Suffering as a primary depiction of life of Jesus during Holy Week to almost the exclusion of everything else was discussed by John Dominic Crosson on Fresh Air. (Can you tell I listen to NPR a lot?) He says Jesus sharing in this suffering could be consoling in medieval times when folks were suffering plagues and invasions when this emphasis apparently became more prominent. LA Times film critic Tim Rutten finds another problem with this medieval articulation of the gospel message,"Gibson's narrative was studded with the kinds of anti-Semitic caricatures once associated with medieval passion plays." Interestingly, a primarily Latino Catholic congregation in our town stages a realistic procession each year that usually makes the paper. Many folks are farm workers or other low wage jobs in the neighborhood around this particular parish.

Crossan in the interview and in his book (with Borg), The Last Week, points out that the intent of Roman crucifixion was as a public warning. It was "a very definite type of capital punishment for those such as runaway slaves or rebel insurgents who subverted Roman law and order and thereby disturbed the Pax Romana."

I brought this out in the Lenten series I taught in recent weeks. As I've mentioned before, it reminds me of John Howard Yoder's The Politics of Jesus. All these authors see the focus being diverted from critical portions of Jesus' ministry. Crosson and Borg do a great job of using the two meanings of passion as the key to understanding how significant this is in how we perceive about Jesus. Hopefully I wasn't too preachy during the Lenten series but helped folks think about the significance of the week's event in the life of Jesus.