Whether Christ Suffered at a Suitable Time?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ did not suffer at a suitable
time. For Christ's Passion was prefigured by the sacrifice of the
Paschal lamb: hence the Apostle says (1 Cor. 5:7): "Christ our Pasch
is sacrificed." But the paschal lamb was slain "on the fourteenth day
at eventide," as is stated in Ex. 12:6. Therefore it seems that
Christ ought to have suffered then; which is manifestly false: for He
was then celebrating the Pasch with His disciples, according to
Mark's account (14:12): "On the first day of the unleavened bread,
when they sacrificed the Pasch"; whereas it was on the following day
that He suffered.
Obj. 2: Further, Christ's Passion is called His uplifting, according
to John 3:14: "So must the Son of man be lifted up." And Christ is
Himself called the Sun of Justice, as we read Mal. 4:2. Therefore it
seems that He ought to have suffered at the sixth hour, when the sun
is at its highest point, and yet the contrary appears from Mk. 15:25:
"It was the third hour, and they crucified Him."
Obj. 3: Further, as the sun is at its highest point in each day at
the sixth hour, so also it reaches its highest point in every year at
the summer solstice. Therefore Christ ought to have suffered about
the time of the summer solstice rather than about the vernal equinox.
Obj. 4: Further, the world was enlightened by Christ's presence in
it, according to John 9:5: "As long as I am in the world I am the
light of the world." Consequently it was fitting for man's salvation
that Christ should have lived longer in the world, so that He should
have suffered, not in young, but in old, age.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (John 13:1): "Jesus, knowing that
His hour was come for Him to pass out of this world to the Father";
and (John 2:4): "My hour is not yet come." Upon which texts Augustine
observes: "When He had done as much as He deemed sufficient, then
came His hour, not of necessity, but of will, not of condition, but
of power." Therefore Christ died at an opportune time.
_I answer that,_ As was observed above (A. 1), Christ's Passion was
subject to His will. But His will was ruled by the Divine wisdom
which "ordereth all things" conveniently and "sweetly" (Wis. 8:1).
Consequently it must be said that Christ's Passion was enacted at an
opportune time. Hence it is written in De Qq. Vet. et Nov. Test., qu.
lv: "The Saviour did everything in its proper place and season."
Reply Obj. 1: Some hold that Christ did die on the fourteenth day of
the moon, when the Jews sacrificed the Pasch: hence it is stated
(John 18:28) that the Jews "went not into Pilate's hall" on the day
of the Passion, "that they might not be defiled, but that they might
eat the Pasch." Upon this Chrysostom observes (Hom. lxxxii in Joan.):
"The Jews celebrated the Pasch then; but He celebrated the Pasch on
the previous day, reserving His own slaying until the Friday, when
the old Pasch was kept." And this appears to tally with the statement
(John 13:1-5) that "before the festival day of the Pasch . . . when
supper was done" . . . Christ washed "the feet of the disciples."
But Matthew's account (26:17) seems opposed to this; that "on the
first day of the Azymes the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Where
wilt Thou that we prepare for Thee to eat the Pasch?" From which, as
Jerome says, "since the fourteenth day of the first month is called
the day of the Azymes, when the lamb was slain, and when it was full
moon," it is quite clear that Christ kept the supper on the
fourteenth and died on the fifteenth. And this comes out more clearly
from Mk. 14:12: "On the first day of the unleavened bread, when they
sacrificed the Pasch," etc.; and from Luke 22:7: "The day of the
unleavened bread came, on which it was necessary that the Pasch
should be killed."
Consequently, then, others say that Christ ate the Pasch with His
disciples on the proper day--that is, on the fourteenth day of the
moon--"showing thereby that up to the last day He was not opposed to
the law," as Chrysostom says (Hom. lxxxi in Matth.): but that the
Jews, being busied in compassing Christ's death against the law, put
off celebrating the Pasch until the following day. And on this
account it is said of them that on the day of Christ's Passion they
were unwilling to enter Pilate's hall, "that they might not be
defiled, but that they might eat the Pasch."
But even this solution does not tally with Mark, who says: "On the
first day of the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Pasch."
Consequently Christ and the Jews celebrated the ancient Pasch at the
one time. And as Bede says on Luke 22:7, 8: "Although Christ who is
our Pasch was slain on the following day--that is, on the fifteenth
day of the moon--nevertheless, on the night when the Lamb was
sacrificed, delivering to the disciples to be celebrated, the
mysteries of His body and blood, and being held and bound by the
Jews, He hallowed the opening of His own immolation--that is, of His
Passion."
But the words (John 13:1) "Before the festival day of the Pasch" are
to be understood to refer to the fourteenth day of the moon, which
then fell upon the Thursday: for the fifteenth day of the moon was
the most solemn day of the Pasch with the Jews: and so the same day
which John calls "before the festival day of the Pasch," on account
of the natural distinction of days, Matthew calls the first day of
the unleavened bread, because, according to the rite of the Jewish
festivity, the solemnity began from the evening of the preceding day.
When it is said, then, that they were going to eat the Pasch on the
fifteenth day of the month, it is to be understood that the Pasch
there is not called the Paschal lamb, which was sacrificed on the
fourteenth day, but the Paschal food--that is, the unleavened
bread--which had to be eaten by the clean. Hence Chrysostom in the
same passage gives another explanation, that the Pasch can be taken
as meaning the whole feast of the Jews, which lasted seven days.
Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says (De Consensu Evang. iii): "'It was
about the sixth hour' when the Lord was delivered up by Pilate to be
crucified," as John relates. For it "was not quite the sixth hour,
but about the sixth--that is, it was after the fifth, and when part
of the sixth had been entered upon until the sixth hour was
ended--that the darkness began, when Christ hung upon the cross. It
is understood to have been the third hour when the Jews clamored for
the Lord to be crucified: and it is most clearly shown that they
crucified Him when they clamored out. Therefore, lest anyone might
divert the thought of so great a crime from the Jews to the soldiers,
he says: 'It was the third hour, and they crucified Him,' that they
before all may be found to have crucified Him, who at the third hour
clamored for His crucifixion. Although there are not wanting some
persons who wish the Parasceve to be understood as the third hour,
which John recalls, saying: 'It was the Parasceve, about the sixth
hour.' For 'Parasceve' is interpreted 'preparation.' But the true
Pasch, which was celebrated in the Lord's Passion, began to be
prepared from the ninth hour of the night--namely, when the chief
priests said: 'He is deserving of death.'" According to John, then,
"the sixth hour of the Parasceve" lasts from that hour of the night
down to Christ's crucifixion; while, according to Mark, it is the
third hour of the day.
Still, there are some who contend that this discrepancy is due to the
error of a Greek transcriber: since the characters employed by them
to represent 3 and 6 are somewhat alike.
Reply Obj. 3: According to the author of De Qq. Vet. et Nov. Test.,
qu. lv, "our Lord willed to redeem and reform the world by His
Passion, at the time of year at which He had created it--that is, at
the equinox. It is then that day grows upon night; because by our
Saviour's Passion we are brought from darkness to light." And since
the perfect enlightening will come about at Christ's second coming,
therefore the season of His second coming is compared (Matt. 24:32,
33) to the summer in these words: "When the branch thereof is now
tender, and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is nigh: so
you also, when you shall see all these things, know ye that it is
nigh even at the doors." And then also shall be Christ's greatest
exaltation.
Reply Obj. 4: Christ willed to suffer while yet young, for three
reasons. First of all, to commend the more His love by giving up His
life for us when He was in His most perfect state of life. Secondly,
because it was not becoming for Him to show any decay of nature nor
to be subject to disease, as stated above (Q. 14, A. 4). Thirdly,
that by dying and rising at an early age Christ might exhibit
beforehand in His own person the future condition of those who rise
again. Hence it is written (Eph. 4:13): "Until we all meet into the
unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a
perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ."
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