It is an unfortunate aspect of human nature that we like to blame people. When something negative occurs, something confusing and often out of our control, we want someone to serve as a scapegoat. Sometimes our accusations are just, but many times we succumb to mob mentality or persuasive propaganda.

Three days after Jesus’ crucifixion, two of his disciples are walking the road to Emmaus, trying to make sense of all that has happened. Jesus joins them and asks them what they are talking about. Not recognizing the   risen Messiah, the men fill him in, blaming (not unjustly) their chief priests and rulers for handing Jesus over to death. Later Peter, addressing Jews in Jerusalem on Pentecost, will accuse them outright of murdering Jesus through the actions of “lawless men” (the Romans). Is this the foundation for the new Jesus-followers to develop a permanent hatred of their fellow Jews or the Romans? Is this the justification for persecuting the Jews as “Christ-killers,” as would occur in centuries to come?

Not so. For Peter says—first at Pentecost and later in 1 Peter—that Jesus’ death was not the result of political scheming or secret machinations. Rather, the redemptive sacrifice of Christ occurred with the foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23), known before the foundation of the world and placed in motion at the very moment of  Adam’s fall (Gen. 3:15). When speaking to his disciples on the road, Jesus does not blame either Jew or Gentile for his crucifixion, nor does he ask his followers to avenge him. Rather, he “open[s] the Scriptures,” showing them that everything that happened at Calvary was ultimately part of his Father’s plan for humanity’s redemption (1 Pet. 1:20-21). Jesus chose his suffering willingly, for our sake, to redeem and restore all that had been lost and distorted by sin. In doing so, he has transformed our sufferings as well. When we suffer, instead of finding someone to blame, someone to curse, let us instead rejoice, for this cross may one day become our crown of eternal life.

Reflection by parishioner Kathryn Wilmotte