April 3, 2022
John 19: 1-16a
Lent 5

Today, we continue our journey to the foot of the cross.

Last week, the high priest had sent Jesus to Pontus Pilate, the Roman governor.

The religious authorities want Jesus eliminated, but they lack the power to make that happen … only Rome holds the legal power of life and death in the region. Jesus needs to be declared a threat to Roman rule before he can receive a death sentence.

The priests leave it to Pilate to figure out how to accomplish their goal.

It’s just before the Passover Festival when Jesus is interrogated by Pilate. 

Pilate tries to understand the man before him and to determine the facts that would support the priests’ accusation. Pilate tells Jesus that he is seeking the truth.

“What is the truth,” Pilate asks at one point.

Through it all, the governor cannot find an offence that would merit the punishment that the religious authorities are seeking. He tells the priests and temple officials as much and offers compromises that would allow an innocent man to go free. 

But, the priests continue to press for a death sentence and call for the release of a bandit instead.

This week, we hear the final portion of Jesus’ trial.

Jesus is being mocked and tortured after the guilty verdict.

Roman soldiers give Jesus a crown of thorns and dress him in a purple robe … they declare him the be the “King of the Jews” … a political title … one that Jesus never claimed.

Still, Pilate tells the priests and officials that he can’t find a case against Jesus … and the prospect that Jesus might be the Son of God frightens Pilate.

By the end of today’s passage, the priests and the officials have manoeuvred Pilate into sentencing Jesus to be crucified.

They declare their allegiance to Rome’s emperor … and imply that if Pilate doesn’t hand down a death sentence, then he is disloyal to his leader.

It’s interesting that … when Pilate tells the religious authorities to kill Jesus themselves … the chief priests respond by telling the Roman governor that they have no power. But by the end of today’s passage, we can see that they have a lot more worldly power and influence than they claim.

They are the ones who push for Jesus’ death and overcome Pilate’s political power to realize their goals. 

Through their actions and their declaration, “We have no king but the emperor,” the religious leaders have tossed away their credibility as the earthly representatives of God.

To John, they have embraced the darkness because they couldn’t recognize the light that had come into the world … the couldn’t see that God was present and active in the world … even right in front of them.

All the gospel stories contain versions of Jesus being mocked as a king. The difference is who mocks Jesus and when.

In Matthew and Mark, it comes after Jesus is condemned by Pilate. In Luke, Herod is the one who mocks Jesus.

In John, though, Jesus is mocked during the trial itself. This places emphasis on the people who believe they are judging Jesus, but actually they are the ones being judged. The truth that Pilate had sought to discover during his interrogation stands in opposition to what the chief priests and temple officials actually argue for.

Human nature is on trial in today’s gospel passage … what do the priests and religious authorities embrace? What are they incapable or unwilling to see and acknowledge?

With each passage, we are invited to see ourselves … our attitudes … or our actions … in the people who inhabit the stories. This week are invited to reflect through the lens of the chief priests and temple officials … the people that John sometimes refers to as “the Jews.”

These members of the story become what they are expected to oppose.

They declare themselves loyal members of a dark society that oppresses, tortures and victimizes, rather than stand as faithful members of God’s light-filled community. They break one of the covenantal laws and place the emperor before God in their hearts.

As we near the end of Lent … a period when we are called into reflection as we journey with Jesus to the cross … perhaps we can consider if we have also placed something between us and God.

Have we remained true to our convictions … to our values … to our call to love and serve? Or have we … like the priests and temple officials … acted in ways that contradict the love-filled values that we are supposed to model? Has the uncertainty of the pandemic made us more insular … making us less inclusive … less willing to love?

What values hold our hearts?

As a church and as individuals have tradition and comfort become more important that travelling to unfamiliar places and serving unfamiliar people … ministering to them … bringing them into community … advocating for them even when there is a risk involved?

Through Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection we receive grace … the unconditional love that offers new life to the world.

May our actions … may the values we uphold … reflect that love and the grace-filled values we are to carry within our hearts and to nurture within others.

AMEN