|
|
|
|
|
592 Jesus did not abolish the Law of Sinai, but rather fulfilled it (cf Mt 5:17—19) with such perfection (cf Jn 8:46) that he revealed its ultimate meaning (cf Mt 5:33) and redeemed the transgressions against it (cf Heb 9:15). 593 Jesus venerated the Temple by going up to it for the Jewish frasts of pilgrimage, and with a jealous love he loved this dwelling of God among men. The Temple prefigures his own mystery. When he announces its destruction, it is as a manifestation of his own execution and of the entry into a new age in the history of salvation, when his Body would be the definitive Temple. 594 Jesus performed acts, such as pardoning sins, that man~fested him to be the Saviour God himself (cf Jn 5:16—18). Certain Jews, who did not recognize God made man (cf Jn 1:14), saw in him only a man who made himself God Un 10:33), and judged him as a blasphemer. Paragraph 2. Jesus Died Crucified I. The Trial of Jesus
Divisions among the Jewish authorities concerning Jesus 595 Among the religious authorities of Jerusalem,
not only were the Pharisee Nicodemus and the prominent
Joseph of Arimathea both secret disciples of Jesus, but
there was also long-standing dissension about him, so much
so that St John says of these authorities on the very eve of
Christ’s Passion, ‘many... believed in him’,
though very imperfectly.~~8 This is not surprising, if one
recalls that on the day after Pentecost ‘a great many
of the priests were obedient to the faith’ and
‘some believers. . . belonged to the party of the
Pharisees’, to the point that St James could tell St
Paul, ‘How many thousands there are among the Jews of
those who have believed; and they are all zealous for the
Law.’379 596 The religious
authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous about what
stance to take towards Jesus.~’° The Pharisees
threatened to excommunicate his followers.~” To those
who feared that ‘everyone will believe in him, and the
Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our
nation’, the high
should die for the people, and that the
whole nation should not perish.~382 The Sanhedrin, having
declared Jesus deserving of death as a blasphemer but having
lost the right to put anyone to death, hands him over to the
Romans, accusing him of political revolt, a charge that puts
him in the same category as Barabbas |
|
|
|
|
|