Jesus* On The Cross

SADHU VASWANI

April is a bright month in Asian lands. The sky is beautiful, spring flowers bloom, and songbirds sing.

In April, one Friday morn, when nature is smiling, a saint is before a Roman official. Jesus stands before Pilate. Palestine is under Roman domination. Pilate is a Roman Governor and magistrate. Outside his court is a crowd dominated by priests. Again and again in history has a conflict arisen between the priest and the prophet. The priest is a custodian of creeds and forms; the prophet is a voice of the Spirit. Jewish priests are offended with Jesus. They regard him a dangerous revolutionary. ‘‘Away with him”, they say. It is the cry, also, of the crowd. Crowds do not think. Pilate is a sceptic and Pilate fears the crowd. Pilate does not wish to do harm to Jesus, but weakness, also, is a sin. Pilate is weak, too weak to displease the crowd. If they report against him to Rome, if they create a rebellion, he may lose his post, and he loves his post too well. “What shall I do with him?” he says; and the crowd say: “Away with him! Crucify him!” In the face of this fury of the crowd, Jesus is silent!

To propitiate the crowd, and still to save Jesus, Pilate asks soldiers to scourge Jesus. Does Pilate hope to excite pity in the crowd for Jesus and save him?

Jesus is stripped of garments: the Roman soldiers put on him a crown of thorns and mock him. Some smite his cheeks: some spit at him; some strike him hard until his head bleeds. Jesus is silent! The crowd are not pacified. They still cry: “Crucify him!” So Jesus is taken to the Place of Skulls to be crucified. He is given a heavy cross to bear. He stumbles on the way: he falls: he is tired, exhausted. Jesus breaks his silence with the words: “Father! Forgive them for they know not what they do!” Yes — often men do wrong, for they know not. If they would but know! “Knowledge is virtue,” said Socrates; and the Hindu seer said: “Sin is avidya!” If man would but know! Some women, too, are following Jesus. Men are often callous. Woman has intuition and bhakti. These women know that Jesus is innocent, and their hearts go out to him in sympathy and love. Men are cruel because they do not know. These women know and they weep. “Weep not for me,” says Jesus.

*From his address at the Brahmo Mandir, Hyderabad Sind, on Easter Day. (April, 5, 18-31).

*April 9 is the sacred Easter Day.

Jesus is on the Cross. They fix nails in his hands and feet. His body bleeds. He is silent. After some time he speaks — two words only! “I thirst!” On Friday evening Jesus passes away, and on Sunday morn — according to Christian tradition — the cry goes forth: “He is arisen!” Theologians and critics will continue to discuss if Resurrection was a fact of the historical order or not. To me the question is: Is the ascension of the Lord a fact of the psychological order or not? “Christ is risen!” So we read in Christian hymns. To me the question is: “Is the Christ risen in our hearts?” What do we celebrate today? Dead history? Or the Risen Lord? “Christ is risen!” which I interpret to mean: “Love triumphs”. Silent sacrificial love.

This Love was incarnated in Isa. This Love became flesh and blood in that Blessed Life and moved among men; and they met Love with hate. Has Love triumphed in the world? Has Love triumphed in our hearts? Not yet. Still on the cross of our “civilisation” is the Lord being crucified. And still he cries: “I thirst!” He wants water — the water of the love of human hearts. “Christ is risen!” But still is the world darkened with bitter strife. And still the nations hate one the other, and humanity bleeds. “Christ is risen!” For in the midst of the world’s hate and strife another shakti is already at work — a new spirit striving to make the world new. The spirit of sacrificial love. “Christ is risen!” For the heart of man still believes that Love will triumph over hate. “Christ is risen!” Hence the hope that the Kingdom of God will yet be built on the earth. “Christ is risen!” Hence the call to us all to build the Kingdom first in our hearts. For out of the inner are the issues of outer life. “Christ is risen!” This Easter-message is the hope of a broken, crucified humanity. For this message is a call to New Life. A Life in the Spirit. A dedicated life. A life of sacrificial love. A new creative life which says: “It is not enough to glimpse the beauty of God. It is necessary to build Godvision in the conscious and subconscious self. 