Read John
19
Jesus is Lord! I love saying that. Jesus
overcame sin and death for me. What
love!
Jesus
conquered the grave. Amen, hallelujah,
oohrah! Jesus made me right with my
heavenly Father. Praise the Lord!
Jesus said, remember
me in this way. We will partake of
the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper shortly and I asked that you receive it as a
celebration.
Jesus told
me to be known
by my love. Let everyone know that I
am his disciple by my love.
He said be salt
and light to this world. Mix it up
in the world and let people see
and taste the goodness of the Lord.
Yes!
We celebrate
resurrection. We rejoice in the
atonement for our sins. Eternal
life—eternal relationship with our heavenly Father and Christ Jesus in
heaven and on earth with time no longer a factor—is ours. An inheritance
stored up for
us beyond
our imagination. Wow!
Christ going
to the cross for us was big time. Yes,
we should celebrate, but as we read this chapter, we must empathize. There’s no reading what happens in this
chapter without a lump or two or three or three hundred in your throat.
Our nature
is to struggle to live. That’s human
nature. If I hold you underwater for a
couple of minutes, you will fight. If
someone comes at you with a knife, you will fight or run. You want to live. It’s hard-wired in us and in everything with
a heartbeat.
We
understand the concept of death. We
don’t fully understand everything about death, but we know enough to fight to
stay alive. Some people suffer from
depression and give up the struggle. One
of those unique groups is veterans. I’m
plugged in to some veteran networks, and suicide is a real thing for many.
Absent some
debilitating condition, we are hard-wired to live. There is something so special, so sacred, so
holy about life. It desires to prevail.
We sense
danger if we think our life is threatened.
Fight or flight is a real thing.
We are hard-wired to live. We are
different from the rest of the animal world in this regard. The rest of the world can sense danger to a
degree and does fight to live, but we have an extra component. We get to think about it, even if only in the
instant.
If I put a
.45 caliber pistol up to your head, your heart rate will go up. Some might pass out. If I put the same pistol up to my dog’s head,
he will lick it and the hand holding it and wag its tail. Your dog does not sense danger as we do. We get to think about it.
We
understand danger to a greater degree than other living things. We understand existential risk—a threat to
our existence more than other animals, even though they have survival
instincts.
Jesus knew
the exact situation that he was in and chose to continue to the cross despite
what was ahead of him. He was not
suicidal. He was not depressed. He was purposeful and his purpose involved
existential risk. Risk is not the right
word.
To fulfill
his mission, Jesus moved towards certain death.
There wasn’t a risk that he would die.
He would die to fulfill scripture and accomplish the mission for which
he was sent.
You might
think, Yeah, but he knew he would live again.
He knew he would be with his Father in heaven. He knew that the grave could not hold him.
That’s all
correct, but he also knew that the human vessel that he was born into craved to
live. The human nature that came with
the flesh desired to live.
We desire to
live. I have told you before that I read
minds. I know some of you say, Oh
just kill me when the sermon gets a little long, but really you desire to
live. Once again, I insert the
disclaimer that the last statement was tongue-in-cheek. After all, it is 2020 so you either have to
wear a mask or explain your humor.
Jesus and
Pilate had their initial exchange in the previous
chapter. We begin chapter 19 with
Jesus being whipped or scourged. This
was not just a little pain here and there.
This was flesh-ripping, agony-filled, blood-drawing pain, and it would
last until Jesus died on the cross.
It wasn’t
something you could put a Band-Aid on and make it better. The pain wouldn’t go
away in the next 5 minutes. This
punishment in itself would have most people begging for mercy.
It takes a
special—and by special, I mean sadistic—sort of person to flog someone, but
whipping Jesus wasn’t enough. They made
him a crown of thorns to mock him and dressed him in a purple robe.
Then Pilate
made one more appeal to the Jews. This
had graduated from a few Jews to a crowd, but the religious leaders who wanted
Jesus dead were among them. It was as if
to say, isn’t this enough punishment for someone who hasn’t done anything
wrong?
But the
religious Jews who held the kangaroo court also incited the crowd. Crucify him!
The Jews
shouted that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. That was blasphemy, it was blasphemy unless
you actually were the Son of God but the Jews would not see the truth. The Jews just said it was against their
law. Blasphemy was not a big deal to the
Romans. Blaspheming the Jews and their God was likely common place in
Pilate’s palace. So, the Jews just
shouted he broke our law by claiming to be the Son of God.
Pilate
wasn’t concerned about this breaking Jewish laws. What he heard was Son of God. He could find no fault with this man and the
religious Jews who were such a pain in the neck, were the only ones who wanted
him killed.
He went back into the palace and spoke with
Jesus again. I will take a little
liberty here. Give me something to work
with. I don’t want to do this. Don’t you get it? Your life is in my hands.
Jesus did
give Pilate an answer.
“You would
have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one
who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
There is an
interesting rabbit trail about the greater sin should we want a Bible
study on the taxonomy of sin again, but that is for another day.
At this
point, Pilate really wanted to set Jesus free.
What has he gotten himself into? He
should have stuck to his guns when he told the Jews who pestered him to Go
and try him by your own laws. He made
his last appeal to the Jews, but they manipulated Pilate to do their will.
Anyone
who claims to be a king is no friend of Caesar.
I remind you
that the Jews hated the Romans, but they sure sounded like Romans themselves
here.
We have
no king but Caesar.
Remember,
that Caesar had declared himself to be a god, so the Hebrew people were saying,
We have no god but Caesar. Who’s
the blasphemer now?
As we
consider this part that we know well but don’t dwell upon much, let us remember
at any point along the way, Jesus could have said, stop, and it
all would have ended.
Pilate
wanted to let him go. Had Jesus just
proclaimed his innocence, Pilate could be rid of this mess.
Had Jesus called
for rescue, a
dozen legions of angels would have delivered him, but Jesus chose to
continue to the cross and fulfill the will of the Father.
In every
word or in his silence, in every lash of the whip, in the constant pain, Jesus
chose to fulfill the will of the Father and continue to the cross.
Moment to moment Jesus chose the
cross. He chose the cross.
He chose the
cross because of God’s great love for us.
God loved
us. God chose us. God still loves us.
See his love
in the moment-to-moment decisions of Jesus to continue to the cross.
Amen.
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