Sermons

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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. (Amen.)

Previously this Lenten season, we have heard the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke’s account of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ narrate how Jesus Himself, having come out from a furnished large Upper Room, journeyed to the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:12, 39), and, there, how the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders, having seized Jesus, led Him and brought Him into the High Priest’s House (Luke 22:54). In tonight’s Reading, we heard how the whole company of the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, essentially the Sanhedrin, arose and brought Jesus before Pilate. So, as we tonight continue this Lent’s Special Sermon Series themed “Places of the Passion according to St. Luke”, this fourth sermon focuses on Jesus “Before Pilate”. In tonight’s Reading, as St. Luke uniquely reports, Jesus also is sent to and from Herod Antipas, perhaps at the Hasmonean Palace (confer Luke 8:3; 24:10), but the Reading begins and ends with Jesus “Before Pilate”. And, incidentally, neither Pilate nor Herod normally lived in Jerusalem but both were there for the Passover.

Although we might expect it more in St. Luke’s Gospel account, especially if his account is something of a defense document for St. Paul before a Roman official, the other Gospel accounts in their original Greek versions use a Latin loanword in order to name the place where Jesus appeared “Before Pilate”. That Latin loanword is either trans‑literated into English versions as “Praetorium”, or it is trans‑lated as something as “governor’s headquarters” (Matthew 27:27, for example, ASV and ESV). Another passage refers to it as a “courtyard” or “palace” (Mark 15:16, compare ASV and ESV), and still another passage refers to the judgment seat at an apparently nearby plaza called “The Stone Pavement”, or, in Hebrew or Aramaic, “Gabbatha” (John 19:13). Apparently the Greek can use the Latin loanword to refer to any combination of the courtyard or palace, the plaza, the Roman barracks that may have been attached, or of all of it together (IDotB, s.v. “Praetorium”, p.856). Bible commentators debate exactly where that Praetorium was, with the location of the Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Praetorium, pictured on tonight’s service outline, being just one of the possible locations for it.

Regardless of the exact location, what is important is what happened “Before Pilate”. The Jewish ruling council that essentially had convicted and sentenced Jesus on religious charges of blasphemy took Jesus to the secular governor, who could carry out the death penalty, and there the council members accused Jesus of essentially three secular crimes: first, misleading the nation, or sedition; second, forbidding the payment of tribute to a foreign power (compare Luke 20:19‑26); and, third, claiming to be a king, and so treason or insurrection. Jesus admitted to being a King, but Pilate did not find Jesus guilty of their charges, and Pilate seemingly gladly referred the case to the supposedly Jewish King, Herod Antipas, who likely would have understood the religious charges against Jesus better than Pilate. Herod previously had heard about Jesus and wanted to see Jesus perform some miracle (Luke 9:7-9), and Herod also had been said to want to kill Jesus (Luke 13:31-33), as Herod even earlier first had imprisoned and then later had killed John the Baptizer (Luke 3:19-20; confer Mark 6:17-29). But, despite the Jewish leaders’ accusations against Jesus, Herod only treated Jesus with contempt and mocked Jesus, including dressing Jesus up as a king, before sending Jesus back to Pilate. Apparently, Pilate’s acknowledging Herod’s authority by referring Jesus’s case to Herod and Herod’s acknowledging Pilate’s authority by referring Jesus’s case back to Pilate made the two men friends, when before they had been enemies, perhaps due to Pilate’s previously killing some people from Herod’s jurisdiction (Luke 13:1‑3). Pilate also at least took Herod’s referral of Jesus back to him as Herod’s not finding Jesus guilty (confer Deuteronomy 19:15), and Pilate twice more reiterated his own not finding Jesus guilty but, nevertheless, as St. Luke narrates it, Pilate twice at least offered to punish Jesus before releasing Him (confer/compare John 19:1-5). Perhaps because of that willingness of Pilate to compromise, or because of Pilate’s inability to refuse the High Priest, Caiaphas, the Jewish leaders persisted, along with the crowds that may have been attracted by the procession of the Sanhedrin to Pilate or were gathered for the customary release of a prisoner. And, in the end, the Jewish leaders and the crowd that they stirred up (Mark 15:11) prevailed against Pilate, so that Pilate released Barabbas, a man who notably had been thrown into prison for an insurrection and for murder, and Pilate delivered Jesus over to their will to be crucified, perhaps with two of Barabbas’s political co‑conspirators.

Today we may be familiar with the idea of political opponents accusing one another of doing the very things that they themselves are doing, what is sometimes called “projection”. As a psychological diagnosis, “projection” is said to have been “conceptualized” by Sigmund Freud, but the tendency goes back much further. In tonight’s Reading, the Jewish leaders falsely accused Jesus of “misleading” the nation, and yet, using the same Greek verb, Jesus earlier truly described the people alive then, like us today, as a “twisted” generation (for example, Luke 9:40)—the word can refer especially to opposing or plotting against the saving purposes and plans of God. The Pharisees among the members of the Sanhedrin opposed paying tribute to Rome, as some today may object to paying taxes, while Jesus supports paying taxes. The Jewish leaders, though they rejected Jesus as the Christ, were still looking for the Messiah, as some today may be looking for another “savior”, or they may want to rule their own lives. The Jewish leaders accused Jesus of stirring up the people, but the Jewish leaders were themselves stirring up the people, as do some today. The Jewish leaders wanted a man innocent of insurrection to be lifted up but a man guilty of insurrection to be released, as some want justice reversed today. Yet, instead of such “projection” as a way of defending ourselves, each of us should acknowledge our own sin and sinful nature, on account of which we deserve temporal and eternal punishment. By the leading of the Holy Spirit, we should trust God to forgive us for Jesus’s sake.

Jesus truly is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior. Jesus is the Son of God in human flesh. Out of God the Father’s great love for fallen humanity, including you and me, He sent His Son to die on the cross for the sin of the world, including your sin and my sin. As we confess in the creeds, Jesus came down from heaven for us and for our salvation, and He suffered for our salvation and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. Jesus truly was not guilty of anything, but He took upon Himself all of our sin, all of our guilt, and all of our punishment. Far more than reconciling only Herod and Pilate, Jesus reconciled us to God. Far more than dying in the place only of Barabbas, Jesus died as a substitute for each one of us. When we turn in sorrow from our sins and trust God to forgive us for Jesus’s sake, then God does forgive us, our sins that we might project on others, or whatever our sins might be. God forgives us through His Means of Grace: His Word read and preached to groups such as this group and His Word applied to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in the Holy Supper. Especially in that “Passover” feast do we find the release of prisoners! And so we have peace and joy!

This evening we have considered the fourth of five “Places of the Passion according to St. Luke”. In what happened Before Pilate, again there is contrast: contrast between the behavior of the Jewish leaders and their false charges against Jesus, contrast between Herod and Pilate, contrast between human and Divine justice, and contrast between Barabbas and Jesus. We considered our sin and, for Jesus’s sake, God’s forgiving us, who repent, through His Means of Grace. At the end of tonight’s Reading, Jesus is about to be led away to the place that is called “The Skull”, where next week we will go by Reading and reflection, as God wills, and with God’s grace and blessing.

Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +