In our Wednesday Lent services,
we looked all the times Jesus made a conscious decision to allow himself to be
killed. There were all kinds of things
he could’ve done to avoid it. There were
any number of ways he could’ve done things differently.
He could’ve just simply used his divine power, of
course. But there were lots of other
ways. He could’ve given in to the devil
when he was being tempted in the wilderness.
He could’ve not done some of the things that made the authorities mad at
him, like healing on the Sabbath. He
could’ve gone along with the way things were, made compromises, not argued so
much with the people who were opposed to him.
Jesus could’ve stopped Judas from betraying him. He could’ve raised an army to fight the
soldiers who came to arrest him. When he
was on trial by the religious authorities, he could’ve denied being the Messiah
at all.
Jesus could’ve
done any one of these things to avoid being hung on a cross to die. But he did not. At each step along the way, Jesus made the
conscious choice to do what God the Father wanted him to do. Every time, really every day of his life once
he started his ministry, Jesus made the conscious decision that he was going to
go through with it. He was going to go
to the cross to die, taking the punishment for our sins so that we would not
have to suffer it for ourselves.
Tonight we
look at one more chance Jesus had. This
is after the Lord’s Supper that we read earlier. This is after Jesus was arrested. This is after his trial in front of the
religious leaders. He’s now been taken
to Pilate.
Pilate was the
head of the Roman government in Jerusalem.
He was not Jewish. From what I’ve
read, he really had no interest in what the Jews did. He did not care, and he had no real reason to
care. He was there to represent Rome,
not to get involved in religion. As the
Roman governor, he basically had two concerns.
One was to make sure the taxes got paid to Rome, and the other was to
keep order. And that was true for
everybody, Jews and non-Jews. As far as
Pilate was concerned, people could do anything they wanted as long as they paid
their taxes and did not cause any trouble.
And then, the
Jewish authorities bring Jesus to him.
We don’t know how much Pilate knew about Jesus. Chances are he’d have heard something—after
all, this is after the triumphant entry into Jerusalem and after overturning
the tables in the temple and all that.
Most likely Pilate heard a little bit about that. But again, he really did not care. What was it to him if the people of Jerusalem
wanted to have a parade for some Jewish guy?
What was it to him if someone overturned some tables in the temple? Were they still paying their taxes? Yes.
We’re they threatening the Roman authorities? No. So
Pilate figured this was no business of his.
Let the Jews sort it out for themselves.
But then the
Jewish leaders come along and tell him it is his business. They accuse Jesus of blasphemy, but Pilate
has no interest in that. He does not
believe in the Jewish God anyway. But
then they tell Pilate that Jesus is calling himself a king. Pilate has to take notice of that. He does not need someone to start a
revolution on his watch. Even if it
fails, it’ll cause him all kinds of trouble.
But when we
read the story, it’s pretty clear that Pilate does not see Jesus as any kind of
a threat. We’re not told why not, but
Pilate has no interest in sentencing Jesus to death. He knows Jesus is not going to overthrow the
Roman government. He’s looking for a
reason, he’s looking for an excuse, he’s looking for anything he can find that
will lead to letting Jesus go.
But Jesus
won’t give him anything. The chief
priests and the elders make all sorts of accusations against him, and Jesus
says nothing. Not a word. Now, remember, this is in the ancient Roman
legal system. There was no “you have the
right to remain silent”. There was no
“innocent until proven guilty”. The
presumption was that they would not have arrested you if you were not guilty,
so it was up to you to prove that you were innocent.
And Jesus
would not do it. He would not say a word
in his defense. You get the impression
that if Jesus had given Pilate anything—anything at all, any kind of reason why
he was not guilty—Pilate would’ve let Jesus go.
But Jesus would not do it. He
stayed silent.
This was not
like when Jesus was brought before the religious leaders. There, Jesus would’ve had to lie, would’ve
had to deny being the Messiah, for them to let him go, and even then we don’t
know whether they’d have done it. Here,
all Jesus would’ve had to do was explain things to Pilate. All he’d have had to do is explain that he
was not going to try to overthrow the Roman government, that he was not
interested in an earthly kingdom at all.
All he’d have had to do is explain that he was no more interested in
Roman politics that Pilate was in Jewish matters.
And the thing
is, it appears that would all have been true.
As far as we know, Jesus never did anything to try to overthrow the
Roman government or start an earthly kingdom.
In fact, it appears that a lot of people wanted him to do that and he
refused. As far as we know, Jesus never
showed any interested in Roman politics whatsoever. In fact, he pretty much said that people
should pay taxes to Rome. “Give to
Caesar that which is Caesar’s” and all that.
Jesus would
not have had to lie. All he’d have had
to do is tell the truth. And he
refused. Why?
The answer is
the same as it was every time Jesus had a chance to avoid the cross. Jesus knew that going to the cross was what
he had been sent here to do. One of the
reasons he had come to earth—the most important reason he had come to earth—was
to be killed, to take the punishment for our sins, so that we would not have
to. The Jewish authorities did not have
the right, under Roman law, to sentence someone to death. Only the Roman governor could do that. So, Jesus knew that meant Pilate had to
sentence him to die.
Jesus did this
because he knew it was what he was supposed to do. But he did not have to. Being fully human as well as fully divine, I
have to think Jesus could’ve chosen not to go through with this. And at least a part of him did not want
to—that’s why he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane for God to do this some
other way if that was possible. And yet,
Jesus did go through with it. Why?
Well, think of
times you’ve had to make hard decisions.
You know what you should do. You
know what you’re supposed to do. But you
don’t have to. And a part of you really
does not want to. But you do it
anyway. Why?
You do it out
of love. You do it out of love for God
and you do it out of love for whoever the people are who are involved. And that’s why Jesus did it, too. It’s that whole “love God and love your neighbor”
thing that Jesus talked about. But Jesus
did more than talk about it. Jesus lived
it. And he died it. Jesus chose to die out of love for God the
Father and out of love for us. It’s an
amazing, incredible, awesome love.
But that’s
what love is, right? It’s part of what
love is, anyway. Doing things that we
really wish we did not have to do, but doing them anyway, because we love the
people involved. Love is putting other
people’s wants and other people’s needs and other people’s desires above our
own.
That’s what we
do when we love someone. It’s what we do
when we love God, too. We put God’s
desires above our own. We do what God
wants us to do, even when sometimes we really wish we did not have to. But we don’t do it because we’re forced to. We don’t do it grudgingly. We do it willingly, out of love.
That’s why Jesus did it, too. Out of love.
He may have wished he did not have to.
But he was not forced to do it.
And he did not do it grudgingly.
Jesus gave up his life on earth for us willingly. He gave up his life on earth for us out of
love. It was all out of love.
On this Maundy Thursday, may the love Jesus showed to God
the Father and to us inspire us to love God and love others the way Jesus told
us to.
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