The road to redemption
Commentary
Last summer my family and I moved from the East Coast to the Midwest. Our only previous travel to our new home was by airplane, but this time we were driving two cars. In preparation for our journey and because we wanted to visit some friends along the way, I arranged to secure maps and driving directions from the AAA. Now normally I would have mapped our journey myself (or more likely just headed out in the general direction of our destination and allowed my instincts to get us there), but my wife insisted that we get professional help (travel help, that is).
All went well the first day. We arrived at our friend's home with no trouble and without needing to stop and call for assistance. The next day's trip was another matter. For starters it was raining -- not just a light drizzle, but a blowing, blinding rain that lasted all day long. When we crossed the state line into Kentucky, I began consulting the map for our cut-off that would carry us to Indiana. On the map the cut-off was listed as a U.S. Highway, which I remembered being just one step down from an Interstate. When I found the road we wanted, it turned out to be not at all what I expected.
For one thing the road was a two-lane road, not a four-lane. For another it was a mountain road full of hills and curves. Not only was it a two-lane mountain road, it was a rural two-lane mountain road which meant two things -- one, there wasn't much civilization around and two, what civilization was around was driving a combine tractor 10 miles per hour in front of us. It was raining. The driving was painfully, exasperatingly slow. We did not know where we were or how long it was going to take us to get where we were going. All I had was the AAA map and the names of occasional villages to help assure me I was going in the right direction.
We eventually arrived at our new home, safe and not too much worn for the wear, but the journey was a true test of patience and faith. The road to redemption is like that. Sometimes all we have is a destination and occasional directional markers -- the success of the journey is a matter of faith.
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Call it a "guy thing," but there comes a time in every boy's life when he gets "The Lecture" from his dad. The lecture is almost always precipitated by a crisis and the crisis has to do with the moment when power and vulnerability collide. Or to put it more commonly, the moment when the local bully decides that you are going to be his next trophy. The lecture can take many forms using a wide range of vocabulary and emotions, but every lecture always boils down to this -- "Son, don't let anyone ever push you around. Stand up. Fight back. It's better to go down fighting than to run away from a confrontation."
This aggression by the perpetrator and the counter-aggression by the intended victim permeate much of life as we experience it. Whether in sports, politics or business, the mentality that motivates so much of interpersonal interaction is one that says we either beat or get beaten; we either retaliate in kind or risk being humiliated in our cowardice. We dare not show weakness. We dare not show vulnerability. We dare not walk away from a fight.
I do not wish to minimize the appropriateness of self-defense, but neither do I wish to so broaden the definition of self-defense that it becomes a license for any aggressive act we believe to be in our self-interest. What I do want to do -- no, what I believe this text is asking us to do, is to move beyond the self-defeating cycle of meeting violence with violence and to entrust ourselves to the vindicating love of God.
This is certainly the path chosen by the Servant who was able to meet the strength of violence with the greater strength of non-retaliation. The Servant was able to do this because (1) he was willing to give the voice of God priority in his hearing; (2) his listening to God was a daily habit, not an occasional exercise; (3) he affirmed by teaching that which he heard from God, and what he taught, he lived; and (4) he knew that all persons were answerable to God for their actions -- not just the beard-pulling, foul-mouthed, expectorating adversary, but even the Servant himself.
Lest we think that all of this has nothing to do with us, let us remember that this model of a servant is lifted from this text and re-incarnated in the example of Jesus Christ and through him is made applicable to us.
Life lived according to this Servant model is not what we were taught by our fathers, but it is what we are taught by our Father.
Philippians 2:5-11
There is probably no passage in Philippians more quoted or used as the basis for more sermons than today's Epistle lesson. That familiarity can be either a blessing or a curse. We will strive for the former.
At various moments in penning his thoughts to one congregation or another, Paul becomes so wrapped up in what he is trying to say that he breaks out in songs of praise to God. Our text is one of those moments. In the midst of a call for unity among the faithful at Philippi, the words of an early Christian hymn grab hold of Paul and will not let him go. He can hardly concentrate for thinking about this song, so he decides to make the song a part of his correspondence.
There are several ways this hymn-text can be approached and a few of them are addressed in the Alternative Applications section below. However, the approach I invite you to consider focuses on verse 5, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." Often when we read this text we move immediately to examine the character traits exemplified by Jesus and to admonish and encourage one another toward emulating those traits. However, as each of us knows, it is far easier to occasionally act with selflessness, humility and obedience than it is to exhibit these traits consistently. The reason for this is found in verse 5.
Paul invites his readers to ground their actions not in a desire to do good, or even in a command to do so, but to ground one's actions in a different way of thinking. Behavior can be tied to any number of stimuli -- guilt, fear, duty, peer-pressure, the desire to be better than others -- but the energy and motivation required to follow Christ's example is simply not sustainable based on these or similar stimuli. That is why Paul said to let Christ's mind be in you. He understood that the place to begin was with how one viewed the world, how one thought about life, how one mentally processed and assessed society's power arrangements. We cannot follow Christ's example if we are worried about place and prestige or about rights and rewards. We cannot follow Christ's example if we are keeping one eye on our neighbor's progress and the other eye on our neighbor's possessions. We cannot follow Christ's example if we elevate the status of the slave to that of a servant or elevate cruciform death to momentary inconvenience. We can only follow Christ's example if first we are willing to change our mind about what is important and adopt the worldview of Jesus.
The road to redemption is not successfully navigated without the transformation that comes by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).
Matthew 26:14--27:66
The Sunday preceding Easter is celebrated as Palm Sunday in some faith traditions and as Passion Sunday in others. The Gospel lesson for today honors the Passion Sunday tradition. The difficulty facing the interpreter is the length of today's passage and the richness of the material covered by it. It is hard to imagine how one might do justice to this text in one sermonic endeavor. One could certainly understand if the preacher simply chose to read with dramatic intonation the entire passage without comment and allow the passage to speak for itself. But since this is a preaching journal and since you rightly expect more rather than less from us, perhaps some helpful comments are in order after all.
Whatever portion of this text one chooses to build a sermon upon, there are certain characteristics of the book as a whole relevant to its proclamation. One characteristic is Matthew's use of supportive references to the Hebrew scriptures. The nature of Matthew's community and the purpose of his Gospel have been discussed in previous installments and need not be repeated here. Suffice it to say, however, that Matthew's use of the Hebrew scriptures is not primarily an effort to validate those scriptures through Jesus, but to validate Jesus through the scriptures. In other words, it is not the scriptures' relevancy that needs to be proven, but Jesus'. In this passage there are no fewer than six direct references to the Hebrew scriptures, usually accompanied by some version of "in order to fulfill what was written." Additionally, there are several indirect allusions to the scriptures, usually as a part of a speech sequence. As the interpreter deals with today's text it is important to keep in context Matthew's use of the Hebrew scriptures and not to treat these scriptures as little more than a Christological ouija board.
Another characteristic of Matthew's Gospel is its anti-Judaic references. Once again context is important. Matthew was written at a time of intense rivalry among the various Jewish sects (of which the Jesus movement was one) over which group best represented post-temple Judaism. In the effort to make a case for the Jesus movement, the gospel writer draws the opposition (Pharisaic and Sadduciac Judaism) in unflattering caricatures.
Additionally, at the time of writing this Gospel, the Jesus movement was attempting to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the Roman occupiers of Judea and Galilee. The combination of this anti-Judaism and philo-Romanism led the Gospel writer to polemicize the events surrounding the death of Jesus. For example, those who operate in the shadows are the chief priest (26:14), Judas in collusion with the temple hierarchy, the scribes and the elders (26:57f) and, amazingly, the Jewish people themselves (27:25) in a phrase that would be used against the Jews for centuries to come. The ones who come off looking like heroes in this account are Pilate, Pilate's wife and a centurion (27:54). To employ an overused phrase, "What's wrong with this picture?"
One can understand and even appreciate Matthew's context and purpose without falling victim to them. To use the text today in such a way that vilifies the Jews and exonerates the Romans is not only ahistorical, but also perpetuates stereotypes that have no place in the gospel truth. Remember, the central event in this text is the self-giving love of Jesus Christ through which we experience the forgiveness of sins and a renewed relationship with God.
Today's Gospel lesson could be used to flesh-out the theme of Road to Redemption by considering the manner in which Christ met the various challenges during that long night. A question to frame this consideration might be: What are the essentials for a journey down the road to redemption? The following suggestions attempt to touch down at several of the key events covered by our text.
The first essential is community (26:17-30). Redemption is not possible without a community of caring fellow travelers whose support and encouragement not only make it possible for us to begin the journey, but who sustain us on our way.
A second essential is commitment (26:36-46). The journey will not always be easy and sometimes what we are called upon to do seems beyond our ability to carry through. Nevertheless, constant and faithful commitment toward the goal will keep us moving forward.
A third essential is compassion (26:47-54), not only toward those who befriend us, but to those who would be our enemies as well.
A fourth essential for the journey down the road to redemption is the courage of one's convictions (26:57-68; 27:11-26). When the forces that would undo us bring against us all the power at their disposal, it takes extraordinary courage not to cave in under the pressure. Yet, if we are to negotiate successfully the road to redemption we must be courageously true to those convictions that form our core beliefs.
A fifth and final essential is cruciform love (27:32-50) -- a willingness to give even one's own life on behalf of others as an expression of one's love for humankind and obedience to God.
May Christ's Passion be our passion as we journey along the road to redemption.
Application
Today begins Holy Week -- the final journey on the Lenten road to Easter. For most congregations there will be several services to mark the significance of this season. Some congregations will hold a Good Friday service in which the liturgy will be built around the Seven Last Words of Jesus. Others will conduct a service in which the Stations of the Cross will be featured. And still other congregations will hold services that will mark the conclusion of their focus on Lent. What all of these services have in common is the theme of moving toward a destination.
As persons of faith, we, too, are moving toward a destination. For us the destination is Redemption, but we are not there yet. We are still on the journey. What we are sometimes slow to understand is that the journey itself is just as important as the destination. What we make of the journey, how we conduct ourselves on the journey and the attitude that guides us on the journey are all vitally important.
We can take our cues for successful journeying from the example of Jesus as he faced his final hours before the crucifixion. We do not know how much Jesus knew in advance about those hours leading to Golgatha, but we can be fairly certain that he knew the brief road ahead of him was going to be difficult. He knew that, as much as his disciples cared for him, in the final analysis they would likely be locked in a paralyzing confusion. He knew of the brutality associated with the Roman soldiers, especially directed at those who were a threat to the peace of Rome. He knew from his previous encounters with the various Jewish sects, that if they had the chance, they would make life difficult for him, just as they made life difficult for each other. He knew that if he asked, God would likely spare him from the coming ordeal, but he also knew that he would not ask. And he knew that everything, literally everything, depended on how he responded in his hour of crisis.
So his response was to gather his friends for a final meal even though they might soon fail him. His response was not to meet aggression with aggression, threats with curses, or insults with retaliation. His response was to stand firm in the integrity of his being when confronted by his accusers and even when the accusations were a collection of half-truths and non-truths. His response was to pray for strength to drink deeply from the bitter cup and to do so willingly. His response was to take upon himself the burden of humanity and to do so in a way that others might be led to be of the same mind.
In our journey down the road to redemption, Jesus, in both his life and death, is our guide. We cannot expect clear skies and four-lane highways every mile of our journey. There will be times when our hour of testing hits us squarely in the eyes, and at that moment, we will need to decide whether to drink deeply from the bitter cup and follow the example of Jesus or pass the cup off to another and detour from the road to redemption. When that time arrives may the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.
Alternative Applications
1) Isaiah: It is interesting to note that the purposes of God's grace gifts to the Servant are not at all what one might expect. In verse 4 the Servant is given the tongue of a teacher, but not that the Servant might impart wisdom or knowledge. Rather, the Servant has the tongue of a teacher in order to sustain the weary. In verse 5 the Servant is given an ear to hear, but not that the Servant might possess more facts. Rather the Servant has an ear to hear in order to withstand oppression. In verse 7 the Servant is helped by God, but not that the Servant might have an unencumbered life. Rather the Servant is helped in order that injustice can be confronted.
God grants grace gifts to each one of us, but we should not assume to know automatically the purpose of those gifts. Rather we are to allow God to teach us, to speak to us and to help us that we might know how to be faithful servants.
2) Philippians: In addition to the approach taken in the application section above, this text could be used to celebrate the Incarnation. The focus here would be on Jesus -- his self-emptying (kenosis), humility, obedience and exaltation. This focus has the advantage of not only being appropriate to the text, but appropriate as a theme for Passion Sunday as well. One might argue that the only way to exaltation (for Jesus and us) is by means of self-emptying, obedience and humility.
3) Matthew: The possibilities offered by this lengthy passage are endless. One could examine the motivations that prompted the followers of Jesus to abandon him. For Judas either greed or political necessity was a motivator. For Peter it was the fear factor. For others the motivation may well have been self-interest. However, for all of them, personal expediency of one form or another was more important than faithfulness to Christ. The issues prompting our disobedience today are not much different.
4) Matthew: What do you make of Jesus' cry from the cross in 27:46? Was Jesus abandoned by God? If so, how does that fact square with Paul's insistence that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself? Is this question really about abandonment or is it about hope? If the quotation from an opening stanza of a psalm is meant to call to mind the entire psalm and not just the passage quoted, how does that affect how we understand Jesus' cry?
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
Isaiah 50:4-9a
This text presents a challenge to the preacher because it is the stated Old Testament text for Passion Sunday in all three cycles of the three-year Revised Common Lectionary. Thus, year by year, the preacher is confronted with how to deal with it. The preacher does have the option, of course, of basing the sermon on the Epistle or Gospel lesson instead. But this is too important a text to be ignored for too long.
As has long been noted, this is one of the four "Servant Songs" to be found in the preaching of Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), although the lectionary reading unfortunately has omitted the second half of verse 9. The lectionary committee seems very squeamish about including anything judgmental from the scriptures, ignoring the fact that God does indeed bring his judgment upon his enemies and, sometime, upon the enemies of his chosen people. The song was spoken by the prophet sometime between 550 and 538 B.C. in Babylonian exile.
What we have in this song is a description of suffering for the sake of the Word of God. Very likely the Servant is being subjected to a legal trial (v. 8), but verse 6 describes the abuse that the Servant suffers before being hauled into court. He is flogged, and he is scorned, his tormentors brazenly standing in his face, to yank on his beard and to spit on him. The Servant, however, has not flinched or cowered as he has undergone such suffering. Instead he has silently and bravely endured it all. Why? Because he thinks it is the will of God that he do so.
Such abuse may very well have been what Second Isaiah himself suffered as he delivered the Word of God to his people. Certainly it is a role to which the prophet is calling his people, because the Servant in Second Isaiah is very likely to be identified with an idealized Israel -- with Israel as God wants him to be and as God will make him to be (cf. Isaiah 41:9; 44:1-2; 44:21; 45:4; 49:3, all texts in which Israel is named the servant). But of course we cannot read this text without almost automatically applying it to the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the days before his crucifixion, our Lord suffers such abuse at the hands of his accusers, and he does so willingly. He is not "rebellious," but in faithfulness to his God, gives his back to the smiters and his face to those who scorn and spit on him. He utters not a word, but is like a lamb that before its shearers is dumb. And he does not cower before the abuse that is heaped upon him. Why? Because it is the will of the Lord that he suffer so.
God asks of his servants that they willingly undergo suffering for the sake of the Gospel. To our society, which seems to believe that persons' religion should make them happy, prosperous and well-liked, that is a strange and odious thought. Who wants to follow a faith that brings with it suffering and scorn? "What's in it for me?" would be the question of many. But at the heart of the Christian faith and, indeed, in the Bible as a whole, the necessity of suffering for the will of God is prominent. After all, the central symbol of the Christian faith is a cross. And the command of our Lord is to take up our cross and follow him -- to die to ourselves as he died. When we hear that, our response is often, "Well, just a minute. I'll bring around the station wagon, and we can put the cross in the back."
But no. The servants of God are to be, as 2 Timothy also says, willing to take their share of suffering for the sake of the Gospel (2 Timothy 1:8).
The reason for that is clear. Our society and our world do not welcome the Gospel. If our Lord lived today, most people would still want to crucify him. For he turns all of our accustomed ways upside down, doesn't he? He tells us to love our enemies, of all people, to forgive 70 times seven, to love one another as he has loved us. He announces that the meek will inherit the earth, and whoever heard of that in our world? It's the fellow who knows how to promote himself who will climb the ladder of success, isn't it? Jesus tells us not to pile up treasures for ourselves on earth, but we all know that the bigger the portfolio, the better. He tells us that we can't do one thing to work our way into eternal life, and that everything depends on the grace of the Father. But doesn't God value the good persons we try to be? Doesn't he approve of all of the things we have done for the church? And won't that be rewarded in heaven? Let's face it. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, like his passion and cross, are scandalous in our world. And yet, we are called to give our lives for the sake of testifying to it.
In short, God calls his servants to lives out-of-joint with the rest of society, because God wants to save his world. He wants to forgive the transgressions of humankind. He wants to deliver everyone from death. He wants to pour out his love on every soul whom he has created on the face of this planet. And God can do that only if his servants are willing to suffer, as his prophet suffered, and as his Son finally suffered for us all. Only by a cross, that nailed all of this world's evil to its wood, did God manifest his amazing love that was willing to die for you and me. And only as his servants are equally willing is the message of that incredible love spread throughout creation.
How is it possible for us to be such willing and loving servants of our Lord? Our text tells us the answer. Second Isaiah recounts to us that "morning by morning" God "wakens" his ear (v. 4). Indeed, when he is weary, he listens -- listens to the Lord -- and is sustained. And there we have the foundation of the Christian servant-life. In a daily communion with his God, in constant listening to the Lord's word, now preserved for us in the scriptures, in prayer and meditation, there are given to us unworthy servants of our God the strength, the sustenance, the guidance, the courage to do the will of our Lord. By constant fellowship with our God, we Christians are enabled to face any scornful challenge that the world may throw up to us, to undergo any suffering that may come our way, and to cheerfully know that no matter what the situation may be, the Lord is our help and our stay. Servants like that never know defeat, good Christians, because God is never defeated. And servants like that never wonder what their purpose is in life, because God's purpose is their guide and goal -- God's purpose of love.
PREACHING THE PSALM
Psalm 31:9-16
On this day when preachers have to decide whether to pursue the palms or the Passion, it should be noted that Psalm 31:9-16 is part of the Liturgy of Passion, not the Liturgy of the Palms, and it occupies that place for all three years of the Revised Common Lectionary. But even if one did not know that, the tone of these verses would surely push one away from any triumphalism. These words are the cry of a person in agony.
A couple of preaching possibilities:
1) Verse 9 and especially verse 10 can be taken literally, as references to serious illness. Many sufferers have found courage and hope in viewing the voluntary suffering of Jesus. One pastor mentioned visiting a Christian woman who was in the end stages of cancer, and was in terrible pain. Yet she said to the pastor, "If Jesus suffered for me, I can suffer for him." To himself, the pastor thought the woman's comment simplistic. How could her suffering, caused not by sin but by rogue cells, be doing anything for God? But the fact was, that understanding was helping the woman handle her ordeal. Wisely, the pastor did nothing to challenge her view. But maybe the woman was right anyway. Here's a place to talk about redemptive suffering.
2) Verse 12, "I have passed out of mind like one who is dead," could easily be the lament of a person "downsized" out of a job and unable to find new employment. Those who have been there testify that it really does feel like being forgotten by one's former workmates, employers and even the crowd that one ran with while employed. What will it take to get the person in such straits to trust that "my times are in your hands" (v. 15)?
All went well the first day. We arrived at our friend's home with no trouble and without needing to stop and call for assistance. The next day's trip was another matter. For starters it was raining -- not just a light drizzle, but a blowing, blinding rain that lasted all day long. When we crossed the state line into Kentucky, I began consulting the map for our cut-off that would carry us to Indiana. On the map the cut-off was listed as a U.S. Highway, which I remembered being just one step down from an Interstate. When I found the road we wanted, it turned out to be not at all what I expected.
For one thing the road was a two-lane road, not a four-lane. For another it was a mountain road full of hills and curves. Not only was it a two-lane mountain road, it was a rural two-lane mountain road which meant two things -- one, there wasn't much civilization around and two, what civilization was around was driving a combine tractor 10 miles per hour in front of us. It was raining. The driving was painfully, exasperatingly slow. We did not know where we were or how long it was going to take us to get where we were going. All I had was the AAA map and the names of occasional villages to help assure me I was going in the right direction.
We eventually arrived at our new home, safe and not too much worn for the wear, but the journey was a true test of patience and faith. The road to redemption is like that. Sometimes all we have is a destination and occasional directional markers -- the success of the journey is a matter of faith.
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Call it a "guy thing," but there comes a time in every boy's life when he gets "The Lecture" from his dad. The lecture is almost always precipitated by a crisis and the crisis has to do with the moment when power and vulnerability collide. Or to put it more commonly, the moment when the local bully decides that you are going to be his next trophy. The lecture can take many forms using a wide range of vocabulary and emotions, but every lecture always boils down to this -- "Son, don't let anyone ever push you around. Stand up. Fight back. It's better to go down fighting than to run away from a confrontation."
This aggression by the perpetrator and the counter-aggression by the intended victim permeate much of life as we experience it. Whether in sports, politics or business, the mentality that motivates so much of interpersonal interaction is one that says we either beat or get beaten; we either retaliate in kind or risk being humiliated in our cowardice. We dare not show weakness. We dare not show vulnerability. We dare not walk away from a fight.
I do not wish to minimize the appropriateness of self-defense, but neither do I wish to so broaden the definition of self-defense that it becomes a license for any aggressive act we believe to be in our self-interest. What I do want to do -- no, what I believe this text is asking us to do, is to move beyond the self-defeating cycle of meeting violence with violence and to entrust ourselves to the vindicating love of God.
This is certainly the path chosen by the Servant who was able to meet the strength of violence with the greater strength of non-retaliation. The Servant was able to do this because (1) he was willing to give the voice of God priority in his hearing; (2) his listening to God was a daily habit, not an occasional exercise; (3) he affirmed by teaching that which he heard from God, and what he taught, he lived; and (4) he knew that all persons were answerable to God for their actions -- not just the beard-pulling, foul-mouthed, expectorating adversary, but even the Servant himself.
Lest we think that all of this has nothing to do with us, let us remember that this model of a servant is lifted from this text and re-incarnated in the example of Jesus Christ and through him is made applicable to us.
Life lived according to this Servant model is not what we were taught by our fathers, but it is what we are taught by our Father.
Philippians 2:5-11
There is probably no passage in Philippians more quoted or used as the basis for more sermons than today's Epistle lesson. That familiarity can be either a blessing or a curse. We will strive for the former.
At various moments in penning his thoughts to one congregation or another, Paul becomes so wrapped up in what he is trying to say that he breaks out in songs of praise to God. Our text is one of those moments. In the midst of a call for unity among the faithful at Philippi, the words of an early Christian hymn grab hold of Paul and will not let him go. He can hardly concentrate for thinking about this song, so he decides to make the song a part of his correspondence.
There are several ways this hymn-text can be approached and a few of them are addressed in the Alternative Applications section below. However, the approach I invite you to consider focuses on verse 5, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." Often when we read this text we move immediately to examine the character traits exemplified by Jesus and to admonish and encourage one another toward emulating those traits. However, as each of us knows, it is far easier to occasionally act with selflessness, humility and obedience than it is to exhibit these traits consistently. The reason for this is found in verse 5.
Paul invites his readers to ground their actions not in a desire to do good, or even in a command to do so, but to ground one's actions in a different way of thinking. Behavior can be tied to any number of stimuli -- guilt, fear, duty, peer-pressure, the desire to be better than others -- but the energy and motivation required to follow Christ's example is simply not sustainable based on these or similar stimuli. That is why Paul said to let Christ's mind be in you. He understood that the place to begin was with how one viewed the world, how one thought about life, how one mentally processed and assessed society's power arrangements. We cannot follow Christ's example if we are worried about place and prestige or about rights and rewards. We cannot follow Christ's example if we are keeping one eye on our neighbor's progress and the other eye on our neighbor's possessions. We cannot follow Christ's example if we elevate the status of the slave to that of a servant or elevate cruciform death to momentary inconvenience. We can only follow Christ's example if first we are willing to change our mind about what is important and adopt the worldview of Jesus.
The road to redemption is not successfully navigated without the transformation that comes by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).
Matthew 26:14--27:66
The Sunday preceding Easter is celebrated as Palm Sunday in some faith traditions and as Passion Sunday in others. The Gospel lesson for today honors the Passion Sunday tradition. The difficulty facing the interpreter is the length of today's passage and the richness of the material covered by it. It is hard to imagine how one might do justice to this text in one sermonic endeavor. One could certainly understand if the preacher simply chose to read with dramatic intonation the entire passage without comment and allow the passage to speak for itself. But since this is a preaching journal and since you rightly expect more rather than less from us, perhaps some helpful comments are in order after all.
Whatever portion of this text one chooses to build a sermon upon, there are certain characteristics of the book as a whole relevant to its proclamation. One characteristic is Matthew's use of supportive references to the Hebrew scriptures. The nature of Matthew's community and the purpose of his Gospel have been discussed in previous installments and need not be repeated here. Suffice it to say, however, that Matthew's use of the Hebrew scriptures is not primarily an effort to validate those scriptures through Jesus, but to validate Jesus through the scriptures. In other words, it is not the scriptures' relevancy that needs to be proven, but Jesus'. In this passage there are no fewer than six direct references to the Hebrew scriptures, usually accompanied by some version of "in order to fulfill what was written." Additionally, there are several indirect allusions to the scriptures, usually as a part of a speech sequence. As the interpreter deals with today's text it is important to keep in context Matthew's use of the Hebrew scriptures and not to treat these scriptures as little more than a Christological ouija board.
Another characteristic of Matthew's Gospel is its anti-Judaic references. Once again context is important. Matthew was written at a time of intense rivalry among the various Jewish sects (of which the Jesus movement was one) over which group best represented post-temple Judaism. In the effort to make a case for the Jesus movement, the gospel writer draws the opposition (Pharisaic and Sadduciac Judaism) in unflattering caricatures.
Additionally, at the time of writing this Gospel, the Jesus movement was attempting to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the Roman occupiers of Judea and Galilee. The combination of this anti-Judaism and philo-Romanism led the Gospel writer to polemicize the events surrounding the death of Jesus. For example, those who operate in the shadows are the chief priest (26:14), Judas in collusion with the temple hierarchy, the scribes and the elders (26:57f) and, amazingly, the Jewish people themselves (27:25) in a phrase that would be used against the Jews for centuries to come. The ones who come off looking like heroes in this account are Pilate, Pilate's wife and a centurion (27:54). To employ an overused phrase, "What's wrong with this picture?"
One can understand and even appreciate Matthew's context and purpose without falling victim to them. To use the text today in such a way that vilifies the Jews and exonerates the Romans is not only ahistorical, but also perpetuates stereotypes that have no place in the gospel truth. Remember, the central event in this text is the self-giving love of Jesus Christ through which we experience the forgiveness of sins and a renewed relationship with God.
Today's Gospel lesson could be used to flesh-out the theme of Road to Redemption by considering the manner in which Christ met the various challenges during that long night. A question to frame this consideration might be: What are the essentials for a journey down the road to redemption? The following suggestions attempt to touch down at several of the key events covered by our text.
The first essential is community (26:17-30). Redemption is not possible without a community of caring fellow travelers whose support and encouragement not only make it possible for us to begin the journey, but who sustain us on our way.
A second essential is commitment (26:36-46). The journey will not always be easy and sometimes what we are called upon to do seems beyond our ability to carry through. Nevertheless, constant and faithful commitment toward the goal will keep us moving forward.
A third essential is compassion (26:47-54), not only toward those who befriend us, but to those who would be our enemies as well.
A fourth essential for the journey down the road to redemption is the courage of one's convictions (26:57-68; 27:11-26). When the forces that would undo us bring against us all the power at their disposal, it takes extraordinary courage not to cave in under the pressure. Yet, if we are to negotiate successfully the road to redemption we must be courageously true to those convictions that form our core beliefs.
A fifth and final essential is cruciform love (27:32-50) -- a willingness to give even one's own life on behalf of others as an expression of one's love for humankind and obedience to God.
May Christ's Passion be our passion as we journey along the road to redemption.
Application
Today begins Holy Week -- the final journey on the Lenten road to Easter. For most congregations there will be several services to mark the significance of this season. Some congregations will hold a Good Friday service in which the liturgy will be built around the Seven Last Words of Jesus. Others will conduct a service in which the Stations of the Cross will be featured. And still other congregations will hold services that will mark the conclusion of their focus on Lent. What all of these services have in common is the theme of moving toward a destination.
As persons of faith, we, too, are moving toward a destination. For us the destination is Redemption, but we are not there yet. We are still on the journey. What we are sometimes slow to understand is that the journey itself is just as important as the destination. What we make of the journey, how we conduct ourselves on the journey and the attitude that guides us on the journey are all vitally important.
We can take our cues for successful journeying from the example of Jesus as he faced his final hours before the crucifixion. We do not know how much Jesus knew in advance about those hours leading to Golgatha, but we can be fairly certain that he knew the brief road ahead of him was going to be difficult. He knew that, as much as his disciples cared for him, in the final analysis they would likely be locked in a paralyzing confusion. He knew of the brutality associated with the Roman soldiers, especially directed at those who were a threat to the peace of Rome. He knew from his previous encounters with the various Jewish sects, that if they had the chance, they would make life difficult for him, just as they made life difficult for each other. He knew that if he asked, God would likely spare him from the coming ordeal, but he also knew that he would not ask. And he knew that everything, literally everything, depended on how he responded in his hour of crisis.
So his response was to gather his friends for a final meal even though they might soon fail him. His response was not to meet aggression with aggression, threats with curses, or insults with retaliation. His response was to stand firm in the integrity of his being when confronted by his accusers and even when the accusations were a collection of half-truths and non-truths. His response was to pray for strength to drink deeply from the bitter cup and to do so willingly. His response was to take upon himself the burden of humanity and to do so in a way that others might be led to be of the same mind.
In our journey down the road to redemption, Jesus, in both his life and death, is our guide. We cannot expect clear skies and four-lane highways every mile of our journey. There will be times when our hour of testing hits us squarely in the eyes, and at that moment, we will need to decide whether to drink deeply from the bitter cup and follow the example of Jesus or pass the cup off to another and detour from the road to redemption. When that time arrives may the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.
Alternative Applications
1) Isaiah: It is interesting to note that the purposes of God's grace gifts to the Servant are not at all what one might expect. In verse 4 the Servant is given the tongue of a teacher, but not that the Servant might impart wisdom or knowledge. Rather, the Servant has the tongue of a teacher in order to sustain the weary. In verse 5 the Servant is given an ear to hear, but not that the Servant might possess more facts. Rather the Servant has an ear to hear in order to withstand oppression. In verse 7 the Servant is helped by God, but not that the Servant might have an unencumbered life. Rather the Servant is helped in order that injustice can be confronted.
God grants grace gifts to each one of us, but we should not assume to know automatically the purpose of those gifts. Rather we are to allow God to teach us, to speak to us and to help us that we might know how to be faithful servants.
2) Philippians: In addition to the approach taken in the application section above, this text could be used to celebrate the Incarnation. The focus here would be on Jesus -- his self-emptying (kenosis), humility, obedience and exaltation. This focus has the advantage of not only being appropriate to the text, but appropriate as a theme for Passion Sunday as well. One might argue that the only way to exaltation (for Jesus and us) is by means of self-emptying, obedience and humility.
3) Matthew: The possibilities offered by this lengthy passage are endless. One could examine the motivations that prompted the followers of Jesus to abandon him. For Judas either greed or political necessity was a motivator. For Peter it was the fear factor. For others the motivation may well have been self-interest. However, for all of them, personal expediency of one form or another was more important than faithfulness to Christ. The issues prompting our disobedience today are not much different.
4) Matthew: What do you make of Jesus' cry from the cross in 27:46? Was Jesus abandoned by God? If so, how does that fact square with Paul's insistence that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself? Is this question really about abandonment or is it about hope? If the quotation from an opening stanza of a psalm is meant to call to mind the entire psalm and not just the passage quoted, how does that affect how we understand Jesus' cry?
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
Isaiah 50:4-9a
This text presents a challenge to the preacher because it is the stated Old Testament text for Passion Sunday in all three cycles of the three-year Revised Common Lectionary. Thus, year by year, the preacher is confronted with how to deal with it. The preacher does have the option, of course, of basing the sermon on the Epistle or Gospel lesson instead. But this is too important a text to be ignored for too long.
As has long been noted, this is one of the four "Servant Songs" to be found in the preaching of Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), although the lectionary reading unfortunately has omitted the second half of verse 9. The lectionary committee seems very squeamish about including anything judgmental from the scriptures, ignoring the fact that God does indeed bring his judgment upon his enemies and, sometime, upon the enemies of his chosen people. The song was spoken by the prophet sometime between 550 and 538 B.C. in Babylonian exile.
What we have in this song is a description of suffering for the sake of the Word of God. Very likely the Servant is being subjected to a legal trial (v. 8), but verse 6 describes the abuse that the Servant suffers before being hauled into court. He is flogged, and he is scorned, his tormentors brazenly standing in his face, to yank on his beard and to spit on him. The Servant, however, has not flinched or cowered as he has undergone such suffering. Instead he has silently and bravely endured it all. Why? Because he thinks it is the will of God that he do so.
Such abuse may very well have been what Second Isaiah himself suffered as he delivered the Word of God to his people. Certainly it is a role to which the prophet is calling his people, because the Servant in Second Isaiah is very likely to be identified with an idealized Israel -- with Israel as God wants him to be and as God will make him to be (cf. Isaiah 41:9; 44:1-2; 44:21; 45:4; 49:3, all texts in which Israel is named the servant). But of course we cannot read this text without almost automatically applying it to the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the days before his crucifixion, our Lord suffers such abuse at the hands of his accusers, and he does so willingly. He is not "rebellious," but in faithfulness to his God, gives his back to the smiters and his face to those who scorn and spit on him. He utters not a word, but is like a lamb that before its shearers is dumb. And he does not cower before the abuse that is heaped upon him. Why? Because it is the will of the Lord that he suffer so.
God asks of his servants that they willingly undergo suffering for the sake of the Gospel. To our society, which seems to believe that persons' religion should make them happy, prosperous and well-liked, that is a strange and odious thought. Who wants to follow a faith that brings with it suffering and scorn? "What's in it for me?" would be the question of many. But at the heart of the Christian faith and, indeed, in the Bible as a whole, the necessity of suffering for the will of God is prominent. After all, the central symbol of the Christian faith is a cross. And the command of our Lord is to take up our cross and follow him -- to die to ourselves as he died. When we hear that, our response is often, "Well, just a minute. I'll bring around the station wagon, and we can put the cross in the back."
But no. The servants of God are to be, as 2 Timothy also says, willing to take their share of suffering for the sake of the Gospel (2 Timothy 1:8).
The reason for that is clear. Our society and our world do not welcome the Gospel. If our Lord lived today, most people would still want to crucify him. For he turns all of our accustomed ways upside down, doesn't he? He tells us to love our enemies, of all people, to forgive 70 times seven, to love one another as he has loved us. He announces that the meek will inherit the earth, and whoever heard of that in our world? It's the fellow who knows how to promote himself who will climb the ladder of success, isn't it? Jesus tells us not to pile up treasures for ourselves on earth, but we all know that the bigger the portfolio, the better. He tells us that we can't do one thing to work our way into eternal life, and that everything depends on the grace of the Father. But doesn't God value the good persons we try to be? Doesn't he approve of all of the things we have done for the church? And won't that be rewarded in heaven? Let's face it. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, like his passion and cross, are scandalous in our world. And yet, we are called to give our lives for the sake of testifying to it.
In short, God calls his servants to lives out-of-joint with the rest of society, because God wants to save his world. He wants to forgive the transgressions of humankind. He wants to deliver everyone from death. He wants to pour out his love on every soul whom he has created on the face of this planet. And God can do that only if his servants are willing to suffer, as his prophet suffered, and as his Son finally suffered for us all. Only by a cross, that nailed all of this world's evil to its wood, did God manifest his amazing love that was willing to die for you and me. And only as his servants are equally willing is the message of that incredible love spread throughout creation.
How is it possible for us to be such willing and loving servants of our Lord? Our text tells us the answer. Second Isaiah recounts to us that "morning by morning" God "wakens" his ear (v. 4). Indeed, when he is weary, he listens -- listens to the Lord -- and is sustained. And there we have the foundation of the Christian servant-life. In a daily communion with his God, in constant listening to the Lord's word, now preserved for us in the scriptures, in prayer and meditation, there are given to us unworthy servants of our God the strength, the sustenance, the guidance, the courage to do the will of our Lord. By constant fellowship with our God, we Christians are enabled to face any scornful challenge that the world may throw up to us, to undergo any suffering that may come our way, and to cheerfully know that no matter what the situation may be, the Lord is our help and our stay. Servants like that never know defeat, good Christians, because God is never defeated. And servants like that never wonder what their purpose is in life, because God's purpose is their guide and goal -- God's purpose of love.
PREACHING THE PSALM
Psalm 31:9-16
On this day when preachers have to decide whether to pursue the palms or the Passion, it should be noted that Psalm 31:9-16 is part of the Liturgy of Passion, not the Liturgy of the Palms, and it occupies that place for all three years of the Revised Common Lectionary. But even if one did not know that, the tone of these verses would surely push one away from any triumphalism. These words are the cry of a person in agony.
A couple of preaching possibilities:
1) Verse 9 and especially verse 10 can be taken literally, as references to serious illness. Many sufferers have found courage and hope in viewing the voluntary suffering of Jesus. One pastor mentioned visiting a Christian woman who was in the end stages of cancer, and was in terrible pain. Yet she said to the pastor, "If Jesus suffered for me, I can suffer for him." To himself, the pastor thought the woman's comment simplistic. How could her suffering, caused not by sin but by rogue cells, be doing anything for God? But the fact was, that understanding was helping the woman handle her ordeal. Wisely, the pastor did nothing to challenge her view. But maybe the woman was right anyway. Here's a place to talk about redemptive suffering.
2) Verse 12, "I have passed out of mind like one who is dead," could easily be the lament of a person "downsized" out of a job and unable to find new employment. Those who have been there testify that it really does feel like being forgotten by one's former workmates, employers and even the crowd that one ran with while employed. What will it take to get the person in such straits to trust that "my times are in your hands" (v. 15)?
