Did not the Christ have to suffer these things?

Jesus, when he was walking on the way to Emmaus with two of his disciples and hears their words of despair, turned to them and said: “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” (Luke 24:25-26) and he started to explain the things that referred to him in the Scriptures. Indeed many of the prophets pointed to the sufferings of the Messiah, sometimes almost describing them in hints. Their words are cited on almost every page of the New Testament. However, Jesus did not only say that the prophets’ predictions were about him, he went on to say that his sufferings were absolutely necessary and there was no getting around them (“Did not the Christ have to suffer these things”)! How can one understand this?

Let us turn the question around and reflect on it a little. When we open our eyes and look at the world around us as it is, a wounded world sunk in on itself, a world shaken daily by our contradictory ambitions: personal gain, control and various and sundry desires, would it be possible for a righteous and holy man like Jesus to live in it without being exposed to suffering and without paying a high price, even the highest price of all: his own life? The great novelty of the prophets was not that they predicted the sufferings of the Messiah but rather that they understood, through the Holy Spirit, that these sufferings would become the source of blessing for all creation’ even for those who had caused them. Christ’s death on the cross was remarked by one and all, once and for all, as the expression of incomparable faithfulness, a witness that faithful love even unto death is possible. There is a message here that can bequeath new meaning to life. Only the love of Jesus, his fidelity and courage are able to break the vicious cycle of violence, hatred and despair in our world.

When Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, he showed them his side and his hands with the signs of the crucifixion, not to remind them of their betrayal but to show them the greatness of his love and the price that he was willing to pay for them and for us. Easter is indeed the feast of forgiveness. All our evil and hardness of heart, Jesus took upon himself when he opened his arms on the cross and he transformed their poison into an elixir of life which cures all those who approach in humility and with a broken heart in order to ask help, life and consolation. “Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Halleluia” (Psalm 117).