The fourth article of the creed, ‘Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried’, summarizes the events in our Lord’s Passion. It is important in considering this article to remember the general interpretation given in the Scriptures to these events. It is this interpretation that directs the awareness in faith of the significance of the events. The dramatic force of the story is so great on its human level that it can sweep us away into a jungle of feeling and emotion which has little theological character, unless it be recalled by a constant reiteration of the dogmatic values involved.

In the accounts given in the Synoptic Gospels of the baptism of Jesus, there is a strong implicit reference to the prophecy of Isaias about the suffering servant of God. This servant is the elect, in whom God delights, the one who is despised, and the most abject of men; who bears their sorrows and infirmities, ‘since he was wounded for our iniquities; he was bruised for our sins’ (Is. 53, 1-7). He, says the prophet, is to be led ‘as a sheep to the slaughter and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer’. St John’s Gospel makes the reference explicit. ‘The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him; and he saith “Behold the Lamb of God. Behold him who taketh away the sins of the world.” ‘ (John 1, 24). All the Gospels then introduce Christ, at the beginning of his ministry, not only as the Messias, but also as the suffering servant (pais).