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Grace,
mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
You
say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have
come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth,
listens to my voice.
Prayer: Dear Lord
Jesus, bless all of us with your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and
to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.
In trying to
finding about Jesus’ life and his suffering and death, we have four books in
the bible where the history is recorded: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In our
mid-week sermons during Lent this year, I haven’t been sticking to one particular
account of Jesus’ suffering, but I have been going back and forth between the
different gospels.
Today, some people
don’t think this is the right thing to do, but that we should just stick to one
gospel and go with just that. It is said that we should let each of the
individual writers of the New Testament speak by themselves, and let their
unique voice come through. And I must agree, there is a lot of benefit in doing
that. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all have their unique features. And so,
sometimes trying to bring the four gospels together, and harmonise them is
frowned upon, because it breaks up the flow of each of the four writers.
But we have to be
careful about this, because we have to realise that there is another author
that is at work in the Gospels, apart from the four evangelists, and that is
the Holy Spirit. St Peter writes in his second letter: No prophecy was ever
produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along
by the Holy Spirit. Each of the four evangelists—Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John—were all carried along by the Holy Spirit, or as Paul writes to Timothy,
what they wrote was breathed out by God, or inspired by God.
But also, in that
same chapter, St Peter says something else about these writings. He says: We
did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Each
of the evangelists were writing down what they and the apostles actually saw
and experienced. They weren’t writing down myths and stories, but they were eyewitnesses
of [Christ’s] majesty. So it’s important to read each version of the
events, but it’s also important to draw them all together, since there is one
voice of the Holy Spirit inspiring them all, and there is one unified history
of the events that actually happened. And that’s the most important thing: that
everything that we’re talking about actually happened. St Paul writes: If
Christ were not raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in
vain. And also he says: If Christ had not been raised, your faith is
futile and you are still in your sins. Also, we can say, if Christ had not
actually suffered, died, and endured what he did for us, then our preaching is
in vain, your faith is in vain and you are still in your sins. What a wonderful
thing it is then, that the events that we are reading about tonight did
actually happen, which means our preaching has power and a point, your faith is
real and is precious in the sight of God, and you are not still in your sins,
but they are completely and totally washed away and forgiven.
So let’s come to
our readings for tonight. Tonight we’ve read both from Mark 15 and John 18.
Let’s go through the gospels, and get the series of events.
First, at the
beginning of Matthew 27, we read: When morning came, all the chief priests
and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. We
read a couple weeks ago about how the high priest tore his robes and accused
Jesus of blasphemy, and then the Jewish council declared: He is worthy of
death. So if they already decided this, why did they now need to take
counsel against Jesus to put him to death? Well, the reason is given in the
next verse, where it says: And they bound him and led him away and delivered
him over to Pilate the governor.
Now, if they wanted
to put him to death, why didn’t they do it themselves? Why did they need to
bring him to Pilate? Well, you see, Rome had invaded Judea and the whole region
around that area. We notice in the background all throughout Jesus’ life that the
Romans are constantly there. We don’t see this in earlier times, like during
the life of Abraham, or King David—the Romans weren’t a significant empire back
then. So when Jesus was born, we read that Joseph and Mary had to travel to
Bethlehem because the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus, wanted to take a census.
We also see during the life of Jesus all kinds of Roman characters: Romans
soldiers ask John the Baptist how they should live, we read about Romans
centurions asking Jesus questions and asking him for miracles, and also we read
about many people, like the apostle and evangelist Matthew, who wrote the first
gospel in the New Testament, and also the little man Zacchaeus, who were
tax-collectors, who collected tax not for the Jewish nation but for Rome. Even
when Jesus is on the cross, a centurion is there and says: Truly this man
was the Son of God.
So we can see that
in the life of Jesus the Romans are constantly there in the background.
However, when Romans invaded particular countries, one of the things that they
would do to control the people was to take away their right to give a death
sentence. If a particular nation’s leaders, whether it was in Judea, or
Lebanon, or Syria, or wherever, wanted to put a person to death, they had to
take them to the Roman governor. And so this is what happens in our reading.
The Jewish leaders take counsel to put Jesus to death, and so instead of being
accused of murder by the Romans, they tried to work out how they could
manipulate the politics and have it done officially. So they take Jesus to
Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman governor for that region. Here Jesus takes
upon himself all the sins of dodgy, crooked politics, of cooked up
conspiracies, whether it be in government, in the workplace, in the church, or
wherever, and he takes it all with him to the cross. He suffers it, and he pays
the price for it.
We also read in the
Gospel of John: They themselves [that is, the Jewish priests and elders]
did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be
defiled, but could eat the Passover. Now, Jesus and his disciples had
already eaten the Passover, but there was also a festival of Unleavened Bread
that was going during this whole time. The Jewish people did not enter into the
house of Gentile people, but kept them separate, but still, they are happy to
make use of Pilate for their purposes, but they stay outside.
Next Thursday
night, Maundy Thursday, is a special day in the church calendar where we
remember Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples. And instead of celebrating the
Passover each year, like the Jews, we Christians now celebrate it every Sunday,
or as Jesus says, as often as you drink it. There’s no set time. Instead
of eating lamb of bread with herbs like the Jewish people, Jesus has given something
new to the Passover—he invites us to take bread and wine, to bless it, and
receive his body and blood. Jesus himself is the Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world. Instead of painting blood of a lamb on our doorposts, like
the Jews did in Egypt, we drink Christ’s blood into our own bodies, and paint
his blood on the doorposts of our hearts and minds and souls. You might like to
go through Exodus 12 where it gives the regulations for the Passover, and see
how each of them is fulfilled and transformed in the Lord’s Supper. St Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 5: Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let
us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of
malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
So here we see the
Jews bringing Jesus to Pilate, but staying outside to keep themselves holy. But
it’s not Pilate’s house that makes a person unholy, it’s what comes out of
people’s hearts. Jesus says: What comes out of a person is what defiles him.
And what’s coming out of their hearts here? A hatred for God’s only Son. In
fact, we would want to go into Pilate’s house to make ourselves holy, because
Jesus is in there. And instead of being in the Jewish temple, where the curtain
is torn in two, wouldn’t we rather be at the foot of the cross where Jesus is,
and let his blood drop down on our heads? That’s the place to find holiness,
not with these priests and elders, who think they are so respectable. It says
in Hebrews: Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people
through his own blood. There let us go to him outside the camp and bear the
reproach that he endured. So let’s not stay here with the priests and
elders and respectable who don’t want to go inside Pilate’s dirty house, let’s
go wherever Jesus is to be found, whether it’s in a palace or a mud hut or
wherever there are people who listen to the voice of their good shepherd. There
is no dirtiness where Jesus is, all sin and filth is paid for and scrubbed
away—only purity and cleanness and holiness. And through the forgiveness of
sins, Jesus gives us his own cleanness, his own purity, not because we are
clean and pure, but because he is. He covers up our dirtiness, with the white
clean robes of his righteousness and purity.
So now we read
about where Jesus is accused by the chief priests to Pilate. First of all, we
read in John that Pilate does the proper and right thing and asks them for
their accusation. He says: What accusation do you bring against this man? At
first, we read in John that the Jews were a bit annoyed by being addressed like
this. They say: If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered
him over to you. They want Pilate simply to accept their authority on the
matter. And also, they don’t need Pilate deciding for them what is right and
what is wrong. They already think of themselves as the moral guardians of
society, and don’t think that they are answerable to anyone, let alone a Roman!
But of course, we know, that this man was not doing evil! Perhaps the
priest and elders felt as though their plans to put Jesus to death that they
had talked about that morning were being hindered and foiled.
But in Luke we also
read, that they must also have brought some actual accusations to Pilate. We
read: We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give
tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king. Well the
first thing is a lie: they see we found this man misleading our nation. Jesus
would only be misleading people, if he were not telling them the truth. But
Jesus is telling them the truth, so he is not misleading them, but he’s leading
them to heaven. Jesus doesn’t says: I am a liar who is, who is leading you to
death and hell, but he says: I am the way, and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except by me. He is leading people on the narrow
way that leads to life, not the broad way that leads to death. So the second
thing they say is also a lie that Jesus was forbidding us to give tribute to
Caesar. Jesus never said that, but when he was asked about this, he took a
coin in his hand, showed them the picture of Caesar on the back and said, Give
to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. If Caesar wants his
money back, give it to him. But God wants your very selves, your very lives,
your bodies, your souls as a holy and acceptable sacrifice to him: so also,
give to God what is God’s. Everything we have has always belonged to God. But
the third thing they say is true that Jesus was saying that he himself is
Christ, a king. However, even though it’s true, the Jewish people didn’t
believe him, and they accused him of lying. But in actual fact, he is the
Christ, he is a king. He is our prophet, our priest and our king.
So in John we read
that Pilate wasn’t interested in dealing with tha matter. So he says: Take
himself yourselves and judge him by your own law. The problem with this is
that Jesus is actually their judge, and he will judge the whole world by God’s
law. So the people reveal the real reason why they have brought him, not
because of justice and fairness and because they wanted to observe the law, but
they say: It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. When they say,
it is not lawful, they were allowed to put someone to death for various
reasons given in the law of Moses. But it was the Romans who had brought in
this restriction on them—so the Jews essentially say to Pilate: We’ve done our
job, but we need you to do the rest. But do you see the catch in what they say.
They don’t say: it is not lawful for us to give a person a fair trial, they say
it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.
They’ve already got
the whole thing cooked up! They don’t need Pilate to give a fair trial, they
just want Pilate do what they want and to put him to death.
So John writes: The
Jews said to [Pilate], “it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. And
then he adds: This was to fulfil the word that Jesus had spoken to show by
what kind of death he was going to die. Now, we all know that people can
die in all kinds of way: sickness, accident, or whatever, but also they can be
killed, and put to death. Jesus already says in advance that he is not just
going to die of old age, or have an accident, but he is going to be put to
death, he is going to be executed. And not only is he going to be executed, but
Jesus prophesied in advance that he knows the exact way in which he will be
executed. Now through history there have been all kinds of ways that people
have been executed, and mostly different countries used one way of executing
people at a particular time. So sometimes there were firing squads, or in some
states in America today, there are lethal injections or previously, the
electric chair. In Saudi Arabia today, there are beheadings. This was also done
in merry England with King Henry’s wives. Also, at the time of the French
revolution, there was the guillotine, and then in different countries,
sometimes people were hanged. It was common among Jews to stone a person to
death, and this actually happened with Stephen, which we read about in Acts 7.
In fact, in John 8, when we read that Jesus said that he already existed before
Abraham, it says: They picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid
himself and went out of the temple.
This is not the
right time for Jesus to die, and so he doesn’t allow it. But also it’s not the
right method. Even we read earlier, when Jesus preached in his hometown in
Nazareth, that the people tried to throw him off a cliff. But this also wasn’t
the right time for Jesus to die, or the right method. In Matthew 20, we read a
very clear prophecy where Jesus says: See, we are going to Jerusalem. And
the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priest and scribes, and they
will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and
flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day. Do you see
here how Jesus clearly says that he will be crucified! And crucifixion
was something that Jews didn’t do—this was a Roman thing, and was a
particularly cruel method of execution reserved for rebels, for people who were
trying to sit people up against Roman rule.
And so, we see that
the Jews hand Jesus over to the Romans, and that Jesus had already prophesied
this in advance. Now, it’s not as if anyone there, whether it was the priests
or Pilate, or whoever, was forced to do what they did. The fact that Jesus prophesies
it, doesn’t mean that God had them all on a string like a puppet. However, they
all had a sinful nature, sinful flesh. They were created by God in his image,
just like all of us, but because of sin, the devil has so corrupted everything
about us, that we are unable to do anything good, unless God works it. And so,
God works something good here—it’s just like with Joseph and his brothers. They
dumped Joseph in a pit and sold him off to Egypt, but God raised him up to be a
prince in Egypt. Joseph says: You meant it for evil, but God meant it for
good. In the same way, even though crucifixion is a bad thing, and it is
the evil hearts of people that invented this cruelty and contrived that Jesus
should be killed in this way, Jesus himself, as our true God, was working all
of this for good, fulfilling his own prophesy, and taking on the sin of the
whole world and paying the price and atoning for it.
In Matthew, Mark
and Luke, we read about a short version of the conversation that Pilate has
with Jesus. We read where Pilate picks up the only accusation of the Jews that
was true, that Jesus was saying that he was the Christ, a king. Pilate
says: Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus says: You have said so. It’s
as if Jesus says, “You said it.” It’s one thing for Jesus to say he is the king
of the Jews, but what about you? Who does Pontius Pilate say that Jesus is? Who
do you say Jesus is?
At the same time,
we read that just as Jesus was silent when they were accusing him in the Jewish
council, he also remains silent when the Jewish people accuse him before
Pilate. Pilate must have been wondering: why doesn’t Jesus defend himself?
Well, how you defend yourself against such hatred as that? But Jesus want to
die for you, so he doesn’t try and wriggle out of this. This is his
sacrifice—here he sacrifices his right to reply. Pilate says: Do you not
hear how many things they testify against you? But he gave him no answer, not
even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
Now in the Gospel
of John, we have longer version of what Jesus and Pilate talk about. We read: Pilate
entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the
King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did
others say it to you about me?”
Jesus has already
made his testimony before the Jewish people. He doesn’t need Pilate to repeat
things again. But Jesus is not interested in formalities, he is interested in
souls and people’s consciences. You might remember when Jesus said to the
disciples: Who do people say that I am? But then later he says: But
who do you say that I am? This is important for us as Christians: Jesus
asks this question directly to us individually. Who do you say that I am? And
the same goes for Pilate here. Pilate asks a question, but Jesus won’t let him
ask a question on other people’s behalf. Who’s asking? You or them?
So Pilate is a bit
affronted by this. He says: Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief
priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?
Jesus now makes a
wonderful confession of faith. He says: My kingdom is not of this world. If
my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I
might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.
We see this already
happen back in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus is arrested and Peter pulls
out a knife and cuts someone’s ear off. But Jesus says to Peter, “Put back your
sword.” It’s not the time for this. It’s time for me to go now. But also, Jesus
is telling Peter, this is not how my kingdom works. My kingdom works with the
sacrifice of its king, and this is what’s happening now. Of course, when Jesus
is arrested, we might ask why not only the disciples did nothing, but why
didn’t the angels come down and stop it, why didn’t the ground open up and
swallow these people up who were treating Jesus like this? No—Jesus held them
all back, and said: Get behind me! I am going to the cross, and that cross will
be the most precious thing on earth. For the rest of history, the world will
keep spinning, but the cross will stand still.
And so, Jesus’
kingdom is a kingdom which grows and expands by its citizens being joined to
Christ’s suffering, and being persecuted by the world. And there have been more
Christian martyrdoms in the last century than the rest of history put together.
For example: think of St Stephen. He prayed when he was stoned to death, Do
not hold this sin against them. Now it so turned out that Paul was there,
Jesus answered Stephen’s prayer and didn’t hold Paul’s sins against him, and
came and called him when he was on the road to Damascus. Then Paul went and
wrote the most wonderful books in the New Testament about that very topic: why
our sins are not held against us. This is how the kingdom of God works. It
starts with a group of angry people gnashing their teeth at a faithful
Christian and killing him off. And this is God’s victory over death!
We might look at
the church today and see in our country a significant decline in attendances.
It’s not just here at Magill church, but all over the country, Christians are
weeping and lamenting over this. But before we start trying to work out all
kinds of worldly methods of how to get backsides on seats and money on the
plate, let’s remember for a moment: we are still here, and Jesus has still put
us here for a reason. Jesus kingdom does not run like a business. Jesus says: My
kingdom is not of this world. Jesus is the Lord of the harvest, and
Christians today need to rediscover that they have been given the royal, noble
task of coming before their king and praying for souls. Remember it is not us
who does the converting, even if we might give the most faithful witness and
testimony. It is the Holy Spirit who does this work, and so we should ask for
his guidance and his help how to make us useful in our community as evangelists
today. It might even involve quite some suffering on our part, but this is how
Christ’s kingdom works—not through glory, but through the cross.
I once read about
an old pastor reflecting on church history: apparently in the year 1800, the
church was experiencing very hard times in Europe. The church looked like an
old barren woman, and that her child-bearing years were over. And yet, there
were faithful Christians who were praying on bended knee daily for the course
of history to turn around. The pastor who was reflecting on this said: maybe it
was the prayers of those faithful Christians in those years that enabled the
1800s to be one of the greatest centuries of mission for the church. Some of
the last frontiers of the world were reached for the first time. What’s in
store for our next century? We should also remember today that Jesus is still
with us to the end of the age. And he says: My kingdom is not of this world.
But then Pilate
says to him: So you are a king? Jesus then gives another wonderful
testimony: You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for
this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone
who is of the truth listens to my voice. Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
And here we see
Jesus speaking right into our times again. Everything that Jesus did, his
birth, his suffering and death, his resurrection, was for one purpose—to
bear witness to the truth. Jesus says: I am the way and the truth and
the life. And here he says: Everyone who is of the truth listens to my
voice. Satan and lies go together: he is the father of lies. But
Jesus and truth go together—Jesus is the truth.
Pilate rejects the
truth. He says: What is truth? Is there really such thing as truth? This
is the world which we live in today. Nobody believes that there is such a thing
as truth—only what works. If it feels good, do it. What’s true for you is not
necessarily true for me. And so the crucifixion of Jesus begins all over again!
No—this is our first prayer: that we would have a hunger for truth. Because a
hunger for truth is a hunger for Jesus, even if we don’t know it yet. But when
we do know it, then this hunger is called faith. We trust Jesus and his word
that it is true. And Jesus prays to his Father before he dies: Sanctify them
in the truth, Lord. Your word is truth. And then, in our prayers for souls,
we pray that they would also have a hunger for truth and come to a knowledge of
the truth. One of the most wonderful passages about prayer and about conversion
is where Paul says to Timothy that God that prayers for all people is good,
and it pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour desires all people to be saved and
come to the knowledge of the truth.
So in conclusion
for this sermon tonight, and for our Lent series this year, let’s praise our
Saviour Jesus Christ for everything that he endured for us. What we have read
about over these last few weeks is true, and is written for the salvation of
our souls. Jesus Christ had suffered, died and rose again for me and for you.
Thank you, Jesus.
Amen.
Lord Jesus, we
thank for everything that you endured in your suffering and death, and for
coming to bear witness to the truth. Send us your Holy Spirit that we may be
people of the truth and listen to your voice. Amen.
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