Atlas Bled
A Friday 'flection on the Scourging at the Pillar
Each Friday I post a short (re)flection on Scripture. I look at both Catholic and Protestant commentaries before writing my own, but the post itself is brief, to-the-point, and does not attempt to wade through all available views. I also try not to simply repeat what’s been said elsewhere. Since I mostly comment on the spiritual meaning of the text, my interpretation generally complements rather than competes with other readings, anyway. Welcome to Friday ’flections!
Although none of the Evangelists mention it explicitly, both sacred and secular history agree that Christ was chained to a pillar for his scourging. In fact, one tradition nearly 1700 years old actually identifies this pillar as the one now housed in St. Praxedes, a Roman basilica. Bent double, chained to this short column, Christ’s back would have been wholly exposed to his torturers.1
As with the rest of the Passion, the exigencies of history and happenstance come together to bear unwitting witness to the glory of God. Consider the Good Friday Reproaches:
I opened the sea before you:
and you opened my side with a spear.
O my people, what have I done to you?
Or how have I offended you?
Answer me!I went before you in a pillar of cloud:
and you led me to the judgment hall of Pilate.
O my people, what have I done to you?
Or how have I offended you?
Answer me!
There is our God who holds all things together, bound in place by a length of chain. There is the One who founds “the earth on its pillars” and “hangs it over nothing,” suffering Himself to be tethered to granite. Yet as with the rest of the Reproaches, the image of defeat becomes an icon of triumph.
This pillar, a measly thing with shallow foundations, nevertheless touches all three spheres of creation. From the dirt, it reaches up to the world of men, and (however weakly) grasps for the heavens. Here, at this pillar, God has bound Himself to creation, and so doing bound the spheres together, so that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Cosmic harmony prevails. Christ has come to gather creation together and, as He is raised up in a kind of pre-Ascension at Calvary, offer it back to the Father. He bent his back so we could bend our knees; He was silent so our tongues could confess; He embraced the pillar so heaven and earth might embrace one another. This is why I imagine the pillar as stretching from Sheol to heaven. When Jacob laid his head on a stone and slept, he saw a ladder upon which angels were ascending and descending. In Christ, this is no dream but a living reality. Even before the sleep of death, Christ used this meager stone to establish a royal highway between heaven and earth. Now the prayers of the saints pass easily back and forth; now human and angelic efforts cooperate in carrying out the designs of Providence.
All this we remember, and participate in, when we obey Our Lord and pray,
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
< Last Commentary | All Commentaries | Reformation Catholicism >
There is some dispute as to whether this is the whole pillar or only part of it.