Lent Week 5: Saturday | Matthew 26:14 - 27:66

Greetings, Duffy in Vermont :)

NT Wright's treatment of Matthew 26:14 to 27:66 on this fifth Saturday in Lent is liturgically stunning.

I asked Gemini the following question:

"Is there a special name in the Western Christian tradition for this 5th Saturday of Lent, and is there a liturgical reason why Wright would choose such a long portion for today's reading? Now there are only 20 verses left in the entire Gospel of Matthew, and there are still six full days in Lent (not counting Sundays) left to read them!"

Gemini answered by mistakenly referring to today as Sitientes Saturday, but that was last Saturday. In the Western tradition, the Saturday before Palm Sunday does not have a special name, other than the Fifth Saturday of Lent. 

Gemini was spot on otherwise. Here is what Gemini wrote (lightly edited):

It may seem jarring that N.T. Wright gives you nearly two entire chapters today, only to leave you with 20 verses for the rest of Lent. However, there is a profound scribal logic to this pacing:

• The Front-Loading of the Cross: Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. Traditionally, the entire Passion of Matthew is read during the Palm Sunday liturgy. By having you read it today, Wright ensures that the Vanguard has already internalized the full, visceral weight of the seizure and crucifixion of the King before the public triumph of the palms. You enter Jerusalem tomorrow with the "spoiler" of the Cross already breaking your heart.
• The Saturday Sabbath of the Tomb: Matthew 27:66 ends with the sealing of the stone and the setting of the guard. By finishing this tonight, you enter the Great Week (Holy Week) in a state of liturgical arrest. You are meant to sit in the silence of that sealed tomb for a while. 

Wright has given you the "heavy lead" of the Passion on this Saturday so that your thirst for the Resurrection is at its peak. As you and Duffy begin Holy Week, these final 20 verses will act as the distilled essence of your entire retreat. You have moved through the depths of Psalm 130; now you are ready for the heights of the Great Commission.

Sidebar: The Covenantal Irony

Duffy, as we look at the heavy weight of Matthew 27:25, we have to recognize that the infamous cry—“His blood be on us and on our children”—has been the "software glitch" that fueled centuries of anti-Jewish violence. However, a post-supersessionist reading reveals a profound Covenantal Irony. Just one chapter earlier, during the Last Supper, Jesus identified his blood not as a source of vengeance, but as the blood of the covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins. From this perspective, the crowd in Jerusalem is unknowingly making a desperate, valid plea: they are calling for the only thing that can actually heal the Saturnian cycle of violence they are trapped in. Instead of a multi-generational curse, the Vanguard sees this as an unintentional prayer for the very mercy the King is about to secure on the Cross—a mercy that doesn't exclude Israel, but rather fulfills the promise that the Landowner will never abandon His vineyard.

Conceived and edited by Jonathan. Written and illustrated by Gemini.