Read John
19
Everyone knows what a one-liner is
right. It’s supposed to be a joke with
the story and punchline contained in a single line, sometimes it takes two or
three lines, but you get the idea.
Working in a
mirror factory is something I can totally see myself doing.
I came up with a
new word yesterday: plagiarism.
My grandfather
has the heart of a lion and a lifetime ban at the zoo.
No matter how
much you push the envelope, it will still be stationary.
I’d give my right
arm to be ambidextrous.
There are two
types of people in this world: those who
crave closure.
Some of you are going to go to my
Facebook page and do the angry face on all of my posts for that last one.
We are going to go over some
one-liners in this 19th chapter.
Instead of the contiguous text of the chapter being put into a message,
I am cherry-picking a few verses this morning, not to concoct a doctrine not
intended by the author, but to unpack so much that’s packed into a few
one-liners.
Let’s start with verse 11.
Pilate wanted to release Jesus but
Jesus wasn’t helping at all. He was on a
mission and that mission led to the cross.
Pilate pleaded with Jesus to give him some sort of answer. The Roman governor noted that he could
release him or have him killed.
Jesus answered, You would have no power
over me if it were not given to you from above.
Why is this important? Look at the illogical events that led us up
to this point. A kangaroo court, Jews
turning Jesus over to the hated Romans, and of course the words, “We wouldn’t
bring him to you if he were not guilty.
Jesus could have put a stop to the
nonsense at any point, but this was necessary to living out his Father’s
will. The power that Pilate held over
Jesus in this moment was within the sovereignty of God.
This verse couples two one-liners. The second part is: Therefore the one who handed me over to
you is guilty of a greater sin.
So, is Jesus presenting a taxonomy of
sin? You could read Leviticus and made a
case that such a thing does exist. But
here, this is the more likely explanation.
Pilate, you and
your method of execution were essential to the plan of God that would have
Jesus lifted in in his act of atonement for the sins of humankind. You didn’t know any better, but you were
necessary.
Those
knuckleheads that turned me over to you were necessary as well, but they should
have known better. They knew Messiah was
coming. They should have known him when
they saw him. They didn’t.
The next one-liner is crazy but completely in the context of
what was required to get Jesus to the cross.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests
answered.
What?
The Jews hated the Romans. The Jews despised Caesar. Most had never met him but they saw his image
on the Roman coins and paid taxes to him and had nothing good to say about him.
This one-liner came in response to the
follow question proffered by Pilate.
Shall I crucify
your king?
We have no king
but Caesar!
Realize that Caesar had declared
himself to be god. This was a thorn in
the side for the Jews, especially the scribes and Pharisees and other high
religious leaders. To say we have no
king but Caesar was to say, we have no God but Caesar.
Who is doing the blaspheming now?
Let’s read a couple verses beginning
with 19.
Pilate had a notice prepared and
fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Many
of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near
the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and
Greek. The chief priests of the Jews
protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed
to be king of the Jews.”
Here’s my first one-liner out of this
batch. The sign was written in
Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
Do you know what the most frequent
complaint on the Pilate hotline was from the Roman soldiers?
Why do I have to
push 2 for Latin?
Now if the sign had only been in
Latin, only the Romans could read it, and maybe not even some of them. Greek was still the language of the Empire,
but Aramaic belonged to the Jews alone.
Why did this have to be there. It
upset the chief priests among the Jews.
They wanted this man killed because he
claimed to be the King of the Jews, actually the Son of God, but the religious
leaders and Pilate concocted this title in the process of this circus. The religious leaders wanted the sign changed
to read, he said he was King of the Jews.
Here is your next one-liner. Pilate answered, What I have written, I
have written.
Pilate finally grew a backbone. Pilate had early asked Jesus, what is
truth? Now Pilate has displayed the
truth and won’t be talked out of it. The
truth would not be silenced by the kangaroo courts required to get Jesus to the
cross.
The next example comes while Jesus is
on the cross. His mother was in
attendance. No mother should be preceded
in death by her child, but this death was essential to the salvation of
humankind.
In verses 26 and 27
Jesus makes provision for his mother. To
Mary he said: Woman here is your son
and to the unnamed disciple (presumed to be John), Jesus said: Here is your mother.
Jesus provided provision for his
mother after his death. Perhaps Joseph
was out of the picture. His own brothers
would not believe in him until he rose from the dead. He would not leave his mother without
support.
The man who moment-to-moment in these
last hours had to choose the cross again, and again so that he might save
humankind from its sin also had compassion for his mother.
Let’s jump to verse 30. When he had received the drink, Jesus
said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus knew that the work of atonement
was completed. His fulfillment of the
law and the prophets was done. Mission
accomplished.
Crucifixions often lasted into the
night or the next day, but there was no purposeful reason to continue. His work was done. It is finished was mission
accomplished for Jesus.
Sin lost its sting. The atonement for humankind was
completed. There was more to come, but the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world had taken away the sin of the
world.
Here’s where we finish up for today,
with verses 38 and 39.
Later, Joseph of
Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of
Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s
permission, he came and took the body away.
He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus
at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five
pounds.
Consider this line: Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but
secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders.
Some had become disciples other than
the few men who followed him for 3 years.
Many had followed for a while, but many abandoned him because his
teachings were difficult. Joseph was
counted as a disciple. Joseph was a
named person in the Bible and a person of means.
Joseph was a disciple of Jesus but not
brave enough to declare it publicly.
Here’s the last one-liner out of that
same set of scriptures: He was
accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.
We remember Nic at Night from chapter
3. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, also a
person of note, but showed respect for Jesus considering him to be a
rabbi. He had difficulty with being born
of the Spirit and Jesus being the Son of God.
What is in this one-liner is what is
not in it. It does not say that
Nicodemus was a disciple. Was this just
not important? Was it an oversight. Was John over his world limit and couldn’t
include that part.
Nicodemus showed Jesus the respect due
a rabbi and helped Joseph of Arimathea prepare him for burial and place him in
the tomb. He could not hang on the cross
after sunset.
Why single out these two one-liners?
Consider our world today. How many have professed faith in Jesus but
are afraid to publicly follow him? How
many Josephs are there in the church?
Consider our world today. How many seem like good people and seem to
want to do good things but have not received Jesus as Lord? How many like Nicodemus are all around us.
Our job is not to take a census but
make sure that not only the most obvious sinners hear the good news of life in
Jesus Christ, but also those who seem to want to do the right thing.
Jesus is Lord. Our mission is to lead people to his Lordship.
When we stand before our Lord, would
we like to say, Mission Accomplished.
Wouldn’t we like to have our own one-liner?
Amen.
