Sermon -Sunday November 26
John 18:33-37
Brothers and Sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This week when I was discussing these lessons with some of my colleagues at our weekly text-study, the subject of the film the Passion of the Christ came up; specifically the portrayal of Pontius Pilate in that film. A fellow pastor mentioned that they felt that the portrayal of Pilate in that film was overly sympathetic to Pilate himself and the conflict that he went through. They said that the film almost made Pilate look like a nice guy.
I had to disagree, in fact I really appreciated the way Pilate was portrayed in that film because I think in a lot of ways, the conflict and struggle that was illustrated in the film through Pilate’s struggle with the question of what to do with Jesus, was an illustration of the struggle that we all go through every day, living in our baptism. I would suspect that was part of the reason why he was portrayed as bing as conflicted as he was, and to dwell on the historical accuracy is to miss the point.
On the outside it would appear that Pilate was indeed struggling with the question of what to do with Jesus, but I believe, on the inside he was struggling with the question of which kingdom he was loyal to. Was it the earthly kingdom that he already served as governor or should he be loyal to the kingdom of this king who stood before him as a condemned criminal?
I think that this is the question that we all struggle with everyday, the question of which kingdom we should be loyal to. Now, maybe you’re wondering which kingdoms I am talking about.
How it relates to the Gospel lesson is in the fact that Pilate was struggling with the loyalty that he held to the Roman emporer and the sense that he had that there was something not right about what was taking place before his eyes. Pilate saw that the image of Jesus as a blaspheming troublemaker that the chief priests were trying to convince him of was actually quite different from the reality of this man who stood before him.
This is indeed a powerful illustration of the struggle that we all go through everyday. In God’s Word and Sacrament, Jesus is revealed to you in the same way that He was revealed to Pilate; as the King of a Kingdom that is not of this world, but also as a condemned criminal. And like Pilate you find reasons to reject Jesus and to condemn Him to death.
Like the chief priests who falsely accused Jesus, our secularized culture also falsely accuses and portrays Jesus. If Jesus, or His church isn’t flat-out being accused of being too exclusive or even divisive or narrow-minded for holding to the professed truth of Jesus as being the only means by which a place in God’s Kingdom is attained for us, then He is being reduced to being merely a good teacher or a good philosopher.
In the name of not sticking out or not offending people, we allow ourselves to buy into this worldly, culture-driven image of Jesus. We shy away from confessing Christ Jesus as the Name above all names and thus reduce Him to a name among many other names. We reduce him from the King of kings to a king among many other kings. And in so doing, we just condemn Him to death once again. At the heart of this is our sinful refusal to properly distinguish the eternal kingdom of Christ Jesus from the temporary kingdom of the world.
Martin Luther wrote often of what he referred to as the two kingdoms. Luther’s doctrine of the two kingdoms basically asserts that God is the ruler of the whole world and that He rules in two ways. He rules all people; Christians and non-Christians, in his earthly kingdom through the agency of secular government, or through the law. He rules Christians in His Spiritual kingdom through the Gospel, or by the means of grace. Contrary to what some have suggested, Luther is not advocating a separation of church and state, but rather a proper distinction between church and state. This is basically an extension of law and Gospel.
What Luther is talking about is recognizing the proper place of the earthly kingdom and spiritual kingdom in the life of the Christian. In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus tells Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world. As Christians living in the United States, you are citizens of both an earthly "kingdom" and a spiritual kingdom. The spiritual kingdom that you belong to in Christ Jesus is eternal, while the earthly kingdom is temporary, and thus subservient to the spiritual kingdom. But that does not mean that you are called to withdraw from the temporary earthly kingdom, but rather you are called to walk in the midst of that earthly temporary kingdom with an awareness of your status as an eternal citizen in God’s kingdom as it says in Philippians 3:20.
3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
We do not wait idly by and withdraw from the temporary and the worldly and the secular. God reigns over both the eternal and the temporary and thus He calls us to both. In the midst of the worldly we are called to proclaim the eternal through words and deed to our neighbor. Contrary to what we might have seen suggested by some politicians in the recent elections, we are not called to apprehend the worldly and claim it as the eternal, but rather our calling is to be an eternal light in the midst of the darkness of the temporary and the worldly.
In today’s Gospel lesson we read the story of Jesus on trial in front of Pontius Pilate. We read of Pontius Pilate bowing to the demands of the secular even though it appears he may have seen a glimpse of the eternal kingdom in the man Jesus, who stood before him falsely accused. But because you know the end of the story, you know that God’s love would not be contained by Pilate’s sinful weakness. Pilate’s weakness may have opened the door for the crucifixion of Christ Jesus, but it was part of the eternal plan all along.
The condemnation that Jesus faced at the hand of the chief priests is your condemnation, and Pilate’s weakness is your weakness. Christ Jesus took your sin and weakness and condemnation with Him to the cross and in exchange, through the waters of baptism, you have been given eternal righteousness, and forgiveness and redemption.
Jesus is the one we read about in our second lesson for today who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving His God and Father. This is the priesthood that we are baptized into. In baptism we die to the worldly but we are born anew to the eternal. As it says in 1st John chapter 5.
1 John 5
5:4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
5:5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
The question that Pilate struggled with was not so much what to do with Jesus, but who Jesus is. And in many ways you may find yourselves struggling with that same question. But in baptism, Christ Jesus comes to you daily in Word and Sacrament. In baptism, the Holy Spirit calls you to faith through the eternal truth of the Gospel and you are brought face to face with the reality of God’s eternal, unconditional love. In faith you are grasped by the answer to the question that Pilate was struggling with, "Who is Jesus?" He is the, Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer, the Messiah. He is the eternal truth that frees you from the bondage of the temporary.
Amen
Brothers and Sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This week when I was discussing these lessons with some of my colleagues at our weekly text-study, the subject of the film the Passion of the Christ came up; specifically the portrayal of Pontius Pilate in that film. A fellow pastor mentioned that they felt that the portrayal of Pilate in that film was overly sympathetic to Pilate himself and the conflict that he went through. They said that the film almost made Pilate look like a nice guy.
I had to disagree, in fact I really appreciated the way Pilate was portrayed in that film because I think in a lot of ways, the conflict and struggle that was illustrated in the film through Pilate’s struggle with the question of what to do with Jesus, was an illustration of the struggle that we all go through every day, living in our baptism. I would suspect that was part of the reason why he was portrayed as bing as conflicted as he was, and to dwell on the historical accuracy is to miss the point.
On the outside it would appear that Pilate was indeed struggling with the question of what to do with Jesus, but I believe, on the inside he was struggling with the question of which kingdom he was loyal to. Was it the earthly kingdom that he already served as governor or should he be loyal to the kingdom of this king who stood before him as a condemned criminal?
I think that this is the question that we all struggle with everyday, the question of which kingdom we should be loyal to. Now, maybe you’re wondering which kingdoms I am talking about.
How it relates to the Gospel lesson is in the fact that Pilate was struggling with the loyalty that he held to the Roman emporer and the sense that he had that there was something not right about what was taking place before his eyes. Pilate saw that the image of Jesus as a blaspheming troublemaker that the chief priests were trying to convince him of was actually quite different from the reality of this man who stood before him.
This is indeed a powerful illustration of the struggle that we all go through everyday. In God’s Word and Sacrament, Jesus is revealed to you in the same way that He was revealed to Pilate; as the King of a Kingdom that is not of this world, but also as a condemned criminal. And like Pilate you find reasons to reject Jesus and to condemn Him to death.
Like the chief priests who falsely accused Jesus, our secularized culture also falsely accuses and portrays Jesus. If Jesus, or His church isn’t flat-out being accused of being too exclusive or even divisive or narrow-minded for holding to the professed truth of Jesus as being the only means by which a place in God’s Kingdom is attained for us, then He is being reduced to being merely a good teacher or a good philosopher.
In the name of not sticking out or not offending people, we allow ourselves to buy into this worldly, culture-driven image of Jesus. We shy away from confessing Christ Jesus as the Name above all names and thus reduce Him to a name among many other names. We reduce him from the King of kings to a king among many other kings. And in so doing, we just condemn Him to death once again. At the heart of this is our sinful refusal to properly distinguish the eternal kingdom of Christ Jesus from the temporary kingdom of the world.
Martin Luther wrote often of what he referred to as the two kingdoms. Luther’s doctrine of the two kingdoms basically asserts that God is the ruler of the whole world and that He rules in two ways. He rules all people; Christians and non-Christians, in his earthly kingdom through the agency of secular government, or through the law. He rules Christians in His Spiritual kingdom through the Gospel, or by the means of grace. Contrary to what some have suggested, Luther is not advocating a separation of church and state, but rather a proper distinction between church and state. This is basically an extension of law and Gospel.
What Luther is talking about is recognizing the proper place of the earthly kingdom and spiritual kingdom in the life of the Christian. In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus tells Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world. As Christians living in the United States, you are citizens of both an earthly "kingdom" and a spiritual kingdom. The spiritual kingdom that you belong to in Christ Jesus is eternal, while the earthly kingdom is temporary, and thus subservient to the spiritual kingdom. But that does not mean that you are called to withdraw from the temporary earthly kingdom, but rather you are called to walk in the midst of that earthly temporary kingdom with an awareness of your status as an eternal citizen in God’s kingdom as it says in Philippians 3:20.
3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
We do not wait idly by and withdraw from the temporary and the worldly and the secular. God reigns over both the eternal and the temporary and thus He calls us to both. In the midst of the worldly we are called to proclaim the eternal through words and deed to our neighbor. Contrary to what we might have seen suggested by some politicians in the recent elections, we are not called to apprehend the worldly and claim it as the eternal, but rather our calling is to be an eternal light in the midst of the darkness of the temporary and the worldly.
In today’s Gospel lesson we read the story of Jesus on trial in front of Pontius Pilate. We read of Pontius Pilate bowing to the demands of the secular even though it appears he may have seen a glimpse of the eternal kingdom in the man Jesus, who stood before him falsely accused. But because you know the end of the story, you know that God’s love would not be contained by Pilate’s sinful weakness. Pilate’s weakness may have opened the door for the crucifixion of Christ Jesus, but it was part of the eternal plan all along.
The condemnation that Jesus faced at the hand of the chief priests is your condemnation, and Pilate’s weakness is your weakness. Christ Jesus took your sin and weakness and condemnation with Him to the cross and in exchange, through the waters of baptism, you have been given eternal righteousness, and forgiveness and redemption.
Jesus is the one we read about in our second lesson for today who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving His God and Father. This is the priesthood that we are baptized into. In baptism we die to the worldly but we are born anew to the eternal. As it says in 1st John chapter 5.
1 John 5
5:4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
5:5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
The question that Pilate struggled with was not so much what to do with Jesus, but who Jesus is. And in many ways you may find yourselves struggling with that same question. But in baptism, Christ Jesus comes to you daily in Word and Sacrament. In baptism, the Holy Spirit calls you to faith through the eternal truth of the Gospel and you are brought face to face with the reality of God’s eternal, unconditional love. In faith you are grasped by the answer to the question that Pilate was struggling with, "Who is Jesus?" He is the, Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer, the Messiah. He is the eternal truth that frees you from the bondage of the temporary.
Amen
posted by Steve at 7:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home