Three Questions for Good Friday

Transcription

1 Three Questions for Good Friday Some years ago I led a group of Christian university students on a two month trip into China to teach English. We made lots of local friends including one young Chinese woman who joined us as a translator and guide. In the evenings I would teach the Australian students from the Bible. We would read a passage of scripture and then I d ask some questions to help the students process the content: Why do you think Jesus said this, what are the implications of that etc. Our Chinese friend was utterly bewildered by this process. She knew that I was the teacher, but she couldn t understand why I was asking the questions! In fact, she enquired of one student Why is he asking you the questions? Does he not understand what he s trying to teach? Her own experience of education was that the teacher told the students what to think and the students had the responsibility to remember it. This idea of the teacher leading the student through the asking of questions was something completely new for her. Now, our practice here in the church is to use a variety of educational methods This sermon is a monologue with the discussion going in one direction. But we also have growth groups that meet during the week where the learning is based around discussion. This is appropriate for us as a church because Jesus himself used a variety of methods. Sometimes he would speak at great length, But sometimes he would simply ask a short and snappy question that made people stop and think. In fact, in the Gospels Jesus is asking questions right up until his death, and then after he is raised from the dead he simply picks up from where he left off and he keeps asking questions! When you read Luke s account of what we sometimes call Holy Week (The week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday) we find 37 separate questions that are asked by various characters, 17 of them by Jesus himself. The effect of all these questions is quite striking because the questions end up addressing us as readers. They force us to think about the meaning of all these events. 1

2 What I thought we might do over this Easter weekend is to allow Luke s account to ask us some of these questions. Three questions today, and then three different questions on Sunday. Some of these questions are asked by Jesus, some are asked by other characters, all off them remain relevant for people living today, all of them demand some kind of response to the events of the first Easter. Our first question is not asked by Jesus but it is asked of Jesus. It comes in the middle of Christ s trial before Pilate, the Roman Governor. The Jewish leaders had brought Jesus to Pilate to try and get Jesus executed, And so we hear them leveling the charge which they think will do the trick. We have found this man subverting our nation, they cry out in chapter 23.2, He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king. The allegation about opposing taxes was a bald- faced lie, Jesus actually said the opposite just a few chapters earlier: Give back to Caesar what is Caesar s. But the charge of Jesus claiming to be a King had more weight. He was often found speaking about a new Kingdom that would be established. And maybe, if the Romans felt this was a big enough threat, then such a charge might secure Christ s execution. And so we come to our first question in Chapter The Roman governor asks Jesus: Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus response is somewhat cryptic: You have said so is the reply he gives. He s neither affirming or denying the accusation I think the sense of what Jesus is saying is something along the lines of: Yes Pilate I am a king, but not in the way that you might think. We get a fuller description of this interaction in John s Gospel, where Jesus informs Pilate that his Kingdom is not of this world. Jesus was not interested in setting up an earthly Kingdom, rather his authority is one that, for a time, will run alongside the kings of the earth before taking over completely when the world comes to an end. So he is a king, but a king of a different order to Pilate s boss, the Emperor. These days Kings and Presidents don t get very good press. In the last little while we ve had one leader gas his own people, We ve had leaders threatening nuclear war, We ve seen a leader elected who jokes about sexual assault. Why would we as a church wish to promote Jesus as a King? Despite what we read in the news, Kings can be leaders worthy of respect. Maybe we get a more positive picture if we head to the world of literature Think of Aslan in CS Lewis The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe: 2

3 A King who through his own willing sacrifice saves his people from the evil Winter witch or think of Aragorn in Tolkien s The Lord of the Rings: A King who returns to his embattled land to release it from evil forces Now In hearing me put forward these examples you might think to yourself He has to rely on fiction to find a good King! But it s interesting that both CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien were Christian men, and so their ideas of Kingship were formed by Christ s example, esp Lewis. The good kings of literature find their inspiration in the Jesus of the Bible, a real man who showed us what real leadership can be like: self- sacrificing and focused on the good his people. And so I d like to ask you a question similar to the one asked by Pilate. Do you think Jesus is a king? Could he be more than just an interesting figure of history? Could he be more than a good example of a moral man? Is he a king who is worthy of our allegiance, a King who has something to offer those who become his subjects? How important is it to answer this question? Maybe we can get away with not worrying about a response to Jesus! Well, Luke has two other questions which indicate that quite a lot is riding on our answer. Pilate was not convinced that Jesus formed any credible threat to Roman rule, and so he tries to release him, but the threat that does emerge is the threat of a riot on behalf of Jesus enemies. And so to satisfy the angry mob Pilate hands Jesus over to be crucified. It s as Jesus is being led to the place of his execution that we hear our second question. Understandably, Jesus followers were distraught at how events were unfolding. In Ch 23: 28 Jesus stops and says to the women who were mourning for him Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed! 30 Then they will say to the mountains, Fall on us! and to the hills, Cover us! 31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? There is no doubt that Jesus was suffering a great injustice. Not only was he innocent of any crime deserving of death under Roman law, but here he was, being rejected, tortured and executed by a people committing the greatest crime imaginable: Crucifying the King chosen by God himself to lead his people. 3

4 And so when Jesus speaks in verses 29 and 30 of a coming disaster, He s referring to a judgment that will fall on Jerusalem for this very crime. God will not sit idly by while his messiah is treated with such distain, And so around 40 years later, after an attempted revolt by the jewish people, Jerusalem would be crushed by the might of the Roman army. The question in verse 31 once more has Jesus being a little cryptic: 31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry What Jesus means is something along the lines of: If the Romans are willing to do this to an innocent man, What is going to happen to a city that really is guilty? Jesus is asking us to reflect on what the consequences are for people who reject him as king. And friends, the consequences are frightening. The distinction between a green tree and dry kindling is stark. I ve only ever played with matches once. In the house where I grew up there was a bank of grass in the yard, and one day I was in the backyard flicking matches against the ignition strip and watching them spark and somersault through the air before they fizzled out and landed harmlessly on the ground. But then I looked up and I thought to myself, What would happen if one landed on that bank of grass? It was during a dry summer, and the grass was long and yellow, more like straw than green lawn, but I did it. I was shocked at how quickly the spark ignited that patch of yard, within two seconds I had a small grass fire, and if it wasn t for the garden hose nearby it could have been really bad. And the image is used here to describe God s response to the rejection of his King. His judgment will consume the guilty like a fire consumes dry grass. What will happen if we reject Christ as King? Well, what happens to dry grass when it meets a spark? It s not something that any sensible person wants to test. This is what you might call a negative reason for accepting Christ as king: we accept him to avoid the consequences that come with rejecting him. But things are balanced up with a more positive reason when we hear the last question that I wish to share with you today. Jesus is lead to his place of death, and he is strung up between two genuine criminals, one on his left and one on his right. One of the criminals who hung there, we read in v39, hurled insults at him: Aren t you 4

5 the Messiah? Save yourself and us! But the other criminal rebuked him and here comes our third question Don t you fear God, he said, since you are under the same sentence? Don t you fear God? It s one of those questions you ask when you can t believe you re seeing someone else make a huge mistake. The question you ask when you know what the right thing to do is, but the person next to you seems to have no idea. You re going to flick that match into the dry grass? What are you doing?! He then turns to Jesus in v 42: Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Unlike plenty of others in Jerusalem it seems that the second thief understands Jesus pretty well: Not only is he innocent of any wrong doing, but he really is a King who is gathering his subjects together. Jesus responds with one of the most precious promises in the whole Bible Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. If Jesus is a King, the type of king who inspired characters like Aslan and Aragorn, then what kind of salvation is he offering? These are kings who save their people from trouble, so what trouble is Jesus saving us from? By his own admission, this thief was a guilty man; we are punished justly he says. But notice that his own sins are no barrier to the promise of eternal life. Maybe you ve come to church this Easter being acutely aware of the wrongs you have perpetrated in your life; wrongs against others, wrongs against God. Jesus himself assumes that everyone is a sinner in need of forgiveness; When he teaches his disciples to pray the Lord s Prayer he includes the line forgive us our sins that s standard for everyone. But message of Easter is that by his death and resurrection Jesus has erased our sins, all we need to do is imitate the thief and ask Jesus to count us in. So Jesus is saving us from our sins. And this means that Jesus is also saving us from the consequence of sin: He s saving us from death. What does he say to his new friend at the cross? Today you will be with me in paradise The promise for this thief was that Good Friday would never become Final Friday; There was an immediate future for him with Christ in heaven. 5

6 This was brought home for me in very clear way just yesterday when I was called over to the Hospital to pray with a man in his final hours. As I shared with James this story of the thief on the cross, it struck me that James would go to be with Jesus that very day. Death was upon him, but because of Christ s saving work, Yesterday would not be James final day But something more like a moving day, A day of transition to something wonderful. Why should we recognize Jesus as King? Sure it s worth recognizing Jesus to avoid judgment, but it s also worth it to gain access to paradise. Don t you fear God? It s an important question because if you don t, you re missing out on something incredible. So these are some of the questions asked by Luke as Jesus heads to the cross. Sometimes questions can be irritating and uncomfortable, cant they? They expose areas of weakness and force us to turn our minds to things we d rather not think about. I went to the dentist the other day and got the same question I always get: Have you been flossing? Everytime I m asked this! I can t lie because she knows the answer just by looking. So I give the same answer Sometimes. But why is she asking this? She only wants what s best, It s a question that asked for my own benefit. and it s the same with these questions here in Luke. What will happen when it is dry? Don t you fear God? Questions which prompt us to consider whether we really do think of Jesus as God s true King. I hope you do, because his eternal kingdom is waiting for you. Let me lead us in prayer. 6