Sermon by the Rev.
Andrew S. Rollins
Good Friday (April
10, 2009)
Text: John 18:1 – 40,
19:1 -37
Title: “God’s Choice”
Pilate’s Complicated Choices
If you were here on Palm Sunday and heard the dramatic reading of The Passion According to Saint Mark, you may have noticed some major differences between Mark’s account and the reading we just heard from The Passion According to Saint. John. One difference is that John gives Pontus Pilate much more attention than Mark does (or Matthew or Luke, for that matter). Not to suggest that their accounts conflict; they just focus on different aspects of the story.
John presents seven scenes between the Jewish leaders outside
of Pilate’s headquarters and Jesus inside, with Pilate going back and forth
between them. John puts us in Pilate’s shoes so that we experience his struggle
to first avoid, and then to come to, a terrible decision – a choice -- about
Jesus. John intends to draw us into this drama: What will Pilate do? How will
he get out of this dilemma? What will be outcome of this high stakes intrigue between
From the start, Pilate is at odds with these Jewish leaders.
He must go out to meet them because they cannot eat the Passover meal if they
set foot in his headquarters (18:28, 29). They want Pilate to rubber-stamp
their decision that Jesus must be crucified. Instead, Pilate questions Jesus
privately, and finds no case against him (18:38). Then, he thinks he’s found an
out: Offer to release a single prisoner for the Passover. But they want Barabbas,
a bandit and clear enemy of
Pilate’s perspective is a familiar human perspective on life: “Life is all about choices and the consequences of those choices. We make choices. Some are difficult. Then we live with the consequences of those choices.” Pilate sees himself at the center of a complicated web of choices and their consequences. And he sees Jesus as one of those powerless men unfortunate enough to live or die as a result of other’s people’s choices. That’s Pilate’s interpretation of these events.
John’s Portray of
Jesus
But John gives us another interpretation of the Passion. John gives us the Truth, and it goes against all our natural assumptions. The Truth is that Jesus is no victim. For John, the choice that drives these events is not Pilate’s choice, but God’s choice. The cross is God’s choice. Or, to be more accurate, the cross is the choice of the Father, and of the Son. It is vital that we understand that God is not doing this to Jesus. John is clear throughout that Father and Son are doing this together. Earlier in John’s gospel, Jesus says, I lay down my life for [my] sheep . . . . No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord, and I have the power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father (10:15, 18). Father and Son have made this choice together.
In various ways, John reminds us of this at key points in his account of the Passion. In Gethsemene, John says that Jesus questions the police who seek to arrest him: Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them . . . (18:4). Jesus then tells the police to let the disciples go. And John says, This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, ‘I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me. The events of the Passion are unfolding precisely as foretold. When Peter attempts cuts off the ear of the high priest’s slave, Jesus responds, Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me? (18:11). Jesus has chosen to drink this cup to the dregs.
And when Pilate attempts to intimidate Jesus, Do you not know that I have the power to release you, and power to crucify you? [Don’t you understand that this choice is mine to make?] Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above (19:11). Jesus tells Pilate that he is no helpless victim of human choices. But in the end, Pilate will not listen. And he sends Jesus to the cross. (Bad choice.) But over and over again, John reminds us that the cross is really God’s choice, not Pilate’s.
The Terrible
Consequences of our Choices
You can see how John’s view of the Passion challenges our most basic assumptions about how life works. We say proudly, “I have gotten where I am today as a result of the choices I’ve made.” Choice and consequence, cause and effect, is all that we see with our natural eyes. Parents, how many times have you told your children, “You’ve got to face up to the consequences of your own actions.” But that’s just the problem -- the accumulated results of all our choices and actions.
How confident are you in all the accumulated results of all the choices you’ve made in your life? How confident are you in the consequences of all your choices when it comes to your children, your parents, your siblings. (That’s the sort of question that weighs on those of us who are parents.)
I recently watched the Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums. I’ve decided it’s the perfect movie for Good Friday. Every character in it is so obviously messed up beyond their own abilities to save themselves. Gene Hackman plays Royal Tenenbaum, a disbarred lawyer who leaves his wife and three children. He’s rude, dishonest, and unaffectionate. When he tells his children of his impending divorce they ask, “Is it because of us?” He replies, “Well, of course, certain sacrifices had to be made as a result of having children. But heavens, no.” He’s a real ass. But he says, “That’s just my style.”
Royal’s choices in life bare some terrible consequences for his family. All three of his children – though child prodigies – reach adulthood and are totally, wildly dysfunctional. Chas (Ben Stiller) constantly dresses himself and his two boys only in red jogging suits. Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) spends six hours a day locked in her bathroom staring listlessly at the TV. Richie (Luke Wilson), a burned-out tennis pro, becomes a recluse, travelling the world by ship and communicating only through telegrams.
Then, Father Royal, after 17 years of separation from his family, begins to be troubled by the consequences of his choices in life. He wonders if their judgment will be the last word on his life. So he decides he wants to make amends and attempts to reunite with his family. He seeks forgiveness. (I’ll give a $1.00 award to anyone who can tell me the epitaph that Royal has put on his own grave stone – which sums up the whole story.)
The question that drives the whole movie is, “Will the choices he made, and the consequences that followed, be the final word on his life, and their lives?” It’s the sort of a question to ask on Good Friday. The weight of those accumulated consequences is terrifying to contemplate. Just imagine if the final word on your life was based on the choices you’ve made? What if God judged you solely based on the history of choices you’ve made in your life.
I’ve made some really poor choices in my time. How about you?
Saint Pilate
I’ll close now with an odd side note about Pontus Pilate. The Bible doesn’t tell us anything more about what happened to Pontius Pilate. But the Coptic Christians of Africa take a merciful view of the man. They have elevated Pilate and his wife to sainthood. According to Coptic legend, Pilate himself died by crucifixion – upon Jesus' cross. Pilate is supposed to have been crucified because he had become a closet Christian, together with his wife, and both the Romans and the Jews decided to get rid of him. The legend is that he was crucified not once, but twice: he was cut down from the first cross and put on the actual cross of Christ so that he could mirror his sufferings in every detail.
That is just pure legend. But those stories highlight a crucial feature of the Gospel: on the cross, mercy is extended to all despite the terrible choices we make. The Coptics keep the door open – even for Pilate. The gospel says that anyone can be redeemed from the terrible consequences of their bad choices. Even Pilate’s terrible choice is not beyond God’s mercy.
The natural result of all the accumulated bad choices we have made is bondage, fear, despair, death, and damnation.
But the Gospel writer John says, “That’s not the whole story.”
John says, “Remember that human beings chose to kill God. But, despite us, God chose to use the cross.
In spite of our choices, God chose glory, forgiveness, and grace.