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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, one thing that has struck me—and maybe also has struck you—is the contrast between Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky. President Putin seems to be removed from the conflict, largely unseen, isolated in his protective bubble, while President Zelensky seems to be present in the conflict, with cameras recording his meetings with heads of state, out among his people. That contrast reminded me of King David, who one time sent his military commander Joab and his servants and all Israel to battle, while he himself remained behind at Jerusalem and committed adultery and murder (2 Samuel 11:1-27). In the extended Gospel Reading for Good Friday, King David’s greatest descendant is present in the greatest conflict of all time: Jesus did not phone it in, nor did He participate virtually via Skype, but He was present in person. And, as we heard in the Gospel Reading, the matter of His kingship figured prominently in the conflict: for example, the Divinely‑inspired St. John uniquely reports a number of details about Pontius Pilate’s questioning Jesus about His kingship. Considering the Gospel Reading then, tonight we direct our thoughts to theme “Our Crucified King”.
As we heard in the Gospel Reading, the Jewish leaders told Pilate that Jesus was doing evil and deserved death. One way or another Pilate found out both that the Jewish leaders were ostensibly accusing Jesus of claiming to be an earthly king—and so allegedly being guilty of insurrection and rebellion against Caesar (Luke 23:2)—and that the Jewish leaders’ real charge against Jesus was that He claimed to be the Son of God, which for them was blasphemy that deserved death (Leviticus 24:16). In answering Pilate, Jesus made clear that He was not an earthly king with armies who was a threat to Caesar, but, when Pilate sought to release Jesus, the Jewish leaders threatened to accuse Pilate of insurrection and rebellion against Caesar, while they themselves feigned absolute loyalty to the Roman emperor.
The phrase “insurrection and rebellion” may strike us differently since the events at the U‑S capitol on January 6, 20-21; a difference I reflected on each week during Lent as we prayed in the Litany for God to deliver us “from sedition and from rebellion”. Of course, originally establishing the U-S Constitution with its presidency itself arguably was a form of rebellion, rebellion not only against the authorities of that day but also against God (Romans 13:1-2), just as in some ways the people of Israel’s originally wanting a human king was not only a rejection of the prophet Samuel and his unfaithful sons but also a rejection of God Himself as their king (1 Samuel 8:7). Like their ancestors before them, in feigning their absolute loyalty to Caesar, the Jewish leaders at least outwardly denied the kingship of God and His Messiah, His Christ. And, in many ways, we are just like them, not only sharing the same sinful nature, but also sinning in similar ways. If not for Good Friday, today would have been “tax day”, and how many of us do as Jesus did by fully rendering to Caesar that which is Caesar’s? Do we honor, serve, obey, love, and cherish our parents and other authorities whom God puts over us? Do we pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed (Romans 13:7)? God had warned the people of Israel about how much a king would take from them (1 Samuel 8:10-18)! How about our rendering to God that which is God’s? Whether disregarding His Word, misusing His Name, or not fearing, loving, and trusting in Him above all things, every sin we commit arguably is insurrection and rebellion against God.
The Gospel Reading speaks—and so we rightly think—of Judas’s betraying Jesus, the temple guard’s arresting Him, Peter’s denying Jesus, the Jewish leaders’ convicting Him, Pilate’s sentencing Jesus, the soldiers’ crucifying Him, and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus’s burying Jesus. But, in a very real sense, all of those things can be said of us! Jesus died because of us, and so His death is for us! God enables us to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to stop sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives us all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives us for the sake of “Our Crucified King”.
Few of us were around in 19-53 when Elizabeth was crowned queen with much pomp and circumstance, though we may live to see her son or grandson crowned king as her successor, with the impressive formal activities and ceremonies of that coronation. Such is the royalty and pageantry that comes to our minds! But, Jesus’s kingship is quite different. When Judas and the temple guard came, Jesus, knowing all that would happen to Him, came forward. Yet, even before that arrest in the garden, out of God’s great love and mercy, the Son of God was born into human flesh and came into the world to bear witness to the truth and so to be our long-promised saving King, to whom, like the crowds before us, we cry out, “Hosanna!” “Save us!” Though not in the sense that he probably had intended, Caiaphas prophesied truly of the expediency of one man’s dying for the people. Though not in the sense that the Jewish leaders probably intended, before Pilate Jesus did not deny but affirmed His being a king, making us His subjects. With a crown of thorns, a purple robe, and false homage, the soldiers mocked Jesus as king, and Pilate, whatever his motivation put Jesus’s being king on the inscription on the cross, and, while He was hanging on the cross, others mocked Jesus as king, too (Matthew 27:42). But, everyone who is of the truth listens to Jesus’s voice, which makes people His subjects, and they follow Him, gathering around His Word and Sacraments in order to receive the forgiveness of sins.
“Our Crucified King” provided care for His mother at the hands of the disciple whom He loved, and “Our Crucified King” provides care for His Church at the hands of the disciples and their successors. They have been given authority from above to retain sins and to forgive sins: in the reading and preaching of God’s Word of Truth and in that Word attached to water in Holy Baptism, a pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar that are Christ’s Body and Blood given and shed for you. When, after a feeding miracle, a crowd of people was about to come and take Jesus by force to make Him their earthly king, He withdrew from them (John 6:15), but to those whom the Father gives to Jesus who come to Him (John 6:37), He gives the true food and true drink of His Body and Blood, and they abide in Him and He in them, and they have eternal life, and He will raise them up on the Last Day (John 6:54‑56).
Here and now we are citizens of an earthly kingdom of sorts and a heavenly kingdom. We try to be good citizens of both kingdoms, obeying the laws and submitting to the government of the earthly kingdom unless it conflicts with our obeying the laws and submitting to the government of the heavenly kingdom. And, with daily contrition and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness for our failures to obey earthly and heavenly laws—forgiveness available because “Our Crucified King” suffered for us. After His suffering, “Our Crucified King” was exalted: rising from the dead, ascending into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. He followed a path of suffering to His glory, and we do the same. When He comes with glory, He will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body (Philippians 3:20). Far better than any earthly king or other ruler, He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords; to Him be honor and eternal dominion (1 Timothy 6:15; confer Revelation 17:14).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +