March 20, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Isaiah 50: 4-7 + Philippians 2:6-11 + Matthew 26:14-27:66
Matthew leads us to raise an important question. Is Jesus an innocent victim of sinful, violent, and jealous human beings? Or, does he experience this violent death because God willed it? It’s a question often avoided, but it still lurks in shadows, and it leaves many profoundly confused about God, about suffering, and about the death of Christ itself.
There is little doubt that Judas, who was probably a member of a right-wing, zealot faction betrayed Christ because he felt betrayed.
He wanted nothing to do with this peaceable, loving, man whose inclusive and patient ways disappointed him. Judas probably felt betrayed by Jesus, not the other way around. He wanted a Messiah who was going to come in, clean things up, and put things in order, and get rid of the Romans. When he got the picture of what Jesus really wanted to do, he not only wanted nothing to do with it, he wanted to silence the plan.
The Chief priests considered themselves the sole interpreters of God’s Will. They were the interpreters of tradition, not this upstart from Galilee. He had no right to bring a message that challenged them,
threatened the nation’s relationship with Rome and their security.
He had to be stopped, and for them, the end justified the means.
The Will of God however was not violent, nor does the outcome of this conflict indicate that God’s willed the death of Jesus. It is a distortion of everything Jesus revealed about his Father to think that God would find any of that pleasing.
For Jesus, it was God’s will that conscience prevail, that truth not be silenced by power, and that peacefulness, love, and forgiveness prevail over everything and anything that threatened the unity of the human family. The poor were to have a place at the table now, not when their dead. The cry of the helpless and powerless was to be heard over and above the roar of the mighty. Women, children, sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, the unfaithful, the broken, jobless, and abandoned were gathered up, and they received the gift of his power – a power he never used for himself. This was the will of God. It was the beginning of the Kingdom of God.
There is not one hint in all of revelation to suggest that the will of God has changed; that God has anything to do with or is anywhere near violence, hatred, oppression, or the selfish ambition of power abused. When we proclaim the Passion of Christ, whether it is from Matthew of from John, the point is not the violence nor the injustice.
To get all hung up on nails and thorns, and whips is to fail to grasp the message and see what the death of Jesus was really about. The point of it all is that one of us has put the will of God above everything else, and broken the cycle of violence and hatred, fear, ambition, and selfishness. It is possible that the peace, the forgiveness, and the all-inclusive love of God can prevail, and when it does for everyone of us, there will be resurrection and real life forever and ever.