Sermon for Good Friday - Jn 18:1-19:42

 

Good Friday 

Jn 18:1-19:42

                                                                 3/29/24

 

          “Suffered under Pontius Pilate.”  We say this phrase in the Apostles’ Creed.  It anchors the events of the Creed in the history of this world. It tells us that Jesus suffered, was crucified, and buried during the first part of the first century A.D. in Judea.

Pilate was the Prefect – the Roman governor over Judea during the period of about 26 to 36 A.D. As we hear in our text tonight, during that time Jesus Christ was brought before him for judgment.  As we listen to Pilate in our text tonight, we almost have to wonder whether he is the villain or the victim here.

The Jewish religious leaders had seized Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and had held their own “trial.” Their goal was to kill Jesus.  But here they faced a problem.  Living under Roman rule they were not able to carry out capital punishment.

They went to the governor’s headquarters, but didn’t enter lest they defile themselves.  Instead, Pilate had to come out to them.  He asked, “What accusation do you bring against this man?”  Pilates’ question was a simple one.  He wanted to know what Jesus had done that deserved Roman punishment.

They answered evasively, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.”  Now the Jews had a problem.  They wanted to kill Jesus for religious reasons.  However, Pilate didn’t care about that.  He would only act on the basis of Roman law and interests.

Pilate told them to take Jesus and judge him by their own law.  The Jews had to admit, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” Then John tells us, “This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.” 

At the beginning of Holy Week Jesus had said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Then John tells us, “He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”  Jesus had said that his death would be by crucifixion.  He would be lifted up. For that to happen, Pontius Pilate would have to be the key figure.

Pilate questioned Jesus and must have been puzzled when Jesus said that his kingdom was not of this world.  When asked if he was a king Jesus said, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world--to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate returned to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.”  He tried to use the Passover custom of releasing a prisoner to free Jesus, but the Jews refused.  So Pilate had Jesus flogged and brought out wearing a crown of thorns and purple robe.  He brought out Jesus out looking pathetic and said, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”

The Jews demanded that Jesus be crucified. And so Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered, "We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid.

          John tells us that from then on, Pilate sought to release Jesus.  But then the Jews went where they knew Pilate was vulnerable. They cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” They presented Jesus as a political revolutionary – a king - who threatened Roman rule.

          Pilate still did not want to condemn Jesus to death.  He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” So in one last try Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”

          The Jewish leaders reject their true king, the Son of God who had come into the world.  Instead, they claim the brutal Roman emperor as their king.  Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent of anything deserving death. But the Jews have got him in a corner from which he cannot escape.  And so he caves.  He delivers Jesus over to be crucified.

          Jesus said that this is what would happen.  He had come to Jerusalem with a timing and a purpose.  At the start of Holy Week he said, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.”

          Jesus had come to Good Friday with a purpose. His purpose was to carry out the Father’s will.  On the night of his betrayal Jesus said, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me,

but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”  When Peter tried to defend Jesus with the sword in the garden our Lord said to him, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

          Jesus had come to drink of the cup of God’s wrath by dying on the cross.  John’s Gospel tells us that this was necessary as it says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”  Apart from Christ’s death on the cross there is only God’s wrath against sin.  Our Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”  Apart from Christ’s death on the cross there is only God’s judgment.

          Apart from Christ’s death on the cross there is only wrath and judgment because of our sin.  Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”  As John says in his first epistle, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 

          There is no point in deceiving ourselves because we see the sin in our lives every day.  We have jealous, angry, and lustful thoughts.  We put God second behind our interests, hobbies, and sports.  We share gossip and harm our neighbor’s reputation.

          Jesus was crucified to deliver us from God’s wrath and judgment against our sin.  When John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  Jesus took away the sin of the world by his death on the cross.

          Our Lord said during Holy Week, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”  In his death Jesus has borne the fruit of forgiveness before God.

          In the cross we see the depths of God’s love for us. John’s Gospel says, “For God loved the world in this way, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”

          God did not send the Son to judge the world.  Instead, in the incarnation he sent him into the world to die for us. The Word – the Son of God – became flesh in order to be nailed to a cross.  John says in his first epistle, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

          Gods saving love and glory is revealed on Good Friday.  But it is revealed in the cross.  It is revealed in something that does not look like victory or success.  Instead, it is revealed in a way that looks like failure and weakness.

In the cross there is important insight about the way that God continues to work. God works now through message of Christ crucified – a message many reject with hardly a thought.  After Jesus had died, the soldier pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. We see in this event a reminder that Sacraments of the Altar and Baptism find their source in the death of Christ as they deliver the benefits that he has won for us.  Yet water, and bread and wine hardly seem like powerful and impressive things. Quite the opposite, they are often rejected as means by which God is at work, and instead are merely called symbols.

Yet like the cross itself, they are the powerful means by which the Holy Spirit delivers forgiveness and strengthens faith.  They may appear to be weak and unimpressive, but this is simply how God works as he delivers the forgiveness and salvation that Jesus won through the means of the cross.

In our text we learn that Jesus said, “It is finished” and then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  Jesus declared that he had completed the work of taking away the sin of the world.  This completed work was the dead Christ hanging on a cross.  It was the body of Jesus being buried in a tomb.

If that was all there was, we would conclude that the cross was indeed failure and weakness.  We would view the Gospel and the Means of Grace as being powerless and pointless.  But Good Friday is not the end. Instead, we have to wait. We have to wait knowing that Jesus said: “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”