Jesus was "The Noble Man"

Stephen Kachappilly Cap

We live in the world of silent deaths. Interestingly two of such deaths were reported recently. Mr. Praveen Nayar, The AGM, in Bank of Baroda, had passed away on the last day of his service on 31th of January 2018. He collapsed in the board room of Bank of Baroda, zonal office, New Delhi, while paying his vote of thanks to all his fellow colleagues. He finished the last sentence and warped, bent his head towards the table and died. There was another report of a worker dead at desk for five days. Mr. George Turklebaum, who had been employed as proof-reader at a New York firm, quietly passed away on Monday. But nobody noticed till Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was working during the week end. Postmortem report revealed that his death took place before five days.

Unlike all these, Jesus proclaimed about his passion, death and resurrection in advance. He was well aware of what was going to happen to him. Why did he proclaim about his death? Because he wanted every creature to look at his cross, which can bring them salvation. Cross, till the death of Jesus was a symbol of curse. The death on a cross was a severe verdict given to the notorious thieves, rapists and the culprits of same category. Like them, Jesus also died on the cross, but to make it a way of salvation and symbol of hope for entre humanity. “Like Moses lifted up serpent in the desert, so must the son of man be lifted up (Jn: 3: 14).”  

  

Why is a bronze serpent used to save the people? Of course, this is not the serpent which tempted the first parents in the garden of Eden. We should know the context in which God commended Moses to make a bronze serpent. Moses, the God appointed leader led the people of Israel from the land of slavery towards the promised land. But, they had a fear of acceptance by the mighty giant rulers of Israel, whose presence caused them to stay back in the wilderness for sometimes. Those days they camped near mount Sinai where God spoke to Moses and gave ten commandments. They would have to wait till the death of those rulers. During this period of struggles they had thought that it was impossible for their present generation to see the promised land, as assured by Moses and God. Apart from this, desert is a place where they had to find out their own means of living; water, food and other necessary things. These difficulties could be one of the reasons that they started murmuring against God. They labelled Him as a weak God who is unable to chase the giant leaders out of power. To teach a lesson of His mighty deeds, the infuriated God had sent serpents. Serpents bit many of them and they were killed. People started repenting of their mistake to Moses, the ambassador of people and God. As the result of Moses' pleading, God stopped His short time anger towards His most dear people. Instead, He heard their cry and regression through Moses and responded to their regrets with blessing. He commanded Moses to make a serpent out of bronze and said: whoever look at this will be saved. Why did God ask Moses to make a bronze serpent? We cannot use a logical bargaining to solve this dilemma. It is true that the serpent had a wrong image in the book of Genesis. But, it doesn’t mean that serpent is wrong always. Perhaps, God decided to correct people’s minds to appreciate His creations including snakes. The appearance of devil as snake doesn’t make the later a permanent polluter. Unfortunately, people wrongly carried away the saving concept of snake and sentiments and started worshiping serpent as their new God (2 Kings:18). what about us?

The Cross, like snake was a dirty object till Jesus embraced it. He decided to change the image of the cross with this holy death. That’s why he invited people to look at him on the cross. To those who look at him with faith, Jesus promised them eternal life. There were three kinds of people who looked at his cross with faith and courage: Mother Mary and other women, and St. John under the cross. There was a good thief, who was invited to dine with Jesus in the heavenly paradise. Finally, a good solider who professed faith in the son of God saying this man was truly a son of God. Their proclamation of faith in the middle of Jesus’s enemies was too strong than a private confession of the eleven disciples (exclude Judas, the betrayer) in an enclosed room. The apostles appeared more with doubts, faith and confusions. Much more to this, their running away attitude disgraced their true dignity, courage and faith as disciples during the passion and death of Jesus. Later stages, they must have appeared courageous.

Do we look at Jesus on the cross? Or do we care more of our institutions, faith, power and some other sentiments? Why did Christian population is going downward in India? Why do many Catholics flow to Protestantism, Pentecostals, and other sects like Emperor Immanuel and so on?  Do the simple, pious Catholics get disappointed of priests and others leaders in the Church? If we are wrong many ways, let us correct ourselves. Confession of mistake is far better than the self- resistance and hiding of many blunders.

George Orwell (collected Essays) said that tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph. But, it is felt that man is noble than the forces which destroy him. Nobility shows power of the human spirit to rise above injustice, misfortunes, suffering and even death.

Jesus, indeed was "The Noble Man."       

IV Sunday of the Lent season