Good Friday - 3rd April 2015

On this Good Friday, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, gives his sermon. 

Why did Jesus Die?

Why did Jesus die? That’s surely the only right question to ask – and answer – in this Good Friday Listening Zone 5.

It is a question that can be answered at several levels. To  start at the level that’s in the story we have heard told today is to take an eye-witness view of these dramatic events. That might be quite basic; but it certainly doesn’t offer a simple answer to the question. The way that John tells it – and all 3 other Gospel writers too – there are 4 people, or sets of people, who bear primary responsibility for Jesus’ death.

First, there’s Judas: the one who betrayed Jesus. Over the years there’s been much speculation as to Judas’ motives. Was he a desperate Zealot hoping this would force Jesus’ hand? Did Judas believe that if Jesus was backed into a corner he’d start the revolution that Judas was expecting from Israel’s Messiah? Or was his motivation rather more base? Was Judas a thief, angry that Jesus had caught him dipping into the common purse? Or did Judas just want the money: were 30 pieces of silver sufficient incentive to betray Jesus?

Regardless of those motives, Jesus died first because Judas told the Jewish authorities where to find him. And the religious authorities are the second party who John says are responsible for Jesus’ death. They’d always hated Jesus: ever since he’d appeared in public 3 years before, Jesus had done nothing but break the rules. Rules mattered to the people with religious power in Israel; their lives were governed by rules. Jesus hadn’t just broken the rules; he’d questioned having them at all. Worse, he’d even dared to suggest that rules had become a means of keeping God at a distance.

There are so many examples in the gospels of Jesus in conflict with the  religious authorities. And things got worse, not better, as time had passed. Eventually Jesus didn’t just break their rules; he allowed – encouraged even – people to think he was God! He’d been making these outrageous claims in their religious capital; at Passover, this highest point of their liturgical year. Their law demanded the death penalty for blasphemy – but the religious leaders had a problem.

They could arrest and interrogate Jesus; but the religious authorities didn’t have the power to do as they wanted. Israel was under occupation; powers such as execution had been taken away by their Roman masters. And so we come to the third set of people who were responsible for Jesus’ death: the Roman authorities. That was who the religious leaders then took Jesus to, to get what they so wanted.

First there’s Judas; second there are the religious authorities; now there are the Romans; and specifically the Governor, Pontius Pilate. Each of these bear responsibility for the death of Jesus. That is true of Pilate, even though he tried to evade it. He wanted no part of these religious squabblings; so Pilate tried his best, on several occasions, to release Jesus. But the Jewish religious authority wouldn’t let him. And did you hear just how far they were ready to go to get Jesus killed? This proud people hated being subjugated; yet they shouted at Pilate that they had no king but Rome’s Caesar when he offered to release ‘their’ king, Jesus.

So Pontius Pilate gave way to their demand. History says he was on a final warning from Rome about his conduct. So he may have felt that he had no real choice in this matter: he couldn’t afford to be seen letting someone get away with claiming to be king of Israel. So he was the one who gave the final order that Jesus should die. Pontius Pilate bears just as much responsibility for Jesus’ death as do Judas, and the Jewish religious authorities. It was he who handed Jesus over to the fourth set of people responsible for his death: the soldiers who carried out the actual deed.

John’s eyewitness account tells how they took Jesus to the place of execution. It was the logical next step from their earlier actions toward Jesus: they had beaten and mocked him they had put a crown of thorns on his head; and now they killed him – in the most horrifyingly cruel manner imaginable. Jesus had 6-inch nails driven into his forearms. His knees were twisted sideways so that more nails could be driven through his ankles. He was lifted up onto a cross, which was then dropped into a socket in the ground. There he was left to hang: in intense heat and unbearable thirst; exposed to ridicule from the crowd that had gathered to watch. And, as he died, those soldiers gambled for his clothes. They ignored Jesus as if he was worth nothing; as if his suffering meant nothing because of course it didn’t to them.

The soldiers did have an excuse, though. In common with soldiers throughout history they could claim that they were only following orders. They didn’t have any choice. They couldn’t have disobeyed; if they had tried, they would have faced the same punishment themselves. But even so, the soldiers too bear primary responsibility for the events that we’re remembering today – for this brutal death of Jesus.

It’s a right motley collection: Judas; the Jewish religious authorities; Pontius Pilate; and the soldiers. Each played their full part in ensuring that Jesus died on that Friday. Each had their reasons for acting as they did – and their excuses. But in many ways, there’s nothing remarkable in this story. This wasn’t the first – or the last – time such an unholy alliance had co-operated to bring about the death of an innocent man. Yes, Jesus was innocent! Pontius Pilate knew that. How many time did he say that he could find no basis for a charge against Jesus? That didn’t stop Pilate from issuing the order for Jesus’ death, though.

But, if this were all there was to this story, we wouldn’t be here today. John’s eye-witness account sets out the facts of what happened on that Friday in Jerusalem. The facts are important, and very unpleasant. But here in the Listening Zone we need to go further. We need to ask why it is that the means of Jesus’ execution has become the central identifying symbol of the Christian faith. Why does the apostle Paul writing to Christians in Corinth say “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died”?

Paul gives the answer in that same letter: “Christ died for our sins” he wrote to the Corinthians. And here in the Listening Zone we hear that there are two ways in which we must see the cross of Christ. At the human level Judas gave Jesus up to the priest; who gave him up to Pilate; who gave him up to the soldiers; who crucified him. But, at another level, Jesus gave himself up as an innocent man: to die for us; for our sins. So, as we think about the meaning of cross here today we must say to ourselves both: ‘I did it; my sins sent him there’; and: ‘he did it; his love for me took him there’.

This is a mystery whose depths we shall spend eternity plumbing. On the cross, “God was reconciling the whole world to himself in Christ”. This is the good news that’s at the heart of the Christian faith; it’s why the cross is the dominant symbol of our faith: Jesus died so people like you and me could be reconciled to the God who loves us.

So we really can’t have a detached attitude as we contemplate Christ’s cross. We are personally involved in the events of this day. Had we been there we would have acted the same way as Judas, the religious authorities, Pontius Pilate or the soldiers. We might like to say differently; but it’s not true. The stark reality of this cross undermines our self-righteousness. We can only come before it with a bowed head and a broken spirit that awaits to be reassured of the pardon and acceptance Christ purchased for us by his death.

As John Stott once wrote, “Before we can see the cross as something done for us (leading to faith and worship) we need to see it as something done by us (leading to repentance for our part in it).” Ultimately the reason that Jesus died was not because of Judas’ greed, the religious authorities’ envy, Pilate’s cowardice, or the soldiers’ immoral obedience. It was ours, yours and mine, greed, envy, cowardice, immorality, and all the rest that the cross exposes in us, that made Jesus’ death a necessity.

But in admitting the gravity of our own sin, and the punishment that we deserve for it, we are also wonderfully reminded of God’s great love for us. God could have left us to our fate; that is what we deserved. But God’s love for us is wonderful far beyond our comprehension. That too is the message to us of the cross: that God loved us enough to go to this length; so that people like us could be reconciled to Him.

So, as we ask that question again here in the Listening Zone this Good Friday – “Why did Jesus die?” – may we be reminded of both these truths. Jesus died because of us, because of the things that we have done that deserve death. And Jesus died because he loves us, and longs for us to be reconciled to God. If you have not already accepted either of those facts then this is the day, and the place, to do so. So let’s pray that we will do so …