And now, after several more torches had been lighted...
the pitiable procession was set in motion.
First went ten of the guard.
Then followed the executioners dragging Jesus by the ropes.
Next came the scoffing Pharisees.
And the ten other soldiers closed the procession.
-
The disciples were still straying about...
wailing and lamenting, as if bereft of their senses.
John, however, was following rather closely behind the last of the guards.
The Pharisees, seeing him, ordered him to be seized. At this command, some of the guard turned and hurried after him. But he fled from them, and when they laid hold of the linen scarf he wore around his neck, he loosened it quickly and thus effected his escape.
He had laid aside his mantle, retaining nothing but a short, sleeveless undergarment, that he might be able to flee more easily. Around his neck, head, and arms, however, he was enveloped in that long, narrow scarf which the Jews were accustomed to wear.
The executioners dragged and ill-used Jesus in the most cruel manner.
They exercised upon Him all kinds of malice, and this principally from a base deference [eerbied] and desire to please the six officials, who were full of rage and venom against Him.
They led Him along the roughest roads, over ruts [groeven] and stones and mire [modder], keeping the long ropes stretched while they themselves sought good paths. In this way Jesus had to go wherever the ropes would allow Him.
His tormentors carried in their hands knotted cords with which they struck Him, as a butcher might do the animal he was leading to slaughter. All this they accompanied with mockery and insult so low and indecent that the repetition of it would be revolting.
-
Jesus was barefoot.
Besides the usual undergarment, He wore a seamless [naadloos], woolen shirt, or blouse, and over that an outside robe. The undergarment of the disciples, like that of the Jews in general, consisted of a scapular that fell before and behind over the breast and shoulders. It was made of two pieces fastened together on the shoulder by straps, but open at the sides. The lower part of the body was covered with a girdle from which hung four lappets which, after being wound around the loins, formed a sort of trousers.
I must not forget to say that, at the apprehension of the Lord, I saw no written order.
His enemies went to work as if He were an outlaw, a person beyond the pale of the law.
The procession moved on at a hurried pace.
When it left the road between the Garden of Olives and the pleasure garden of Gethsemani, it turned for a short distance to the right on the west side of Gethsemani, until it reached a bridge that there crossed the brook Cedron.
When Jesus was coming with the Apostles to the Mount of Olives, He did not cross that bridge. He took a roundabout way through the Valley of Josaphat [=Kidron Valley] and crossed the brook over a bridge farther to the south.
That over which He was now led in fetters was very long, since it spanned not only the Cedron, which flowed here close to the mount, but also a part of the uneven heights of the valley, thus forming a paved highway for transportation.
Even before the procession reached the bridge, I saw Jesus fall to the earth twice, owing to the pitiless manner in which He was dragged along and the jerking of the executioners at the ropes.
-
But when they reached the middle of the bridge...
they exercised their villainy upon Him with still greater malice.
The executioners pushed poor, fettered Jesus, whom they held fast with ropes, from the bridge into the brook Cedron, about the height of a man below, accompanying their brutality with abusive words, as for instance: "Now He can drink His fill!"
Were it not for divine assistance...
Jesus would have been killed by the fall.
He fell first on His knees and then on His face...
so that He would have been severely wounded on the stony bed of the brook, which was here very shallow, if He had not saved Himself a little by stretching out His previously tightly bound hands.
They had been loosened from the girdle, I know not whether by divine help or whether by the executioners before they thrust Him down.
-
The marks of His knees, feet, elbows, and fingers...
were, by God's will, impressed upon the places that they touched...
which later on became objects of veneration.
Such things are no longer believed, but similar impressions in stone, made by the feet, the hands, and the knees of the Patriarchs and Prophets, made by Jesus, the Blessed Virgin, and some of the saints, have often been shown to me in historical visions.
The rocks were softer and more believing than the hearts of men.
They bore witness at this terrible moment to the Divine Truth...
that had thus impressed them.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten