Today
is the last really big day in Lent. On
Ash Wednesday we were called to the observance of a holy Lent by
self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by
reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.
On Palm Sunday we prayed and contemplated upon those mighty acts whereby
we have been given life and immortality.
Through Lent I have been preaching around a theme of wilderness; and if
you haven’t noticed the wilderness before, it is certainly unmistakable now
with the bare sanctuary and the reading again of the betrayal, desertion,
crucifixion and death of Jesus.
But
while Palm Sunday can seem shocking at times, what with the festivities around
the blessing of palm, procession and triumphant music which becomes overtaken
with the reading of the Passion and all of us shouting, “Crucify him!” there is
no such shock today. I think we need
time to sit and contemplate those mighty acts on Palm Sunday and begin to acknowledge
our role in the event, which is why I traditionally do not preach a sermon that
day.
By
now, however, we are fully immersed in the events of Holy Week. Palm Sunday introduced us to the week. Yesterday, Maundy Thursday, we shared a meal
with friends and turned our backs on Jesus, stripping the altar as a symbolic
gesture to show we chose the world over Christ.
Today we turn him over to the authorities, watch him die on a cross and
see him buried. We are all complicit in
those acts. We all played a part in
allowing Jesus to be crucified. We all
made our choice on which side we chose to stand.
Yes,
Jesus died for our sins. Yes, Jesus died
for the sin of the world. No, I do not
think the Jews are “Christ-killers.” Yes,
I think the Romans were responsible for the act of crucifixion. Yes, I struggle at times with the
Atonement. No, I don’t hold to Anselm’s
penal substitutionary version of atonement which states that Jesus died as a
debt paid to the Father. But amid all of
these questions of who is responsible and why Jesus’ death was necessary is the
issue of choice. More than anything, I
think the events of the Passion revolve around the issue of choice.
For
our part, we chose to shout, “Crucify him!”
We chose to turn our backs on him last night and strip our sanctuary of
everything that says, “God is in this place.”
We choose between the power of the world and the power of God. And in the gospel, people make those same
choices.
The
Jewish religious leadership of the day, headed by Annas and Caiaphas, made the
decision to sacrifice one man for the safety of the nation – “It is better that
one man die than all of us.” They feared
repercussions from the Romans and they feared repercussions from other Jewish
leadership, so they chose to put the needs of the institution over and above
the desires of God. In Jesus they saw a
threat to their place of privilege, so they chose to follow a theology of
scarcity rather than the theology of God’s abundance. They chose to manipulate the legal system in
such a way that they could call for the execution of Jesus while maintaining
their religious purity. And, after
hundreds of years claiming God was their king, they chose to proclaim the
emperor as their king as a political tactic for serving their own purposes.
Pilate
also made choices. The image of Pilate
we get from John is more sympathetic that reality. Historians paint him as a ruthless
bully. But John isn’t necessarily
interested in historical fact; John is interested in making a theological
point. So here we see Pilate struggle with
the choice of releasing a man of God or of bowing to the political pressures of
the day. He chooses the latter. He first chooses to attempt to walk a fine
line of compromise; but his compromise involves satisfying the blood-lust of
the crowd and keeping his own position as governor. The flogging of Jesus, however, doesn’t
work. When the crowd cries, “You are no
friend of the emperor,” Pilate chooses to act in a way that will not send a
negative report of him to the emperor.
Ultimately, Pilate chooses to do the safe thing over the right thing, he
chooses worldly power over godly power.
Jesus
also makes choices. Jesus chooses to
follow the will of God, proclaiming salvation to those near and far, male and
female, clean and unclean. Over and over
again Jesus chooses to exhibit the love of God to all people, breaking down
barriers and challenging traditions that work to keep oppressed people
oppressed and powerful people powerful.
When faced with the angry mob and the power of the Roman Empire, Jesus chooses
a path of non-violence over a path of escalating violence. And he chooses to follow the Truth of God
that says all are welcomed and all are loved, as opposed to the claim of the
world that says you are only loved if you are of benefit to me.
On
this Good Friday, we stand with the Jewish leadership, with Pilate and with
Jesus as we all make our choices. The
world will continually choose inequality over equality. The world will continually choose to put the
desires of the ‘haves’ over the needs of the ‘have nots.’ The world will continually fight to maintain institutions
and systems that only benefit a few.
God, on the other hand, will choose equality over inequality. God will choose the needs of the ‘have nots’
over the desires of the ‘haves.’ God
will choose a system of love over a system of hate.
Our
reading of the Passion may simply have been a reenactment that gives us a sense
of being there. We may not be directly
responsible for the betrayal, desertion and crucifixion of Jesus. But on this Good Friday, we are asked to
choose which side we prefer: will we
choose to act the way the world wants us to act, or will we choose to risk
everything and act the way God asks us to act?
It
is this choice that is the real point of Good Friday.
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