Wired Jesus Podcast

John 19:1-16 (NIV)
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”
7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

A Matter of Death and Life

Today we look in on a trial in the court of Pontius Pilate, the Roman military governor of Judea, the man who has the authority to sentence people to be crucified. Crucifixion was the ultimate form of execution, so hideous and painful it was reserved only for political rebels and terrorists.
The story is told in John’s Gospel, chapters 18 and 19. The Jewish leaders bring Jesus before Pilate and demand that he be crucified. Pilate asks for charges and they can’t offer anything of substance, so he tells them to go do it. They answer they can’t and Pilate knew that. It was his reminder to them as to who was in charge of life and death – Rome and he was Rom in Judea.
However, when they bring up that Jesus claimed to be a king, Pilate questions the prisoner, only to find out he believes he is a king and is here to testify to the truth, a truth he won’t share with Pilate. Just to irritate the Jewish leaders, Pilate tries to free Jesus, offering the gathered crowds to free a prisoner. It backfires when the crowd demands a terrorist named Barabbas be freed instead. Suddenly everything shifts and Pilate is no longer in control but the crowds crying “Crucify him.”
Pilate is stuck. He wants to free Jesus. He’s even intrigued by Jesus. But he is Rome and Rome does not permit mercy. Rome stands for law and order, law wants peace in this region even if people must be killed to achieve it. So when the crowd demands that Pilate crucify Jesus or he is no friend of Caesar by allowing a pretender king to live, Pilate orders Jesus to be nailed to a cross until dead.
It was easier to keep the peace than to do what was just, to do what was right. It was easier to nail someone to the cross than to carry it. We find that to be true ourselves. We know what is right but we are just as apt to do what is easy. We do it at work – balancing a bottom line is easier than honoring agreements just as viewing bosses as the enemy instead of coworkers. We do it in our families – hanging out with friends is easier than spending time as a family or caring for that relative who is always getting ill or in trouble. We do it with ourselves – its easier to sleep in than to worship, to claim the need for my time than to serve in God’s time. So its just easier to nail work, family, or time to the cross rather than have to pick up the cursed thing ourselves, to bear it in following Jesus rather than leaving it behind.
So Pilate ordered Jesus to be crucified and never looked at the cross, never carried it, just nailed his problems and inconveniences to it. The thing is, Jesus took it anyway. Pilate thought the choice was his but it wasn’t. That is the power of cross that Pilate never expected and neither do we. Every selfish choice, every sinful choice made for my convenience, my entire broken nature that I deny is there but knowingly can’t fix was nailed to that cross outside Jerusalem and forgiven there. Forgiven without my asking. Forgiven without my permission. Forgiven because that is what God intended. His choice, not ours. His saving decision, not mine.
A matter of death and life. Pilate thought he was executing a problem, crucifying a man, using death as an end. Instead he was executing God and crucifying sin itself, using a cross to end death. He had no idea. Neither do we. But God does and that is the saving power of the cross, the hideous cross we hide from, the glorious cross we carry.

Tags: cross, jesus, lent, life