Sermon for Maundy Thursday
Tonight we watched the Lamb of God, the King of the Jews, suffer mistreatment at the hands of men. He allowed Himself to be mistreated in various ways, all due to the bad choices of the men involved.
He suffered the crowd’s choice of Barabbas, a murderer, to be released to them instead of Jesus. “Give us Barabbas! Crucify Jesus!” When the choice is between the kind and caring King who healed and a robber who murdered, and the crowds would rather have the murderer living in their midst than the King, you know that darkness reigns in the world.
The Lord suffered Pilate’s ill-conceived “discipline,” too. The governor found no fault in Jesus. And yet he was eager to have Him disciplined by scourging, flogging, whipping. Now, was it as bloody and gory as it was depicted in that movie, The Passion of the Christ? Maybe, or maybe not. But it was painful. And it was so wrong, to be disciplined for doing nothing wrong, to be disciplined for doing everything right, for speaking nothing but the truth, for having the purest motives and the kindest behavior. Discipline is supposed to teach someone a lesson, as when parents spank their children. It’s meant to communicate a message: “What you did was wrong. How dare you do that! Never do such a thing again!” What was it Pilate wanted to discipline Jesus for? Nothing. Christ suffered the discipline He didn’t need or deserve. So why did Pilate order it? Because Pilate thought—foolishly!—that he could appease the mob with a flogging, and thus avoid having to put an innocent man to death. He thought he could do something evil, something sinful, in order to create a good outcome. But it doesn’t work that way. Feed the mob, and the mob just becomes more rabid. In the end, Jesus had to suffer both the flogging and the crucifixion because of Pilate’s sinful choices.
The Lord also suffered the mockery and abuse of the pagan soldiers. Jesus became their entertainment for the morning. They twisted together that crown of thorns and put it on His head. They put a stick in His hand and a purple robe on His back. And there He stood in their midst, the true King of creation who had come to save His creatures. But instead of worshiping Him and thanking Him and praising Him, they hit Him and slapped Him and drove the thorns into His head while mocking Him as a pathetic excuse for a king. And the King, who could have snapped His fingers and ended their miserable lives right there and then, stood there and allowed it. He suffered it.
The King of the Jews suffered another bad choice of the chief priests. They were given the choice of having Jesus as their King. Instead, they chose Caesar. “We have no king but Caesar.” Caesar didn’t know them, didn’t care about them, ruled over them as a tyrant. Jesus would have ruled over them with justice, compassion, truth, and love. But they chose the king who didn’t care.
Finally, the Lord suffered Pilate’s selfishness and abuse of power. As Jesus told him, he would have no authority over Jesus unless it had been given to him from above. God maneuvered Pontius Pilate into place for this moment, wanting Him to use his God-given authority for justice, for good, for doing what was right, but knowing that Pilate would choose wrong over right, so that the Christ would not be acquitted, but condemned. Pilate knew that the right thing to do was to let Jesus go free, because He was innocent and not deserving of any punishment, much less death by crucifixion. But doing the right thing would have been hard for Pilate. It would mean making the people of Jerusalem angry. It would mean a riot. It would mean that he might lose his job, or even his own life. And so he chose to do the wrong thing. He chose to gratify the angry mob rather than to obey God, and Jesus was the One who paid for it.
It’s not that different from what Adam did in the Garden of Eden. God had made him the head of his wife, to look out for her. He knew that the right thing to do was to step in and keep his wife from eating the forbidden fruit that was being offered to her by the serpent. And he knew that the right thing to do afterward was to not take the fruit she offered him. But instead of stopping her from eating, he let it go. And then, when faced with the choice of eating the fruit she gave him and displeasing God, or refusing the fruit and displeasing his wife, Adam made his choice. He chose wrong over right, because he thought it would go better for him that way. It didn’t!
It never does. The crowds thought Barabbas would be a better choice for them than Jesus. They were wrong. The soldiers thought that mocking Jesus would give them more satisfaction, in the end, than acknowledging Him as their King. They were wrong. Pilate thought it would go better for him if he allowed an innocent man to be disciplined and then murdered. They were all tragically wrong. And Jesus was the One who suffered for their bad choices.
Is it any different today? People would rather have abortion clinics than churches, drag queen story hour rather than Sunday school, pornography rather than the Bible. They choose divorce over marriage, sexual perversion over marital fidelity, violent protests over reasoned dialogue, obesity and disease over health and fitness, yes, even death over life. You and I have made our own bad choices, too, sinful choices for which we deserve to suffer not only earthly consequences but eternal ones.
But for all mankind’s bad choices Jesus suffered. And God, in His mercy, has been able to take the worst choices of men and turn them around to accomplish something wonderful. Our bad choices landed us a bed in hell. But by suffering and patiently enduring the bad choices of men, Christ Jesus earned for us a reprieve from hell, a pardon for our sins, and a place at His side in His heavenly kingdom. The body that should never have been abused and killed, and the blood that never would have been shed if men had made better choices during Holy Week, are now given to Christians to eat and to drink in this special Supper that Jesus instituted on Maundy Thursday. And with them the Lord offers forgiveness and strength to all who believe.
So see the things your Lord suffered and repent. And believe in Him. And receive the gifts He gives you in His Holy Supper, where, time after time, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Amen.
