"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (1 Cor. 1:25)
Rejection, Denial, Despair
Posted On: March 07th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
The Passion of Our Lord Matthew 26:57-27:10
The crowd that arrested Jesus in the garden now whisks Him off to Caipas the high priest, the head of the religious court, together with the scribes and the elders of the people. Religion will judge Jesus and render its verdict. Don’t imagine for a moment that this is a fair hearing, or that this panel is interested in the truth. They have already arranged for false witnesses. They are looking for a reason to put Him to death. Many false witnesses come forward, but since their testimony conflicted, it cannot be used. The truth must be firmly established by two or three witnesses. Finally, like the desperate prosecutors find two who could agree, twisting Jesus’ words about the temple being destroyed.
Jesus stands must. “Like a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth,” the prophet Isaiah said of the suffering servant. He is silent against the lies hurled against him. He doesn’t seek legal counsel; He doesn’t assert is rights to a fair hearing. He doesn’t call expert witnesses to speak in His defense. His is the silence of God against the accusation of humanity and man’s Religion. God is on trial here, and God shuts His mouth to the whole thing. In the silence, our blasphemies, our false theologies, our accusations against God are absorbed in the acoustical deadness. God opens not His mouth.
Finally, in exasperation the high priest binds Jesus under oath in the Name of God “ I order you by the living God to speak. Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” The name of God has been invoked. Jesus must speak. Yet even now, He will not answer the question. They have said it. Their own words testify. He alludes to the Son of Man in the prophet Daniel who is given all authority from the Ancient of Days. He is the one Daniel had seen, coming with the clouds of heaven, a preview picture of Christ in His glory.
Hearing this, the high priest tears his robes, something the Torah forbids him to do. The high priest must never tear his clothing, nor let his hair be unkempt Leviticus said. But their hatred for Jesus exceeds their zeal to keep the law of God. They have the evidence they seek, or so they suppose. The verdict from Religion is that “He deserves to die.” They spit in His face and mock Jesus as a false prophet. And the Son of Man, Son of God, Messiah, goes silent once again.
How can it be that people so zealous for the Word, those who knew the Torah by heart, and oriented their lives around keeping the commandments, could be turned in utter hatred against the very Word in the Flesh? How can people read the Bible cover to cover and yet miss the whole point, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself? The Bible cannot save you. The chief priests, scribes and elders knew their Bibles backward and forward. But a book wasn’t nailed to the cross for the forgiveness of your sins. A person was, the second Person of the undivided Holy Trinity, the creative and redemptive Word made Flesh whose human name is Jesus. He alone can save you, and He has, in His death. The Bible bears witness to this great truth, making us wise to our salvation through faith in Jesus. But it is Jesus that saves.
All the while Peter stands outside in the courtyard. A servant girl picks him out of the crowd. “You were with Jesus the Galilean.” she says. All eyes turn to Peter and stare, singling him out. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says, denying Jesus as Jesus had predicted. Peter hurries away to another place, and another servant girl points to him and says out louod, “Hey, this guy was with Jesus of Nazareth.” Again, Peter denies, this time with an oath. A little while later some of the bystanders come up to him. “You’re one of them, Your accent gives you away,” And Peter, summoning up his best fisherman's curse, insists on it a third time. “I’ll be damned if I know that man.” The rooster crows; the saying of Jesus if fulfilled. Peter weeps bitterly.
Peter the Rock, the bold one, the spokesman for the Twelve. Peter the great confessor, the one who said, “I would die with you before I would deny you, Peter the fisherman becomes a jellyfish. We join Peter in denial. We ourselves have said it, “I do not know the man.” We’ve said it with our lips and in our lives. We fear being labeled a religious fanatic, a kook, a fundamentalist, whatever name the world would pin on us. Wouldn’t want to take this Jesus thing too seriously no, would we? By the way, the shortened version of “fanatic” is “fan,” as in baseball fan or basketball fan or football fan. Nothing wrong with that sort of fanatic. We have no trouble with being fans of celebrities and music idols (interesting choice of word there). But to be a fan of Jesus? That’s either for the bible belt for the the psychotic ward, take your pick,
The world is asking us the same thing the servant girl asked Peter. “Are you with that guy named Jesus or not? Are you one of His?” Our accent betrays us . We’ve been baptized. We’re easily flushed out of the crowd. And before the rooster crows, we find ourselves cursing our own heads and denying Jesus too. Yet He will not disown us, even unto death.
Judas enters the picture again. He too is caught in despair. Like Peter, he too weeps in remorse. He tries to atone for his sin by going to the temple, the place of forgiveness. He wants to give the money back, to make up for what he did, to take it all back. He even makes a confession of sin: “I have sinned in Bering innocent blood.” But the faithless priests of religion have no absolution to offer. “What’s that to us?” they say. “See to it yourself.” That’s your problem, Judas. You made your bed, now lie in it.
May the Lord spare us from such faithless religion in the hour of our despair and need. Let no confession hang in the air, or be swatted away with an indifferent “Oh, it was nothing.” Confession demands absolution release, pardon, forgiveness. You have it from Christ. Speak it for Christ. He’s taken away the sin of the world. Say it, even to Judas. His life hangs in the balance. Judas heard no sweet words of absolution. No words of forgiveness. All he could do is toss the thirty silver coins into the temple, as the prophet Zechariah had done centuries before, and go out and hang himself. A sacrifice, for sin was required. Judas offered himself.
We do the same. We try to atone for our sings, try to roll back the video of our lives. If we aren’t making excuses or blaming others, then we’re bargaining and transacting with God and getting all religious hoping He won’t clobber us. We cast our thirty silver pieces in the direction of any convenient temple, looking for release from our sin. We offer sacrifices, whether ourselves or others, looking for some way to atone for what we’ve done. But none of it works
There is but one atoning sacrifice, and it’s dead Jesus on the cross. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only ours, as John reminds us, but for the sins of the whole world. Judas included. Jesus’ death covers Judas’ betrayal and even his suicide. Let go of the religious notion that suicide is unforgivable because there is no opportunity for repentance. Forgiveness is there before repentance, or there is nothing to which to turn. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
The religious, pious priests see the money as tainted, blood money. Ironically, it comes from the pockets of priests; Their own bloody fingerprints are all over it. They also offer up their atoning sacrifice. Don’t keep the money, use it instead for a good cause. A place to bury the foreigners. And so with the thirty pieces of blood money they purchase a “Field of Blood,” the potter’s field that Jeremiah once purchased long ago, now a place to bury John and Jane Doe. And the word of the prophet is fulfilled twice over.
This is a sad and sordid episode, a dark chapter in the Gospel. The treachery of the religious high court, the three-fold denial of the disciple, the desperate suicide of Judas. Who would ever have thought that it would come to this that wondrous day of Jesus’ Baptism? Or His glorious transfiguration? Can anything good come of this? God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s sins against them. In with and under the worst of sin - lies, denials, despair, suicide - the good and gracious will of God is done to death and life. The One whom the religious declared “guilty” goes to His cross so that the guilty might be declared innocent.
There’s hope for you in Jesus, and He suffers this all for you. Remember this night when the religious mock you, and accuse you falsely because of Jesus. Remember this night when the rooster catches you in denial of Him. Remember this night when you hear no absolution to your heartfelt confession, when you are in despair, when you feel that God could not possibly forgive such a miserable sinner as you. There’s no need to die like Judas. You’ve already died in Jesus, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your death atones for nothing. Jesus’ death atones for it all and for all. And most especially for you.