Tuesday in Holy Week

Today is Tuesday in Holy Week as we prepare to observe our Lord’s death and resurrection for us.  The season of Lent will conclude on Maundy Thursday as the Triduum begins – the services that run over the course of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.  On Tuesday in Holy Week, the Gospel reading is the Passion of Our Lord according to St. Mark (Mark 14:1-15:47).

Scripture reading:

            It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”

            And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

            Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.

            And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.” And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

            And when it was evening, he came with the twelve. And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

            And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

            And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Peter said to him, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” But he said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all said the same.

            And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

            And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. And they laid hands on him and seized him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” And they all left him and fled.

            And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.

            And they led Jesus to the high priest. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together. And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’” Yet even about this their testimony did not agree. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death. And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards received him with blows.

            And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came, and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway and the rooster crowed. And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

            And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” And the chief priests accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

            Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” And Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

            And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.

            And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

            And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

            There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

            And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

(Mark 14:1-15:47)

Collect of the Day:

Almighty and Everlasting God, grant us by Your grace so to pass through this holy time of our Lord’s passion that we may obtain the forgiveness of sins; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Mark's thoughts: A crucifixion like no other

The Roman empire crucified thousands of people every year.  On some occasions, like after a failed slave revolt in Italy and a failed revolt in England, they crucified thousands of people at the same time.  They were masters of the process by which a human being was crucified.

Crucifixion was meant to be a spectacle. Its  purpose was to kill a person publically with maximum suffering and humiliation.  Crucifixion was public in that it was done in front of spectators.  Yet it was also public because it took so long to kill a person. It was usually a slow working execution that lasted several days, and allowed many people passing by to see it.

What viewers saw was suffering and agony as the crucified individual slowly died.  They saw humiliation.  Typically the Romans crucified individuals naked.  Powerless, suffering and naked, the individual was exposed for all to see and observe.  Under normal circumstances, only non-Roman citizens and slaves were subject to crucifixion.  Crucifixion was used in the provinces of the Roman empire as a means of intimidation and control.  Even after death, the bodies were left on the cross to be eaten by birds.  They were a Roman billboard that said to all: Don’t mess with us.

When Jesus and the two criminals were taken out to be crucified, it looked like just another day in the Roman empire.  However, around 12:00 p.m. it began to become clear that this was a crucifixion like no other.  Matthew tells us, “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour” (Matthew 27:45). Darkness over the land in the Old Testament was associated with the “day of the Lord” (see Joel 2:2, 31; Zephaniah 1:15).  This darkness began a series of signs that accompanied the death of Jesus and demonstrated the crucifixion to be an eschatological (end time) event of cosmic significance.

Around the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46).  Then Matthew tells us of Jesus’ death:

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.  (Matthew 27:50-53).

The signs that continued to accompany the crucifixion demonstrated that by staying on the cross until death, Jesus had worked an eschatological (end time) event that holds meaning for the whole creation.  The splitting of the temple veil (27:51) was a sign of judgment against the temple.  The earthquake (see Isaiah 24:19; 29:6; Joel 2:10) and the resurrections of the saints (see Isaiah 26:19; Dan 12:2) were eschatological signs of the Old Testament.  These events accompanying the death of Jesus indicated the arrival of the last days. 

Finally, Matthew reports: “When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’” (Matthew 27:54). The signs vindicated Jesus’ claims to be the Christ, the Son of God, and prompted the centurion to confess that Jesus was the Son of God. They revealed that God’s end time judgment against our sin took place in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.  Jesus’ cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (27:46) quoted Psalm 22:1.  It revealed the unfathomable depths of Jesus’ suffering as he drank the cup of God’s wrath against sin (see Psalm 75:8; Isaiah 51:17; Matthew 20:22; 26:39) in our place (20:28).  God’s Last Day judgment against our sin has already taken place. It occurred when Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross for us.  The death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday was a crucifixion like no other.

Sermon Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion - Mt 26:1-27:66

                                                                                    Sunday of the Passion

                                                                                    Mt 26:1-27:66

                                                                                    4/14/19

            Why did he do it?  Why did Judas betray Jesus?  The truth of the matter is that we really don’t know what Judas’ motivation was.  Matthew’s Gospel calls him “Judas Iscariot,” but unfortunately that doesn’t help us very much. We are not sure exactly what “Iscariot” means. There are a number of suggestions, and one of them includes ties to revolutionary ideas, but that is no more than one possibility among several others.

            In our Gospel lesson, Judas’ first move to betray Jesus takes place after complaints about the expensive ointment that a woman had used to anoint Jesus. We are told that when the disciples saw it they were indignant and said, “Why this waste?

For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”  However, Jesus responded, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.”  If we look further afield, the Gospel of John specifically identifies Judas in this incident and then adds, “He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.”

            This may indicate that greed was a factor.  But the problem with that explanation is that thirty pieces of silver just isn’t all that much money.  Surely he could have gotten more.  We learn at the beginning of our text that the Jewish religious leaders intended to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.  However they had said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”  Yet they wanted Jesus dead so much that they were willing to scrap this plan when the opportunity presented itself in Judas during Holy Week.  Surely, Judas could have negotiated a better payoff.

            If it wasn’t only about money, then what else could have prompted Judas to do it?  Perhaps Judas just got tired of waiting for Jesus to do something.  If he had nationalistic and revolutionary hopes, then Jesus was proving to be quite a disappointment.  Or maybe he thought that betraying Jesus would force Jesus’ hand and make him do something. These are all plausible, but we can’t say for sure.

            Certainly, the demonic was involved.  Luke says that “Satan entered into Judas” at this moment when he made the decision to betray Jesus, and John tells us that at the Last Supper, the “devil had already put it into the heart of Judas” to betray him. Yet this really tells us nothing more than the fact that Satan tempted Judas to do it.  That’s what Satan always does to people, and it doesn’t change the fact that Judas was responsible for what he did.

            If you want to know for sure why Judas did it, then there is only one answer: It was because it was God’s will to save you.  Our Gospel lesson begins with the words, “When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, ‘You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.’” 

            This is actually the fourth passion prediction in Matthew’s Gospel. Just before entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday Jesus said, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”  And then Jesus went on to add, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

            It was God the Father’s will for his Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross as the ransom for your sins. Through the Scriptures of the Old Testament he had declared ahead of time that this is what would happen.  Jesus says in our text, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

            The events of Jesus’ passion and death had been written in Scripture.  And that includes Judas’ betrayal.  We learn that when Judas tried to return the money, the Jewish leaders refused to accept it, and instead used the money to buy a burial plot for strangers.  Matthew tells us: “Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.’”

            Now we may say, “Well if God foreknows all things, and if he wills these events to happen, then surely Judas can’t be responsible for what he did.”  And yet, Judas is.  God foreknew it.  God willed it to happen for you.  Judas gave into temptation. Judas chose to do it, and bears responsibility for it. They are all true.

            We may say, “But how can all of those be true at the same time?”  And in that question we are confronted with the fact that God is God, and we are not.  The first sin, the Fall, was about wanting to be God. In the Fall we lost the image of God.  Now, having become less, we are even more convinced that God’s dealing must fit within our reason. We want to be God, and there is always the temptation to reject God when God refuses to play by our rules.

            You see, we are not really talking about Judas. We are talking about you. We are talking about the things that happen in your life that you don’t want.  You know what you want.  You know what makes sense.  You know the plans you have made.  And then someone is diagnosed with cancer.  Or struggles with mental illness arise.  Or we face a financial crisis.  Or our children reject faith in Jesus Christ.

            When things like this occur, they do not make sense to us.  Our reason struggles to figure out what God is doing.  Or it wants to rebel against God.  But God is God, and we are not.  He doesn’t have to play by our rules, because frankly, our rules are just too small.  We never get to “peer behind the curtain” and figure out what God is really up to.  That’s just not how it works.

            What we do get is this week, and the eighth day.  We get the events of Holy Week. We get Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” We learn that it was the Father’s will for the incarnate Son to drink the cup of God’s wrath that we deserved.  We get Jesus, betrayed into death by one of his chosen followers – by one of his own apostles. We get Jesus whipped, mocked, spit upon and crucified. We get Jesus bearing our sins and crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

             We learn that this was God’s will for you.  None of it is what we would expect. None of it is what we would have planned.  None of it looks good. And yet all of it is God acting to save you.

            We know this because on the eighth day, God raised Jesus from the dead.  One week is not enough. If you decide that you can only bear with these things for seven days, then you are just going to miss out.  You have to push on to the eighth day, for in the resurrection of Jesus Christ we see the vindication of all that God was doing.  In the eighth day we find the assurance of forgiveness and the hope of resurrection and eternal life.

            That is how the life of faith works.  We must always push on to the eighth day.  Our reason will always learn that God is God, and we are not.  We will not be able to understand what God is doing.  In truth, we may not like it at all.  But we have seen what happened this week.  We have seen what it looked like.  And then, on the eighth day we learn that God was doing mighty things in the midst of it.  He was giving us life, and peace, and hope.

            The eighth day, the morning of the first day of the new week changes everything. So this week, we look forward to the eighth day.  And in our lives, we always look to the eighth day, for in it the events of Holy Week make perfect sense. We see what God has done and what it means for us. And because we know this, we can trust and believe in him in the midst of all the other days of our life, no matter what happens.