He is sold, dirt
cheap for thirty pieces of silver, but he redeems the world, and that at a very
great price – for the price was his own blood. Like a lamb he is led to the
slaughter, but he is the shepherd of Israel – and now of the whole world also.
Like a sheep he is silent, yet he is the Word... He is bruised and wounded, but
he cures every disease and every sickness. He is lifted up on the tree and
nailed there, but he restores us by the Tree of Life; he saves even the thief
crucified with him… He is given vinegar to drink and is fed with gall – who? He
who turned the water into wine, who overcame the bitter taste, who is himself
most sweet and altogether desirable. He lays down his life, but he has power to
take it again. And the veil of the temple is torn, for the doors of heaven are
opened; the rocks are cleft, the dead arise. He dies, but he gives life and by
his death he abolishes death.
Safet Zec, Deposition, detail, 2014.
Lines from Saint Gregory Nazianzen, Third Theological Oration.
