The York Play of the Crucifixion - A Modern Portrayal

Yesterday's class was a very spiritual experience. I believe that it really put into perspective the message of the play. In the York Play of the Crucifixion, the soldiers try and crucify Jesus in the cruelest way possible. They even go so far as to demean him by calling him a harlot. I remember reading that in the play and thinking to myself, " How disrespectful is that?" When I really think about the hatred that they had for Jesus, I wonder why they were so enraged with this quiet and meek man. He had done nothing. There wasn't even any evidence to substantially convict Jesus as a criminal and furthermore the soldiers were not Jewish so they had no real reason to feel enraged over his claims of being the King of the Jews. The level of hatred that they had was uncalled for. This literary work provided an deeper insight into the minds of the soldiers and of the hatred that they felt. I was really proud of us as a class because I believe that we analyzed the spirit of this play as well as the message and we really made it our own. No longer was it just an old English play that we had to study it became a personal event that we relieved ourselves in history.