March 21, 2008 at Saint Mark Church in Norma, OK
Isaiah 52: 13-53:12 + Psalm 31 + Hebrews 4: 14-16, 5: 7-9 + John 18:1-19:42
Earlier in John’s Gospel, Chapter 11 to be exact, the movement toward this moment began. Threatened by an outsider, by some one out of their control, the leaders of the people ran to their high priest a man named Caiphas. He knew that the Romans would sack him if he did not keep his Jews in line. The closer Jesus got to Jerusalem, the greater was his following. Caiphas was at risk, and so the carpenter’s son from Nazareth had to go. He was upsetting things.
All that we have just heard in the Passion is the consequence of a way of thinking that found its ultimate expression in the one quote of this man Caiphas that has lasted longer than he did: “It is better that one man should die for the people.” That haunting quotation expresses a perverse truth that we have yet to question. Caiphas, even though he was put out by the Romans is yet to be silenced. Better this death than have our lives upset. Better this death than we should have to change. Better this death than we should do without anything we want. And so it goes on and on and on.
Believing this perversity means that capital punishment will find supporters who believe that people should be put to death. Caiphas is still saying, “Better that one should die.” Believing this perversity means an unborn child has its life taken because it is better than upsetting one’s plans and one’s future. Caiphas is still saying, “Better than one should die.” Believing this perversity means the poor stay poor because we cannot afford welfare, Medicare, day care, or support mothers at home with small children. Caiphas is still saying, “Better that one should die.” Believing this perversity means our country will not allow refugees because we fear they will take our jobs and have an adverse effect on our standard of living. Caiphas is still saying, “Better that one should die.” We take the resources of this earth to support a lifestyle we think we deserve and do not respect nature,but just consume and pollute the environment for future generations. Caiphas is still saying, “Better that one man should die.”
It’s like a great litany of death that is repeated again and again from Caiphas to us. Better these deaths than we should be upset or have to change.
When Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, Stan Rother, and Anne Frank are killed, when the clan murders civil rights workers in Mississippi, when oppressive regimes intimidate people and make them disappear, Caiphas is still saying, “Better that one person should die for the people.”
But it isn’t better. It is not better at all. We need the courage to say that and believe it. We need to be less intimated by our own weaknesses and fears and more courageous in moving out of our affluence, privilege and good name, less timid, small and petty and more willing to sacrifice and die rather than let an innocent person die by thinking that it might better than risk upsetting the way things are or always have been. For this kind of courage we ought to pray today as we look at the cross. This isn’t the time for sentimentality. Gospel love is not about feelings. It is about action. If we respond to God’s love at all it will be by action.
Joseph of Aramathea emerges in this Passion as a man of courage. He stepped forward by name in the absence of others to get the body of Jesus down from that cross. But he only took down the body. The truth is, Christ is still on the cross. Christ still is crucified as long as Caiphas holds his power over us leading us to believe and act on the belief that it is better for one person to die than have things upset or change.
The death of Jesus, an innocent man, is the consequence of thinking like Caiphas. Our lack of courage is no greater or less than the lack of courage on the part of the closest friends of Jesus. They are nowhere to be found in the passion accounts. They have all gone missing rather than call into question the thinking of Caiphas. As we ponder the cross this day, we must ponder the attitude that leaves Christ hanging there still all alone.