If there is one thing that shines out of the Passion according to Luke, it is the innocence of Jesus. Let’s pause before it.
Early on, we heard Jesus quote the prophet Isaiah: “he was numbered among the transgressors”, in other words reckoned guilty, not innocent. He is arrested, tried twice, sentenced, executed. He is crucified between two gangsters. He is the object of a huge miscarriage of justice, not to mention mockery and violence. He “is numbered among the transgressors”. He is distorted and misrepresented. He falls under the power of evil. His truth is lost. How much of human history is a war on innocence! But the honest Roman officer, who sees him die, says simply, “Clearly, this man was innocent”. He names the reality beneath the great lie in which Jesus was wrapped. Three times, Pilate, representing Rome, says “I find no guilt in this man”, though he lacks the courage to act on it. “This man has done nothing wrong”, says the good thief. And at the end, the crowds go home beating their breasts, knowing a great wrong has been done.
What is this innocence of Jesus? It is not just that he is not the religious blasphemer the Jewish authorities maintained nor the political subversive Rome would want to eliminate. It’s more. It’s the innocence of the Paschal lamb whose pure blood will open up a way of redemption. It is the absolute absence of any trace of original and actual sin in his humanity. It’s a complete, uncompromised goodness. It’s a radiant holiness. It’s the fullness of his love. It is something unique in human history, though echoed at her level in his mother. Nor is it simply a lack. It is a positive. It turns evil back. It rises above it. It dwarfs it. The English word “innocent” actually means someone who doesn’t hurt others. Who of us here hasn’t been hurt or hasn’t in turn hurt others? We are all caught in this cycle of wounding and being wounded. But “this man” not. He breaks the cycle.This is evident even in today’s Gospel. Before he enters his Passion, he institutes a rite which embodies the gift of himself and he tells the apostles, who will fail him, that they will one day eat and drink at his table and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. He heals the right ear of the high priest’s servant. He warns the women of Jerusalem of the trouble coming. He prays for his enemies: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. He promises the repentant thief paradise. He takes on evil and gives back good. And he entrusts himself, his spirit, to the Father, knowing the Father will respond.
Later in life, St Peter recalled all this in his First Letter: “To this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet 2: 21ff).
In the Resurrection, Jesus’ innocence is raised on high. In the sacraments, it’s offered us. What is more innocent than the Eucharist?
And here’ the hope this Passion offers: beyond our lost first innocence, there is a second innocence to be found, a share in his, a victory over evil. For St Luke, this Passion, death and resurrection are end and beginning. A forgiveness of sin to end, and an inrush of the Holy Spirit to begin again. A washing, an absolution as an end; a rebirth and new start. Tears and joy. From grief to grace. May this be our Holy Week and Easter!
St Mary’s Cathedral, Aberdeen, 13 April 2025
