[AI translation] Dear brothers and sisters, on this day, the eyes of millions of people around the world are once again turned to the suffering and death of Jesus. I wondered to myself whether it is not strange that, after more than two thousand years, this ancient suffering and death should still occupy so much of people's thought and devotion, that we should celebrate a special feast in its memory every year? For we live in a world where suffering and death also abound! Think, for example, of the suffering of people who are now at war, or who are being destroyed by hunger, or who are being driven by earthquakes, floods, other such disasters, or all kinds of incurable diseases, into unbelievable misery and misery. And in addition to that, we ourselves, each of us, have our own individual problems and often sufferings and sorrows. So why do we return again and again each year to the one person who died more than 1900 years ago, far away, somewhere in the East, in an unknown, tiny country? Well, he was crucified. And that means he had to die in terrible agony. But his torture lasted only a few hours. How many people, for example, die in agony from cancer for months or years. And there is no doubt that an unheard of injustice was done to him. He was sentenced to death as a just man. All his best friends failed him. But such things have happened more than once in history! There must be something mysterious in that suffering and that death which has so occupied and still occupies the minds of men through the centuries that even we, who have lived in a very different world, cannot escape it. We cannot simply get our minds off it. Even those who would not otherwise come to church on a Good Friday service like this come to church. So what's so special? What is it, then, that is unique, that is unparalleled in this suffering and in this death, that always draws our thoughts, our feelings, our devotion and our prayer involuntarily?Well, the brothers and sisters, without a doubt, is that what happened here was not a general human suffering and death, but a very special, unique and unique suffering and death. Many other men have been executed by crucifixion, but the crucified Jesus radiates from his person something of an impressive power, authority and dignity, which is perhaps best expressed by the content of the letter that Pilate nailed to Jesus' cross as the reason for his condemnation, the letter that has since become world famous in these four letters: I. N. R. I. Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judeorum, that is, This Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Brothers and sisters, I suddenly cannot imagine anything that would express a more striking contrast to this shameful execution scene than this inscription: that He is King, and that He is King now, now that He is being nailed to a curse tree and tortured to death! For if only He had been called King when with a single word of His power He calmed the raging sea. Or when, at His divine command, the dead Lazarus comes forth from the tomb, revived, or when, at the touch of His hand, a legion of devils flee wailing from a tortured human soul, for there were scenes of kingship in His life. But what is happening here is anything but royal! To call Him king now, nailed to the curse tree?!....
Yes, King, because here on the cross He is most truly King: Messiah King, Saviour King. Do you remember him? A few hours before, He Himself said to Pilate, when he asked him, "Are you a king indeed"? He said, "thou sayest", which means, it is as thou sayest. Yes, I am king. Only, of course, he is a king in a very different way from what Pilate and all the others who heard him there thought. His kingdom is not of this world, but that is why His kingdom is more powerful and timeless than any other great power on earth. Look at it, so truly King Jesus that even the haughty governor of the mighty Roman Empire, Pilate, serves Him against His will. Pilate, in his offended vanity, intended this fable, 'This Jesus of Nazareth is King of the Jews,' as a mockery to annoy the Jews, and he himself did not know that he was proclaiming eternal righteousness by it. For when no one believed that this Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the long-awaited Messianic King, when He Himself could not proclaim His own truth because of the agony of the crucifixion, when the darkness of death was slowly descending, behold, His enemy proclaimed who this strange man was on this cross. Pilate, without Pilate's will or knowledge, is doing Jesus a service when he proclaims in three world languages: Hebrew, Greek and Latin, 'This is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews'.
You know, it's as if he were declaring, proclaiming with all the official authority of the Roman Empire of the time: let it be known to all the people of the world that this mocked and tormented man on the cross is none other than the Messiah King of whom the Old Testament prophets spoke, whom the Old Testament fathers were waiting for, whom God sent to this world as a saviour! The Son of God, the embodiment of God's love! In three world languages: Hebrew, the language of religion. Greek, the language of culture. And in Latin, the language of law, this inscription proclaims that Jesus is Lord over all areas of human life: in him all religions are fulfilled. It is from His spirituality that all true culture unfolds, and from His truth that all human law draws its inspiration. Pilate, therefore, without his knowledge or will, proclaimed a great and eternal truth into time and history. Imagine what a power it must be that so freely places even its enemy at its service, to proclaim with him that He is the true Lord over all the spheres of life! It is as if this whole scene were actually being directed by a higher power with minute precision. According to an eternal plan, and Pilate, and the high council, and the Roman soldiers, and all the other people who are present, are all as if they were just executors of this eternal plan.
Brothers and sisters, I understand something here from an otherwise very mysterious saying of Jesus, which can be read in another place in the Gospel of John, when he said, "I lay down my life, no one takes it from me, I lay it down of my own accord". What a majestic statement! It means that not like a rolling boulder that buries everything under itself and from which there is no escape, but that everything that happens here is actually unfolding, growing out of His own action. In fact, it is a sacrifice voluntarily undertaken and performed, in which the sacrifice is Himself, Jesus, and the sacrificer is Himself, Jesus. That's how truly awesome this crucified Jesus is there on the cross. And let me add, brothers and sisters, that His kingship is not at all contradicted by the cross, but that He is truly glorified as King. For it is here that He is truly shown to be King, not in a human way, but in a divine way. Quite different from the way we think of kingship. For He once said that the Gentiles, pagan rulers, they "reign over their subjects, and great men rule over them, but the Son of Man came to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many". So, true greatness in His kingdom is not in direct proportion to ascending the steps of power, but to descending to the depths of service. He is greater and stronger who can stoop deeper in service. And He is the greatest and the strongest because He has stooped the deepest in service to others. It is precisely in this that His power above all else is that He is powerful in a different way, and strong in a different way than the worldly powerful and strong - in a Godly way. That is why it is in His very helplessness on the cross that His divine power is most fully revealed. That is why He is most glorious when He hangs naked on that gallows, that curse-tree. In his deepest humiliation he is exalted to the highest. Two hands and two feet nailed to the rough beam, surrounded on all sides by mockery and contempt, and yet it is here that God is exalted to the highest place above mankind.
Golgotha, that unknown little hill there, on the outskirts of Old Jerusalem, became the place where the irresistible power of God's love penetrated this earthly world. This mocked King was such a power there on the cross that ever since he has brought millions and millions of people to their knees before Him, and still does to this day. And look, the world is utterly helpless against him - for he is claiming self-sacrifice in the face of violence. In the face of hatred, Your infinite, indulgent great love. Against our sinful pleasures, His own divine suffering, and against our rebellion against God, His own perfect obedience. All our harshness is broken by His gentleness. All our envy is broken by His humility and His devotion. All the reproach of our conscience on His free grace, and all the sore poison of our sin on His forgiveness. Against all human evil, divine goodness is realized in Him. That is why He is a triumphant King there on that cross, because He overcomes earthly evil, all kinds of earthly evil, with its perfect opposite, heavenly good. Violence, not by the use of greater violence, but by the total surrender of Himself. And the flame of hatred, not by the fire of still greater wrath, but by the unquenchable fountain of his love, and sin, not by punitive power, but by divine forgiveness.
Look, brothers, you cannot fight against such a king, for he has already won! There is only one thing to be done against him, and that is to surrender myself at last to him who has given Himself to me so completely. The only thing to do is to begin to love Him who has loved me so deadly before. All that can be done is to thank Him and accept the forgiveness of sins for which He laid down His divine life, and to begin to live gratefully out of the grace and mercy with which He looks upon me.
Shall we, brothers and sisters, at last bow down before this King with his crown of thorns as our King, Lord and Saviour. So wonderful a King is He indeed that He will found a new kingdom when He is executed. He ascends to His unshakeable throne when all are against Him. He could look at and see this mocking inscription then with the eyes with which we look at it today, centuries and millennia later, because He knew then that out of this humiliation Christianity would be born. And out of this abomination the kingdom of God would grow. He knew even then that He would gather around His cross subjects, a worshipping people, who would look to His pierced hand for help and protection and blessing. He knew even then that this cross, this bloody cross, would be the royal throne under whose protection His people, all who believe in Him, would find refuge against all enemies, both external and internal. And that it will be the cross around which men of every language, of every nation, of every country will gather: a whole new humanity, whose unifying force, more than any other, will be the cross! Yes, it is around his cross that communities stronger than all class interests and all social differences are woven: bonds of brotherhood, bonds of love. Ever since, and to this day, people come here to be renewed when they are tired, to be relieved when they are burdened, to be healed when they are sick, to be strengthened when they are struggling, to be comforted when they weep, to rest when they are driven and to be cleansed when they sin. It is here that kings and beggars, lords and servants, the powerful and the dispossessed, the coloured and the white, are still receiving grace today - you and me both. Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judeorum - this Jesus is indeed the Messianic King who conquers us, even today, by proclaiming divine amnesty, by binding us with His irresistible love.
I know very well, brothers and sisters, that there are those who think that Jesus is out of fashion. Jesus is a bygone greatness, remembered at best as an old, great one by those who still remember. Like that one-time scientist who, passing a cross by the side of the road, once shook his head and said to himself: Oh, poor man, your time is up! It was as if he were saying - he was obviously thinking to himself - that Jesus might have been good in his day, in that primitive age, in primitive circumstances, but that he was no longer useful today, in this much more differentiated and much more complicated way of life. Well, brothers and sisters, I am convinced that the time of Jesus is just beginning! He is the Creator and He is the Preserver of all that is most beautiful, best, and most necessary in the life of humanity today: true love, the possibility of total forgiveness without a second thought, true peace, true fraternal communion, selfless service, the possibility of a life triumphant over temptations and sins. In short, the kingdom of God.
Talk of the cross may still be foolishness to many people. But we who grasp it in faith are convinced again and again that it is indeed the power of God. The irresistible power of God's love. So much so, that whoever before this strange king submits, whoever takes his rule upon himself with a heart ready to obey, his life is slowly transformed, beautified, renewed and exalted. Brothers and sisters, His royal power is the only power that has not yet been exhausted on this earth, nor will it ever be exhausted. So you see, that is why we return every year to this cross, erected more than 1900 years ago. To the cross over which the living God himself wrote with his hand to Pilate that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah King. If only the Living God Himself would write in our hearts, with His own indelible hand, that this Jesus of Nazareth is your King! Let us therefore worship him. Let us beseech him in this way:
O sweet Jesus, holy Son of thy Father!
O God, the gracious King of your people!
Guide all our lives for good,
Make us your own people.
Be a help to him who on high
You sit in a land of precious blood;
Make us obedient, faithful citizens,
And possessors of thy riches.
(Canto 331, verse 4)
Amen.
Date: 24 March 1967.