Scripture: John 14:15-21
It seem that today we live in a culture of consumption. I say this not to be critical of the world but as an observation. We want and we strive to obtain what we want. The problem comes when we do not know what we want. That is where consumption comes in. It is when we seek to fill a need with something but what we seek to find fulfillment leaves us not only still seeking to fill the need, but needing more of it. The ancient Persians observed this sort of thing when they first diagnosed diabetes, saying that there was an increased appetite but a collapse of function. That seems to describe our cultural condition, we have an increased appetite but the results of our appetites seem to go nowhere. This consumptive disease affects all aspects of our lives. It affects our minds when we fill it with things of little or no lasting value. How often do we stay glued to the 24-hour news cycle where there is a constant repeat and rehashing of the same story continuously for days or weeks, or we spend hours online reading articles that seem interesting but have little evidence to back them up? We fill our minds up we consume vast quantities of information yet have learned very little. This consumptive disease affects our bodies in ways that I do not really need to describe because we have all seen these effects. It saps our strength; because we spend hours working in front of monitors sitting in chairs to the point that walking up the stairs becomes a chore. But what we least see is how this consumptive disease has damaged our spirits. It may surprise you that our culture is spiritual consumers, but often people will get a dose of the spiritual fell good for a while and go back for more. The problem is that they seek quick fixes and when reality sets in they leave and try something else, using excuses like, “I’m just not being fed.” Which then leads them to something different that may or may not fill the need, and all too often the spirit is left hungry because we have an increased appetite but a collapse of function because we filled our hunger with nothing of lasting value.
This consumption based culture will often look at passages like John 14 and focus on verse 12, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these…” and believe that the miraculous should be happening all around them if they believe hard enough. Then they will read verse 14, “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it…” and then will allow that to justify their consumption based lifestyles. The danger is that often things do not work how we want, and we pray and ask for things in Jesus’ name and they do not happen how we desire. We strive to do great works and maybe our efforts do not have the results that we wanted so we begin to question our spirituality and question God. We then turn to other ideas and consume other brands of the spiritual. This is one reason why I felt it was necessary to focus on the term believe last week. Because without belief, without the movement from knowledge, to trust, to entrust we run the risk of consuming spirituality without getting nourishment.
Which leads us to today’s passage. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” These verses that follow directly after the verse that says you can have anything you ask of me, seem to turn that verse upside down. Because the asking of verse 14 would be tempered by the pleasure we seek in Jesus whom we love. If we love Jesus, we are entrusting to Him our desires and the fulfillment of our desires. So when we ask for things in His name they are not our desires but His. And the thing that Jesus gives, the desire we long for and ask for in His name is another Advocate that will be with us forever.
Jesus is telling this to His closest friends, He is looking at them and can see that in each of their minds the greatest desire that they have is that He would stay with them forever, establish the kingdom and throw off the chains of their overlords. Jesus is telling them that they will not be without. They want Him to stay but the Father will give them another Advocate. The key word there is another. We often jump over that word and read Advocate. The term Advocate is one that is often illustrated in the legal usage of the word, which is similar to a lawyer or one that represents an individual. This word is also translated as helper, comforter, and consoler each of those terms lend a different type of image. And even the legal terminology seems to fall short, because the term refers to a special kind of lawyer, one that is more of an advisor as well as a representative. This type of lawyer is a close friend that helps you discern a path into the future. So I do not want to diminish the importance of the Advocate but want us to focus in on the word another because Jesus is already an Advocate. The disciples were looking at him thinking we already have you why would we need another?
This other advocate that Jesus speaks of is the Holy Spirit that abides, remains, and continues forever. Jesus tell them that they already know this other advocate, that they have already had intimate experiences with it but that this knowledge will deepen even more. Early Friends often spoke of the Spirit as that of Christ that dwells in all people. Some theologians would say that not all people have the Spirit and that the Spirit only dwells in those that believe, but I want us to just consider for a bit why our culture is so consumed then? Why is it that people continuously sought out the spiritual or why do they seek to deny the spiritual? How could God harden the heart of Pharaoh if the Spirit of God was not active in any way in the hearts of all people? But then you may say that Jesus just said that the world cannot receive the Spirit of truth. This is where deepening our belief becomes important, deepening our knowledge and trust as we move to entrust our lives deeper into our relationship with God. Receive is not just an acquisition but also a benefit. You can read verse 17, as the world cannot benefit from the Spirit, why because they neither see nor know Him. The concept of see extends not only to the visual aspect of the word, means to look at, understand or experience. And the word know refers to an intimate understanding or relationship. So the world cannot benefit from the Spirit of truth because they have not experienced the intimacy of the relationship, they have not understood, examined, or acknowledged that relationship. But you have it.
Let us take a step back again to Advocate. If the advocate is not only a legal representative, but an advisor, helper and counselor then it is the teacher and encourager as well. Jesus is telling us that this Spirit of Truth, who abides forever with us, is our ever-present teacher and guide. This concept is what started the Friends movement. This idea that God will teach us directly is what inspired George Fox and others to begin ministering to their countrymen. George Fox also spoke of knowing things experimentally, which is to say that he had an understanding both through study and intimate experience. Jesus and Fox both are speaking of the same concept here. If you love God, if you believe in God there will be an intimacy that will move you from knowledge, to trust, to a relationship where you will entrust every aspect of your life into the hands of God. And that as this relationship grows you will experience or become familiar with this everlasting advocate, the Spirit of truth. And as that experience deepens you will become less focused on yourself and become more focused on the things that God would have you do in the world around you.
Jesus begins this passage by saying, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” What commandments are we to keep? Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and Spirit and your neighbor as yourself. All the books of the law and the oracles of the Prophets are summed up in those two commandments. Which leads us to another question how do we keep these commandment?
This goes back to the Advocate. If Jesus is the first Advocate, the first advisor, intercessor, helper, and all then we look first to him. Jesus in his humanity showed us a lifestyle, or spirituality that would deepen an intimacy with God. And in His divinity he provided the means for that intimacy to happen. He showed us a rhythm of life that would open our eyes so that we could see and experience life with God. The rhythm of worship, prayer, and service which could be called loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit and living the love of Christ with others. This same rhythm of life was embraced by nearly every religious movement and order within the history of the church, this rhythm where intimacy with God through prayer and worship led them to serve and minister to those within the community that were often marginalized by the world. It was through the rhythm of worship, prayer, and a willingness to serve others that they were inspired to become the embodiment of Christ to the world that was left blind to the intimacy of God. How will the world ever receive the Spirit of Truth if the people that believe do not entrust their lives to God? How will the world ever experience the truth if those that claim to love Christ do not extend that love to them where they currently are?
We live in a culture of consumption. We have an increase in appetite but a collapse of functionality. We have a desire for spirituality but often we feed that appetite with things that do not reveal the truth. We strive for the abundant life in Christ, but instead of seeking Christ to fulfill that desire we instead look for the quick fix. But there are short cuts to intimacy. Much of the trending and popular things of spirituality are nothing more than pornography for the soul, giving us a taste to quench a desire but leaving us still hungry to the point of collapse. This is why Friends turned from many of the traditional expressions of faith, because all too often the deep meaning behind the symbolism was left behind and they were then presented as quick spiritual nuggets. All you need to enter heaven is to eat this bread and drink this wine, and Jesus is in you. All you need to do to gain the kingdom of God is to be washed in the water and your sins are forgiven. All you need is to say a few words and you are born again. None of those things in themselves are wrong, in fact they are beautiful ceremonies that can be used to deepen faith but all to often they are presented as a quick simple solutions to a spiritual life that has collapsed and is failing to function. They can become a distraction to the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that says that the Kingdom of God is at hand; the kingdom is all around us and abides in and with us. They are quick fixes to a broken life that only true repentance can mend; a life where we turn from ourselves and entrust all our hopes and dreams in God, through Christ in the Spirit.
I realize that I may have stepped on toes and may have upset some people, but the truth is that if we want to see great and mighty things happen in our community we must first believe, if we want Jesus to do anything that we ask in his name, we must first be wedded to his name. If we want to see or to know deeply the intimacy of God we must experience him through that rhythm of life that was shown to us by our first advocate Jesus and continuously revealed to us by another advocate, the Spirit of Truth. There are no short cuts or quick fixes only a progression of belief beginning in knowledge, advancing to trust, and engulfed or saturated in the entrusting of our being to God.
Where is it that we stand? Do you have an increase of appetite but a collapse of function? Do you have a yearning for something deeper but do not see where to go? There is one, even Christ Jesus that can speak to your condition. Let us now seek that intimacy with God as we enter into this time of holy expectancy and open worship. Let the Spirit of Truth intercede and counsel you in the ways of Christ and let us experience the love of God so that we can then become the living testimony of his commandments.
Scripture: John 14:1-14
How many of us have been asked a question such as this: “If you could talk to any one in the world from any period of time, whom would you want to talk to?” It is a wonderful what if question, as most what if questions are. What if that happened instead of this? The problem with the, “what if,” question is that you can speculate all you want but it will never change. There would be countless people that I would want to speak with. There are theologians that I would like to talk to just to understand how or why they have come to their conclusions when the extent of church history prior to them looked at things totally different. I would love to talk to the disciples, to hear of their experiences, I would love to talk with Jesus face to face. I would like even like to have a conversation with people that are presently living, the president, maybe even the pope. One answer to that question that I bet most of us have not given is to talk with our future great grandchildren, because it would be very interesting to know how the choices I have made today affects them in the future. The problem is that I cannot travel through space and time, and I do not know anyone famous, so it is highly unlikely that I will have an opportunity to speak to anyone like that, but there is a way to get to know someone that we do not have personal access to. I can get to know the saints of history by reading accounts of their lives or reading their writings. I can listen to their stories through the mouths of their descendants or even their students. There are biographies, interviews, speeches, scholars and many other avenues where we can begin to develop an understanding of who or what people are about. With all the books and interviews an issue remains, without personal contact with an individual can we really know who they are, or are we only seeing them through the eyes of someone else.
If you were to read a couple of biographies of a famous historical figure you would quickly find that the image of the person created by the author reflects what they want us to know about that particular person. The authors have a slant; they are interpreting the person’s life through their own eyes.
In today’s reading of scripture Jesus is speaking to the disciples just prior to His trial and execution. He is telling them how terrible things will be in the near future, that even His most outspoken supporter will deny that he even knows Him three times before the dawning of the next day. But He urges them to stay strong. Not to let their hearts be troubled.
If I were just told that I was going to be an absolute failure it would be very difficult for me to not be worried about the near future. If I were going to take a job and as I was beginning the training the boss were to tell me you are going mess up completely how could be excited about my future security?
But Jesus does not just leave them hanging. He reminds them that they believe in God. They know the history of their people and how God had taken them up out of Egypt, how He had given them the promised land, and how even after they had turned away from Him, He had brought them back to the land. They believed in God. They knew that God was their God. In a short little statement Jesus is reminding them that Israel failed God, and that they too will fall short, but that they should continue to believe. “You have and still believe that God did and does mighty works,” Jesus is telling them, “believe also in Me.”
As I have studied this passage over the past week this first verse really stuck with me. This is really the entire gospel wrapped up in one verse, because what do we know about God? Like all personalities everything we know about God or think we know about God has been transmitted to us through a cultural context, and through the interpretations of people throughout history. It is often difficult to admit that maybe our understanding of faith may not be exactly correct. But in this one verse Jesus has basically summed up the entire Gospel. If you believe in God, believe in Jesus too.
This is a bold statement really. We may not understand just how bold this statement is because we are reading it after 2000 years of interpretation through people totally devoted to Jesus, but on that particular day in that moment, to most people of Israel Jesus was not seen as God, but as a prophet. I am not saying that the 2000 years of interpretation is erroneous, I am only saying that because of the progression through history and the continuous study and practice of faith we can sometimes forget that a statement such as this was very risky. In that culture you did not even say the name of God because mankind was not worthy of it. If one were to speak that name they were seen as using His name in vain, and being sinful. But Jesus was not only speaking of God in a very relational sense, but also saying that He was equal.
You believe in God, believe also in Me. What do we know about God? For thousands of years the Jewish people have believed in God. They have an understanding of God, how He responds to humanity and what is required of mankind to find favor with God. Jesus through his ministry challenges this understanding of God in many ways. If we were to just read the Sermon on the Mount we see challenge after challenge. Jesus would say, “You have heard it said…” fill in the blank, “but I say…” What he was getting at is that after thousands of years of study and practice even the chosen race still knew very little about God. To be honest how could they understand God? How is it possible to build an understanding of a being that is so beyond our comprehension? So they would study, they would examine the books of law and history of their people, they would come to conclusions, and they would develop around those conclusions a practical lifestyle of righteousness. They believed in God, but did they know God?
This is the very definition of Theology, or the study of God. It is a constant study, examination, and formation of theories about God. But depending on the information we begin the study with we can come out with a concept of God that could be completely wrong. In many ways theology is a dry pursuit, it is as if we are looking at scripture like it were a frog in biology class. Many of us have pretty much the same response, we are afraid to touch it, so we simply accept the word of others and assume they have done things correctly. But at least in biology we can see what it is we are studying. When it comes to theology we have just the abstract. So it is very easy to get tied up in areas, bogged down and stuck into thinking in certain ways. We see God as judge, creator, king, and it becomes very difficult to see God as something outside our ways of thinking.
This is where the various reformations of faith have occurred. Someone challenged the traditional understandings of God and after much debate and persecution we moved forward and gained a different perspective on God. Jesus was the beginning of a reformation of the Jewish faith, but it went far beyond just a simple reformation.
Jesus says, “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen him.” To know God we must look at the revelations God has given us. Jesus is the most complete revelation of God to humanity. Jesus came down from heaven to be born of Mary, he lived among us to teach and show us what life with God truly was. Throughout the Gospels Jesus continuously challenges the traditional understanding of God and shows us something more complete. If you see Jesus you see God. Jesus is the Word of God; Jesus is the Light of God. These concepts are very important; if we move away from these we skew our understanding of God. We again get focused on one aspect and make a claim about God that may not be complete. And we can begin to move away from God.
The prophets of the Old Testament warned Israel of these things. Often the faithful would get so wrapped up in certain concepts, mainly the law, that they forgot something else, like mercy. Or maybe they focused so much on mercy and grace that they forgot that God is a jealous God. What Jesus did is he showed us life with God. A balanced perfect life with God, the perfect balance between worship, prayer, and service. If we want to know God we should first look at Jesus.
This changes things up for the faithful. What do we see Jesus doing and teaching in the gospels? How does Jesus respond in situations? How do we respond? Even when Jesus is telling the disciples they are going to fail he does not let them dwell there. Yes, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but God is saying do not let your hearts be troubled…Believe.
This concept of belief is one that is very deep. It moves beyond just thinking or having knowledge that something is true and goes into trust, and then it moves from trust to entrust. To believe is not just in the head, but it is in the heart. It then flows out of the heart and spills over to others. I bring up those three concepts because they are very important. Faith begins with an acknowledgement in our minds, I believe because I see. Then there is one step more to the idea, “I will believe even if I do not see,” this is trust. The concept of entrust is a bit more difficult. To entrust is to let go of control and allow something that is important to us be controlled by someone else. When we place money in a bank or invest it in a market of some sort, we are entrusting our money, our wealth to someone else. This third step of belief or faith is the area that we have trouble, because it is here that we risk losing ourselves completely.
This concept of entrusting completely is what moves Christianity away from other religions, even away from the Jewish faith. Anyone can have belief in the knowledge part of faith. Universities are filled with knowledge, and they release out into the world people with knowledge. But there can be professors of faith that have not moved beyond knowledge. With trust we have to start walking, our knowledge begins to have action with it. With trust we begin to see things like discipline, if you pray you will have an answer. If you do certain rituals you will find favor. This is where most religions stop, because this is where we as humans still have control in faith. But entrust is a concept that many rarely see. To entrust, one must have knowledge and discipline but they also have to release and risk. Peter had knowledge; he had followed Jesus for three years and listened to the teachings. He had trust, he followed Jesus wherever he went, he participated in the disciplines that Jesus taught, and he even went out to minister in Jesus’ name. But when the time came to risk, Peter, the rock, would deny Jesus three times in one night. Peter, the rock, could not yet entrust his life in Jesus. Jesus said to him and the others, “do not let your heart be troubled…believe.” He is saying start it over, go back to knowledge, go back to the disciplines, and then take that step again to entrust. It is a cycle, every day we must not only believe with our mind, and trust that God will provide, but also entrust every aspect of our lives in Jesus. And when we fail Jesus says to us believe.
But what exactly do we believe in? There are countless theologies out there. Many of us believe that there are basically two major camps of theology, but that is a gross under estimation. Each of these theologies fail in some way, because every theory of theology is at best man’s attempts to explain God. Many begin with creation and then try to systematically explain everything else. Some may being with humanity, others science, some philosophy. But where is Christ? Jesus must be in the center of theology because it is in him that we see the Father. It is through Jesus that we can see the loving God even when the plagues are hitting Egypt. It is through Jesus that we can understand the Acts of the Apostles. It is through Jesus that we can begin to understand our own humanity and how we should react to those around us that have a different understanding of life. Jesus is central. It is Jesus that brought God to mankind, it is Jesus that lifts mankind to God, it is through Jesus that the Spirit of God flows and it is in Jesus that we can entrust our lives to the Spirit of God today. It is Jesus, in whom the Old Testament was fulfilled and Jesus our future is held. The Christian life is well beyond religion, because it is entrusting our life and our hope in something we have little or now control, it is giving all we have mind, body and spirit to Jesus. It is placing our entire life into the hands of Jesus with the hope that we will have a dwelling with God.
As we enter into a time of open worship, and communion with God I encourage each of us to consider just where we stand on that spectrum of belief. I also want us to ask ourselves a “what if” question, what if we were to fully entrust our meeting, and our lives and the lives of those around us into the hands of Jesus.
Scripture: Matthew 27:11-54
Today we celebrate with thousands if not millions of people the crowning of a king. A king who we believe was sent to us from God, who was going to restore order and peace to the nations. Today is Palm Sunday.
Over the years I wonder if we really understand what this day really represents? We like millions before and around us claim that Jesus is king. We sing Praise to God, “Hosanna. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” Hosanna, such a strange word. A word that means save, rescue, help, or “save, I pray.” It is a cry of mercy of those that are found in the midst of a deep dilemma. Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. This was the cry of people that were caught in the midst of cultural, political, and religious bondage and they we crying PLEASE SAVE US!
Today we use this term almost flippantly. We sing in our hymns and choruses of praise, but do we really think about what is being said? We say it as if it is the rallying cry or the slogan of a dynamic king but in reality it is a cry for help, an urgent desire to know the truth and to be set free.
The depth of the words we use can loose their meaning on us. Terms like awesome were once used only to describe seemingly miraculous events that were beyond description and could only be attributed to divine intervention. Today its use is so common that my tie could be awesome… And my tie is not nearly a miraculous event that can only be attributed to divine intervention, it is something common, anyone and everyone has access to one similar if they go to their local department store. Hosanna is one such word. We raise our hands and cry hosanna as we sing… well some people do but not us necessarily, but when we use it we are not really screaming for salvation. We use it like many other words in worship; its deep meaning has almost been completely lost through the generations.
I begin here because I want us to really picture the struggle of this festive and turbulent time, this day we call Palm Sunday. There were many that wanted Jesus to be their king, as he rode into the City of David on the donkey so long ago. In the midst of their struggle, their strong desire to be free from the exploitation of their overlords they were crying out Save us, and lead us to God. Then there were others there that had become accustom to the overlords and the status quo. They used their positions to manipulate and control, though being very faithful to the traditions of their Fathers, but using it for personal advantage in their present life. The faith and the law became empty. Those that could afford the status gained favor and those that could not could only move up in status if they exhibited some extraordinary gift: a gift of leadership, a beautiful voice, maybe even if they had some special understanding of finance and they systems of trade. Both sides were looking for a king but both sides were seeing very different pictures of what that king would actually look like. One was the source of salvation, freedom, and dignity. The other saw one who would unite and empower the leaders to rule and control the nation completely.
These two views bring us to the passion we read about today, two groups with two very different views of a singular figure looking through lenses of their interpretations to determine where they would stand. This tension was not only on the outside the circle of disciple of Jesus, but ran deeply in the interactions of those closest to Jesus. When we consider the names and occupations of the twelve men we know as the disciple or apostles we see stories emerge Matthew or Levi was a tax collector, a man whose namesake was the tribe of Israel devoted to service to the Lord but was living a life sold out to the ones that were oppressing the chosen people. We have Simon the Zealot; we may assume they added the Zealot to differentiate between Simon Peter and the other Simon but Zealot is a term that had meaning and would not be used for a person without a purpose. Simon was a freedom fighter, one that would give his life for the cause of Israel and would do anything to advance the faith and nation. Then there is Judas Iscariot, the demon of the gospel narratives. Some would venture to say that Judas was also an extreme Zealot likening the term Iscariot to the men of the dagger, meaning that Judas may have been a member of an ultra secret fighting force of Israel, a band of assassins. We do not know this for sure, but it does give some insight into how or why he did the things he did.
Men of different background within and without Jesus’ inner circle with projecting their desires onto who or what Jesus should be. Yet a week after this seemingly jubilant time Jesus is found not on a throne but mocked before the world standing at the judgment seat. How quickly the crowds moved from crying out for salvation to crying out for blood, yet how far are we from these people?
Jesus, standing before the governor is asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replies, “You say so.” Have you thought about that short conversation? Have you really considered what Jesus was really saying? You say so. Meaning, for him to be standing before this man, this man in some fashion had to make a judgment either way. This man, Pilate, would either have to say yes he is the king or say no he is not. The answer to this question had very different ramifications. One leads to death as a rebel the other would lead to freedom. Pilate refused to make a judgment. This is not the history of this particular man. Pilate was not an indecisive man, in fact history shows that this man would nail someone to a tree for a cross less, Jesus even makes a reference about the bloodiness of Pilate when he speaks of the Galileans whose blood was mixed with the blood of the sacrifices. Pilate was quick to make Judgment. But there was something different about Jesus.
Jesus was a very popular and radical figure. He had a following that could at any moment turn to rebellion, Rome definitely would have had their eyes on this man, because any large group of people meeting together would have attracted the attention of any tyrannical leader. Pilate knew what Jesus taught, he was probably behind some of the questions that Jesus was asked, because the Sadducees were in many instances puppets of the Romans. Jesus posed a threat but the greater threat was not in the man himself but in what would happen if he took a side in the issue.
Pilate comes up with a crafty plan, he had made a custom of pardoning someone during the festival, so he brings before the people Jesus, and Jesus Barabbas. This is an interesting trial. Jesus or Joshua means literally means God Saves, or God is our deliverance or salvation. Both men presented before the people had this name. Both men stood before them as icons of the hope that the people of God had in their future, an image of who their faith and trust truly hung. Barabbas is a compound name, Bar means of, and Abbas, or abba means father. So Barabbas means of a father, or a man’s way. We have before the people a trial or a crossroad. Standing before them they must chose do we want to move forward in this new teaching of Jesus or do we want to fall back into the comfort of the faith of our fathers. Do we move forward in the light of God, or do we keep doing what we have always done. Do we choose the kingdoms of men or the Kingdom of God? This choice would determine not only the future of the nation but is a testimony in who or what their faith lays.
The crowd chose the zealot, bandit, freedom fighter Barabbas over Jesus. They chose to continue the struggle and fight between the cultures of Rome and Judea over a new path. They chose war over peace. Jesus was not anti Rome, and Pilate knew this. Jesus was not worried about the political aspects of the world, but was focused on the personal relationships between God and man. In other Gospels Jesus answers Pilates question my kingdom is not of this world. Which was ok with Pilate because in that statement Jesus was saying I could careless about the government, but what is important is how we treat the people around us. But the people chose Barabbas.
Jesus came teaching a rhythm of life, a rhythm of Worship, Prayer, and Service. He taught this rhythm to his disciples, a rhythm goes beyond national boarders, cultures, and races. It did not matter if the faithful to this lifestyle were Jewish, Samaritan, or even a Gentile, Jesus taught the rhythm and served all people. The healing he provided went to the people of Israel and also to the Roman official, Jesus sat at the table with Pharisees and touched the lepers. It did not matter who you were if you cried Hosanna Jesus was willing to serve.
But the people chose Barabbas, and in that choice they chose tradition over obedience. The soldiers dressed Jesus up and mocked him. Giving him a robe of scarlet and crown of thrones and a reed as scepter. They bowed down to him hailing him as king, but just the hails were nothing more than empty words filled with hate. They hung him on a cross and the people also mocked him. “He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.”
How often do we join in that chorus, mocking Jesus instead of crying out Hosanna? How often do we cry out for Barabbas instead of becoming a blessing for those around us? I ask these questions in all seriousness because often we can get so tied up in our theology and apologetics that we forget to listen to the cries of hosanna around us. We see the person struggling with a substance abuse problem and we judge before we offer help, we talk badly about the scared teenager who chose an abortion instead of encouraging her to embrace a testimony of respect for all life, or maybe we reject completely a person who has a view different world than our own. When we cry Barabbas or hold firm to tradition, we often fail to participate in the very ministry that Jesus has been urging and inspiring us to take up.
I am not saying that theology is bad. I love theology. I will read theology as eagerly as I can read the latest mystery novel. But theology should be moving us to action. Theology is one of those deep aspects of prayer and embracing the Spirit of God, as we study theology or study God we should be moved into something greater. Our prayers and interactions with God should draw us closer to the one we worship and to those He loves.
The mockers stood before Jesus on the cross, and listened to Him scream out to the Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” It is similar to the pleas that Jesus gives in the Revelation recorded by John and sent to the seven churches. So many left their first love, so many left the cries of Hosanna, and instead began to cry Barabbas.
Why have you forsaken me? Where do you find our help, where do we find salvation, where is our hope? Is it in the heritage we gain from our fathers or is it in the revelation of God? Jesus is the full and true revelation of God, He is the Word made flesh to dwell among us. Jesus left the glory of heaven, was made into the likeness of man, and born of Mary. He grew in knowledge of the Lord as He learned just like each of us how to read, how to interact with others, and how to work all the care of our parents. He took on the full experience of humanity, he knows our struggles and our pains, and He knows our temptations, and the spiritual and emotional strength that is required to overcome those temptations. He had friends and lost friends, he experienced rejections and wept when a loved one died. He came down to earth to restore the relationship between God and Mankind. In His divinity He brings God to man, and in His humanity he lifts us up to God.
Today we are left with a choice, the choice is one that has faced every person in all of history, and it is the choices that Pilate gave the people of Judea that day. Which will you choose? Who will you choose to be your salvation, Jesus or Barabbas? One led the people of Judea into the Jewish wars and the destruction of all that they held dear. The other leads us to the cross. One leads us to the failing kingdoms of men here today and gone tomorrow, while the other leads us to the hope of a new restored life that will last into eternity. One mocks while the other restores, one is a path of darkness and destruction while the other is a path to light. One is a rhythm of continuous cycles of selfishness, exploitation, and manipulation, while the other is a rhythm that bring us to become a people loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others.
As we enter into this time of open worship and holy expectancy I want us each to imagine ourselves standing there with the crowd before Pilate, looking up toward the judgment seat. Who will we choose? Which lifestyle will we choose? Will we chose a life that brings hope or despair? Will we choose Barabbas or Christ?