Opening Prayer
This is the day when life is raw,
quivering, terrifying:
The day of numbed emotions,
the day of blunt nails
and splintered wood,
of bruised flesh
and red blood.
The day we loathe,
when hopes are crushed.
The day we long for,
when pretences fall away—
Because the worst that we can do
cannot kill the love of God.
Gracious God,
your love is a light in our darkness,
vulnerable, yet unquenchable.
We would stand with Christ,
in the midst of the horrors of this world
where betrayal and death
constantly threaten your love and peace.
©1996 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Song: Here is love vast as an ocean MP 987 (3:49)
Bible Reading – Matthew 27:1-31
True of False?
Last Sunday, as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, people asked, “Who is he?” When he came face to face with Jesus, Pilate asked the same question and added the corollary.
Pilate’s questions are ones that we all must answer.
Who is this Jesus who is called the Messiah?
What shall I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?
Confusion reigns over what is true and what is not. The passage is full of irony. Who got it right?
Can’t be Judas. He realized that he got it wrong, that he’d made a mistake. He regretted what he had done and wished he could have his time over, but there was no real change of heart. Judas knew that Christ was innocent, that there was no flaw in Jesus’ character. Did he think that by putting the money into the temple treasury he could pay for his sin? He confessed to the Priests but not to God. It was his problem and it remained his problem. Then he committed suicide instead of seeking God’s forgiveness. He regretted, but he did not repent. Christ’s forgiveness covered this sin, too, but unfortunately Judas didn’t stay to hear it.
The chief priests and leaders showed amazing religious sensitivity when they couldn’t put blood money into the temple treasury. (I wonder where the money had come from in the first place. It was quite a large sum because it was enough to buy a field.) Their sensitivity is completely misplaced – they justified their own murderous intentions yet couldn’t give the money to the church. Salve for guilty conscience?
The leaders of God’s people are required to show justice, mercy and humility. No justice for Jesus; no mercy for Jesus or Judas; and no humility at all from these leaders. These leaders of God’s people failed to reflect in their lives the character of God. They were willfully blind to the truth and were actively involved in leading others their way. The challenges are there for us, to show the character of God and to lead others to the truth.
The Roman governor had to ratify the death sentence; were the chief priests and leaders trying to pass on the guilt to him – to avoid responsibility themselves by having Pilate sentence Jesus to death? This was a tension between them and this possibly relates to Pilate’s washing his hands (see Deut.21:6-9). Did Pilate think he could wash away his guilt? Only Jesus’ blood could do that.
Pilate did no better. His question “Are you the king of the Jews?“ meant “Are you a leader of the resistance?” Jesus left him to make up his own mind. But he didn’t: he let others make it for him. In the end Pilate swapped one who was not a leader of the resistance for one who was. Pilate refused to do with Jesus what he knew to be right. This occurs with frustrating frequency as people grapple with the question, what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?
Pilate’s Wife‘s troubled dream left her convinced that Jesus should be set free. She didn’t know enough about Jesus to follow him. She only knew that he couldn’t be an enemy. She needed more information, but she was nearer the truth than her husband was.
Jesus Barabbas was a well-know terrorist, quite possibly held in high regard by the more rebellious Jews. What a brilliant opportunity to get him released. Pilate seems to have suggested Barabbas. Was it because he thought Barabbas the terrorist would be the last person the leaders would want freed? Surely they would choose the relatively harmless Jesus. Or was it the similarity of the name Jesus that brought him to mind?
’Barabbas’ means ’son of the father’. The irony of this name is that Jesus is the true Son of the true Father. The people substituted the false son for the true Son. ‘Jesus’ means ’saviour’. At least some of the people sought salvation from Jesus Barabbas, a military salvation. True salvation is of a different kind.
The chief priests and the leaders and the people all said they would take responsibility for the death of the true Son. What a mistake. Crucifixion means ’cursed by God’. The perpetrators wanted God to ratify their evil, to confirm their opinion of Jesus by cursing him. God did curse Jesus, not to confirm their action. but so that they could be forgiven for it.
The soldiers treated the true king as a false one. Their way was that of mockery. They pretended: the pretend royal robe (scarlet – the Emperor wore purple), the pretended laurel wreath (made of thorns), the pretended royal sceptre (some random stick), the derisive royal greeting. Thorns have been associated with sin ever since Genesis chapter 3 (v18) when the land was cursed so that it brought forth thorns and thistles because humans sinned. This symbol of the curse was put on Jesus’ head. In the whole of this picture it would be hard to get a stronger contrast between human sin and divine grace.
Jesus said nothing in the face of all this falsehood. The rule of Roman law was that those who did not defend themselves were given three opportunities to change their minds before sentence was given against them. Jesus had finished his teaching. It was not that he had nothing to say, but that they had no intention of listening and he had no intention of changing the course of events. Only in this way would he become the saviour of the world’s people.
Song: It’s your blood MP 351 (3:21)
What shall I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?
This is a question we all have to answer and people still deal falsely with Jesus.
There are the Judases – those who betray him by pretending to follow while living for themselves. When their falsehood shows up people say to them. “I thought you were a Christian.” And they use them as their excuse to avoid facing the truth, saying “If that’s what Christians are like I don’t want to know.”
Then there are the chief priest types who from a position of influence keep all kinds of religious rules, but do not show the character of God. They are wilfully blind to the truth and are actively involved in leading others astray.
Then there are the Pilates who know what is right but allow themselves to be pushed around and fail to do what is right.
Then there are the people who would rather have their false notions than the truth. “All truth is relative and I’ll make up my own mind.” they say, and, “My opinion is as true as yours.” We are surrounded by such people in this country today.
And Jesus doesn’t argue with them, he doesn’t say much; he did it! He nailed the truth to the cross. This is the answer, the only answer, to human sin. All who find truth find it here, and participate in his death. We are as nailed to that truth as he was to the cross. and having received him as Saviour and Lord we must renew that commitment every day. Make it always true by ensuring that no falsehood take the place of the truth in our lives.
Let us consider: is there falsehood taking Christ’s place in my life?
When Jesus is ’on trial’ in the society I mix with, am I fearful or do I show my ignorance of Him, or shrink from opposition to him?
Or do I openly acknowledge him as my Saviour and Lord? And the true Saviour and Lord of all people?
God shows how much he loves us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1 John 3:16
Closing Prayer
God, why did you let this happen,
why do our greatest hopes seem to flicker out and die?
We search for meaning in life and before we find it, it is gone.
We search for meaning in death
but its horrible reality drives us back and we are afraid to look.
God, we shudder at the way this life ended:
surrounded by cold brutality, rejected and betrayed by a friend,
deprived of justice, and loved by only a frightened few who watched in fear.
Inside we are afraid that this is all there is,
a flickering light snuffed out, no meaning, no future, no love.
Evil triumphs yet again.
Evil triumphs so often.
Yours was one of thousands of deaths.
From those times to now thousands die in loneliness and fear,
victims of the cruelty and oppression of this world.
Remind us with every death, that there is still so much to be done,
before love reigns and fear is driven away.
Jesus’ body was hastily buried.
Like once again we don’t want to face up to what we have done.
We quickly seek to clean up the mess,
to hide the evidence,
to get life normal again.
We want it finished and the body put out of sight.
And yet that broken body, if we would only face it,
is the evidence of the love we crave
and the source of the healing we cry for.
Give us courage to see beyond the blood and the horror.
Give us the hope that in this death we may find our own life.
©1996 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Song: How deep the Father’s love for us (3:32) MP 988