotional practice. Moreover, it is only with a heart overflowing with deep emotion that pilgrims can join the groups that are constantly seen making the way of the cross, carrying large wooden crosses. A thousand thoughts crowd in on our minds as we move slowly along the path moistened with the sweat and tears and precious bood of Jesus. The experience becomes a true and personal participation in the passion of Jesus.

The huge church encompassing Golgotha where Jesus was crucified and the tomb where the precious body was interred, is known as the Church of the Burial (Tomb). This church is the most sacred of all the churches in the world. As we enter it, our eyes fall on a knot of rocks of about 25 ft high to the right. This is Golgotha.It is protected on all sides. The upper portion is glass-encased. This part , therefore, can be viewed very clearly. There is a long fissure right across its central portion. The evangelists describe the splitting of rocks that occurred at the death of Jesus. If we drop our hand through the hole in the centre of the plague fixed at the bottom of the altar erected atop the rock, we can touch this rock. A steady line of pilgrims can be seen touching and kissing this rock ; they touch devotional articles also on this rock and get them purified. It is only with eyes brimming with tears that we can remain here to pray.

About 30 m away from Golgotha, within the church itself, is the chapel of Jesus‘ sepulchre . If we make ourselves little by bending low and enter by the narrow doors, we find ourselves ensconced in the tomb wherein was laid the body of Jesus. To kiss that tomb is to enjoy a bliss hitherto unknown, an inner peace and a spiritual ecstasy that leads to a deepening of one’s faith, a delight that always remains as a residue of the ineffable experience that is this pilgrimage.