Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.
Read Chapter 2
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
"Since, when he sees the death of the wise, he will not see death." He who has wearied himself endlessly and will live to the very end, "will not see death, when he sees the death of the wise." What do these words mean? He will not understand what death is when he sees the wise die. In fact, he says to himself, hasn"t the one who was so wise, who was intimate with Wisdom, who worshiped God with such piety"hasn"t he died also? I will therefore do what I like while I live. Indeed, if those who have wisdom could do something about it, they would not die. He sees the one who dies, yet fails to see what death is. "When he sees the death of the wise, he will not see death." In the same way, the Jews saw Christ hanging on the cross and mocked him, saying, "If he is the Son of God, he would come down from the cross." They did not see, in short, what death is. O, if they had seen what death is, they would have understood it! He died in time, so as to live again forever. They lived in time, so as to die forever. But since they saw him die, they did not see death, that is, they did not understand what true death is. What, in fact, do they say in Wisdom? "Let us condemn him to a shameful death, because, according to his own words, he will be protected. If he is truly a son of God, God will help him, and free him from the hands of his adversaries." That is, he will not allow his Son to die, if he truly is his Son. But when they saw him on the cross being insulted, and he did not descend from the cross, they said, "He was truly a man." It had already been said that one who could rise from the grave certainly could have descended from the cross. He taught us, however, to bear insults, to be patient before the tongues of people, to drink the bitter chalice now so as to later receive eternal life. You who are sick, drink the bitter chalice if you want to be healthy, because now your viscera are not healthy. Do not tremble with fear, because the doctor drank it first, that you might not tremble. The Lord, that is, drank the bitterness of the passion first. The one who had no sin drank, the one who had nothing to be healed of. Drink, therefore, until the bitterness of this world passes, until that world comes where there will be no scandal, no anger, no sickness, no bitterness, no fever, no deceit, no enmity, no old age, no death, no quarrels. - "Expositions of the Psalms 48.1.11"
