John 18:1-19:42
Jesus Dies For Us
The events just recounted in our
reading of John’s Gospel happen quickly.
There is an urgency and a rush which lies behind the actions of the
leaders of the synagogue and the residents of Jerusalem. In John’s Gospel there is no Last Supper
because the timeline is adjusted so that Jesus is on his way to Golgotha on the
same day as the Passover Meal lambs are being selected for slaughter.
In John, more than the other gospel
accounts, this notion of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb is loud and clear.
Jesus dies an undeserved death; he
is innocent of crimes deserving death; Jesus suffers and dies in order to shield
us from suffering and death.
Jesus becomes the sacrificial lamb
who takes upon himself everything which would threaten us or harm us. He steps
between us and the hatred and the violence of the angry crowd. He takes it on his shoulders because he loves
us too much to leave us burdened down.
This is not a “new” way to speak of
the Jesus story. It is simply becoming more
important that we speak of John’s presentation.
In today’s world, we are increasingly finding ourselves in the presence
of an angry crowd looking for someone to blame and punish.
Lorries are being driven into
crowds and children crushed while holding the hands of their parents – all in
the name of some political agenda and localized ideology.
Keyboards are no longer used simply
to post greetings to one’s friends – but are manipulated so that the emergency
alarm systems in a whole city are triggered at once and thus the ability to respond
to true crisis is impossible.
The Mother Of All Bombs has been
dropped. In a region of the world which
has received its share of bombs these past two decades.
City and University administrators
both claim they knew nothing of the plans to build an electric power station in
Clemson neighborhoods. But somebody had
to know and the list of names on petitions shows interest in seeing someone put
to shame and forced to take responsibility.
This Good Friday’s recounting of
the events which occurred in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago may need to focus
on the way in which Jesus steps in between those looking for someone to blame; and
the innocent who are too often made to suffer.
Jesus becomes our Passover Lamb.
Jesus takes on himself the weight of the world’s rejection. Jesus steps between us and those who would
want to make us pay for every misdeed or inappropriate action.
Jesus didn’t deserve what he
got. But he willingly accepted it. He stepped forward and said “What is the
truth?” He stood before High Priests and
Governors and declared, “You have no real authority!” When they took to beating him and mocking
him, his silence increased their shame and drove them blind with fury.
“You want someone to blame?” Jesus asks?
“Blame me.”
“You need someone to make into your
scapegoat?” Jesus tells them, “Use me
and my name.”
Jesus would not stand up for
himself, and he wouldn’t let his followers stand up for him. He would rather endure all that could be
thrown at him than to have the ear cut off the High Priests’ servant or
Barabbas executed on a cross. Jesus
would rather die and have his name drug through the mud than to see this happen
to someone else.
On this particular Good Friday, we
need to remember this part of the story.
On this particular Good Friday, Christians everywhere need to stand
untied and loudly proclaim our devotion for a Messiah who revealed this pattern
of self-sacrifice as the way of God.
Another world leader, and person of
faith, responded to the 2001 terror attacks by saying, “Let’s not only ask ‘Who
did this,’ but also ‘Why did they do this?’”
President Jimmy Carter, in his weekly Sunday School Class at Maranatha
Baptist Church shows a model of what it means to live the faith of Jesus rather
than to simply talk about it.
Jesus steps between us and those
who have hatred and violence in their hearts.
Jesus allows himself to take the brunt of the punishment, even though he
did nothing to deserve it.
We are not to ignore hatred and
violence and terror, but everyone who gathers in a Christian Church on this
particular day will leave with a clear statement of how we are to respond to
hatred and violence and terror. The
model is to take it on ourselves and absorb as much of it as we can.
If someone out there is so intent
on hurting and harming – then let them hurt and harm those who KNOW there are
limits to how much real damage they can do.
If there is someone out there
looking for someone to blame for circumstances and situations, blame us. It won’t bother us nor will it destroy
us. We have a model for what happens
when blame is ascribed to one who is innocent.
Blame us, and we will willingly follow Jesus into the center of the
circle of the angry mob.
Jesus didn’t deserve what he got or
what they said about him or the way he was treated. He didn’t deserve any of it. And yet, he absorbed it. And in absorbing it, he muted their hatred.
The innocent people of the world do
not deserve what those committed to terrorism are doing. The innocent deserve none of this. Following Jesus means we will also absorb,
that we will be understanding and accepting.
Following Jesus means we will refuse to react with hatred and violence. We will not allow those who do not know Jesus
to tear us from our commitment to follow Jesus.
This is the Good Friday message we
all need to hear, and to share, and to live.
Amen.
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