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Objection 1: It would seem unfitting that Christ should suffer at
the hands of the Gentiles. For since men were to be freed from sin by
Christ's death, it would seem fitting that very few should sin in
His death. But the Jews sinned in His death, on whose behalf it is
said (Mt. 21:38): "This is the heir; come, let us kill
him." It seems fitting, therefore, that the Gentiles should not be
implicated in the sin of Christ's slaying.
Objection 2: Further, the truth should respond to the figure. Now
it was not the Gentiles but the Jews who offered the figurative
sacrifices of the Old Law. Therefore neither ought Christ's
Passion, which was a true sacrifice, to be fulfilled at the hands of
the Gentiles.
Objection 3: Further, as related Jn. 5:18, "the Jews
sought to kill" Christ because "He did not only break the sabbath,
but also said God was His Father, making Himself equal to God."
But these things seemed to be only against the Law of the Jews:
hence they themselves said (Jn. 19:7): "According to the Law
He ought to die because He made Himself the Son of God." It
seems fitting, therefore, that Christ should suffer, at the hands
not of the Gentiles, but of the Jews, and that what they said was
untrue: "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death," since
many sins are punishable with death according to the Law, as is
evident from Lev. 20.
On the contrary, our Lord Himself says (Mt. 20:19):
"They shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked, and
scourged, and crucified."
I answer that, The effect of Christ's Passion was foreshown by the
very manner of His death. For Christ's Passion wrought its effect
of salvation first of all among the Jews, very many of whom were
baptized in His death, as is evident from Acts 2:41 and Acts
4:4. Afterwards, by the preaching of Jews, Christ's Passion
passed on to the Gentiles. Consequently it was fitting that Christ
should begin His sufferings at the hands of the Jews, and, after
they had delivered Him up, finish His Passion at the hands of the
Gentiles.
Reply to Objection 1: In order to demonstrate the fulness of His
love, on account of which He suffered, Christ upon the cross prayed
for His persecutors. Therefore, that the fruits of His petition
might accrue to Jews and Gentiles, Christ willed to suffer from
both.
Reply to Objection 2: Christ's Passion was the offering of a
sacrifice, inasmuch as He endured death of His own free-will out of
charity: but in so far as He suffered from His persecutors it was not
a sacrifice, but a most grievous sin.
Reply to Objection 3: As Augustine says (Tract. cxiv in
Joan.): "The Jews said that 'it is not lawful for us to put any
man to death,' because they understood that it was not lawful for them
to put any man to death" owing to the sacredness of the feast-day,
which they had already begun to celebrate. or, as Chrysostom observes
(Hom. lxxxiii in Joan.), because they wanted Him to be slain,
not as a transgressor of the Law, but as a public enemy, since He
had made Himself out to be a king, of which it was not their place to
judge. Or, again, because it was not lawful for them to crucify Him
(as they wanted to), but to stone Him, as they did to Stephen.
Better still is it to say that the power of putting to death was taken
from them by the Romans, whose subjects they were.
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