March 21, 2010. Lent 5 Passion Sunday
The Rev. Kurt J Henle, Rector, All Saints Anglican Church, Traverse City, MI
OT: Isaiah 1:10-20; Psalm 71; Epistle: Hebrews 9:11-15; Gospel: John 8:46-59
Today, we begin the Passiontide, the 3rd stage of our Easter preparations. As you recall, during Lent we are called to walk with our Lord Jesus to Jerusalem, & there to follow Him into His suffering, death, & Resurrection. Three weeks in Lent were set aside for discerning the enemy’s work against our Lord & His people. Then, last week, we celebrated Refreshment Sunday, Christ’s provision for our spiritual & material wellbeing, even during times of testing & attacks from the enemy.
Now, with Passiontide, Jesus has reached Jerusalem (Jn 7, 8) & we enter the most intense phase in the battle between the Kingdom of Light & Darkness. In Jn 8:12 Jesus declared that He is the light of the world. There is no neutral ground in this cosmic war. All people must take sides, either with Christ, or His enemies. Leading up to the Gospel today, Jerusalem was filled with the people who had come for the Feast of Tabernacles - Sukkot. Jesus preached, taught, healed, raised Lazarus from the dead, & disputed w the Temple establishment.
What was the response of the people? John 7:40-41 tells us that some in the multitude said “This certainly is The Prophet”. Others said “This is the Christ”. Indeed, “many came to believe in Jesus” we read in Jn 8:30. But others objected, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from the Galilee, is He?”
You see, God’s Word always divides people – Lk 11:23 “Whoever is not with me is against me, & whoever gathers not with me, scatters”. Agitation increased. Some pressed for having Jesus arrested. The Temple guard kept a lid on rising tempers. Later, when the Temple guard reported the incident to the chief priests & Pharisees, they were reproved for not turning Jesus in.
But He did nothing wrong – how could they arrest Him? Besides, they said, “No one ever spoke like this man!" (Jn 7:46) The rulers sensed guarded admiration for Jesus & suggested Deception instead. “You have not also been led astray, have you?” they threatened – v 47. And then their menacing claim: “no one of the RULERS, or Pharisees, have believed in Him, has he? But this multitude which does not know the Law is accursed” – Jn 7:48-9.
Through Christ’s opposition we see a STRATEGY: 1st willful Confusion over Who Jesus really is. Then Distraction – should the Messiah come from the Galilee or Bethlehem? – tangential issues replace the really critical question. 3rd, the Division of the people – the words of Jesus against those of the religious experts, chief priests & Pharisees. And finally Intimidation, with guilt by association. Anyone siding with Jesus & that Ignorant Crowd: let them be Accursed! Jesus’ enemies, even here, wouldn’t mind bending the Law - having Jesus arrested for civil unrest – anything to silence Him.
Intimidation works well - most of the time. The Temple guards probably retreated quietly, perhaps fearing for their jobs. In the ranks of the Pharisees, Nicodemus, a prominent Pharisee & secret supporter of Jesus was equally intimidated. Cautiously he raised a legal point, “Does our law judge a man w/o first giving him a hearing & learning what he does?" he asked – v 51. The chief priest was in no mood for legalities & fairness. Instead, he threatened: “Are you from Galilee too?” - Guilt by association. To root out any opposition in the ranks, the chief priest even said to Nicodemus: “Search [for yourself] & see that no prophet [ever came - or will come] from the Galilee." Confuse, distract, divide, & intimidate – that was & is the program.
Nicodemus could have shown that a prophet could can from the Galilee & still be born in Bethlehem. No contradiction. Nicodemus also could have pointed to Nahum, a prophet in Israel’s history who did come from the Galilee. It was he who foretold the end of Nineveh after Jonah’s mission had turned the city back to God – for a time. But then the Ninivites reverted to their old ways, & after Nahum, Nineveh was finally destroyed. Nicodemus did not insist on legal protection for Jesus against arrest w/o a cause. He failed to serve as Jesus’ legal advisor later when Jesus was tried on trumped-up charges.
Today’s Gospel, v 46, begins with Jesus challenging His enemies to convict Him of any crime, or sin. A good defense lawyer, like Nicodemus, would have had an easy case. But the intimidation worked. Have we ever been intimidated when we had a chance to speak the truth & to witness to Christ? Nicodemus, called a “leader of the Jews” in Jn 3:1 was intimidated, just as we have been - at 1 time or another. A few weeks later –secretly again – Nicodemus would bring spices, 75 lbs of myrrh & aloes to help Joseph of Arimathea prepare Jesus for the grave. Nicodemus was a timid disciple of our Lord, but a disciple nevertheless.
But there was yet another authority in the land, in fact the highest authority, Pontius Pilate, who believed in the Kingship of Christ. He also was intimidated by this group of high priests & Pharisees, but not before he publically testified to Jesus as the “the King of the Jews” – Jn 19:19.
Do you remember that Pilate had a sign nailed to the cross, over Jesus’ head that read “Jesus the Nazarene,the King of the Jews” - in Hebrew, Latin, & in Greek. In the Hebrew it would read Yeshua HaNazarei, v’melech HaYehudim. The abbreviation is the Yod Hey Vav Hey - YHVH (or YHWH) – the tetragrammaton, the unspeakable, personal, & redemptive Name of God: Jahovah, or Jahweh. The Temple establishment was outraged. They urged Pilate “do not write” yod hey vav hey (Jn 19:21). Pilate replied “What I have written, I have written”. He didn’t budge. Did he understand? We don’t know.
The Gospel lesson from Jn 8 is a short excerpt from the hostile exchange of words with the Pharisees. They pressed the scandal surrounding Jesus’ birth – Mary’s pregnancy before her marriage to Joseph. Without subtlety, they pressed – Jn 8:19 “Where is your Father?”, v 25 “Who are You?” In v 33, the contrast: “We are Abraham’s offspring”. In v 41, they declared “We were not born of fornication’” – implying that Jesus was. But it was THEN that Jesus spoke of the 2 fathers – the Father in Heaven & the OTHER father, the devil. The whole human race belongs to 1 Father, or the other.
In our Lesson today, v 46-59, the Pharisees were no longer asking questions. In v 48, they charged Jesus NOT ONLY with illegitimacy, but also with Samaritan descent – possessed by a demon besides. They accused Him of being the worst of the worst. It was then that Jesus denied their right to inherit with Fr Abraham. Their life & their faith had nothing in common with Abraham.
And then these remarkable words: v 56-58 “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it, & was glad.” How so? Last year, we talked about Gen 22, the binding of Isaac, & how Abraham acted out the ultimate sacrifice of the Son of God in the very same place, Mt Moriah, 2,000 yrs later.
Jesus concluded with the words “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was I AM”. These were the Words at the Burning Bush, Ex 3:14 , “Eheyeh asher Eheyeh”. Here God explained to Moses that He, the Great I AM, is the same Jehovah who made the eternal unilateral covenant with Abraham & his descendants. His Name means that He would be revealed by His actions, rather than a list of characteristics. And that great action was to be the Incarnation, Death & Resurrection of Jesus Christ, eternal Son of God.
There was no room for misunderstanding the meaning of Jesus’ claim to be One with the Great I AM. The Pharisees picked up stones to kill Jesus – in violation of Roman Law. But Jesus went out of the Temple & hid Himself – until the fullness of time. We mark this veiling by covering the cross during Passion-tide, until Christ’s Resurrection on Easter morning.
Jesus invites us into His Passiontide for the next 2 wks with words from Isaiah 1:18 - “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” - – through Jesus Christ, our Lord. AMEN.
