Sermon

So,

I am assuming that some of you at least are aware that it is the church’s season of Lent.

Lent was traditionally the time of year when followers of Jesus spent some extra time focusing on how as a believer, they had not really measured up to what they had hoped would be their behavior, choices, and attitudes, marking them out as disciples.

They intentionally thought about their own sinfulness, and mourned it, then then understanding at a new level their own need to be forgiven, turned to the good news of the gospel.

It helped them understand at a deeper level the love of God, shown to us in the death of Jesus, who instead of having us suffer for the eternal consequences of our sin, sent his own son to suffer instead.

And that, of course, makes Easter amazing.

That not only did Jesus suffer on our behalf, but God also raised him from the dead, so that our sins are dealt with eternally.

Hallelujah!

Lent was also a time when new believers learned about the faith, were taught the essentials, so that they too could be completely ready to join the community of faith on Easter with their baptism.

All of this, of course, assumes that you and I know the story of Jesus Passion, the story of his arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, and then resurrection.

But do you?

For many of us, we have a cursory knowledge of the story, kind of like what we call the “Sunday School version” where in helping children understand, we simplify things.

Some of us, perhaps, have not gone much beyond that!

We know the Easter pageant version; short sweet and to the point for sure, but without some of the nuances.

But today’s reading from Matthew’s gospel takes us deep, as will the Tenebrae service on Good Friday evening online, where we will read the Passion narrative from John’s gospel, shutting off all 15 lights as we slowly make our way to Jesus’ death.

It is all very tense and it is all very painful.

But it is also all amazing preparation for the overwhelming joy that comes with the news at sunrise on Easter Sunday morning, that Jesus has risen.

But before we get ahead of ourselves is this story, particularly the story of Jesus on trial before Pontius Pilate, the Roman occupation general and governor of Judah.

And if you have read or heard this story of Jesus trial before, you may have found the role of Pilate to be a curious one. Even more so as Pilate attempts to make sense of this passionate desire of the people of Jerusalem to see Jesus die.

It helps to know that the reason for the trial before Pilate was because while the Jewish court, the Sanhedrin had already condemned Jesus, it had no power of capital punishment. That was reserved to the Romans. And so, to Pilate they took him.

But it appears Pilate was a bit dumbfounded by it all. Not so much by their request, but by their reasons.
Pilate was not at all above executing people. After a recent insurrection in Jerusalem, Pilate had almost 2000 people crucified by the sides of the roads leading from Jericho to Jerusalem.

So, executing Jesus was no problem! It was the why.

Pilate relationship with the Jewish people and their leaders was always terrible. He had no desire to make the folks in Jerusalem happy. My guess is that Pilate would have freed Jesus just to thumb his nose at the Jewish leaders.

But it was the Passover, and Jerusalem was packed, and making the Jewish leadership angry might just lead to another insurrection, so…

He decided on an ingenious plan. He would try Jesus, find him innocent of breaking Roman law, and then offer to free him or the insurrectionist Barabbas.

Setting Jesus free would tweak the Jewish leaders.

Setting Barabbas free would give the needed excuse if anything went wrong during the festival of unleavened bread, to round up all the religious leaders, since they were the ones to set Barabbas free.

The answer seems obvious, to Pilate! The Jewish leaders would see what he was doing and choose to set free Jesus, because his release would keep Israel safe during Passover.

But Pilate couldn’t see what God was doing!

He could not imagine how the Jewish leader’s sincere desire to do away with the blasphemy of Jesus believing he was the son of God was part of an eternal plan crafted by God to open heaven to not only to the Jewish people but to the world.

Pilate couldn’t see what God was doing. The Jewish leaders couldn’t see that God was doing a new thing. And because of it all, Jesus was led off to be crucified.

Because God was planning for our salvation, though Jesus, the lamb of God. Amen.