Archetypes of a Passion Narrative

IMAGE: Fr. Maximino Cerezo Barredo, CMF, En la Cena Ecológica del Reino (“At the Ecological Dinner in the Kingdom”)

 Our Gospel today is the longest single reading that we will hear in our church year. It begins on the day we call Maundy Thursday with Jesus eating his last supper with his disciples, moves to the Mount of Olives where Jesus will pray for strength to meet the horrible fate he knows is coming even as his disciples sleep. It continues with Jesus being taken into custody, tried before the Sanhedrin, brought to Pilate, the Roman governor, and in turn to Herod, the Judean king, to decide what should happen to him.

 There is a horrific scene where crowds which only days before shouted Hosanas as Jesus entered Jerusalem will turn on him, angrily screaming “Crucify him!” And before the reading is finished, that is precisely what will happen. It ends with a Roman soldier confessing Jesus’ innocence and the faithful women who had accompanied him down the Via Dolorosa to his death departing to prepare his burial rites.

 There is much to be considered here.

 

Archetypes: “Bidden or Unbidden…”

In all truthfulness, we have little idea of how much of this account is historical. The mere logistics of there being witnesses at all of the junctures in this story suggests that what we are hearing is probably a handful of actual events connected by an incredibly talented writer we call Luke, writing some 50 years after they occurred.

So why do we tell this story? Why do we engage in its reading, with individuals bringing the story to life reading parts and parishioners joining the angry crowd shouting “Crucify him!”? What is it about this story that speaks to our souls?

Carl Jung was a 20^th CE psychologist who sought to explain how human beings understood symbols that appear in our dreams and in our religions. Above the front door of his home in Zurich, Jung had hung a sign that read “Bidden or unbidden, God is present.” Jung called the images and patterns of words that spoke to our souls archetypes and he was clear that our attraction to them occurred outside our rational thought process, “bidden or unbidden,” as he put it. When we encounter them, something powerful touches us, activating those archetypes within our own souls.

So let’s look at this story we’ve just heard. As we examine the characters in this drama, I invite you to consider where in your own life and in the world around us that you see them.

Disciples

The first group of people we encounter are the disciples. Devoted to Jesus, they are often confused, contentious, ambitious, yet willing to be vulnerable, to follow this figure they simultaneously trust but rarely understand. 

Where in your spiritual journey have you experienced these qualities?   

Of the disciples there are two who play cameo roles. First there is Simon Peter, the disciple called the rock. Peter is the leader of the disciples, the one they trust, solid as a rock. But it is often Peter who doesn’t get what Jesus is teaching them, dense as a rock. It will be Peter who, when push comes to shove, will deny Jesus to save his own hide. And yet it is this imperfect human being who holds the movement together after Jesus’ execution by the Romans, a movement that will become the world’s largest religion. He’s a complex character.

Where do you experience your inner Peter?

The other cameo role is the embodiment of what Jung called the Shadow, the darkest qualities of ourselves that we repress from our consciousness. Judas is simultaneously the passionate defender of the poor, the one who desperately wants a messiah to help Judah throw off its Roman overlords, and when that hope is not realized, is willing to betray Jesus.

Can we be honest enough with ourselves to identify one or more of those qualities within ourselves?

Power Holders

Then there are the holders of power. There is Pilate, hypervigilant Roman governor of Judea. Pilate is known for his ruthlessness and his cruelty, a man who sees all things and persons as means to a singular end – the exercise of power. It is he who cynically asks Jesus during his interrogation “What is truth?” implying that truth is ultimately not important. This is not a character most of us would want to identify with even as we see plenty of examples of it in the world around us today.

But where have we been single-minded in our pursuits of goals we saw as essential, treating others as means to our own ends?

IMAGE: Henry Collier, Christ in front of Pontius Pilate, (1948)

Herod, the Roman appointed king of Judea, was known for his architectural accomplishments, building elaborate cities on the Mediterranean coast and Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. But Herod was also highly insecure about his power, executing John the Baptiser who dared to criticize his infidelity as well as members of his own family he distrusted. Herod ordered the slaughter of the infants of the Galilee in his unsuccessful attempt to kill the baby Jesus. Herod is not anyone we would like to identify with.

But where in our own lives have we allowed our insecurities to drive our thoughts, words and deeds after which we are disappointed with ourselves, asking, “What was I thinking?”

The Crowd, The Criminals, A Soldier, The Women  

 

IMAGE: Antonio Ciseri, Ecce Homo (1800)

One of the turning points in the story is Pilate’s interaction with the crowd. Given the chance to save an already abused and tortured Jesus from execution, the crowd shouts “Crucify him!” Bear in mind that some of the members of this crowd only days before were dancing in the streets welcoming Jesus: “Hosanna to the son of David.” Today they have done a 180 degree turn, demanding his death. There is no critical thinking occurring here and absolutely no compassion in evidence. Such is the nature of groupthink, which as Jung observed, always descends to its lowest common denominator.

So where in our lives have we gone along with the crowd without thinking, willing to harm those we identify as enemies, perhaps even as our hearts and souls told us this was wrong?

The figures of the criminals executed along with Jesus offer us two possible responses to the Way of Jesus. One of them taunts the dying Jesus, adding insult to injury, saying “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself!” The other evidences a willingness to own his own Shadow – “We are getting what we deserve for our deeds.” But he also acknowledges his vulnerability, seeking hope in this fellow victim he recognizes to be innocent: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Where in our lives do we see our own cynicism, our willingness to blame the victim? And where in our lives are we willing to acknowledge our limitations, recognizing that none of us can make it through life alone, that we need others and we need the ever present G-d to be with us if we are to survive?

 

There is the Centurion, the man who owes his soul to the company store, the Roman Empire in whose army he serves. His job is to guard the execution site, to prevent those being crucified from being rescued by their friends and family. But he evidences a surprising depth of character not found in many guardians of power, going about their nasty business with the rationalization of “I’m just doing my job.”  The Centurion realizes that this was not just any human being. And he knows that the Romans had just killed an innocent man. Being able to publicly admit that must have been difficult to say the least.

Where in our lives is there a Centurion willing to admit the truth about ourselves and our nation-state that we don’t want to face?

IMAGE: Mickey McGrath, OSFS, Station 8, Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

Finally, there are the women. Unlike the disciples who have run away frightened, they accompany Jesus all the way through the suffering to the bitter end. It is the women who stand at the foot of the cross watching Jesus die. And at the end of the story, it is the women who have come to see where Jesus is buried so they can return to anoint his body according to Jewish custom. This is a labor of love, a willingness to endure suffering out of compassion for the other.

 

Where do we see that pattern in our lives?

 

Can We See Ourselves? Our World?

All of these figures are readily observable in the world around us. And, if we are able to be honest with ourselves, we can probably locate all of these patterns within our own lives. And this is the reason we continue to tell these stories.

IMAGE: Dianne Minnar, Stations at the Cross, Sacred Heart Church, 

Samford Village, Queensland, Australia (2016)

Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week. This is the week we are asked to accompany Jesus from the Last Supper to the tomb. This final week of the penitential season of Lent is the perfect time to reflect on our own lives, to consider who we are, where we see ourselves in this story we tell and where we see this story in the world around us. May we all make good use of this time reflecting on our lives this Holy Week as we prepare for the coming of the Easter Feast. Let us pray:

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

       

[A sermon preached on Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025, St. Richard’s Episcopal Church, Winter Park, FL. The sermon as presented can be seen at the link below starting at 43:00.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNFam_KWIsw&t=2534s

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Harry Scott Coverston

 Orlando, Florida

  frharry@cfl.rr.com

 hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

   If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

 

   Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

 For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

 

 Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

 

      © Harry Coverston, 2025

  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++