John 19:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Isaac's father Abraham means father of many nations and is a type of the God of all. He is Father of Jews and Gentiles.

By His good pleasure and decree, His Son bears the cross.

Only in the Old Testament the matter was limited to the father's intention, since it was a prefiguration. Here it was fulfilled in deed, because this was the truth.

Perhaps there is another likeness also. As there Isaac was released and a ram was slain, so here the divine nature remained impassible, while the human nature was slain.

It is also called the Lamb, as the offspring of the wandering sheep, Adam.

How then does another Evangelist say that Simon was compelled to carry the cross (Mk 15:21)? Both happened.

At first the Lord went, carrying the cross Himself, because all abhorred this wood and did not allow themselves even to touch it.

But when they went out, they met Simon coming from the field, and then they laid this wood upon him.

This place was called the Place of a Skull, because a report was preserved that Adam had been buried there.

Thus, where the beginning of death was, there also its abolition was accomplished.

For there is an ecclesiastical tradition that after man's expulsion from Paradise, his first dwelling was Judea.

It was given to him as consolation after the blessedness of Paradise, as the best and most abundant of all lands.

This land was also the first to receive man dead. The people of that time, amazed by the dead skull, removed the skin from it and buried it there.

From it they gave this place its name. After the flood, Noah handed down the account of this to all.

Therefore the Lord also receives death where the source of death was, in order to dry it up.

Those who are guilty of transgression and constantly depart from the law must also undergo punishment.

Therefore He who knew no sin was cursed for our sake, so that He might free us from the ancient curse.

He who suffered for all, being God over all, was able to accomplish this. By the death of His flesh, He obtained the redemption of all.

Thus Christ bears not the cross proper to Him, but the one that threatened and was appointed for us, if one considers the condemnation according to the law.

For just as He was among the dead not for His own sake but for ours, so that He might become for us the Author of eternal life, destroying in Himself the dominion of death.

So too He takes upon Himself the cross proper to us, condemning in Himself the condemnation according to the law.

Thus every lawlessness might at last shut its mouth, as is sung in the Psalms (Ps 107:42), since He who had no sin was condemned for the sin of all.

This event with Christ should bring very great benefit to our souls as an example of courage in piety.

For I think it is impossible for us to attain perfection in good things and complete union with God in any other way.

We must set love for Him above earthly life and, if circumstances call us, submit with full willingness to dangers for the truth.

So too our Lord Jesus Christ says that everyone who "does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me" (Mt 10:38).

To take up the cross, I think, means nothing other than to detach oneself from the world for God's sake.

It means even to put life itself with the body in second place before the good things to come, if need requires.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is not ashamed to bear upon Himself the cross proper to us, having endured this out of love for us.

But we, miserable ones, have as our mother this earth beneath our feet, insensible, and have been called into being from nothing.

Yet sometimes we do not dare even slightly to touch the struggles for religion. If we must suffer something for the faith of Christ, we at once consider it unbearable shame.

We avoid mockery from opponents or lovers of slander as something destructive. We set the will of God below this petty and temporary love of glory.

We suffer, so to speak, from the mother of all evils, pride, and through it fall into sins.

Thus we consider and make ourselves servants above the Lord and disciples above the Teacher (Mt 10:24).

But what a terrible weakness this is, serving as an obstacle to us and diverting the mind from striving toward what is due.

On the shoulders of His invincible humility He bore the sign of salvation, which all the kingdoms of the earth would honor. It was as though on that day He strengthened all His future followers by the symbol of His deed, saying: "He who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me" (Mt 10:38).

He pours out Blood on the way, “that His foot may be dipped in blood” (Ps 67:24). The road to heaven is red, dyed with the Blood of Christ. “Those who sow with tears shall reap with joy” (Ps 125:5). Christ the Savior sows His Blood, that we may reap eternal joy in heaven.

Before this He sent servants “into the highways and hedges” to compel the poor and needy to enter His house (Lk 14:21, 23). Now He Himself goes out to the squares and crossroads, that He may call us, poor and needy, to the heavenly banquet.

Before this He flooded the earth with water. Now He floods it with Blood, that He may drown and wash away our sinful abominations.

O dark procession, or rather exile, in which the Son of David suffers reproach from a multitude of new Shimeis. “Begone,” they say, “you bloodthirsty and lawless man” (2 Sam 16:7). O how grievous this was for Him who says: “I ran a path without iniquity” (Ps 58:5).

The scribes and Pharisees cry: begone, begone, lawless man, “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners,” son of Beelzebul, destroyer of our law (Mt 11:19; cf. Mt 12:27).

Only recently children cried out to Him as He entered the city: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mt 21:9). Now the parents of those children, leading Him out of the city, curse Him: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Gal 3:13).

Who will not be moved, looking upon the Stranger returning so poor to His own house? He was a guest among us. We gave Him His first lodging in a stable among animals. Then we drove Him out to Egypt, to an idolatrous people (Mt 2).

Among us He had “nowhere to lay His head.” “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (Jn 1:11). Now they have sent Him on the road with a heavy cross. They placed upon His shoulders the heavy burden of our sins.

“Bearing His own cross, He went out,” while “upholding all things by the word of His power” (Mt 8:20; Jn 19:17; Heb 1:3). The true Isaac bears the Cross, the wood on which He will be offered in sacrifice (Gen 22).

Heavy Cross! Beneath the weight of the Cross, “the Lord strong in battle, who has shown strength with His arm,” falls on the road (Ps 23:8; Lk 1:51). Many wept, but Christ says: “Do not weep for Me” (Lk 23:28).

This Cross upon My shoulder is authority. It is the key by which I shall open and lead Adam out from the locked doors of Hades. “Do not weep. Issachar desired what was good, lying between the borders. He saw that rest was good and the land pleasant. He bowed his shoulders to bear burdens and became a worker of the soil” (Gen 49:14-15).

“And man shall go out to his work” (Ps 103:23). The High Priest bears His throne, that from it, with outstretched hands, He may bless all the ends of the earth.

Esau goes out into the field, taking bow and arrows, to “catch game” for his father (Gen 27:5). Christ the Savior goes out, taking the Cross instead of a bow, to “catch game,” to draw us all to Himself. “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to Myself” (Jn 12:32).

The spiritual Moses goes out. He takes the rod, His Cross, stretches out His hands, divides the Red Sea of the passions, leads us over from death to life, and drowns the devil, like Pharaoh, in the abyss of Hades (Ex 14).

They lead the Lord out of the city, or rather, drive Him out of the city as an evildoer. They condemn Him with evildoers: “He was numbered with the transgressors” (Mk 15:28). Here is Lazarus, suffering at the gates of the rich world, crying: “I suffered and was humbled to the end” (Ps 37:7).

He ascends Mount Golgotha so that the whole world may behold His shameful and cruel death. On Mount Sinai He gave the law (Ex 19). On this mountain He signs that law with His Blood.

There the voice of trumpets and thunders was heard. Here the voice of mockery, reproach, and derision is heard. Instead of thunder, the nailing to the Cross is heard, when, stretching Him out upon the Cross, they drive sharp nails into His most holy hands and feet.

Yes, Abraham, the father of believers, beheld in a reverent spirit the procession of Jesus, burdened with the cross (Jn 8:56). "When Isaac himself carried the wood, that he might be offered in sacrifice by his father, he prefigured the Savior, who carries the wood of suffering appointed by the Father in place of sacrifice." The prophet Isaiah spoke of the Messiah: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter" (Is 53:8). The Prophet and Forerunner preached concerning Jesus: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world" (Jn 1:29).

The road by which the Savior went to Golgotha is still called the way of Passion or sorrow. Sorrowful were Your ways, sweetest Jesus, throughout all Your earthly life. Yet the way to Golgotha was the most sorrowful way.

You go burdened with the weight of the cross. Yet Your body was already tormented by sufferings. It was covered with wounds and blood. Your head had been beaten with a reed and wounded by the crown of thorns. Your feet were weary from the passages from Caiaphas' court to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back to Pilate.

And what a night You spent in the garden of Gethsemane! How many sorrows of soul You endured before Annas and in the Sanhedrin, before Herod and Pilate! After all this, what a burden You had to bear. Given the height and thickness of the cross on which the body was to hang, its weight could not have been small. It could not have been less than three poods. From the praetorium to Golgotha, one had to walk almost two and a half versts.

But this was not all. What shame now surrounded Jesus! Had He not so recently entered Jerusalem, accompanied by the people's rapturous cries, as the expected King of Israel? Now He goes to Golgotha with the cross upon His shoulders. What a sorrowful contrast!

Even this was not enough for His sworn enemies. They used every possible means to shame Him in the eyes of the people. See, according to their desire, two notorious criminals are led with Jesus to execution. What a triumph for the malicious enemies of Jesus!

The Savior's words were fulfilled: "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice" (Jn 16:20). The Sanhedrin triumphed. The Pharisees and scribes were as joyful as could be. Complete victory was on their side. Evil, corrupt servants were casting the Heir out of His vineyard. And this was in the sight of all Israel.

Let us pause at this spectacle worthy of wonder, which the Son of God presents to us. He deigned to die for the very people who inhumanly drag Him to death.

He is, in Jeremiah's words, like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.

Jerusalem, ungrateful city! You drive your Redeemer in disgrace from your midst after all the benefits with which He filled you.

His innocence and His meekness cannot soften you. They seem only to inflame the fury of your proud and bloodthirsty rulers.

Yet their dreadful triumph hastens both their destruction and yours.

As for us, it is fitting here to recall these memorable words of our Lord. If anyone wants to be My disciple, let him take up his cross as willingly as I bear Mine, and follow Me.

For these sorrowful circumstances of our divine Teacher's sufferings can most powerfully awaken pious feelings in us.

At the sight of Jesus bearing His cross, we will feel sincere contrition that we have offended God. Our sins make the Savior's cross so difficult and burdensome.

We will be ashamed of our negligence in serving our Master, who suffered so much for us.

We will humble ourselves at the thought of our weakness, which retreats before the cross.

We will conquer in ourselves our aversion to it. By the example of our divine Prototype, we will be encouraged to enter the holy way of the cross.

We will be convinced of the necessary need to follow the Savior, bearing our own cross, so that one day we may share in His glory.

How many advantages, how many treasures, are enclosed in the cross! Can one be astonished after this that the most experienced ascetics of old gave unanimous counsel?

They advised souls wishing to rise to their perfections to meditate unceasingly on the mysteries of the cross.

There are people who reject the cross. There are others who bear it with murmuring. Finally, some bear it with laziness and barely lift it from the ground.

But there are also people who bear it courageously and high.

We must observe to which class we belong. Yet we must assure ourselves that all people carry a cross, not excluding even those who refuse to bear it.

Good people carry it, and the wicked carry it too. For the latter it is much heavier than for the former.

They do not make use of the strengthening of divine grace, pictured for us in the person of the good Cyrenian helping Jesus bear His heavy burden.