Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani?

What is the significance of the crucifixion? I have been thinking about this since I saw a performance of J S Bach’s The Passion of St Matthew last week. The chapters of the Gospel of Matthew on which Bach based his work are so well known that they are invisible, though axiomatic parts of the collective unconscious of probably every literate human being living within any Judeo-Christian culture. Chapters 26 and 27 describe the last supper, the garden of Gethsemane, the ‘trial’ of Jesus, his crucifixion, death and burial in a tomb. 

What is the significance of the crucifixion? In Luke’s Gospel Jesus tells one of his co-crucified: “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise”. What kind of sacrifice is this? I mean if he knows he’s going to heaven then it undermines the worth of what he has submitted himself to. If he knows he’s going to heaven then this is no sacrifice at all.

In truth Jesus does not seem to have any such certainty. The night before, when all around him he is being betrayed he asks God to lift the burden of this death from his shoulders. This moment of doubt is common to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me”.

In Matthew, Jesus seems to know even less about what’s actually taking place. He says only “Eli Eli lama Sabachthani” – My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me? Jesus’ sacrifice is therefore one riven by doubt – there is no certainty at all – it may all come to nothing, it may all be for nothing.

The thought has occurred to me, though that Jesus’ sacrifice would have had even greater value, would have been a truly devastating loss if it had been the act of a confirmed atheist. What if Jesus knew that there was no God, that not only had he been forsaken but that there was no God at all to forsake anyone?

It seems to me that if Jesus knew that he was dying for nothing the sacrifice would be much greater. He would then be sacrificing the only life he had, the only one he’d ever have, for what? So that others might learn, might benefit from his sacrifice in some uncertain, metaphorical way?

That would be a sacrifice worth celebrating.

I think Bach would be horrified that his music should trigger off such a line of reasoning. What's more I am sure that Bach had no intention of upstaging JC but he has come close!

The music itself was impressive. Betrayal, despair, lies in act one (Chapter 26) followed by a show trial, torture, crucifixion and agonising death in act two (Chapter 27). Bach does not go on to describe the resurrection. He stops at the point where “they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch”.

Bach doesn’t bother bringing Jesus back to life but with music as uplifting as this who needs a resurrection?