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spassion04
Passion Sunday
Text:
The Passion according to Saint Luke
Date: Passion/Palm Sunday
4/4/04 shttps webmail
It
all began with joyful cheers and hosannas that day. Jesus, the King
who comes in the name of the Lord, enters the holy city and teaches
in the holy temple for three whole days! But in a matter of days,
suddenly we find ourselves standing with the disciples and ask in
bewilderment, "what happened?" as the cheers and hosannas
turned to jeers and curses. The expected happy ending turned dark
in cruel death. All our great expectations have been dashed against
the rock-like reality of a world bent only on destruction. All our
preconceived notions of love and salvation and God come face to
face with the seeming contradiction of the cross. We must have been
wrong about him.
What
went wrong? Well, there can scarcely be any question as to who is
at fault, can there? They began to accuse him urgently saying, "He
stirs up the people." They all cried out, "Away with him"
and shouted, "crucify him." Their voices prevailed. They
crucified him. Who crucified him? Isn't it obvious? The chief priests
and multitudes, the scribes, the rulers and people, the Jews! It
all happened because of Jewish pressure against the will of the
Roman government. The Jews. They did it.
But
wait. Something doesn't quite fit. Remember the multitudes that
welcomed him into the city with palm branches in their hands. Remember
the crowds gathered around to hear him teaching in the temple. And
now look as St. Luke tells us that "all the crowds that had
assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place,
returned home beating their breasts" [Luke 23:48 (ESV)]. The
sight of the wounds, the blood, the cross made everyone realize
that something terrible had been done here.
So
if not the Jews themselves, perhaps we can find someone else to
blame. Go to the story once more. He asked whether the man was a
Galilean. "And when he learned that [Jesus] belonged to Herod's
jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod" [Luke 23:7 (ESV)].
Then Herod sent him back to Pilate. Where Herod and Pilate were
political foes, in this instance they became a united front. In
a last-ditch effort to save the obviously innocent Jesus he proposed
releasing one prisoner of the crowds choosing; either Jesus called
the Christ or the notorious murderer Barabbas. Surely they would
choose the Christ. They didn't. And he released Barabbas, but Jesus
he delivered up to be crucified. Who crucified Jesus? Behind Jesus'
surrender to the Jews stood the legal judgment by an authorized
procurator. He gives sentence, he is Pilate, therefore, Pilate crucified
Jesus.
But
wait. Something still doesn't quite fit. Pilate's own words, "I
have found in him no guilt deserving death." Politicians! The
facts matter only up until they either serve or threaten their own
political interests. And so there he stands forever frozen in history
and in the Creed, hat in hand, "crucified under Pontius Pilate."
Well,
if not the Jews and if not the Roman government, then who? Who is
to blame? Who crucified Jesus?
Beyond
and behind the facts of the event lay a deeper story and agenda
that cannot be perceived or known except by Divine revelation and
faith. It is no less real, you see. It's just that you can't see
it on the surface. It reaches as far back as the Garden of Eden
and as far forward as today and beyond. It is the story of God saving,
redeeming, restoring and recreating his world and everyone in it.
It requires recognition that "we do not wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against
the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly places" [Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)].
To a society lost and wandering in meaningless relativism this revelation
says, "yes, there is good and evil, yes, there is God and Satan,
the devil."
From
the promised seed of the woman, through Noah, to Abraham, through
the generations of Isaac, Jacob, Judah and the boys, through Tamar,
Rahab, Ruth and the girls, through David the Great to Joseph and
Mary the Poor, these Sunday School lessons are not just for kids.
They have flesh and blood, sin and grace, triumph and tragedy, life
and death written all over it. Peter said it. "This Jesus,
delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of
God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men"
[Acts 2:23 (ESV)]. Because of your part and participation in sin,
it was you! Until we confess to the crime, until we join in the
raucous madness vowing, "his blood be on us and on our children,"
we remain far from the truth that we are the ones who stand responsible
and culpable for his death. We are the world. We crucified Jesus!
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