Places of the Passion: A Place of God's Will

Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Does it strike you as unusual in any way for Luke to be recording the trial in this way? It would be easy enough to understand if it kind of slipped by you. We live in a day and age that, every time you turn on the television set, you flip over to Fox News or to CNN or even the local stations and we usually have some high-profile case that's being sort of played in front of us and being reported to us. But usually, when a trial is presented to us that way, the facts of the trial really are not the point. The reporters usually are trying to drum up some intrigue and create some drama so it captures your attention. You'll keep watching the trial as it goes on. They're more interested in finding out about the personality of the witnesses or maybe some behind-the scenes dealing that's going on. They might even bring experts to start discussing, "Now, what tactic do you think the lawyers will try in this next proceeding here?" Or "Do you think maybe the judge has a bias?" It's all about drama and intrigue, and there's not a whole lot said about the facts of the trial.

Maybe that helps explain why this seems normal to us, the way Luke records the trials of Jesus. But, in reality, it's somewhat strange. It's very much out of character for Luke to report it in this way. If you remember the first chapter of Luke, he started out by saying that he had set out to make a careful investigation, talking to as many eyewitnesses as he could so he could do what? So he could give an orderly account of the life of Jesus. And that's what Luke is about. Luke is about historic accuracy about the life of Jesus. He chronologically goes through Jesus' life, giving us reference points in history along the way; but Luke sticks to the facts. He's a historian.

But you look at the way he describes the trial for us here. There are very few facts, but there is lots of intrigue. There's lots of drama. He gives us a behind-the-scenes look at things. That's very different for scripture. Scripture usually sticks to the facts. Look how Luke described for us the denial of Peter. He simply states that three times Peter was questioned and three times Peter answered. He doesn't tell us what's going on in Peter's mind. He doesn't tell us what's happening with Peter's heart. He's silent about all of that. Yet we come to the trials of Jesus, and he feels compelled to us little details, little tidbits. Pilate and Herod, they used to be enemies. On that day, they became friends. Herod wanted to see Jesus because he wanted to see if He could perform a trick for him, a miracle in his presence. Then Pilate-he reveals to us that Pilate really wanted to release Jesus and so now, all of a sudden, we sympathize with Pilate as he comes back to the people three times trying to convince them not to convict Jesus. There's lots of drama. There's lots of intrigue. We come to Luke expecting the facts about the trial. Instead, he presents to us the facts about a fallen world. We come expecting that Luke is going to lay out all the evidence of why Jesus is innocent, but Jesus' innocence is self evident. Even Pilate admits that. You see, tonight we think we've come to a trial, a place in which Pontius Pilate sits upon his chair and passes judgment; but that's not what we've come to tonight at all. Luke summarizes it for us in the very last sentence. He says of Pontius Pilate, "And he released Jesus to their will."

Tonight is about the will of mankind, and it was the will of mankind that Jesus should die. But it's also about the will of God. We see in the trials before us the divided will, the oftentimes-changing will of humanity. The will of human beings is often changing. It's in conflict oftentimes, and it's divided even against each other. We see that in the surroundings about the trial. We have a crowd gathered out there of spectators. Now, among that crowd, certainly were people at one time that were sitting at the feet of Jesus soaking in all of His teaching and amazed at the things He said. Now they're amazed that Pontius Pilate won't crucify Him, and so they call out for blood. The religious leaders, chief priests, teachers of the law, ones that were the most outspoken about Roman rule and how we needed to get rid of the Romans and rule ourselves and yet they stand before Pilate appealing to Rome to take care of their problem with Jesus. These are the ones who accuse Jesus of perverting the nation and subverting it and causing an uprising and yet, they demand that Barabbas would be released to them, one who has been convicted of insurrection and murder. The religious leaders who are supposed to stand for God and yet they're calling for the death of His Son.

Or Herod? Herod, who wants to see Jesus, you might say he's an admirer of Jesus. He's been following Him around, hearing all kinds of stories about Him; but when he comes into the presence of Him, all he can do is ridicule Him and mock Him. Now his Savior becomes his enemy, and Pilate becomes his friend.

And what of Pilate? Pilate is probably the most conflicted character in the whole scene. Pilate knows none of the Jewish tradition. Pilate knows nothing of a promise of a Messiah and a Jewish king. All that Pilate knows is that he wants to keep order in his city. He's not in Jerusalem because he wants to be there. He has traveled to Jerusalem because he has to be there. He knows the Passover brings in all kinds of people, and he wants to maintain order. And what does he have on his hands? All the makings of a riot. He has a crowd that's getting larger by the moment and getting more violent by the second. He has, standing next to him, a perfectly innocent man and he knows it. There's part of him that wants to release Jesus and not buy into all the false accusations. Then there's the other part that looks at the ever-growing crowd, and he wants to avoid a riot. He knows what's the right thing to do, but he does the opposite.

This is a place of the human will, the human will which is often changing, many times in conflict with itself and divided. And even our human will today is the same. Even those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus, who consider ourselves faithful to him, how often is our will conflicted, divided against each other? We want to be honest in everything we do. We want to have integrity in our life. But tomorrow morning you get to school and you don't have that English assignment done and your best friend does, and she says, "Go ahead and copy it." You sit down next week to do your taxes. You had those couple of odd jobs last summer. "Yeah, that's income but they didn't give me a 1099." You're in church on Sunday morning. You make a commitment to God. You make a commitment to yourself. You are going to control your anger. No longer are you going to fly off the handle. You're going to take a deep breath. You're going to count to ten. You're going to pray to God. You're going to do whatever it takes to control that anger. It will not control you any longer. So after church, you go out to your car and you get caught in the snarl up here on the west end, and pretty soon you're banging the steering wheel and shouting at the dashboard. You see, we know what's the right thing to do but often times we don't do it. We know what are the wrong things that we shouldn't do and yet that's what we end up doing. It's that conflicted will inside of us.

St. Paul talked about that in his letter to the church at Rome. He described it much the same way. He says, "The things I want to do, I don't do. The things I don't want to do, that's what I end up doing." And he says the same thing about five or six times, so you can almost sense the frustration in the man of this conflict that's going on inside of him, that he knows what's the right thing to do, but he keep doing the wrong thing. He tries to avoid the wrong thing, and he does the wrong thing. And he finally concludes by saying, "What a retched man I am. Who will save me from this body of sin?" And then he answers his own question. He says, "Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord."

St. Paul brings us right back here. He brings us back to this moment. This is a place of the human will, changing, conflicted, divided. But this is also a place of God's will. This is the moment when mankind's will and God's will intersected. It was the will of humankind that Jesus should die, and it was the will of the Father that Jesus should die. Mankind thought, by killing Jesus, they could sever the relationship with Him and be done with Him and put Him behind them. God knew that, by allowing Jesus to die, His relationship with mankind would be restored and He would draw them closer to Him. It was God's will that Jesus would be sentenced to death. It was God's will that Pilate would wash his hands and they would lead Him off and nail Him to a cross, because it was God's will that all people would be saved. It is God's will that all people would be forgiven, that all people would come to faith in Him and know of His salvation. And for God's will to be accomplished, He knew that it was only through the death of His Son, only through the shedding of His blood could forgiveness be granted and new life be given. It was God's will that Jesus would die, because it was God's will that all people would be saved.

So God stepped into our world, our world of conflicted and changing wills; and He shaped it and He formed it to bring about His will. Where does that leave you and I? What it says to us, in those moments when we're still conflicted, those moments when the struggle is going on inside of ourselves, we end up doing what we didn't want to do, we end up not doing what we should have done, we need to come right back here. St. Paul said, "Thank God through Christ Jesus our Lord." That was his salvation from his own will. The same is true for us. When we are conflicted in our will, we need to come back to God's will. And to remember what God's will was, it was God's will that all people should be saved even if that meant His Son must die. Amen.

Copyright 2004 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church