Some of you may be wondering if we’ve jumped the starting gun on Holy Week. We haven’t even gotten to Palm Sunday yet and we’re already seeing Jesus before Pilate! On that account you are right. We are going a little out of order but don’t worry; we’ll come back for the Palms in due time.
The reason that we are doing it this way, as we walk with Jesus through John’s gospel during Lent, is that so often we have one week to focus on the experience of Jesus during his betrayal and arrest. So often we focus on his suffering and not on the reason for it – apart from a massive guilt trip – and that’s not what we are here to do today.
Instead, I’d like us to look through this passage with an openness to what God has done, is doing, and will do through us as God’s people. Today’s reading picks up where we left off last week after Peter’s denial and the recognition that God can and will work in and through us, even in our darkest days.
Before we get too far into it I want to back up to verse 14, which essentially reminded us that – in case we forgot that Caiaphas already had it out for Jesus after his shenanigans at the Festival of Booths, not to mention these “rumors” of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead – “Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people.”
That’s one of those lines that we read with a wink and a nod because we know that it foreshadows Jesus’s death, right? Sure. Yes, of course, it does, but there might be a little more to it than that. More to it than the atoning death of Jesus, you say? Well…yes.
For one, Caiphas was not talking about a savior or a martyr. He was talking about a scapegoat. In Leviticus 16 there is a specific description of the practice of taking a goat and sending it into the wilderness to be devoured by the unknown threats of the wilderness. This goat bore upon it the sins of the people – not individualized sins, but the sins they committed together. Sins like allowing poverty and hunger. Sins like looking to other Gods, or just to themselves apart from God; not loving their neighbor as themselves or their God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength.
We can’t exactly say (from what we have in scripture) that Caiphas was thinking quite that specifically about Jesus, but it seems pretty clear that he was looking for someone to take the fall for anything that might smell of insurrection to Pilate, the Roman Governor of the Province of Judea. As far as Pilate is concerned, Gerard Stephen Sloyan notes in the Interpretation commentary that sources such as the writings of Josephus contend that he was “a bully.” Really, that’s putting it nicely. Some scholars note that Pilate was a cruel man who was sent to Judea to keep the Pax Romani through the crucifixion of hundreds. That’s the man who the Jewish authorities brought Jesus to see. He was not sympathetic. He was shrewd.
In v29-30 he asks, ‘What accusation do you bring against this man?’ They answered, ‘If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.’ Hmm. That seems intentionally vague. Rob McCoy, Pastor of Chrystal Lake UMC suggests in his podcast that they can’t really say, “O, he’s been drawing crowds by the thousands, teaching, healing, and proclaiming God’s kingdom.”
If they did Pilate would come down on all of them, just as Rome did after the first Jewish rebellion, so they said, “Um, you know…stuff. Trust us – he’s horrible!” In v31 Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.’ The Jewish authorities replied, ‘We are not permitted to put anyone to death.’ which was not entirely accurate. What they meant was, “We can’t kill him the way that you can. If we were to stone him his followers might rise up against us, but they won’t rise up against you! Not only that, but Deuteronomy 21:22–23 says that anyone who is hung on a tree is cut off from God and God’s people.”
Now, this is all happening in the courtyard because the Priests are getting ready for Passover, and to enter the Roman headquarters would defile them. What we are seeing here is not simply religious observance, it is religion in collusion with empire, and what follows is nothing less than Jesus being prepared as the pascal lamb. We’ll say a little more about that next week, but for now, let’s stay with the drama between Jesus and Pilate. In v33 Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Judeans?’ Essentially he wants to know if Jesus is claiming to be King of the region that he has been given to govern. Rome had already appointed a king, so if Jesus wanted the throne – this was going to be a problem.
Then in V34, Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ Basically, “Who wants to know?” It’s as if Jesus is throwing the question back to say, “Who are you really serving here?” That’s a question that I think it is important to ask ourselves as we hear this story. John’s gospel includes it as an echo of other stories. In John 10:27-28 Jesus says, “My sheep know my voice.” Pilate and the Jewish Authorities are cast as those who do not listen and cannot see the truth of the kingdom, or as some might say the kin-dom, household, and family of God!
While it’s easy to fault Pilate for this, what about us? Do we expect the way of empire to offer us salvation? Do we hear the voice of Jesus and see the light of his kingdom in the face of the stranger? Are we looking for scapegoats and political solutions that separate us from one another or are we listening for the voice of the one who calls us next of kin?
I heard a voice like that the other day on a certain social media app. It was this little, old British lady, or at least I assume she is British. Anyway, she posted this video and said that she was officially adopting everyone who could see her video, and she wanted everyone to introduce themselves in the comments and start talking to each other like they loved each other as siblings! What an amazing idea. I have to say that I hope it catches on. I have to say that I believe that gets pretty close to what Jesus had in mind when he said in v36 'My kingdom is not from this world.’
Of course, Pilate heard that and said, “AHA! So you are a king?’ but Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this, I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’
The interesting thing is that Pilate clearly does not want to hear the answer to that question. He asks it as if to say, “There is no objective truth apart from power.” This whole time, Jesus has been trying to have a theological conversation, but all that Pilate can see is his political agenda.
Very clearly, we see here what it looks like for religion to be co-opted by the state. Very clearly we see what happens when political motivations from the Jewish authorities and the Roman Empire get mixed up in such a way that it seems like values are driving their decisions, but truly they are concerned with maintaining power and control.
In the end, we see Pilate appealing to some, who may have been those same Jewish authorities who were involved in his arrest, and offering to release Jesus, calling him once more “King of the Judeans”, but they want Barabbas. The NRSV says that he is a bandit, but the nuance of the Greek is that he is more likely an insurgent – someone who is actually guilty of sedition against Rome. Some have suggested that this is an intentional reversal that John’s gospel gives us – the one released is guilty of the thing that Jesus is charged for.
While it is true that Jesus died for our sins, and thanks be to God for that, there is something more that this courtroom drama offers us. It is the realization that the death of Jesus is not as simple as a trade-off for something I did or said that was unkind. More than that, the death of Jesus was the result of collusion – even with good intentions – between church and state with the goal of regulating and limiting the lives of the many for the sake of the few.
Even more than that, the death of Jesus was an announcement of what the kingdom of God would and could be if we open ourselves up to the voice of the one whose only command is that we love with the same sacrificial, forgiving love that we have received! The truth that sets us free is that the Kingdom of God is unfolding throughout space and time. The truth that sets us free is that the Kingdom of God is not about nation or state except that it is a state of being in relationship with God and one another and indeed with all creation!
The truth that sets us free is that Jesus himself challenged Pilate’s notions of kings and power structures with the reality of God’s active presence, and he challenges us in the same way today.
In a time when governments collude to manage voter rights rather than making voting more accessible; in a time when Russia seeks to violently annex another country while we seek peace through sanctions and international cooperation; in a time when an overwhelming amount of anti-trans laws are being pushed in almost every state primarily authored by three advocacy groups; in a time when we just want to get on with life after two years of uncertainty, we need to hear this good news!
We need to hear that the kingdom of God is not about powers that subject but about love that subverts! We need to know that God is active and present and working in and through us regardless of earthly powers and princes. The cool thing is that we’re already a part of what God is doing, even if we don’t know it.
You may not know it, but we are part of the Presbytery of South Louisiana and we offer housing to low-income Seniors in 12 properties across the state. We run a Young Adult Volunteer Program
In New Orleans young adults offering a year of service that serves as a model for similar ministries around the country. We have multiple congregations in partnership with Living Waters and the Presbytery of Matanzas in Cuba.
Of course, we are one of those congregations, and we have an amazing array of offerings for our community that includes Meals on Wheels, the Westly Campus Ministry, the UCO food pantry, and hosting volunteers who come through for regional disaster response. You see, as small as we are, God is yet doing the work of unveiling the kin-dom of God in and through us.
Those who are staying for lunch today are going to talk a little more about the way we can extend the invitation of the kin-dom of God through Radical Welcome, but I want to give you just a little taste of it in case you aren’t able to stay. We’ll follow up with some materials to keep us all engaged, but here’s the thing. No matter what we do, there is always an opportunity for us to fall into the trap of desiring control and resisting the impact of the kin-dom as it unfolds.
The real invitation that we extend – the radical nature of going out of our way to include those who have been excluded – is that we find ourselves changed as much or more than those we seek to include. In a way, that kind of takes me back to the image of Barabas. How must he have felt to know that he had been released by the welcome of Jesus? For that matter, how was Jesus changed by the welcome he offered Barabas?
From that point on, we come to know for certain that God’s love knows no bounds – and that’s the truth that sets us free to love in a way that announces the kin-dom of God! May it be so with me. May it be so with you, and to God be the glory – now and always. Amen!
The reason that we are doing it this way, as we walk with Jesus through John’s gospel during Lent, is that so often we have one week to focus on the experience of Jesus during his betrayal and arrest. So often we focus on his suffering and not on the reason for it – apart from a massive guilt trip – and that’s not what we are here to do today.
Instead, I’d like us to look through this passage with an openness to what God has done, is doing, and will do through us as God’s people. Today’s reading picks up where we left off last week after Peter’s denial and the recognition that God can and will work in and through us, even in our darkest days.
Before we get too far into it I want to back up to verse 14, which essentially reminded us that – in case we forgot that Caiaphas already had it out for Jesus after his shenanigans at the Festival of Booths, not to mention these “rumors” of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead – “Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people.”
That’s one of those lines that we read with a wink and a nod because we know that it foreshadows Jesus’s death, right? Sure. Yes, of course, it does, but there might be a little more to it than that. More to it than the atoning death of Jesus, you say? Well…yes.
For one, Caiphas was not talking about a savior or a martyr. He was talking about a scapegoat. In Leviticus 16 there is a specific description of the practice of taking a goat and sending it into the wilderness to be devoured by the unknown threats of the wilderness. This goat bore upon it the sins of the people – not individualized sins, but the sins they committed together. Sins like allowing poverty and hunger. Sins like looking to other Gods, or just to themselves apart from God; not loving their neighbor as themselves or their God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength.
We can’t exactly say (from what we have in scripture) that Caiphas was thinking quite that specifically about Jesus, but it seems pretty clear that he was looking for someone to take the fall for anything that might smell of insurrection to Pilate, the Roman Governor of the Province of Judea. As far as Pilate is concerned, Gerard Stephen Sloyan notes in the Interpretation commentary that sources such as the writings of Josephus contend that he was “a bully.” Really, that’s putting it nicely. Some scholars note that Pilate was a cruel man who was sent to Judea to keep the Pax Romani through the crucifixion of hundreds. That’s the man who the Jewish authorities brought Jesus to see. He was not sympathetic. He was shrewd.
In v29-30 he asks, ‘What accusation do you bring against this man?’ They answered, ‘If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.’ Hmm. That seems intentionally vague. Rob McCoy, Pastor of Chrystal Lake UMC suggests in his podcast that they can’t really say, “O, he’s been drawing crowds by the thousands, teaching, healing, and proclaiming God’s kingdom.”
If they did Pilate would come down on all of them, just as Rome did after the first Jewish rebellion, so they said, “Um, you know…stuff. Trust us – he’s horrible!” In v31 Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.’ The Jewish authorities replied, ‘We are not permitted to put anyone to death.’ which was not entirely accurate. What they meant was, “We can’t kill him the way that you can. If we were to stone him his followers might rise up against us, but they won’t rise up against you! Not only that, but Deuteronomy 21:22–23 says that anyone who is hung on a tree is cut off from God and God’s people.”
Now, this is all happening in the courtyard because the Priests are getting ready for Passover, and to enter the Roman headquarters would defile them. What we are seeing here is not simply religious observance, it is religion in collusion with empire, and what follows is nothing less than Jesus being prepared as the pascal lamb. We’ll say a little more about that next week, but for now, let’s stay with the drama between Jesus and Pilate. In v33 Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Judeans?’ Essentially he wants to know if Jesus is claiming to be King of the region that he has been given to govern. Rome had already appointed a king, so if Jesus wanted the throne – this was going to be a problem.
Then in V34, Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ Basically, “Who wants to know?” It’s as if Jesus is throwing the question back to say, “Who are you really serving here?” That’s a question that I think it is important to ask ourselves as we hear this story. John’s gospel includes it as an echo of other stories. In John 10:27-28 Jesus says, “My sheep know my voice.” Pilate and the Jewish Authorities are cast as those who do not listen and cannot see the truth of the kingdom, or as some might say the kin-dom, household, and family of God!
While it’s easy to fault Pilate for this, what about us? Do we expect the way of empire to offer us salvation? Do we hear the voice of Jesus and see the light of his kingdom in the face of the stranger? Are we looking for scapegoats and political solutions that separate us from one another or are we listening for the voice of the one who calls us next of kin?
I heard a voice like that the other day on a certain social media app. It was this little, old British lady, or at least I assume she is British. Anyway, she posted this video and said that she was officially adopting everyone who could see her video, and she wanted everyone to introduce themselves in the comments and start talking to each other like they loved each other as siblings! What an amazing idea. I have to say that I hope it catches on. I have to say that I believe that gets pretty close to what Jesus had in mind when he said in v36 'My kingdom is not from this world.’
Of course, Pilate heard that and said, “AHA! So you are a king?’ but Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this, I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’
The interesting thing is that Pilate clearly does not want to hear the answer to that question. He asks it as if to say, “There is no objective truth apart from power.” This whole time, Jesus has been trying to have a theological conversation, but all that Pilate can see is his political agenda.
Very clearly, we see here what it looks like for religion to be co-opted by the state. Very clearly we see what happens when political motivations from the Jewish authorities and the Roman Empire get mixed up in such a way that it seems like values are driving their decisions, but truly they are concerned with maintaining power and control.
In the end, we see Pilate appealing to some, who may have been those same Jewish authorities who were involved in his arrest, and offering to release Jesus, calling him once more “King of the Judeans”, but they want Barabbas. The NRSV says that he is a bandit, but the nuance of the Greek is that he is more likely an insurgent – someone who is actually guilty of sedition against Rome. Some have suggested that this is an intentional reversal that John’s gospel gives us – the one released is guilty of the thing that Jesus is charged for.
While it is true that Jesus died for our sins, and thanks be to God for that, there is something more that this courtroom drama offers us. It is the realization that the death of Jesus is not as simple as a trade-off for something I did or said that was unkind. More than that, the death of Jesus was the result of collusion – even with good intentions – between church and state with the goal of regulating and limiting the lives of the many for the sake of the few.
Even more than that, the death of Jesus was an announcement of what the kingdom of God would and could be if we open ourselves up to the voice of the one whose only command is that we love with the same sacrificial, forgiving love that we have received! The truth that sets us free is that the Kingdom of God is unfolding throughout space and time. The truth that sets us free is that the Kingdom of God is not about nation or state except that it is a state of being in relationship with God and one another and indeed with all creation!
The truth that sets us free is that Jesus himself challenged Pilate’s notions of kings and power structures with the reality of God’s active presence, and he challenges us in the same way today.
In a time when governments collude to manage voter rights rather than making voting more accessible; in a time when Russia seeks to violently annex another country while we seek peace through sanctions and international cooperation; in a time when an overwhelming amount of anti-trans laws are being pushed in almost every state primarily authored by three advocacy groups; in a time when we just want to get on with life after two years of uncertainty, we need to hear this good news!
We need to hear that the kingdom of God is not about powers that subject but about love that subverts! We need to know that God is active and present and working in and through us regardless of earthly powers and princes. The cool thing is that we’re already a part of what God is doing, even if we don’t know it.
You may not know it, but we are part of the Presbytery of South Louisiana and we offer housing to low-income Seniors in 12 properties across the state. We run a Young Adult Volunteer Program
In New Orleans young adults offering a year of service that serves as a model for similar ministries around the country. We have multiple congregations in partnership with Living Waters and the Presbytery of Matanzas in Cuba.
Of course, we are one of those congregations, and we have an amazing array of offerings for our community that includes Meals on Wheels, the Westly Campus Ministry, the UCO food pantry, and hosting volunteers who come through for regional disaster response. You see, as small as we are, God is yet doing the work of unveiling the kin-dom of God in and through us.
Those who are staying for lunch today are going to talk a little more about the way we can extend the invitation of the kin-dom of God through Radical Welcome, but I want to give you just a little taste of it in case you aren’t able to stay. We’ll follow up with some materials to keep us all engaged, but here’s the thing. No matter what we do, there is always an opportunity for us to fall into the trap of desiring control and resisting the impact of the kin-dom as it unfolds.
The real invitation that we extend – the radical nature of going out of our way to include those who have been excluded – is that we find ourselves changed as much or more than those we seek to include. In a way, that kind of takes me back to the image of Barabas. How must he have felt to know that he had been released by the welcome of Jesus? For that matter, how was Jesus changed by the welcome he offered Barabas?
From that point on, we come to know for certain that God’s love knows no bounds – and that’s the truth that sets us free to love in a way that announces the kin-dom of God! May it be so with me. May it be so with you, and to God be the glory – now and always. Amen!
Want More? Here are some resources that helped me prepare:
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