Good Friday [Hebrews 10:19-20] (30-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In the Old Testament in Leviticus chapter 16, we read about the Day of Atonement. In Hebrew, the Jewish people even today call it “Yom Kippur.”

And on this Good Friday, I want you to picture in your minds the Jewish ritual of this occasion. In the second half of the book of Exodus, God commanded Moses to build a tabernacle. The tabernacle was a tent, which the people of Israel—the Jewish people—carried around with them from Mt Sinai and into the land of Canaan. The tabernacle was the place of worship for the people of Israel, and God commanded them to make all kinds of offerings and sacrifices there at different times. Later on, when King Solomon ruled Israel, the tabernacle was replaced by a temple. During the time of Jesus, this first temple had been destroyed and had been replaced by a second temple. The second temple was destroyed 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, and to this day has never been rebuilt.

Now picture the tabernacle (the tent) in your mind: the whole thing is a rectangle shape. It is about 45 metres by 22.5 metres. If you draw an imaginary line through the middle of the rectangle you would have 2 squares, 22.5 metres by 22.5 metres. In Hebrew, they would have said 50 cubits by 50 cubits.

If you were to walk in the front, in the middle of the first square area, there was a large altar: the altar of burnt offering. This is the place where they burnt the various animals that had to be offered there.

In the other square area, there was the tabernacle itself, the tent of meeting. This was a small narrow rectangle tent. Inside it had two parts, the first part was called the Holy Place, where there was the Altar of Incense.

You might remember at Christmas time, when John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, was on duty in the temple and saw the Angel Gabriel he was standing at the Altar of Incense. The Altar of Incense was inside the Holy Place.

But then, if you imagine walking into the tent, where the Holy Place is, at the back you would see a curtain, and behind this curtain was a place called the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place. Inside the Most Holy Place was the Ark of Covenant, which is the box that the Jewish people carried with them from the wilderness into the promised land. On top of the Ark of the Covenant there was carved cherubim—that is, angels with their wings outstretched and touching, one cherub on either side of the Ark of the Covenant. On top of the Ark of Covenant, between the two cherubim was the area which was called the mercy seat.

Can you picture all this? Let’s walk outside and come back in again. You come through the front of the tent, and in the middle of the open courtyard is the Altar of Burnt Offering. In front of you, is the Tabernacle itself. If you went through into the Tabernacle you would see the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place. Behind the Altar of Incense was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place. In the middle of the Most Holy Place was the Ark of the Covenant, which had the carved cherubim with their touching wings, and on top of the Ark of the Covenant was the mercy seat.

Of course, as any old Israelite, you would never have been allowed to have a pleasant stroll around the Tabernacle, a guided tour just as I’m trying to get you to imagine. Only the priests were allowed to enter the Holy Place.

But now I want to describe for you the Day of Atonement, or “Yom Kippur”, in Hebrew.

The Day of Atonement was a particularly special day and a particularly special Jewish festival. The High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place. This was the only day of the year, when anyone was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, and the only person who was allowed to go in was the High Priest.

The first thing he would do would be to take two animals, a bull and a ram. Then he would have to put on special clothes, which he would only wear on this one day of the year. He would put on a linen robe, and linen underwear, with a linen sash, and a linen turban on his head. He had to wash his body with water and put them on.

Now, after he had the bull and the ram, and put on the special clothes, he would also take two goats.

Now he was all prepared for the next part.

He would then bring forward the bull—it was going to be offered for himself and his family.  Then he would take the two goats and put them at the entrance of the tent. Now one goat would be chosen for the Lord, and one goat would be chosen for Azazel. Azazel means a demon, for the devil, for Satan.

Now, he would kill the bull as an offering for the sin of himself and his family. He would then have to take a pan full of hot coals from the altar and put incense on it and take them behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place would be covered in thick smoke so that the Ark, the priest –and also God – was hidden from anyone’s sight. Then he had to take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on top of the mercy seat once, and then he would sprinkle it seven times with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the floor.

So after he had done this with the bull’s blood, he would then go and do the same thing with the goat that was set apart for the Lord. The goat was for the Israelites, and for their sins. The priest would kill the goat, and then take the blood and sprinkle it on top of the mercy seat and then in front of the mercy seat seven times. The reason for doing this was the cleanse the people from their sins.

Now, when the High Priest does all this, he would come out into the Holy Place to the Altar of Incense. Here he would put the bulls blood on the four horns (the four corners) of the altar, and seven times on the floor. Then he would do the same with the goats blood: on the four horns of the altar and seven times on the floor.

Now after this, the priest would then come out of the Holy Place and mix the bull’s blood and the goat’s blood together and put it on the horns of the Altar of Burnt Offering. Then he would also have to sprinkle the blood on it seven times. The reason for doing this was to clean the altar and make the altar clean from the sin of the people. So you can see that the priest goes into the Holy of Holies to make atonement, then he goes to the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place, and then he brings the blood out to clean the Altar of Burnt Offering. The holiness of God comes out and then makes everything clean.

Altogether there was 49 sprinklings of blood, which is very significant, because 49 is 7 times 7, which is a special number.

Then after this, he would take the live goat and he would put his hands on the goat’s head and he would confess all the sins of the people over it. The High Priest would confess the sins of the people as if their sins were his own sins, and he was place these sins on the goat. Then a man would take the goat away into a remote place in the wilderness somewhere.

Now, after the goat had been sent away, then the High Priest would have to go into the tent of meeting and take off his linen vestments and leave them there. Then he would have to wash his whole body with water somewhere in there and put on his regular vestments that he would normally wear. Then he would make the normal burnt offering on the altar of burnt offering and sacrifice the ram.

You see how the Altar had to be cleaned first through the blood, and then the High Priest would offer the burnt offering. Also, after this, the bodies of the bull and the goat which were killed for the atonement in the Holy of Holies had to be carried out and burnt outside the camp.

You can see how the atonement is made in the Holy of Holies, and then the priest goes out to the Holy Place, and then to the Altar of Burnt Offering and everything becomes clean. The altar is made clean through the blood, and the dead animals are taken outside to a faraway place outside the camp.

Now, it’s taken me a long time to describe all this, and you might be scratching your head wondering what all this has to do with Good Friday.

On the day that Jesus died, as soon as he had breathed out his last breath on the cross, we read that the curtain of the temple was torn in two. In the past, the High Priest could only enter into God’s presence once a year and with very strict conditions. Now the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, is presented before the Holy of Holies, and Jesus opens up the curtain for us to enter into God’s presence. You can see in our churches today, there is no curtain in front of the altar. We all come and enter into the sanctuary and receive Christ’s body and blood.

Jesus’ blood has been sprinkled on the mercy seat, not on earth in the temple, or in the tabernacle, but before God’s own throne in heaven. Jesus’ blood makes atonement for all our sins and gives us full access into God’s presence. We don’t come into God’s presence because we are pure, but we enter into God’s presence because of the blood of Jesus Christ, which he shed for us on Good Friday.

The High Priest only entered in once a year, but now we are all made priests through the blood of Christ, and we enter into God’s presence with the blood of Christ shed for our sins, and we offer our prayers to God. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he brought his holy and precious body and blood with him and stands there as the one perfect sacrifice for all sin. There is no need to atone for our sins once a year, but on Good Friday atonement was made for every day to come.

And just as Jesus goes into the Father’s presence, so he is always coming out of the Father’s presence to make everything clean, offering us his gifts of baptism, washing us pure from all condemnation, and giving us the gifts of his body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper. And he gives these things and applies them to us.

Jesus death tore the curtain in two. His atonement, his death, his sacrifice, ripped through the curtain and cleanses us of all sin. Jesus is true God and true man. Because he is a man he has blood, and because he is true God that blood has divine power to make us clean not just outside but inside of us: our hearts, our minds, our souls, our consciences. And we go and we enter through a new and living way through the curtain. We enter into a new and living way into the Father’s presence through the holy and precious blood of Jesus.

All our sin and condemnation is laid on Jesus. Jesus absorbs it just like the goat. He went out into the wilderness with Satan, and he won the victory over the devil. All the sins of the world are placed on Jesus just as if they were his own sins and he dies for them. And just like the bull and the other goat, Jesus was carried out of the city and burnt on the cross. He endured all the fire of God’s anger against sin and all the fire of his love for the world, and was made a perfect burnt offering for us. And when he had done it all and when he had made his atonement, he said, “It is finished.”

So Good Friday brings an end to the Jewish Day of Atonement. We have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus.

Hebrews 13 says: The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.

So on this Good Friday, let’s praise our Lord Jesus Christ for his perfect sacrifice made once and for all. Let’s praise him for the atonement for our sins which he made with his own blood. Let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, because on this day, on this Good Friday, the perfect blood of Jesus—true God and true man—was shed for you, so that you can enter into the Holy Places of heaven, and walk into the heavenly Jerusalem with him. Just as he said to the thief next to him, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we praise you for your sacrifice, for your offering, for your atonement which you made for us with your blood and with your own body and life. Forgive us and purify our hearts with this same blood, and give us the confidence to enter into the Holy Place of heaven. Send us your Holy Spirit from the Father’s throne, and make us holy together with you. Amen.

Lent V B [John 12:20-33] (18-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Next Sunday we celebrate Palm Sunday, which marks the occasion exactly one week before Easter Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and was welcomed by large crowds waving palm branches, and shouting out words of praise. Our reading today tells about a conversation that Jesus had with his disciples immediately after this happened. And Jesus tells us about why he is coming to Jerusalem. He is coming to be glorified—but not in the way that people think, but through his suffering and death. And he has come to Jerusalem to kick the devil, who he calls the ruler of this world and to draw all people to himself.

So let’s look at the first part of our reading which says: Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus”. I remember these words very clearly from when I was a child, when I used to attend the Lutheran Church in Magill in Adelaide. There were some very artistic people in that church, and some who did calligraphy. Sometimes after church we might have found ourselves playing hide and seek, and if we hid inside the pulpit, we would read these words written in calligraphy as a bold message to the pastor: Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

These people coming to Jesus were Greeks. This gives us a little foretaste of the fact that the Gospel was going to go out to all nations. Already at Jesus’ birth the exotic and mysterious foreigners had arrived to present Jesus with strange gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Already Jesus had healed the children of a Roman centurion and a Canaanite woman. And Jesus says: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus knows that there is a time coming when not just a handful of individual foreigners will come to Jesus, but a whole host of foreigners. And it happens because Jesus is about to die not only for Jews, but also for foreigners, and the whole world.

Jesus says: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. The gospels often show us very clearly that Jesus is both true God and true man. Here we see that Jesus knew exactly who he was and what was going to happen to him. He knew he was the Son of Man. And he knew he was going to be glorified. Peter once said that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus praised Peter. Jesus knew Peter was telling the truth. Even when Jesus was a 12-year-old boy, he knew who he was, and said to Mary and Joseph: Why were looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?

But how is Jesus going to be glorified? Jesus gives a little picture: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Jesus talks about a grain of wheat dying. Now the funny thing is that a grain of wheat doesn’t die. You can’t murder a grain of wheat. We don’t hold funerals for grain and say: “Here’s lies the late Mr Spelt.” But Jesus compares planting a seed to burying a person. When people die, we bury them in the ground, much like a seed. Jesus says that a seed only produces fruit, if it dies, meaning when it is buried in the ground.

Jesus shows here that he is going to die and be buried. We read about two wealthy men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, giving Jesus his funeral, with the traditional customs and the traditional spices: myrrh and aloes. And they gently lay this dead Jesus in a tomb. And now that Jesus has died and has been planted like a seed in this tomb, now see what’s going to happen. The hour has not come for the Son of Man to fail, but to be glorified. This death is no failure, but the payment for our sin, our ransom, our atonement. It is a glorious thing! And Jesus rises from the dead, and the wonderful fruit of the gospel goes out to all the world.

This picture first of all refers to Jesus himself, but Jesus also gives this picture as a kind of general rule for everyone. The same thing applies to us—like a seed being buried in the ground, our sinful self, our old ways, must be put to death. Jesus then says in our reading: Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Jesus says: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Just think what would have happened if Abraham had wanted to keep his old life in Mesopotamia, and had rejected God’s call upon him to go to the promised land?

Jesus often calls us as Christians to go through difficult times, and leads us into uncertainty, where the future seems dark. He wants to sharpen us and tempt us and entice us to good. Often if we are going to bear fruit, some part of us needs to die, and be buried in the ground. We experience hardships and trials as Christians also because that old sinful person we carry around with us needs lots of killing off. But also, when God creates something, he always creates it out of nothing. And so sometimes he has to make us nothing. And also Jesus said to St Paul: My power is made perfect in weakness. And so of course, sometimes God has to make us weak.

There are many passages in the Scripture that speak about this. In the book of Acts, we read about Paul and Barnabas preaching from town to town in cities called Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Also, the apostle James begins his letter by saying: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Peter also writes in his letter: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

The picture of the wheat dying also shows that our trials and hardships won’t last. They will be short, just as the time of Jesus’ suffering was also short. A seed won’t stay hidden and dead in the ground for long, before it bursts forth into an amazing work of God’s creation, with leaves, flowers and fruits. St Paul writes: God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. He promises to lead you through the trial and out to the other side of it. Psalm 30 says: Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Think about the example of Joseph in the Old Testament. He experienced so many trials and hardships. He was sold to slave-traders by his own brothers, he was falsely accused of raping his master’s wife, he spent a number of years in prison, and when he had the opportunity to get out—when one of his fellow prisoners was going to put in a good word for him to Pharaoh—he forgot about Joseph. But then when Pharaoh had troubling dreams, Pharaoh’s cup-bearer who had been with Joseph in prison, remembered him, and Joseph became the second-in-charge over the whole of Egypt, and organised a rationing program that saved the whole country, and even his own family back in Canaan from starvation during a famine.

Looking back on his hard life, Joseph then says to his brothers: You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive. The same goes for us in difficult times. We don’t understand what’s going on at the time, but later we realise that Jesus was with us all along. At the time, we feel like a very small seed under a pile of mud and manure. But later, when we see the fruit, we understand.

In our reading from a few weeks ago, we read: When [Jesus] was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. At the Last Supper, when Peter didn’t want Jesus to wash his feet, Jesus said to him: What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. Jesus tells Peter to wait, be patient, and then you will understand. In the Book of Job, he describes his experience of feeling cut off from God in his suffering. Job says: Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.

So it’s a wonderful comfort that Jesus gives in our reading: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Then Jesus says: Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. One of the most difficult things to break is our sinful pride. We don’t want to change our lives, but because of Jesus’ great love for us, he sometimes pushes and pushes on us until it feels like we’re breaking. His call upon us feels too great for us. We want to keep our life, but Jesus wants us to lose it and to give us a completely new one.

There are many wonderful examples of this in the bible too. Think about King Josiah. For many years, the bible was hidden, and then when Josiah hears it read out, he begins to hate his own life, as Jesus says, and tears his clothes. But God says to Josiah: I also have heard you, declares the LORD, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place. Or when the prophet Jonah after running from God, got vomited up by a fish, and went to Nineveh, and the king commands all his people to turn back to God. And we read: When God saw what he did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster.

Remember the tax collector who was praying in the temple: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus says: This man went down to his house justified. Jesus says in our reading: Whoever hates his life in this world will what? He will keep it for eternal life. If the Holy Spirit could create faith in us through the word, then the Holy Spirit also will protect us in [our] great weakness against the devil, the world, and [our] flesh. [The Holy Spirit] will rule and lead [us] in His ways, raise [us] again when [we] stumble, comfort [us] under the cross and in temptation, and [also] preserve [us] and keep our life for life eternal. What a wonderful promise of Jesus in our reading.

Jesus then goes on in our reading: If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him. Maybe someone wants to serve Jesus, but not go where Jesus wants us to go. When I was a child, I might have been happy to help my parents, but not necessarily to wash the dishes or clean my bedroom or take out the bin. So also Jesus says: If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am there will my servant be also. Jesus sometimes moves, and when he does, we must go to meet him. Jesus also promises: If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him.

Jesus continues and says: Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. If Jesus’ disciples should follow him, where is Jesus going? He is going to the cross. And then he will rise, and then he will send his apostles out into the whole world, and they build up the church in preaching the word of forgiveness and baptising people and giving them Christ’s body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus soul is troubled because of the great suffering that he is about to go through, but he says: For this purpose I have come to this hour.

Then an amazing thing happens. Jesus prays a little prayer to his Father. Father, glorify your name. This is much like the Lord’s Prayer, where we say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. We read: Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him”. This thundering voice of God speaks a wonderful message. God’s name has already been glorified. Jesus had already existed from eternity with his Father. And now Jesus has taken on human flesh and he will make atonement for our sins. And in doing this, God’s name will be glorified again.

This is exactly what we read about earlier in our reading where Jesus says: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. To the unbeliever, the naked Jesus, bleeding and wounded on the cross on Good Friday, will look like one of the greatest tragedies and failures of history. But it is nothing of the sort. That terrible place, Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, where Jesus will be nailed to a cross with two criminals is the place where the Son of Man will be glorified. This is the place where God will glorify his name again. It is for this purpose that Jesus has come to this hour. This is the glory of our Christian faith: Christ crucified.

And so Jesus shows the wonderful victory and the wonderful glory that occurs as he sets his face to the cross. He says: This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself. We also read: He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. Here the devil is called the ruler of this world. Jesus says that his death on the cross is the place where the devil will be cast out. He will be kicked in the guts, and his time will soon come to an end.

On one hand, Jesus judges and casts out the devil. On the other hand, he draws all people to himself. The whole history of the world will now rotate around Jesus, and whether we believe in him, or whether we reject him and are offended by him. If we side with the ruler of this world, we will come under judgment. But when we look to Jesus lifted up from the earth, dying on the cross, then Jesus draws us to himself, and into his loving arms. This is the wonderful promise of our reading. We know that everything that Jesus has done for us is not in vain, but is his wonderful and amazing victory. And anything we endure—whether it is hardship or temptation or troubles—is also not in vain, because Jesus is with us through the valley of the shadow of death to forgive us and strengthen us and lead us through it. He is not a failure, and neither are his Christians. Now is the time for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen.

Heavenly Father, glorify your name. We thank you for glorifying your name in the death of your Son on the cross. Make your power perfect in our weakness and in our weak lives, and keep and preserve us for eternal life. Amen.

Mid-week Lent Service III [Matthew 27:26-31] (7-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 5.30pm.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

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 Isaiah 50, we read the following words: I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I did not hide my face from disgrace and spitting. In our sermon tonight, we think about particularly where Jesus’ physical suffering turns particularly nasty in a way that we haven’t seen yet in our readings so far. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus anticipated this great suffering, and was so shaken by the thought of what was to come, he sweated blood and an angel came to minister to him.

In our reading tonight, we read about the scourging of Jesus, how the soldiers gathered around him and clothed him with a purple robe, crowned him with thorns, put a reed in his hand, mocked him by kneeling before him, spitting at him, and striking and slapping him. And then after all this, Pilate brings him out before the crowd, and present him to the them.

So let’s look at the first part of our reading tonight:

I.                   The scourging of Jesus.

In ancient times, it was a common punishment to flog a criminal. Some countries in the world today still use this as a punishment. Even in the Old Testament, there was a law about it in the book of Deuteronomy: If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. We even read in St Paul’s letter that he had received this punishment. He writes in 2 Corinthians: Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. It was common for the Jewish people to give 39 lashes, 40 minus one, just to make sure that the people were not given more than forty.

But in Jesus’ case, it was something quite different. Notice in the book of Deuteronomy, God set a limit to the number of lashes—the number 40. And there is a reason given: Lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.

Jesus was not flogged by the Jews, but by the Romans—in fact, he received a scourging, as it called. A Roman scourging called for the prisoner to be naked. There was no consideration of shame—there was no regard for whether the person would be degraded. Also, the Romans would use a whip with pieces of metal or bone embedded in the whip. The purpose was to make a mess of the person. Also, there was no limit to the number as with the Jews.

This is what Jesus underwent in our reading. Also, in John, it says that Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. Pilate would have had someone employed to carry out this scourging. Think about if we had had such a thing like this in our society today—who would do it? Who in our country would agree to do this? Only the most deranged low-life imaginable would be willing to do this. We could imagine Pilate had got one of his most bloodthirsty soldiers, an “ex-prison guy”, in other way, a madman to do this job.

This is the kind of person that Jesus was in the hands of. And strangely enough, not much is said about it in the Scripture. In John we read that Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. Matthew and Mark simply say: And having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. And yet this one word: scourged, or flogged, indicates the fulfilment of a wonderful prophecy from Isaiah. We read: Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds [or with his stripes] we are healed.

This event teaches us about who we are. It brings us face to face with our sinful nature. Here we see a man laid bare, like Adam and Eve in the garden. Before the fall, there was no shame. But now, Jesus is stripped of his clothes—the purpose of this is to shame him. And in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were clothed with skins. Because of the sin, payment was required, and an animal, maybe a sheep or a leopard or something, lost its life in order to cover them. But here, Jesus’ bare skin is not covered up, but it is removed from him, one stripe at a time. And Jesus reveals to us his true humanity. When Jesus was on the mountain of the Transfiguration, he showed a glimpse of his divinity: the light of his divine nature shines through his face and his clothes and lightens up the night. We learn here that God the Father is his true Father, and that Jesus is his true Son. As John says: We have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father. However, that same skin which glowed with all of God’s power and energy, is now stripped to reveal that he had a human mother, Mary. And he shows to us, by submitting to this tremendous cruelty, that he underneath his skin, like all members of the human race, we have blood and flesh and bones.

The shame of this whole event of Jesus’ scourging is our shame. The innocent Son of God is stripped and tied in place, and subjected to a beefy pagan madman, and in his hand with one of the nastiest known weapons know to the human race. Can we even come to think that this is our human nature? This is our sin being punished.

But also, Jesus does not want us simply to think about this because he wants to shame us: no—he does this because he wants to cover over our sin, and forgive it. We should think about this not about what other people did to Jesus, but what Jesus himself accomplished and achieved. Psalm 32 says: Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Jesus’ nakedness and flesh is uncovered, you are covered by him. St John writes in his first letter: The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. And in Isaiah, we read: Upon him was the chastisement—not for nothing—but that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

So often as a pastor I have heard people say: If you knew what I had done, you wouldn’t be so quick to speak about forgiveness. What I’ve done can’t be forgiven. Yes—you’re right, I might not know what you’ve done. But I know what Jesus has done. And if only these words about Jesus’ suffering and death for you would hook into your mind and skin, your heart your flesh, just as that whip did to Jesus! Hebrews says: The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow. Let it pierce! Let it sink in. You are a beloved, forgiven, child of God. By his wounds, with his stripes, you have been healed.

We come to the next part of our reading:

II.                 Jesus receives a mock-coronation.

In Matthew’s Gospel, we read: Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put scarlet robe on him. Mark calls it a purple cloak.

When we hear in our times about someone wearing a certain colour, we don’t often think very much about it, though we do have some associations. We clothe baby boys in blue and baby girls in blue. We are used to the police and the navy wearing blue, the army wearing brown. Pastors often wear black and white. Brides wear white at their weddings. We might look twice if someone wore a gold or silver suit or a dress.

However, in ancient times, purple was a very expensive colour to wear. Purple dye was made from a particular type of sea-snail, and was hard to come by. Generally, it was royalty then that wore purple. Even today, if you see an official photograph of the Queen with her crown, she would often wear a purple robe. In the New Testament, we read about the businesswoman Lydia who became a Christian. We read: One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshipper of God. When Jesus tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man, we read that the rich man wore purple. This is to say that the man was dressing like a king, when he wasn’t one. Being rich doesn’t make a person royalty. (This would be like if wealthy people like Clive Palmer or Rupert Murdoch started to wear gold crowns!)

Here in our reading, Jesus is clothed in purple. This is a mock coronation. He is given a royal, purple robe, not because they recognise him as a king, but because they are mocking him.

Once again, if we go back to Genesis, we read that God said: Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. God says to his human creatures: have dominion. In order words: live like kings and queens and royalty, ruling the world together with me. But Adam and Eve exchange this royal dignity of having dominion for being the devil’s slaves. They weren’t satisfied with the dignity they had already received from God, and the devil tempted them by saying: You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat it you will be like God! And yet the promise is false.

Now, Jesus, the true King of glory, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, is treated like a pretend king, and is clothed with a purple robe.

The next part of the coronation ceremony is where we read: and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand.

This is a mock version of a real crown, and a real sceptre, usually made out of gold, which were symbols of a king’s authority.

In Genesis we read: When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Can you imagine this picture of a perfect serene created world, with a gentle mist watering everything? But then after the fall into sin, we read where God says to Adam: Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. Here in our reading tonight we see these thorns and thistles return. The thorns are twisted into a terrible crown, and a thistle, or a reed, is put into Jesus hand as a sceptre. The very things which were God’s judgment upon Adam, Jesus now takes upon himself as he takes that same judgement upon himself.

In Psalm 110, we read the wonderful words: The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty sceptre. Rule in the midst of your enemies!

Here in the city of Jerusalem, from Zion, the LORD sends forth his mighty sceptre. Jesus receives a sceptre in his hand—but not a gold one, but an old stick. And yet the words are true: Rule in the midst of your enemies! Jesus is here surrounded by his enemies, and yet he is not being ruled, but he is ruling. We read in Matthew that the soldiers took the reed and struck him on the head. Jesus knows what he is doing—he is suffering all of this to make atonement for the sin of the world.

The next part of the mock coronation happened like this. We read: And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Mark says, they saluted him. Remember here that when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, we read: Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he”. [In Greek, the word are simply I AM, just as when he said to Moses, I AM, when he spoke from the burning bush.] It says: When Jesus said to them, “I AM”, they drew back and fell to the ground.

Do you see here that the immense power of Jesus’ words, and the use of the words, “I AM”, forces the people to the ground—the power is so great, so intense, and so immense. And the same here: when these soldiers are in the presence of Jesus, they can do nothing but kneel and hail and salute him. They do it out of mockery, but we know their actions speak true. This is the very thing that we should also desire when are face to face with Jesus: to kneel before him, to hail him, and to salute him as our king. But not in mockery, and God cannot be mocked. When King David was anointed as a king, God said to Samuel: The LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.

We also read in Philippians: At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Here we see in this mock coronation ceremony, that the soldiers also kneel before God and confess Jesus as king of the Jews. We can see their outward appearance, but God sees the heart.

What also is part of a coronation ceremony? Well—normally if a king or queen is crowned, there would be a great cheer from the crowd. But what do we read? And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. We see here a fulfilment of the prophecy from Isaiah: I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

God would know what these men ate, what they had for breakfast. God would know when they had last brushed their teeth, and he would have seen the gingivitis and the phlegm. In his suffering, Jesus received the filth and the dirt of human spit upon his face. By contrast, after Jesus had risen from the dead, and had destroyed death and conquered death, and had no sign or scrap of death anywhere around him, we read that he breathed on his disciples and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. This breath would have been even fresher than that cool gentle mist over the Garden of Eden. That mist was created by God, but Jesus was God himself.

Just to finish our sermon tonight, we should also remember that at Jesus’ ascension, we see the other side of what happened in our reading tonight. Tonight we read about his mock coronation, but at the ascension we read about his entrance into heaven, where he sits down at the right hand of the throne of God. Instead of the sound of mockery, we read in Psalm 47: God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. In stead of the laughing, the jeering, the fake saluting, we read in the same Psalm: Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne!

Let’s bow the knee before our Saviour and Redeemer and our Sacrificial Lamb, who, as Isaiah said, was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our inquities. Let’s receive him as our Saviour and our king and our Lord, and worship him in spirit and in truth. Let our hearts and our lips speak together, and not in conflict with each other, as Jesus says to the Pharisees: The people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

The famous hymn says:

O sacred head, now wounded / With pain and scorn weighed down / In mockery surrounded / With thorns Thine only crown. / O sacred head, what glory / What bliss, till now, was Thine! / Yet, though despised and gory, / I joy to call Thee mine.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us! Amen.

Mid-week Lent Service II [Matthew 27:15-23] (28-Feb-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 5.30pm.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”

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 our Lent sermon tonight, we’re going to continue from where we left off last week, where we were looking at the event where Jesus goes to Herod.

We read that Herod had mocked Jesus and sent him back to Pilate dressed in a royal robe of some kind. So now that Jesus has been returned to Pilate, this is what we read in Luke 23:

Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of the charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.”

You remember in our readings last week, that Pilate had tried to rid himself of having to deal with Jesus, and so when he had heard that Jesus was from Galilee, he sent him off to Herod. Herod also didn’t know what to do with him, so he sent him back to Pilate.

And Pilate gathers together all the people again. And he says: You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people.

In our passage last week, we read that the chief priests had said: He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place. When they say he was stirring up the people, it didn’t so much mean that he was simply getting them excited—that would have been no crime. When Pilate says that they had brought Jesus to him as one who was misleading the people, he also doesn’t mean that Jesus had simply made some mistakes in his teaching. What he was talking about was that Jesus was being accused of leading the people in a revolution. He was being accused of misleading people or stirring them up against the established order.

But of course, there was no proof that Jesus was doing anything of the sort. Remember though that Jesus says: I am the way, and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except by me. This saying of Jesus is a great comfort to Christians, but to outsiders it is a real stumbling stone. Paganism has always believed that there are multiple roads to God, and that experience is more important than truth. You can have two people who have some kind of religious experience, but say conflicting things. Pagan unbelief says, “Who cares about the conflict? You can’t criticise the experience. That man or woman is a holy man or woman.” This is not what Jesus teaches. He teaches only one way to God, and that is through him.

And so, would it be any surprise to us that those who don’t follow the words of Jesus are going to criticise him for misleading people? When King Ahab saw Elijah, he said: Is it you, you troubler of Israel? And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel but you have.” In the same way we could say about Jesus: It is not Jesus who is misleading people, but everyone else is misleading people.

Back to Pilate – Pilate once again proclaims Jesus’ innocence. He says: After examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.

Even though Jesus is innocent, Pilate says that he will punish him. Here, he means a flogging. It’s as if he is saying: I understand that you want him to stop preaching, but he hasn’t really done anything to deserve death. How about I give him a flogging? Hopefully, I’ll scare him enough that he won’t say anything more.

The punishment is unfair and unjust—it is simply to appease the crowd. However, we need to remember here that Jesus is the lamb of God, and he is carrying the sin of the world. And our sin can’t be dealt with by a simple flogging, and then it’s done. It is worthy of death, just as God said in the Garden of Eden to Adam: If you eat of that tree, you will surely die. Yes, Jesus is innocent, but he is carrying our sin, and he is doing it for us. He is making atonement for us, he is making a sacrifice for us.

Now, we come to the text which we read earlier from Matthew 27. We read: Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. What we are talking about here is an arrangement that the Romans had with the Jewish people to keep them happy, and to give some kind of appearance that they were good and generous rulers. So when it came around that the Jewish people were celebrating the Passover, at they were at this time, the governor would release a prisoner. This did three things: firstly, it gave the people the opportunity to release someone who was unjustly imprisoned, and possibly to right a wrong that had been committed by the Romans; secondly, it gave the Romans a chance to keep the people happy; and thirdly, it made the Romans look good.

Once again, we see how part of the way in which the Romans ruled the people was every now and then to give them what they wanted. So just as Pilate had threated to flog Jesus and release him, to keep the crowd happy, so also we see that there were other customs in place to keep the crowd happy.

We read: And they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. In John’s gospel we read about him: Now Barabbas was a robber. This is true, but he wasn’t a pickpocket. This is a serious robber, like a highway robber, or like an Australian “bushranger”, who would be happy to kill anyone who got in his way. In Mark’s Gospel we read: Among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. Do you hear that? He had committed murder in the insurrection. An insurrection is an uprising, or a rebellion, or the beginnings of a revolution. Luke says that he had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. Luke even gives us the impression that he was one of the people who was instrumental in leading this uprising, and that he was one of the front-runners. After all, Matthew says that he was a notorious prisoner.

And so what do we read that happens? We read in Matthew: So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” We also read: For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.

Here we see that Pilate has a plan. He knows that Jesus is innocent. He doesn’t want to send a man to his death who doesn’t deserve it. And so what is he going to do? Well—he thinks—maybe if I can get them to release Jesus, according to this custom. But here’s the problem: The custom was that there would be released whatever prisoner the crowd wanted, not whom the governor wanted. If a mother tried to pull this trick with their child, and said, “I’ll buy you whatever icecream you choose”, and then the mum tries to wrangle it in such a way that the child should choose her favourite, so that she could also have a lick, the child would smell the rat a mile off. “No, mum—you said I could have whatever icecream I wanted. I don’t want Rum and Raisin. I want to choose the icecream that I want!”

And so this is a similar trick that Pilate is trying to play on the crowd. To release Jesus was his idea, not theirs. And yet, he thought if he gave them a choice between someone they simply didn’t like, and a hardened criminal like Barabbas, they would obviously choose to keep Barabbas in jail. Think about a notorious criminal that we might know—we all know what prisons are like. The worst thing about going to gaol is not simply having your freedom taken away, but being stuck in there with all kinds of bloodthirsty characters. Barabbas is probably someone a bit like Chopper Reid. He thinks, if I gave them a choice between Jesus and Chopper, surely they would want to keep Chopper back in the clink! Surely, people must think: Don’t let Barabbas out! We don’t want him back loose on the streets! Pilate thinks that common decency would prevail. He sensed that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. Hopefully, this choice between Jesus and Barabbas would put them to shame, and they would see just what fools they had been.

At this point, Matthew interrupts all of this “action”, and he tells us about a little event which only he tells. We read: Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.”

Pilate is not only being pulled in all directions by the crowd, but now his wife gets involved. There are many dreams in the bible—we might think particularly of Joseph in the Old Testament with his dreams. But then also there are many dreams in the Gospel of Matthew. When we read about Jesus’ birth, we read about Joseph having many dreams: about taking Mary to be his wife, about fleeing from Bethlehem to Egypt, about coming back from Egypt, and about settling in Nazareth. Also, we read about the Wise Men being warned in a dream not to return to Herod. Here, we have Pilate’s wife suffering much in her dream about Jesus. She wakes up, and is frightened, and warns her husband not to have anything to do with Jesus.

Isn’t it strange that here is a Gentile woman who perceives much more about what is going on than the crowd and the priests? Through this dream, her conscience is pricked, and she realises that there is something big going on here.

Sometimes people make too much a thing about dreams. Pagan people have often looked to dreams as messages from whatever spirits they worship. Sometimes, in the bible, we see God also send people messages in a dream. But we also have to be careful that we don’t look for this, and try and use techniques to play games with our sub-conscious. If we dream, we dream. If we don’t, we don’t. Sometimes a dream brings to mind someone we know—well, we should pray for them. Or maybe a dream makes us worried about something—well, we should pray about it.

In the case of Pilate’s wife, all we read about is that dream terrified her conscience. And she says: Having nothing to do with that righteous man. This is the wrong message. Yes: he is a righteous man. But even though we are unrighteous, this righteous man—who is also the righteous God—wants everything to do with us. The fact that we are ungodly, and Jesus is righteous, the fact that we are sinners and Jesus is perfect, does not mean that we can have nothing to do with him. Rather the opposite—Jesus is laying down his life for you, so that you can be with him, both in this life and in the next. He forgives your sin, so that you can have your whole lives—and the next life—with him.

Now we come back to the crowd. We read: The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” And he said, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified.”

We see here that Pilate’s great plan has back-fired on him. He thought that this would be the opportunity to release Jesus. But instead, they choose to have Barabbas released. Now that his plan hasn’t worked, Pilate is stuck. The very fact that they have called for Barabbas, now gives them the opportunity to call for Jesus’ blood. Pilate is stuck in a corner. He says: What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They say: Let him be crucified. Pilate protests Jesus’ innocence. He says: Why, what evil has he done? But the cat is now out of the bag. The horse has bolted. All the crowd have to do now is keep shouting louder and louder, so that they eventually win. Pilate’s protests are drowned out.

This is often the way it is. Truth can only be attacked with noise, noise, noise. If the truth is inconvenient, all we can do is make sure that the truth is drowned out, and that the falsehood or the error is proclaimed louder and louder. This is why it seems to us so often in the world that unbelievers and those who have false beliefs are more energetic and have more passion and fire in their bellies than believing Christians. But you see, energy and passion and fire is all they have. Jesus doesn’t pray to his Father: Sanctify them with your energy, with your passion, with your fire. Instead he says: Sanctify them with your truth; your word is truth.

So the crowd chooses to have Barabbas released and Jesus crucified. Just as a final thought for our sermon this evening, we see here the corruption of the human will. Because we are sinful, fallen human beings, every part of us is corrupt. Our bodies age and get diseased. Our hearts are full of all kinds of evil thoughts. Genesis says: The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This includes our will. Our sin always wants to hide itself and protect itself—it never wants to be exposed. And so our hearts do not choose forgiveness. It is Jesus who chooses us.

Some Christians make a mistake in this regard. They think that Christian conversion is about choosing to follow Jesus, or making a decision to follow Jesus. But this isn’t the case. Jesus is the one who has made a decision from the foundation of the world to have you as his follower. He has called you through his word and Holy Baptism. Jesus said to his disciples not long before he was arrested on the night when he was betrayed: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.

Jesus has died for the sins of the whole world. That means he has died for your sin. He has called you through his word, and he has baptised you, and he constantly gives you the opportunity to hear his word of forgiveness spoken to you by your pastor in the church. This is what you should put your trust in, because this is Jesus’ words. Don’t put your trust in your decisions, and in your will—the human will is corrupt. In our reading tonight, the crowd freely chose to release a criminal and to crucify its Saviour. That’s what human will does.

However, once we have been converted, then Jesus sends us his Holy Spirit to change and shape our will, so that we choose things which are pleasing to him. This is something that is only begun in this life, though. Even as a Christian we will find ourselves doing things that we wish we hadn’t done, and things that we don’t want to do. St Paul says: I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Jesus here in our reading shows us what our hearts and our wills really are. Our sinful flesh, and our sinful hearts, want to see Jesus out of the picture. Like Pilate’s wife, our sinful hearts and our dreams want to have nothing to do with this righteous man. When Peter’s boat was breaking from all the fish Jesus had allowed him to catch, he said: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

Jesus was crucified because people just you and me wanted him crucified. And now he says to us: I know that wanted me dead. I know that like my disciples you would rather run away. But I have died for your will. I have died not because the world wanted it, but because you need it. And so, now, do not be afraid. What is more important is not want you want, but what God wants. We read in Isaiah 53: It was the will of God to crush him. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said: Father, if it be possible, let this cup be taken away from me. Yet, not my will, but your will be done.

Thank you, Jesus, for your perfect will, for submitting to your Father’s will, and even letting yourself be submitted to the will of the crowd, so that you could go to the cross to purchase and win me and all believers. Teach me your will, O Lord! Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world—Have mercy on us! Amen. 

Mid-week Lent Service I [Luke 23:5-12] (21-Feb-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 5.30pm.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Herod with his soldiers treated [Jesus] with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate.

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 our mid-week series this year, we are going to be looking at those things which happened to Jesus just before he was crucified. Tonight we’re going to be looking at the event where Jesus was sent to Herod. Next week, we’re going to be looking at the event where Pilate offers Jesus’ freedom to the crowd, alongside a notorious criminal called Barabbas. Over the last three weeks, we will be reading about Jesus being scourged, and sentenced, and then led on his way to the cross.

So let’s look at our text for tonight.

So far in the history of Jesus’ suffering and death, Jesus has been arrested and he has been interrogated by the High Priests, Annas and Caiaphas, and now he has been brought before Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman governor. Judea, at that time, had been conquered by the Romans, and one of the ways in which Romans exercised control over people was to take away the people’s right to sentence a person to death. So if the Jewish people wanted to sentence Jesus, they had to bring him to Pilate—and this is what had happened.

Pilate by this stage found himself in a very awkward position, because he had questioned Jesus, and couldn’t find a reason for sentencing him to death. On the one hand, the Jewish priests and the crowd were adamant that Jesus was a criminal, but Pilate couldn’t work it out. On one hand, he was under tremendous pressure from the Jewish leaders and the crowd, but also the case wasn’t clear to him either.

This is where we’re up to in the historical order of things. So tonight we’re going to look at our text in four different parts:

I.                   Why did Jesus end up being sent to Herod?

II.                 Who is this Herod, and why was he in Jerusalem?

III.              How did Herod treat Jesus?

IV.              What came about as a result of this event?

So may the Holy Spirit enlighten us this evening as we listen to his word. Amen.

I. Why did Jesus end up being sent to Herod?

Just before our reading begins in Luke 23:5, we read at the beginning of our chapter where Pilate had been talking to Jesus, and then went out to the crowds, and said: I find no guilt in this man. Now for the Jewish priests and the crowds, this was a real blow to their cause. They were dead set on making sure that Jesus was sentenced to death. They had carefully planned it—they had paid Judas to betray him, they had arrested him, they had questioned him, and they weren’t about to be made fools of now—there was no turning back. Could you imagine what they must have thought when Pilate comes out and declares Jesus to be innocent? They must have been furious!

So they brought something more for Pilate to consider. We read: But they were urgent, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.”

What do they mean by this? What wrong are they accusing Jesus of now? They said: He stirs up the people. Obviously, we see that these people here themselves are stirred up! But this is not really what they meant! They are accusing Jesus of creating unrest, of causing a revolution. We see in the Gospels many times where Jesus simply teaches people the word of God, calls them to repentance, and where he goes around and heals people and comforts them. How did the priests say that Jesus was stirring people up? Simply by teaching! Now funnily enough, on the face of it, you wouldn’t necessarily expect this kind of thing to stir people up, but in fact it does. You might remember how Jesus went to Nazareth, and the people tried to push him off a cliff. And then you probably remember how John the Baptist, when he went around preaching, was locked up and finally beheaded. People were stirred up! But then if you read the Book of Acts, we read about the apostles going out everywhere, and people were sometimes very much stirred up, even to the point of rioting! When Paul and Silas were in Thessalonica, they were accused of turning the world upside down. And even Paul says about himself: Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned…

Now what do we make of all this? Because every culture and every people and every society and every family and even every individual is completely corrupted by sin, the call to repentance and the gift of the forgiveness of sins really do turn the world upside down, because these things are from God himself. So many people who are converted to Christianity later in life often find themselves thinking that their whole lives have been turned upside down.

Now one thing that the Jewish priests mentioned is not just the fact that Jesus was stirring people up, but that he was teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place. All of a sudden, Pilate’s ears prick up and he says to himself: Galilee, you say?

We read: When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. Why did he ask this question, do you think? Because there was a Roman law that said that if you were on trial you had to be tried by the person in charge of your own province. So if Jesus was from Galilee, then Pilate would be off the hook. He would simply send him off to the tetrarch of Galilee.

So we read: And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.

And Pilate must have thought: Boy, that’s a load off my mind! It saves him making a decision. He passes the buck down the line. He tries to shrug off his responsibilities and actually making a statement under a pretext. “It’s not my department!”, he says. So often when it comes to us thinking about hard questions for our life and for our faith, we often pass the buck and take the easy way out, to avoid having to take a stand. It’s easy to put on a show—but it’s not easy when we find that we have to take a stand. But even in the face of all this human weakness, Jesus knows exactly what he is doing, and he stands firm for us. He is passed around, fobbed off, but he is standing still. The world may carry on and swirl and twirl around Jesus, but Jesus—our Saviour—stands still and he holds his ground. And thank God that he does, because he is the solid rock on which our faith is built.

This now brings us to our second question:

II. Who is Herod, and why was he in Jerusalem?

When we read about the birth Jesus we come across a King Herod, who was also known as Herod the Great. He was the one who tried to trick the wise men from the east into telling him where the baby Jesus was, and pretended to them that he wanted to come and worship him too. Also, in his rage, he killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem, to make sure that Jesus was wiped out.

The Herod in our reading today is actually King Herod’s son, also known as Herod Antipas. Herod’s family is also descended from the Edomites, who are the descendants of Esau. You might remember all the way back to the book of Genesis, where Jacob tricks his twin brother Esau. Esau first of all sells his birthright for a bowl of soup, and then Jacob pretends to be Esau before his blind father Isaac, and takes away his blessing. Isaac then says to Esau: Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck. Right from this time, there is a conflict between the tribe of Jacob, the tribe of Israel, and also the tribe of Esau. We read in Genesis 27: Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. In some sense, this hatred continues to rise and flare up all throughout history, and this is what happens in our reading today, when Jesus is brought before Herod. Jesus is from the tribe of Jacob, and Herod is from the tribe of Esau.

We also know something about this Herod in our reading from the time when he had had John the Baptist beheaded, because he had made a silly promise to his daughter in the presence of his guests at his birthday party.

Now the reason why Herod was in Jerusalem was because it was common for people from all over the place to come to Jerusalem for the Passover. It is probably the case that this is also the reason why Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at this time.

This now brings us to our next topic:

III. How does Herod treat Jesus?

This is what we read about what happened to Jesus, when he was in Herod’s house: When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him. Herod is a strange, twisted man. He’s a man who likes a show, he likes a display, but when his conscience gets in the way then he swats it like a fly. For example, it says that Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And yet, when he promises up to half of [his] kingdom to Herodias’s daughter, we read the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. Hmm! -- You wouldn’t want to break your word to a spoilt teenager when she oversteps the line, but beheading a prophet, that’s OK! This is Herod.

Also, we read that when Herod heard about what Jesus was doing, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised. Herod had thought that Jesus was John the Baptist come back from the dead. What a bad conscience he must have had! He knew he had killed a holy man, and so he thinks that Jesus must be John come back from the dead to wreak some revenge on him.

And yet, when Jesus is brought before him, we read: He was very glad. Actually, Herod had liked John too. We read: When [Herod] heard [John], he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. On one hand, he knew John was right, but he wasn’t prepared to break up his unlawful marriage to his brother’s wife, Herodias. He was afraid of the consequences.

It says that Herod had long desired to see Jesus, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. Jesus had performed many signs: He had healed the blind, made the deaf hear, made the mute speak, made the lame to walk and had raised the dead. But those things weren’t simply things to show off, but Jesus had compassion on those people themselves and wanted to comfort them and heal them and send them away rejoicing. What about Herod? Well, he wanted to turn everything into a magic trick show. Did he want Jesus to turn some water into wine for him? Did he bring in a leper which he had prepared earlier, and get Jesus to whip up some soft smooth baby skin for him?

So you see how twisted this is? Jesus isn’t a circus clown. He isn’t in the entertainment industry. This is also how the devil tempts Jesus in the wilderness. He says to him: If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. What’s the point of that? The same goes with Herod. It’s almost as if he says: Now that you’re here, Jesus, if you’re the Son of God, can you do a back-flip off my garbage-bin?

It all sounds so ridiculous when put like this, but many of us are not far from treating Jesus like this ourselves. For example, how many people go for years and years without prayer, or pray in a sanctimonious kind of way, but then one day something happens and they go to Jesus and say, “Are you really there? If you are there, can you do a back-flip for me?” And boy, do we get angry when Jesus doesn’t perform the miracle that we wanted. Jesus knows what we need even before we ask him.

Or what about church? Why do we come? Do we treat Jesus like a performing seal at Sea-World, doing clever tricks? Do we come to church expecting entertainment, and a Sunday morning thrill? Do we come expecting an emotional high, a spiritual rush, a mountain-top faith experience? All of this closes our ears to the word of God, and to the wonderful truths that Jesus wants to speak to us, and that he wants us to learn. He is not here to perform for us; he is here to save us, and to forgive us, and finally, after this life, to rescue us from this sinful life and take us to live with himself forever.

Do you see now what happens with Herod? So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him.

Jesus is innocent. He has nothing to answer. And he will not throw his pearls to the swine. He will not give what is holy to the dogs. His shame is our shame—he takes it upon himself and he dies for it.

We see then the Herod goes a step further. When he doesn’t get the sign that he wants, he turns nasty. He calls in his soldiers—he bolsters his weakness with some strong men, against a man who has already been beaten and blindfolded. We read: Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate.

Here’s the amazing thing… what Herod does to Jesus is done out of mockery and contempt: he clothes his in one of his royal robes. And yet what he doesn’t recognise is that the man who stands before him really is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. This Jesus really is the king of glory. The intent is wrong, the action is true. He really is a king, and though they don’t recognise it, the angels do. Herod and the soldiers mock, the angels bow in adoration. Herod is playing dress-ups, but Jesus is for real.

Jesus wears our sin, our guilt and our shame. He takes it on himself. Jesus stands before God in his suffering and death wearing the garment of our sin. And all this he does so that when we stand before God, we stand before him wearing the garment of his righteousness, given to us in Holy Baptism. He covers us completely over. We read in Psalm 32: Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Isaiah 61:10 says: He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. What a wonderful thing this is that Jesus does for us!

This brings us to our last question:

IV.  What came about as a result of this event?

We read in verse 12 of this chapter: And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been an enmity with each other.

In Psalm 2, we read some very well-known words: Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed.

Here we see the governor, Pilate, and the tetrarch, Herod, and the chief priests all working together against Jesus. Even Pilate and Herod become friends as a result! In Acts 4, we read about when the first Christians prayed together about this very fact: For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

But also, we learn from this that the purpose of Christianity is not simply to make friends. Other people know how to make friends too. Other people can reconcile with one other and it doesn’t make them Christians. There are many people who unite together against Christ. It’s amazing how opposition to Jesus can draw all kinds of unlikely people together.

But in the church, we are drawn together around Jesus and his word. And this is the thing that draws us together—the friendships that we develop in the church come from this. We also need to be careful that we don’t make friendships—even in the church!—in opposition to God’s word and against Jesus.

So as we consider all these things tonight in our reading, let’s look to Jesus, who is the Lamb of God who remained silent, like a lamb before its shearers. Let’s thank him for his wonderful patience as he bore the weight of the world’s sin and our sin. Let’s thank him for having freely taken on the garment of our shame, and for giving us the robe of his righteousness, the gift of baptism and faith. And no matter how many friendships the world may make with each other, let us ask Jesus to draw us ever closer into friendship with him, as he teaches us, just as he did so long ago throughout all Judea, from Galilee and even to this place here today.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world—have mercy on us! Amen.