The Hunter Makes His Move
April 5, 2023
Fr. John Riccardo
John’s Gospel describes the opening of the Passion in this way: “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons” (18:1-3).
Torches and lanterns? Really? Is this the way you sneak up on a man who has repeatedly eluded arrest In an age when there was no light except for the moon? Not a chance. This is John’s dramatic writing coming to the fore. After all, the scene he is describing is taking place not just anywhere but specifically in “a garden.” John is shining a spotlight with words onto the scene, wanting us to take special note of what’s about to happen, mindful of the fact that what Jesus has come for is because of what happened in that first garden in Eden. There, the first Adam was deceived by the enemy and the result was slavery for the human race. Now, the new Adam will engage in combat with the enemy and the result will be the rescue of that same race.
As we prepare to enter into the holiest days of the year, the days that celebrate the liberation of our race from Death, Sin, hell and Satan, we need to keep reminding ourselves that he is not the helpless victim here. Jesus is, after all, the one “through whom all things were made” (John 1:3). All things were created through him and for him” (Col 1:16). “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col 1:19). There is no rival god who can compete with Jesus. Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus warned his disciples, “The ruler of this world is coming for me” (John 14:30). But he also told them, “He has no power over me.” John repeatedly stresses that Jesus is in total control in his passion. “No one takes my life from me,” Jesus said. “I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again” (John 10:18). Even after having been arrested and tortured by the Roman soldiers, Jesus tells Pontius Pilate who mistakenly thinks he is the one holding all the cards, “You would have no power over me unless it were given you from above” (John 19:11).
Jesus tells us in Matthew, Mark and Luke that there is a strong man who, after his initial confrontation and defeat of Adam in the first garden, has held captive the possessions he wrongfully took. However, Jesus identifies himself as “one stronger than he [the strong man],” who has come to assail him and overcome him so that the spoil can go free” (cf. Luke 11:21-22).
This was why the eternal Son of God became flesh! “To destroy the works of the devil,” is how John puts it in his 1st Letter (3:8). In doing so, God gets his family and his creation back. To be sure, the suffering Jesus is enduring in his passion is very real, and beyond what we can ever imagine. And, no, Jesus is not play-acting on the cross. But still, mindful that he is in total control, we must remember the events this week celebrate God’s attack against our enemy. Jesus, precisely through his suffering and death, is assailing the strong man and overcoming him. Jesus is not being hunted. Jesus is hunting. He is the hunter stealthily moving in for the kill.
We are, rightfully so, sensitive to language having to do with violence. School shootings are becoming tragically common, not to mention countless other acts of violence. Yet, it’s crucial to see this world accurately. There really is an enemy. But he is a spiritual one – not another race, gender, or political party. And he must be defeated if we are ever to be free.
And God does just this. The passion and death of Jesus reveal what you and I are worth to God. This all happened for us. For you. For me. So that we could be set free, and once again render to God the worship He rightfully deserves, and get back to the task given to us at the beginning of living as men and women created in His image and likeness exercising dominion over His good creation.
The opening antiphons for Evening Prayer on Holy Saturday says, “Death, you shall die in me! Hell, you shall be destroyed by me!”
The ending of perhaps the greatest Easter sermon ever preached, by Melito of Sardis, ends with these words on the lips of Jesus:
“Who is my opponent? I,” he says, “am the Christ. I am the one who destroyed death, and triumphed over the enemy, and trampled Hades under foot, and bound the strong one, and carried off man to the heights of heaven, I,” he says, “am the Christ. Therefore, come, all families of men, you who have been befouled with sins, and receive forgiveness for your sins. I am your forgiveness, I am the passover of your salvation, I am the lamb which was sacrificed for you, I am your ransom, I am your light, I am your savior, I am your resurrection, I am your king.”
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you! For by your holy cross you have rescued the world.