[AI translation] In the story of Jesus' suffering, the scene I have just read from the Bible presents us with a very devastating picture on the one hand, and a very comforting, happy truth on the other. It is a terrible judgment - upon us. A judgment so great that only the grace of God can be greater. But even greater grace than this judgment is in this Word. What is so devastating about this story is that it reveals sins that I discover in my own life all the time. The spectacle of what is happening here is repulsive, the injustice of what is going on is blatant, every detail of the great trial is outrageous! And what is horrifying is that the people involved are all my fellow human beings, and when I condemn them for their despicable behaviour, I am in fact passing judgement on myself.There is the mob: with what contempt we can speak of it, its fickleness and wickedness have become proverbial. A few days ago, he was shouting dowsing, now he is shouting 'Crucify him' with the same enthusiasm and conviction! Or perhaps he participated in both demonstrations without any real conviction or enthusiasm? In any case, a huge change in a few days! It is frightening that blessings and curses can come from the same mouth. The same hand can be clasped in prayer, and the same hand can be clenched in a threatening fist. The same eyes can radiate the warmth of love and the flame of hatred, the same soul can behave one way at one time and the exact opposite at another. And if it were only mass psychosis that brought this about, it would be easier to bear, to explain, to save. But the problem is that it is the same for you and for me, in our individual lives too! Have you ever wondered what the mouth you just sang the psalm with is capable of? How it can hurt, insult, mock, cut, wound! All it takes is a change of environment and mood. Good Friday instead of Palm Sunday, a crowded tram instead of a church, a tense family atmosphere instead of praying companions, a teasing adversary looking for a knot in every cactus instead of an understanding friend - and what happened to the crowd happens to you. And not in a few days, but in a few minutes!
Do you wonder how different that crowd could be from Sunday to Friday? So different that you can hardly recognise them? How different can you be in the time it takes you to get home from here? So different that you can't even be recognized for having been to church, praying, taking communion, meeting Jesus! It's easy to be a dowser when others are doing the same! But who dares to shout hosannas when everyone else is shouting "crucify"? Let the one who is not a partaker of sin among you cast the first stone on that roaring crowd! But condemn that crowd for its wickedness - it deserves it - but you are there with me, you are no better than it!
Perhaps most odious of all are the figures of the chief priests and elders. They would have really known from the Scriptures who Jesus is, what God wants, where the way to salvation leads. And yet they are the ones who stir up the people, the ones who stand in the way of the multitudes falling on their knees before Christ and worshipping Him as Eternal God and King! Oh, if anyone is guilty of condemning Christ to death, it is first of all the chief priests and elders! It is from them that we might have expected first of all what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Let your light so shine before men, that when they see your good works, they may glorify your Father in heaven". (Mt 5,16) And instead, the Word was fulfilled in them, which is written in the Scriptures, "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." (Rom 2,24) This sin of the high priest and scribe was very painful to my heart yesterday. I was talking to a convinced materialist. I tried to testify to him of the superiority of faith in Christ, its superiority and value over materialism. You know what his main argument was? This is what he said: If I had any faith in God, would it have killed me to think that for two thousand years they had been trying to educate people in the spirit of Christ, and what had they got out of it?
I know very well where this reasoning limps, but it is right that, however it limps, it is because of us that the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles. Yes, because of us, who should know best who Christ is, what salvation, forgiveness of sins, eternal life means, because we sit here in the church, we listen to the Word, we are scribes, we know the Scriptures. Yes, it is because of us church-going Reformed that God's name is blasphemed among pagans, materialists and atheists! Or are you not blasphemed? Are you an exception? I wish you were! I am not! But you won't be right away either, just try leading an atheist or a pagan to Christ! Then you'll be horrified to see how much you're the reason a bunch of people around you are shouting "Crucify Him!" at your Jesus!
The figure of Pilate is quite a pathetic figure. Humanly speaking, he could have saved the innocent accused, but he didn't have the courage. He washed his hands in vain, he was not "innocent of the blood of this righteous man"! To condone injustice, to do nothing to prevent it, is to share in its happening. But he had no heart for the whole thing, he was literally swept up in it like Pilate in the Credo. Let us get it over with, even if not in the way he would see fit. Out of fear, out of spinelessness, he acts against his better convictions. He dares not be consistent. He knows what he should do, but he does not.
You know, you know exactly what you should do, and you don't do it. You know that you should forgive or apologise to someone, and then you don't! You read something in the Bible, you conclude that this is the truth, Jesus is right, but practical life is different, there you have to bargain! For example, how true it is to "love your neighbour as yourself" and how impossible it is to put it into practice as soon as it comes! Observe yourself for one day only: can you count how many times you fall into the sin of Pilate? Small sins, one might say. They are not sins, they are sins, mistakes of human frailty. There is no need to exaggerate them so much, to take them so tragically, because, after all, there is no perfect man in the world! Indeed: they are not very glaring and interesting sins, quite ordinary and common sins. But do you know that it was these very simple sins that led Jesus to the cross? These were the sins that made up the process that ended in the murder of the Son of God. And that is why there is no agenda.
Here, at the cross, the true essence of sin is exposed. As long as the cross did not stand, man could save himself by saying that sin was not such a big deal. But the cross means that God appeared in the flesh and man killed him. Here we see that sin, in sum, whether small or great, is nothing but God-killing, God-murdering! What Satan would do if he could! And behold, it is made up of such sins as you and I commit every day. Behold, it is revealed that you are partaker of Christ's death! And this is not rhetorical hyperbole, but agonizing reality! As the apostle Peter said to the crowds in the churchyard at the first Pentecost, "you have killed Jesus by your wicked hands on the cross". To whom is the apostle saying this? To those who had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost from all parts of the world, from the provinces beyond the borders of the kingdom. Perhaps none of them were even in Jerusalem on that Good Friday. They had just heard about the whole thing for the first time, and yet their hearts were so heavy with the knowledge of their participation in the murder of Christ that it is recorded below how 'bitter' they were about it!
Only if you are "bitter" (i.e., heartbroken) can you understand that there is a very uplifting and comforting scene in this story. The one where the injustice becomes perhaps the most glaring: Pilate, at the request of the people, releases the murderer condemned to death and passes the death sentence on the innocent. "He released Barabbas to them, and Jesus being scourged, he delivered him into their hands to be crucified." How could God allow this?! How many times, in cases of much lesser injustice and wrongdoing, does the offended person ask this! But why then did God look on and tolerate the greatest injustice, the execution of the Son of God in the place of a murdering, evil-doer?! So that you might understand the incomprehensible, the justice of God, the miracle of redemption. In this scene, God presents as a picture the redemption of sinful man at the death of Christ. A fatal exchange is made here: Jesus is condemned in place of Barabbas, and the sinner is acquitted in place of Jesus, the saint! This is the redemption: this exchange of persons and roles. God has put the guilt of all of us on Jesus, so He Himself has agreed to this exchange that the people there proposed concerning Barabbas. The sinner will go free because the righteous will be condemned! Jesus will take your place and put you in His place. He exchanges you, and by this intangible exchange He performs the mystery of your redemption! Imagine the sublime scene of the jailer opening the cell door and shouting to the prisoner: "Barabbas, you are free! Someone else will die for you!
This is the good news I want to bring to you now, Brother, whoever you are, whatever your sin, whatever your part in the murder of Christ: you are free, Jesus died in your place! Barabbas was free to believe this incredible good news as soon as it was brought to his attention. You too are free to believe it, now, immediately, without any conditions, you don't have to be worthy of it first - Barabbas wasn't worthy either! In the full knowledge of your unworthiness, in the midst of your sins, the good news comes to you, unsolicited and unexpected: you are free! Christ died in your place! Let us pray that His blood may be - not as a curse and judgment, but as a mercy and atonement for us and our offspring! ( Mt 27,25)
Amen
Date: 15 April 1949 Good Friday.
Lesson
Mt 27,15-26