200410 Good Friday Order of Service (bulletin)
Sermon Manuscript:
I’d like to speak with you tonight about the events leading
up to the crucifixion during Holy Week. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. 500
years before Holy Week the prophet Zechariah said, “Rejoice greatly,
daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! Look! Your King is coming to
you. He is righteous and brings salvation. He is humble and is riding on a
donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey.” We heard this prophesy being
fulfilled on Palm Sunday. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey the people
were shouting and rejoicing. They said, “Hosanna,” which means, “please,
save us.” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of
Israel.”
This did not make everyone in Jerusalem happy, though. Most
of the church officials in Jerusalem thought that Jesus was a false teacher—a
Sabbath breaker. “How could someone who heals on the Sabbath be anything but
evil?” they wondered. Since they were so certain that Jesus was no good, it was
extremely galling to them that he was so popular. The stupid people who hadn’t
read the right books were latching on to Jesus and asking him to save them.
They were calling him “the anointed,” or “the Christ.” They were calling him
the King.
This was troubling to the Jewish authorities. The Romans
were the occupying power over the Jews at that time. If they heard about this
king idea, then there was going to be trouble. The church officials always had
to walk a fine line. They had to be subservient to the Romans on the one hand,
but appear independent and orthodox to the Jewish faithful on the other. If the
people go after Jesus as the king, then this throws their whole
well-choreographed scheme into chaos. Who knows what might happen? But it
probably wouldn’t be good for them. They had to neutralize Jesus as the rising
leader of the Jewish people.
This is what they try to do. The first couple days after
Palm Sunday they send their best debaters after Jesus. They ask him tough
question after tough question. They tried to trap Jesus into saying something
wrong. This doesn’t work. Instead of Jesus looking like a fool, they were
looking like fools. It got to the point where they didn’t dare ask him any more
questions.
I think Jesus’s disciples thought that this was great fun.
It’s always good to be a part of the winning team, and Jesus was winning. It’s
also nice to be part of the inner circle of somebody who is powerful, and, to
be sure, Jesus’s star was rising.
But Jesus’s mindset was different than his disciples. While
his disciples are thinking about kingdom building and greatness, Jesus has his
eye toward the end of the world. It is during the first part of this Holy Week
that we get Jesus’s great teachings about the end of the world. At the end of
the Church Year, when we consider the prophesies about the end of the world,
our Gospel readings come from what Jesus says on Holy Week.
The fact that Jesus and his disciples are not on the same
page explains several things that happen. It explains why the disciples were
arguing among themselves over who among them was the greatest when Jesus
instituted the Lord’s Supper. It explains why Peter took out his sword and was
prepared to fight when Jesus was arrested. Instead of praising Peter for this
bold act Jesus told Peter to knock it off. The story line that the disciples had
of going from one triumph to another did not include Jesus being arrested—or at
least not peaceably going along with it. It is shameful when someone gets
arrested. Even if the person is innocent, it is still highly embarrassing, for
most people think, “the guy must have done something wrong, otherwise they
wouldn’t have arrested him.”
And so it came to pass that in spite of all the disciples’
bravado; in spite of all their bragging about being willing to die rather than
forsake Jesus; when the Shepherd was struck the sheep were scattered. They all
took to the hills. I think if Jesus would have followed the disciples’ plans
and called them to arms, they might have stuck with him to the end. But they
couldn’t understand why Jesus was allowing himself to be taken into custody by
the very same powers whom he had shamed earlier in the week when they tried to
entrap him. Jesus was supposed to be a king, not a criminal. Jesus was supposed
to be a winner; here he is, forfeiting the match. A great reversal was taking
place. Jesus had the power, but he wasn’t using it.
According to Jesus’s enemies, this was a good development.
They couldn’t face Jesus openly without being put to shame, and so they
conspired to deal with him in the dead of night. The Gospels don’t give us any exact
time markers, but we know that it was sometime in the night when they arrested
Jesus. By daybreak on Friday the Jewish authorities had already decided that
Jesus was guilty of blasphemy and deserved to die. Maybe they arrested Jesus at
midnight? Maybe at three in the morning? Who conducts official business at such
hours? People who are up to no good—that’s who. People who can’t stand the
scrutiny that comes with the light of day. Before the general population could
even know that Jesus had been arrested, he was already found guilty. They got
him before Pontius Pilate as quick as they could so that they could get him
nailed to a cross before anybody could do anything about it.
The first thing that Pontius Pilate asks Jesus is, “So
you’re the king of the Jews are you?” Jesus sure didn’t look like the king of
the Jews to him. Pontius Pilate is a scoffing Gentile. He thinks Jesus is
delusional. He’s annoyed that the Jewish authorities are making him have to
deal with such a silly matter. He’d like them to see how petty they are being. Therefore,
he has Jesus beaten up—if nothing else, this is his comeuppance for being so
cheeky. Jesus, bruised and bloodied, covered in spit, was then dressed up like
a king. A crown of thorns was put on his head. A purple robe is put on him. They
give him a reed for a scepter. Pilate brings him before the Jewish authorities
and says, “Behold the man,” as though to say, “Why are you envious of
this fool? He obviously is no king.”
But the Jews won’t have it. They had already committed
themselves to be rid of Jesus. They had gone this far. They were going to see
this through. They were already prepared to neutralize any second guessing. They
thought Pilate might be reluctant to crucify Jesus, so they made sure that everyone
would call for Barabbas to be released instead of Jesus. Overall they were
given one thing to say over and over again, no matter what Pilate might say, “Crucify
him! Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Pilate had no time for this nonsense. He wasn’t getting
anywhere, and he didn’t really care about Jesus—whether he was innocent or not.
He had roads to build and taxes to collect. To be rid of the matter he gave the
order for Jesus to be crucified. “Hand a sign over the cross,” he said, “Have
it read, ‘Jesus, king of the Jews.’ No, better yet, have it read, ‘Jesus of
Nazareth (what a ridiculous place for a king to be from!); Jesus of Nazareth, king
of the Jews.’”
The joke about Jesus being the king of the Jews continued
all the way through the crucifixion. This is what the other fellow who was
being crucified said to Jesus, “If you are really the king of the Jews, then
help us get down from these miserable crosses.” The people who passed by
the crosses said, “If you are really the king of the Jews, then come down
from that cross. Give us a sign. Then we’ll believe in you!” But
this was no honest request. They weren’t waiting to see whether Jesus could do
it or not. They knew those nails sunk through the limbs of his body and deep
into the wood would keep Jesus firmly affixed to that cross. They were making
fun of him.
Throughout our narrative tonight we have not talked about
the way Jesus responds to all these shameful things that happen to him. He is
noble. He does not weep or beg them to spare his life. Like a lamb that is led
to the slaughter he opens not his mouth.
The Lamb goes uncomplaining forth, the guilt of sinners
bearing. And laden with the sins of the earth, none else the burden sharing.
Goes patient on, grows weak and faint. To slaughter led without complaint, that
spotless life to offer. He bears the stripes, the wounds, the lies, the
mockery, and yet replies, “All this I gladly suffer.”
Jesus is meek and kind. Having loved his disciples he loved
them to the end. While he is suffering in anguish he sees his mother and is
concerned for her. He tells John to take care of her. A sword was passing
through her soul, for no mother has ever loved her son like Mary loved her
sinless Jesus.
Finally, having done all things well, Jesus said, “It is
finished.” His head slumped. His body became limp, his color became pale.
He had died.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a church official or
two who also at the moment said, “It is finished.” They had gotten rid of this
thorn in their side. They had to get their hands dirty to do it, but now it’s
done and peace would return to the church.
And, you know, all of these people would have been right if
Jesus did not rise from the dead. The disciples would have been right to have
abandoned him. The Jews would have been right in calling him a blasphemer.
Pilate would have been right in thinking he was crazy. The crowds and the
soldiers would have been right in laughing at him because he looked so little
like a king.
But Jesus did rise from the dead. He lives and he reigns. A
new order has been put in place. The old order of secrecy and lies and death
that are so often successful in this old world, ruled by the devil, is going
down. Its days are numbered. On the other hand, whoever believes in Jesus is on
the way up! They will not perish but have eternal life, for God did not send
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved
through him. Jesus now sits at the right hand of God the Father. When the time
is right he will come in power and great glory to judge the living and the
dead. He will give eternal life to you and to all believers in Christ.
The resurrection changes everything. Jesus, who looks like
he loses, as he meekly goes to the cross and death, actually wins. The devil,
and all who practice his arts of lies and death, loses. By Jesus’s atonement he
purchases all people back from the devil. Jesus has purchased and won you.
Therefore you will live forever with him.
Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of
Jerusalem! Your king comes to you. The kingdom and the power and the glory are
his!
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