We talk of the last weeks of Christ´s life on earth as his Passion. Yet how odd that we should use the same word for a strength of feeling (being ‘passionate’ about something), to describe a romance (being passionately in love), as to describe the last weeks of Christ’s earthly life (his passion).

The root meaning of the word ‘passion’ …is the Latin word, ‘to suffer’. It fits for Christ, but it fits uncomfortably with other examples. But then it’s the same word as the word ‘passive’, being done unto, being acted upon, offering no opposition, being submissive. Because that’s what it’s like when you are taken over by a feeling, that’s what it’s like when you fall in love with someone. And that was what it was like for Christ in his last days – passion, being done unto, offering no opposition, letting go.

So why was Jesus so passive? Why did he stick up there on the cross & not come down and flatten his persecutors? I can’t imagine that he went easily up to the cross, that he simply said: “well, I’m the Son of God – and this is just something I’ve got to do, to get through, something that comes with the territory: I’ll just grit my teeth and tough it out”. But I also can’t imagine that, behind that agonised face on the cross, was a secret smile: the one person who knew that he was actually going to rise again. I don’t think so – because any of that would have been to deny his real despair, the total human dereliction of being nailed to a cross, …and dying.

Rather Jesus went with genuine uncertainty, with no assurance, no comfort, no knowledge…. that all would come right in the end. But what he did have was a grain of faith, an openness to that crazy uncomfortable possibility, that somehow his death may be fruitful, it may be beneficial…..for others.

John Austin Baker, former Bishop of Salisbury, wrote: “The crucified Jesus is the only accurate picture of God the world has ever seen.”

Picture shows the Calvary Cross on Caldey Island in South Wales