Sermon – Good Friday – 2024 – jwgc

 

Sermon – Good Friday – 2024 – jwgc

 

There’s an unwritten rule in baseball – you do not bring the rulebook onto the field. You can argue… You can, I guess, kick dirt at the umpire. But you cannot bring the actual rulebook out and point out to the umpire (or a coach or a player) the rule that proves your point.

And believe me, because I’ve read it, some rules are indecipherable. Hard to imagine that such a scenario would occur. Maybe if that actual, unlikely thing happened, you could figure out the rule and apply it that day.

Otherwise, the rules of baseball are fairly simple. Most of the time, no rule book is needed.

You know. That unwritten rule, about not bringing a rulebook onto the playing field seems terribly unhuman, unnatural; it seems to fly in the face of what we need and crave.

We might not like the person who reads out loud, the rules of a new board game but we need them. Someone has to impart that knowledge (those rules) to the group.

Humans like rules. We crave limits. The Bible has over 600 rules. The church has rules. Governments have rules. Families have rules. Social groups have rules. Schools; Sports; even war has rules.

I suppose that rules are good. They create order and presumably safety.

Humans tend to think legalistically: here are the boundaries; colour within the lines and all will be fine.

Jesus is put on trial for seemingly breaking the rules. The charge of Blasphemy was serious. You see – people weren’t allowed to claim to be God. Which one could argue Jesus didn’t really do, but his followers did and that still qualified as blasphemy.

As well, the charge of Sedition is serious. You see – people weren’t allowed to claim to be a king, because there already was an emperor: Ceasar was the ruler, the king, no one else should dare to presume to challenge him.

It’s an interesting discussion. (For me at least.) Was Jesus guilty of blasphemy and sedition, or were they trumped up charges? Legalistically, perhaps he was, and the punishment was crucifixion. At least at the time that was the punishment.

The people who accused Jesus of these crimes brought the rule book onto the field. But their game was different from the one Jesus played. The rules for the game Jesus was playing were entirely different.

The crux of the problem is identified in the question: what is truth?

Rules define boundaries, what’s allowed and what’s not allowed. Rules cannot define truth. What the Jewish leaders missed; what the Roman occupiers missed was that truth is not a legalistic thing. Its boundaries are not easily definable.

The person they’ve accused of these capitol crimes is the embodiment of truth. Truth is a person. God’s truth is a person. Jesus is truth, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

Pilate tries to play a nasty trick on everyone – he asks the people, would you have me crucify your king? Pilate thinks that if they say yes, then they are effectively giving up all hope for a messiah. Giving up their hope for independence from the occupying Roman forces.

Pilate fails to see the truth as it stands before him, bloodied and bruised.

We benefit from leaning into this story as deeply as we can. The trial is ours, as much as it is against Jesus.

In the midst of all this, there’s another trial going on, easily missed. As Jesus is questioned, as people try and make him look guilty, we also hear about a man named Peter who is also being questioned, as if he too is on trial.  People ask him: aren’t you also a disciple? Peter, in order to safe his own skin, (we suppose that’s his motivation,) denies even knowing Jesus. One can easily sympathize with Peter. I’d probably want to save myself too.

Peter is who he is, and that’s a disciple. Peter is effectively denying himself. Denying a relationship with the Saviour is denying his very self.

You see, after all these things, when Peter meets the risen Lord, on a beach, for breakfast, it’s not really an opportunity for Jesus to forgive Peter. What’s really happening there is that Peter is being given himself. Peter denied himself at the crucifixion and Jesus is letting Peter reclaim himself. To reclaim his discipleship, to reclaim the truth about Jesus, so that Peter can carry on the mission of a disciple, of an apostle, of a follower of Jesus the Christ: the way, the truth and the life.

Today, we too are given the opportunity to reclaim our true selves, unfettered by human notions of sin, unfettered by the rule book. Free to live into the truth, free to live into being the Church, free to live into being the Body of Christ in the world. It’s an awesome trust God places in humanity, to love, to forgive; to show mercy and pursue justice even when it’s uncomfortable.

If Jesus was guilty: he was guilty of being the embodiment of God’s love; he was guilty of being the incarnation of God’s forgiveness; he was guilty of being a servant of mercy; he was guilty of being a creator of justice and peace. For that they convicted him. May we be so charged and convicted. Amen.