“The Crucified Messiah” John 19: 16-22

 I have some colleagues who are much wiser that I, who remind me from time to time that part of the job of being a pastor is to disappoint people at a rate they can handle. When they say that, they are referring to not being able to give folks what they want all the time. But their wise words came to mind for me this week, when I was praying about this sermon. Because I am going to disappoint many of you this morning. 

If you came to church today, because its Palm Sunday, looking for an uplifting sermon about the triumph of Jesus entering into Jerusalem on the back of the donkey, as the crowds shouted Hosanna - you are going to be disappointed. Because I am not preaching about Palm Sunday. I am preaching about the other name that is held for this particular Sunday - passion Sunday. 

In other words, we aren’t going to focus on the crowds that shouted “Hosanna!” And celebrated Jesus. Instead, we are going to focus on the crowds who surrounded Jesus as he was crucified. 

Why? While we most often say together the Apostle’s Creed, there are all sorts of different creeds, or statements about what we believe as the body of Christ, that have been passed down through the ages. Another such creed is known as the Nicene Creed and it says this, “For our sakes, he [Jesus] was crucified under Pontious Pilate.”

Friends, we need to take time, even today at the beginning of our holy week journey, and consider this vital question - what did Jesus’s death accomplish for us?

And to do that, we turn our attention to today’s text from the Gospel of John. Last week, we discussed on Pilate tried to find a middle ground to appease the crowd, having Jesus beaten, before he ultimately gave into their demands out of fear and said that Jesus would be crucified. Today’s passage picks up at that point. 

At the word of Pilate the soldiers took over the proceedings - having Jesus begin the journey of carrying his own cross to Golgotha. While the other Gospels mention Simon the Cyrene, a bystander from the crowd called on by the soldiers to help Jesus carry his cross, in John, Jesus makes that journey alone, carrying the crossbeam that could have been as much as 125 pounds. 

Golgotha was a place that was feared in ancient times. It looked like a skull, which was appropriate because that was what it was used for - executions. Even if you were coming to Jerusalem from out of town, you would have known about this place of dread and death. 

When Jesus arrived, he was hoisted up onto the vertical beam for the cross - which was a permanent fixture. And he was nailed to the cross along with a person on his left and another person on his right. 

But Pilate enters back into our text as he had a sign made to hang along with Jesus. Written in not one, not two, but three languages was the title, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Now remember that everything that Pilate has done up to this point has been to try to pacify and satisfy the crowds. But when the religious leaders object, wanting the sign changed to “This man said, I am the King of the Jews”, he wouldn’t do it. Titles reflect power - and Pilate left this title as it was written. 

When the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Cor 1:23 that “we preach Christ crucified” he is recalling to mind this horrible event, in all of its gruesomeness. Folks hearing from Paul and receiving his letters would know all about crucifixion in a way that we really don’t today. We want to create distance from it and make it neat. But it wasn’t.

And when we try to create distance in our heads about the facts of what took place during a crucifixion, we also try just as hard to create distance in our hearts from what led to this moment in history that changed everything. 

Because all of the sin of humanity was on display that day in the crowd. Hatred, action, silence, indifference, cowardice. You name it - it was there. And when we try to make it pretty, to make it just something that happened in the past, we can think well that was just those folks in that crowd. But the truth is, all of that still exists in our world, lives, and hearts today. All the ways that we are sinful were on display that day as well. And we cannot escape that. We cannot escape that Jesus died both because of us and for us. 

If given a choice between the events of Christmas or Good Friday (and yes, we know that they are tied together) a lot of people would Christmas. There is something about the sentimentality of a baby lying in a manger that makes us feel good. That is not what we feel when we talk about crucifixion - that often brings up the emotions we try to avoid - guilt, grief, and shame. 

But the manger and the cross are tied together. Todd Agnew in one of his Christmas hymns asks if “cross cast a shadow over Your cradle?” But looking at the title that Pilate proclaimed, we also think back to the first people to call Jesus the King of the Jews. The Magi who asked King Herod. “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When we truly sink into the meaning of the crucifixion and what Jesus did for us on the cross, we realize that Jesus was not just King of the Jews, but King of the world, because on that cross that day long ago, the Kingdom of God was revealed. In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor during World War II who would ultimately be martyred, “In the passion, evil is overcome by divine love… evil becomes powerfulness when it is willingly borne.”

Friends, we cannot step into the immensity of the power and victory of next week if we do not take time this week to examine our own hearts. First, to examine our hearts and remember what Jesus has done for us. In other words what really took place as part of the crucifixion. Not the pretty version or the one that we have adopted to create distance. But what truly took place. Second, to examine our hearts for any unconfessed sin we have. Sin is sin is sin, my friends. No sin is worse than another. And while we say that, we don’t always believe it. We would rather search out the sin of others than to take a hard look at our own lives about what is sepearting us from God. If we have sin, now is the time to confess it, because Jesus died to set us free from it. And third, to take time to consider what it means for us to take up our cross, daily, and follow Jesus. That answer may be a little different for each of us, but it boils down to this - how do you live differently because of what Christ did for you. 

While Palm Sunday is often a time of great joy that propels us into the greater joy of Easter, the greatest joy that is to be had is when we recognize and respond to what has been offered to us on the cross. Will you pray with me…..