Fifth Sunday in Lent Church of the Covenant April 2, 2006 The Rev. Dr. Robert J. Campbell, D. Min., D. D.
Printer-Friendly VersionThe Crucifixion Scene
Act III Higher GroundIntroduction
The writers of the four gospel accounts take the facts surrounding the end of the life of Jesus and adapt them for their congregations. Contemporary writers often combine the accounts into one story. We should be careful doing that, because each account drew specific scenes to make a point. What they all have in common is that they all move through this part of the drama so fast you can hardly catch your breath.
Having said that, we can still use the three synoptic accounts to catch the whole intent of the drama as the writers point toward "higher ground."Listen with me now as we seek to over hear the passion again as it comes to us from...
Luke 23:1-31 selected
The people took Jesus to Pilate where they began accusing him, "We caught this man telling our people not to pay taxes to the emperor and calling himself the Messiah, a King.” Pilate asks him, "Are you the King of the Jews?” "So you say,” answered Jesus. Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no reason to condemn this man.” But they insisted, "With his teaching he’s inciting a riot, he started in Galilee and now he’s come here."
When Pilate heard this, he asked if Jesus was a Galilean, ruled by Herod, who was also in the city at the time. Herod was pleased to meet Jesus having heard about him. He was hoping for a miracle and he asked Jesus many questions, but Jesus said nothing.
The leaders stepped forward making accusations. Herod and the soldiers made fun of Jesus putting a fine robe on him and sent him back to Pilate. On that day, Pilate and Herod became friends; they had been enemies.
Pilate called the leaders and said to them, "You brought this man to me saying he misled the people. I’ve examined him and cannot find him guilty nor did Herod who sent him back to us. So I will have him whipped and let him go." The people gathered cried, "Kill him! Give us Barabbas!” (Barabbas had been in jail for starting a riot and murder.) Pilate wanted to free Jesus so he appealed to the crowd again. But they shouted back, "Crucify him!” And even a third time he tried asking, "What crime has he committed?” But they kept on shouting, so Pilate passed the sentence and set Barabbas free. The soldiers led Jesus away, and as they were going they met a man from Cyrene named Simon visiting from the country. They seized him and made him carry the cross behind Jesus. A large crowd followed; among it were women weeping. Jesus turned and said, "Women of Jerusalem! Don’t cry for me, cry for yourselves and your children, for there will come a time when people will say to the mountains, ‘fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘hide us.’"
Sermon
A friend just received a court summons to be a witness to an accident that occurred last July. The hearing is set for this coming June. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but not so with Jesus.
Ramsey reconstructs the scene with conciseness that, whether accurate or not, catches the speed. By 4 a.m., Jesus stood before Caiaphas, by 5:30 the interrogation was over, by 6 a.m., the verdict was pronounced, and by 7 a.m., Jesus was before Pilate. The whole thing was over by noon. He was led out to be executed and by 5:42 p.m., he was buried. (1) All the records point in the same direction, with the same dispatch. First, Matthew’s account of Judas: Luke links Herod; there is the release of the common thug Barabbas, the conscription of the Cyrenian Simon, and the wailing women. It appears Herod and Pilate become friends over the whole affair. They were political heavyweights, the courts of last appeal. It is but a brief moment in time that would, under normal circumstances, easily have been missed on the pages of history.
Matthew lets the world know from the lips of Judas, "I’ve sinned, this is ‘innocent blood.’” Then he throws the blood money upon the floor of organized religion. Let’s not miss the symbolism! "What’s it to us?" quip the priests. Yet, even they recognize the victim’s innocence. "We can’t put blood money back into the collection plate. Let’s buy a field for outsiders.” You can almost see the stain spreading like red wine on a white carpet.
It must have galled Caiaphas to hand the prisoner over having to admit there was a higher authority. Yet, truth be told, none of the writers are interested in the proceedings, that is why they move so fast. The issue now is theology, God talk, not law and bureaucracy.
"Are you a King?" little else is said. This is about the politics of national security. "Are you a Galilean?” Pass the buck. Herod seems to be looking for entertainment, maybe a miracle or two. When he is disappointed, he pokes fun. Then he dresses the prisoner in royalty and returns him. It probably was a sign of agreement with a long time adversary. "I concur, this king stuff is much ado about nothing.” The prisoner was now an administrative problem, unpleasant but inescapable for their nine to five lives. No resolution; therefore, it required executive action. Like the Terry Shivo case, in which now we get to watch the anniversary re-runs to boost TV ratings. Every politician that had a piece of that should have known better. Herod and Pilate should have known better, but they were playing the political ratings game too, executive action.
They probably became friends because they both recognized the thankless task of daily decision-making and the common pressure of public opinion. Pilate then washes his hands, "innocent blood," was Judas’ words. But like Lady Macbeth, the spot would not wash out. See the stain spread?
With Herod’s acquiescence, Pilate condemns the prisoner he knows is not guilty. A woman’s dream confirms the innocence. Not unlike the dream of the wise men way back at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, remember? "Steer clear of this," she cautions. But Pilate is carried along by the river of circumstance. It’s political reality. Compromise to the point you no longer recognize what is right. The crowd was democracy in action driven by those all too familiar lobbyists.
So, who’s to blame? Pilate tried to let Jesus go. The people liked Jesus, but their passions were stirred by the religious leaders who should have known better. How is it that knowledge produces intellectual giants who in fact are moral pygmies? There were institutional values to protect, we can’t fault the clergy. Who was to blame?
Sometime back, a Jesuit priest wrote an analysis of Satan that resurfaced when the Vatican started looking closely again at exorcism. His contention was that the devil was alive and well; living between the cracks and crevices of good intentions; alive and well in the spaces between what we say and what we do.
Witness our democracy in action. Witness campaign promises of lobby reform and federal deficit reduction. Witness the pledges to care for the poor that still let millions of America’s children starve. Witness the international platitudes of peace and the misery of Darfur. Witness the struggle in corporate boardrooms to pay dividends all the while ignoring the environment. Witness young people who want inexpensive clothes that carry labels from sweat shops filled with children their own age who make them. Witness the church caught between its joy in baptizing its infants then rejecting them if they grow up to be different than fear driven orthodoxy allows.
Those who listened to Ron James and our other adult study presenters speaking on the "9/11 Commission Report," heard of the need to re-invent government and re-define security needs. But then came the acknowledgment that we are a reactionary people who only change when we have to. Public opinion and votes are more important than leadership. Compromise is the fast track to career advancement. In this case, the people voiced their opinion. The system and political circumstance, that’s what got Jesus killed. Pilate washed his hands. So do we, all the time.
But there was a way out. There was the thug Barabbas, guilty as hell. The contrast couldn’t have been greater. The gospel writers leave no room, the crowd becomes implicated, "Give us the crook.” "Let the innocent blood be on us and our children.” See how the stain spreads?
So, where is the good news in this horrific soap opera? If Pilate can’t wash his hands and Herod is implicated by association. If the priests can’t escape. The Roman soldiers do the dirty deed. Even the people in the crowd, along with their descendants (which means everyone of us), all become party to handing over this innocent man to the gallows. Where is the good news?
Did you notice what happened to Judas? True, he went out and hanged himself. Like an embezzler who ruined hundred’s of lives confessed, "Every time I looked at the money their faces haunted me.” Judas couldn’t live with himself. Yet, from his crime came a resting place for outcasts, a potter’s field. Catch the irony?
Lowell wrote the poem and we sing it, "Though the cause of evil prosper, 'tis truth alone is strong. Though her portion be the scaffold and upon the throne is wrong.” Yet, on that scaffold sways the future and behind the dim unknown stands our God within the shadows keeping watch."
Writes theologian Windy Farley, "The Messiah comes, is savagely executed, but [still] remains in the community that bears his name.” [a community of outsiders] "The radical presence of God to resist suffering and injustice does not defeat evil but it [still] persists, continuing to grace history with its power and beauty.” Why? Because "in the midst of evil [there] is a fire, a flame that is never quenched. It is the infinite tenderness of love and the ferocity of divinity burning together through the ages of life’s long struggle for redemption.” Organized religion bought a resting place for outsiders with the blood money of Judas. Catch the irony!
Jesus is handed over. It becomes a burlesque, a laughing matter. He really was a stumbling block to Greeks, Romans, outsiders, insiders, and to us. Enters Simon, someone in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that’s part of the story too.
If God is part of the shadows, how often do we find ourselves in that unwelcome place? What role will be required amidst the dim unknown? Only in retrospect do we see the affect of strangers upon the future. No one shares the cross by choice. We are all voyeurs. We are fascinated because somewhere there is the thought, "One day that might be me.” Then circumstance summons us out of the crowd and we have the moment to decide if we will be Simon.
We know little about this other man lending a hand with the cross. History records his children as Alexander and Rufus, apparently members of the early church, outsiders! Yet, their faith must have left an impression, or else why mention their names?
And then it’s over, but not over. Lest we take our faith too lightly, there is a closing chorus to this act. Wailing women whom Jesus reminds, "Life’s never easy. You think life’s bad now; times will come when you may wish you could pull a mountain on top of you."
Luke is telling those who can hear, "Don’t get misled by success story religion.” Yet, don’t get dismayed either. Always remember there is a "higher ground" from which swings the scaffold of justice grounded in love! Which means don’t underestimate the God of Easter!
Easter is not some sentimental passage into spring giving us "blessed assurance" that all our plans will work out. Easter has nothing to do with your plans or mine and it has everything to do with God’s unconditional love! Easter says "We will be resurrected from our compromised lives.
This season speaks of nothing less than life with hope no matter what we face. But that’s the scary part because God’s hope is so unpredictable. While life may look to be a dead end the crucifixion scene claims tomorrow! It says every future is open-ended. That’s the message! That’s the "higher ground" upon which our God stands watch.
1) A.M. Ramsey, The Narratives of the Passion
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