Palm/Passion Sunday, March 20th 2016, thoughts going in

So regarding this Sunday, some might ask.... WHICH is it, Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday? Well... it's both. There's a tension here and the tension is ON PURPOSE. We're meant to hear the story again about how fickle the crowds were who one day shout blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord... and just a few short days later shout crucify him, crucify him. We're meant to see in the crowd's fickleness all of the many times we've said we we're a Christian... we've said we believe... and then without skipping a beat have said or done something entirely contrary to God's will. We're meant to see ourselves in the crowd.

            With that in mind, I'm especially intrigued with the way that long passion narrative ends: 18 But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!”19 (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.) 20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. 21 But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

22 For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. 24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

            As I explained in a recent bible study class, the old Sunday school thing about Jesus being crucified with 2 "thieves" isn't quite right (the old KJV unfortunately used that term). Of course there *were thieves in the first century Greco-Roman world, just as there are today. As a matter of fact, a recent Sunday Gospel reading informed us to as much. In John chapter 12 after Mary of Bethany broke open the jar of expensive perfume and anointed Jesus' feet, Judas objected and said the jar should've been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. Judas had rightly calculated that the stuff was worth a lot of money--300 denarii, or about a year's wages for a day-laborer. And then John says this: He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief (12:6). And that word "thief" in the English is kleptes in the Greek. It's where we get our word kleptomaniac from. As you would think, a kleptes is someone who takes what doesn't belong to them; he skims from the profits; he sneaks in and steals your tv set while you're at your kid's ballgame. That's a kleptes.

            And while Rome wasn't exactly known for their leniency when it came to law and order, they didn't just crucify *everyone who was guilty of any crime. Crucifixion was hard work; and it was brutal. And in order for it to do its job in terms of being a 'deterrent,' it had to be reserved for certain crimes. Thanks to the slave revolt of Spartacus (73-71BC), simply being a runaway slave was punishable not only by death, but death by crucifixion. Beyond this, the primary purpose of crucifixion was to punish those who were guilty of high crimes/treason against the state. Being an insurrectionist; a brigand; stealing, plundering, killing and upsetting Rome's social order--and getting caught--THESE were the things that got you crucified. In the Greek the word for such guys is lestes. That's who the two guys were crucified with Jesus. That's what Barabbas was.

            Going into this long, but familiar reading, I'm struck by the fact that there was always going to be three crucifixions that day. The only question was going to be, who would be on that center cross? And in keeping with the 'tension' of the day, we find layers and layers of tension in the reading. In an almost ironic twist, the name of the insurrectionist that is eventually released is Barabbas. In Aramaic, the name literally means "son [bar] of the father [abbas]." Son-of-the-father is taken off the cross so that the one and only begotten Son of the Heavenly Father can take it up.

            And the last little bit of tension, it says in vs 25 Pilate released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus... to their will. It is true that at that moment, it was "their will" that Jesus be crucified. It was their will to reject and kill the "Lord of glory," as Paul says in 2Corinthians. And in that moment of rejection when their will carries the day, all of humanity must stand condemned. There is none righteous, no not one. Each of us in our way would have asked for Barabbas that day. And yet we cannot escape the one last bit of tensions. Since the 9th chapter of Luke, Jesus had set his face to Jerusalem. He could've stopped anywhere along the line. He could have defended himself at his trial with the ruling council. He could've defended himself in Pilate's presence. Instead, he let it all happen exactly the way he did because it was also HIS WILL that it happen.  As we enter Palm/Passion Sunday and Holy Week, we do so overwhelmed by the love of the Savior who would do such a thing for us!

Cheers,

T.M.