St. Andrew’s Pictou, April 9^th 2006 Palm/Passion Sunday

 

The Terror of the Story

 

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Philippians 2:5-11

Mark 14:1 – 15:47

 

The full sweep of human experience is found in today’s readings.

 

Now it is not the whole story: next week we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, but today holds a different message. Today we are to honour and commemorate the beginning of a week that opens with celebration, moved through unspeakable pain and suffering towards the Easter event. We need to discover what all of that means to us and what impact it has on our lives.

 

The Isaiah passage although written long before Jesus was born speaks of what he must have felt in planning to confront the forces that he was to face.

 

The psalm has a similar theme and speaks about the profound trust one must have in God to face the forces he and we must sometimes face.

 

Paul in his writings to the church in Philippi speaks about the inner motivation that impelled Jesus to carry out his task.

 

Mark gives us the full Passion narrative beginning with the plot to kill Jesus, the anointing at Bethany, Jesus spending Passover with his disciples, the Last Supper, Peter’s denial, Jesus praying in the garden, his arrest and betrayal, Jesus before the religious council and Pilate, the humiliation of Jesus, then the Crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus.

 

This is a story of terror. We hear stories of terror every day on the news: suicide bombers, kidnappers, child abuse, and the outrageous oxymoron of “friendly fire.” If it turns out that Private Robert Costall might have been killed by us; that would then make it another modern day crucifixion: a murder steeped in innocence.

 

The story of Jesus’ crucifixion and death was a different kind of terror because it is linked to us in a different way than the ones in the news because “the terror in this story is that God became like us so that we might become like God.” O’Driscoll p. 44.

 

We are all in this story; in the litany of the Passion, every one of us is to be found somewhere:

-Jesus standing alone,

-Jesus crucified,

-the religious types planning their attack,

-the woman who comforted Jesus with the jar of ointment who was condemned for doing so,

-the disciples who miss-judged her,

-Judas who set the wheels of evil in motion,

-the man who offered a room for the Passover meal,

-the bread and wine of love,

-Peter’s denial,

-The disciples falling asleep at his last hour when he needed them,

-witnesses at the council giving false testimony,

-the guards who beat him,

-Pilate who found no fault with Jesus, yet didn’t protect him either,

-the crowd who democratically chose Barabbas over Jesus when they had an opportunity to be just,

-Simon of Cyrene who helped Jesus carry his cross to Golgotha,

those who unwittingly dressed him as a King to humiliate him who in fact were a party to his enthronement,

-the centurion who declared that Jesus was the Son of God,

-the women, his Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross, distraught and powerless to alter the events,

-Joseph of Arimathea who demanded the body from Pilate and gave Jesus a fit burial.

 

These are some of the players in the drama and we are there, and maybe we are in several places.

 

The most amazing thing about the story from our perspective is that Jesus (having the power to do so) did nothing to stop the events from happening.

 

As Paul explained to us:

Who, though he was in the form of God,

Did not regard equality with God

As something to be exploited,

But emptied himself,

Taking the form of a slave,

Being born in human likeness.

 

And being born in human form,

He humbled himself and became

obedient to the point of death –

Even death on a cross.

 

The profundity in the story is the divine/human crossovers.

 

We needed to see that God became human in Jesus Christ, but maybe in the pain and suffering of the cross, God now understood the vulnerability and brokenness of humanity in a new way.

 

This is a killing story.

 

In the story we see how all of the various people reacted to the prisoner:

-the high priest reacts with anger,

-Pilate reacts with curiosity,

-the soldiers with contempt,

-the two bandits, one on each side also mocked him,

-some of crowd with hate,

-the centurion with admiration.

 

The real issue here is how do you and I react to prisoner Jesus?

 

How do you react to Jesus of Nazareth?

 

All of the people in the story had their reactions and made their choices to Jesus and are now dead, but you are alive and full of possibilities for God.

 

What is your reaction?

 

What is your decision?

 

As we watch and listen to this story, it is hard not to come to the conclusion that Jesus was in charge, even though he appeared to be a silent victim.

 

We are also forced to conclude that his self emptying, his humility was the source of his power. He did not exploit his equality with God, but rather embraced his equality with us, as the source of his power. In emptying himself of self interest, he made room for us, in the same way that in humility that you and I make room in our hearts for each other.

 

The terror of the story is that God in Christ became human for us that we might become more like God. But we didn’t. At the time we condemned, we lied, abandoned, hated, and even murdered. When death eventually came, he offered us forgiveness.

 

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us.

 

Paul wrote that Jesus was obedient to God even to the point of death.

 

There will be a time when we will all be obedient to death.

 

What will they write about us?

 

AMEN                  Rev. Alan Stewart