Our Bible reading today picks up where we left
off last week. Jesus has been arrested, he’s been questioned by the high
priest, and now he’s been brought to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
Pilate thought he’d gotten rid of this problem of Jesus by sending him to
Herod, but Herod sent Jesus right back. So now, Pilate has no choice but
to deal with him.
Pilate tells the people there’s no basis for the charges
against Jesus. He says he’s going to release Jesus. Three times he
says that. And each time, all the people say no. They don’t want
Jesus released. They want him crucified. They want him killed.
So Pilate, who really does not care about Jesus one way or another and
just wants to keep the peace, agrees. Jesus is led away to be crucified.
This whole crowd of people wanted Jesus killed.
Listen again to how Luke says it: “With one voice they cried out,
‘Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!’” “They kept shouting,
‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’” “With loud shouts they insistently
demanded that he be crucified.”
I wonder if that’s really the way it was. I mean, I’m
not questioning the accuracy of the Bible or anything. I’m just thinking
about it. We’re not told how big the crowd was. It’s described as
“the chief priests, the rulers, and the people.” Maybe it was a hundred,
maybe it was a thousand, maybe more, we don’t know. But out of all these
people, was there not one who disagreed? Was there not one who thought,
“Wait a minute. Does this man, this Jesus, really deserve to die?”
Was there not one person there who thought, “Maybe Pilate’s right.
Maybe we should think about this a little more”? Is it literally
true that every person there was shouting for Jesus to be crucified?
It may be. Remember when we talked about Jesus’ entry
into Jerusalem on what we now call Palm Sunday? We talked about how a lot
of people there probably did not believe in Jesus. They just got caught
up in the emotion of it. That may well have happened here, too.
People who did not know who Jesus was might have been there demanding his
death. People who had heard Jesus and had questions might have been there
demanding his death. In fact, some of the same people who, not very many
days before had been shouting “Hosanna” and waving palm branches might have
been there demanding Jesus’ death.
It’s easy to get caught up in the emotion of a situation.
Most of us have probably had it happen at one time or another. But
there’s another thing going on here, too. There may very well have been
people who did think Jesus should not be killed, but who simply did not have
the courage to say so. They may have, privately, been on Jesus’ side, but
simply have been afraid of what might happen to them if they spoke up about it.
What do those two things have in common? Peer
pressure. Going along with the crowd. Not wanting to rock the boat.
Doing what everyone else does. Thinking the way everyone else
thinks. Believing what everyone else believes. Living the way
everyone else lives. Wanting to fit in. Wanting to be popular.
Not wanting to be different, not wanting to be the oddball. Wanting
to be part of the crowd.
We talk about peer pressure in regard to young people a
lot, but it’s not just young people who feel it. I think every person
here probably feels peer pressure at one time or another. We might not
realize it, we might not think about it that way, but we do. In fact, one
reason we don’t realize it or think about it that way is that we’ve done it for
so long we no longer realize we’re doing it. We think we’re making
independent decisions, entirely on our own, when in fact we’re just doing
things the way everyone does them and thinking about things the way everyone
else thinks about them.
But here’s the thing. As Christians, fitting in
should be the last thing we think about. It should not matter to us
whether we think or believe or live the way other people do. What should
matter to us is whether we think or believe or live the way God wants us to.
Our goal as Christians is not fit into the world. Our goal as
Christians is to change the world.
That was Jesus’ goal too, of course. Jesus could’ve
saved himself a lot of trouble if he’d been willing to go along, to fit in.
If Jesus had just gone along with what the high priests and elders
wanted, he would not have been killed. In fact, I think that even at the
point of our reading for today that option was still open to Jesus. If
Jesus had apologized, if he’d said that the chief priests were right and he was
wrong, he’d probably have saved his life. He might’ve even gotten praise
from the chief priests as a sinner who’d seen the light. Things would’ve
been so much easier for Jesus if he’d just tried to fit in. Just as, many
times, it seems like things are easier for us if we just try to fit in.
But Jesus was not sent to Earth to fit in. Jesus was
sent to Earth to change the world. And you and I, as Christians, were not
put here fit in, either. You and I were put here to change the world,
too.
Now that sounds like a pretty lofty goal. In fact, it
probably does not sound very realistic. You and I are just ordinary
people. We’re out here living in a small town in a state that most people
consider the middle of nowhere. How in the world are you and I supposed
to change the world? It sounds ridiculous.
But it’s not. For one thing, Jesus was just a guy
from a small town in the middle of nowhere, too. Remember in John Chapter
One, when Jesus is gathering his first disciples? Jesus calls Philip, and
Philip goes and tells his friend Nathanael about how they’ve found the Messiah,
and it’s Jesus of Nazareth. Nathanael says, “Nazareth! Can anything
good come from there?” Nazareth was considered nowhere. Nobody
worth knowing could come from there. But Jesus did, and he changed the
world.
But we think, sure, but Jesus was the divine Son of God.
I’m not the divine Son of God. I’m not the divine anything.
How am I supposed to change the world?
But we can. And we do. You and I change the
world every day, in a hundred ways, large and small. Because every action
we take is seen by someone. Every word we say is noticed by someone.
You and I have influence over more people than we will ever know.
That influence changes the world, every day. The question is
whether we’ll have the courage to not fit in. The question is whether
we’ll have the courage to change the world in a way that brings people to Jesus
Christ.
When you decided to come to church today, rather than
staying home or going someone else, someone saw that. Maybe it was your
kids or your grandkids. Maybe it was your neighbor. Maybe it was
somebody driving by who saw you pull up to the church or walk in the door.
But somebody noticed. And them noticing that changed the world.
Maybe just a little bit, maybe not even enough to be noticeable.
But it still changed the world to some small extent.
Everything we do is noticed by someone. When the
cashier at the convenience store gives us too much change, how we react to that
will change the world. When we’re talking to someone and they criticize
someone else, how we react to that will change the world. When someone
wants us to do something we know is wrong, but we know will be popular, how we
react to that will change the world. When we do something we know is
right and we get criticized for it, how we react to that will change the world.
And when we have the chance to spread the gospel of Jesus
Christ, how we react to that will change the world. And when we have the
chance to show God’s love to people, how we react to that will change the
world. It won’t change the whole world all at once, but it will change
some part of it. It will change the world for at least one person.
And that one person will change the world for someone else, who’ll change
the world for someone else, and on and on it goes. And when enough of
these changes happen, the whole world will be changed.
If Pontius Pilate would have had the courage to stand up to
the crowd, he might have changed the world. If someone, even just one
person, in the crowd shouting “crucify” would have had the courage to stand up
and say no, that person might have changed the world. But none of them
did. And the thing is that by not having that courage, they still changed
the world. They just did not realize it.
You and I claim to be Christians. The way we live out
our Christian faith will change the world. We will either change the
world by going along with the crowd, or we’ll change the world by loving our
neighbor and making disciples of Jesus Christ.
Which way will we choose?
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