April 19, 2019 (Good Friday) – John 18:1 – 19:42
John 18:1 – 19:42
Freeing the People to be People of Blessing
Good Friday – April 19, 2019
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
John’s Gospel is so different from Matthew, Mark and Luke.
Did you notice that in John’s Gospel Jesus dies the day before he does in the other Gospels?
Yes! It is the day of Preparation for the Passover, not the day of Passover itself.
In John’s account, Jesus dies at the same time that the Passover lambs were slain.
For John, that is very very important.
The Passover lambs are not a sacrifice in the way we usually think of them.
Rather, they were a way for the people to remember the night that God freed them
from slavery in the Exodus from Egypt.
The lambs were slain, remember, and their blood smeared on the doorposts of the people,
so that the angel of death would “pass over” them and they could escape to freedom.
With their freedom from the tyranny of the Egyptian empire,
the people could finally be free to become what they were always meant to be:
a blessing to all the families of the earth.
They simply could not be that as slaves under the Egyptians: they had to be free to be blessing.
Well, fast forward 1300 years and the people are once again enslaved to an empire,
the Roman empire.
Jesus comes announcing that God’s kingdom or reign is opposed to Rome’s reign.
And that he will usher it in.
From Rome’s perspective, of course, Jesus cannot be allowed to go on preaching and teaching.
More powerful than arms and soldiers is the possibility that God is on the side of the poor and
that God is here among them – that a new world is possible and is opening up even now.
So Jesus must be done away with – and made an example of.
And so the religious and political authorities arrest him, try him, and crucify him.
But did you notice that in John’s account, Jesus is magisterially in charge the whole way?
He is not betrayed by Judas’ kiss here but rather hands himself over.
The priests and Pilate put him on trial but they end up answering his questions.
In John’s telling Jesus carries his own cross to Golgotha.
And here Jesus dies not with words of lamentation but with a cry of victory: It is accomplished!
And what he accomplishes is giving over his Spirit, something that, as we shall see,
empowers the people to be people of blessing and justice and love.
And when he dies, he dies at the same time as the Passover lambs are being slain.
John could not be more clear: Jesus is opening up a new world.
Jesus is offering an alternative to Rome and its empire based on exploitation and enslavement.
Jesus is opening up the reign of God,
a reign in which people are free to be blessing to one another rather than
one in which they only know how to exploit one another.
A reign in which the powerful serve the least, rather than one in which they exploit them.
A reign in which the fundamental question is not “how can the strong remain powerful”
but rather one in which every single person wonders
“how can I bring blessing to my neighbour.”
A reign in which love for neighbour is the dominant theme.
A reign in which love is stronger than death.
Jesus’ death, Jesus’ love for enemies, and Jesus’ forgiveness of those who betray him
will open up this new world of possibility.
Jesus’ death will bring in God’s kingdom – Jesus’ death will free the people to be blessing.
To read John’s account of Jesus’ death on this Good Friday is
to understand – and to feel – that God loves this whole world and not just part of it.
It is to understand – and to feel – that God’s love is stronger than anything arrayed against it.
It is to understand – and to feel – that we are commissioned now, and freed now,
by the one on the cross,
to bring blessing, to serve all people, to love one another as he has loved us.
Jesus’ death as a Passover lamb frees us to be this, to be the people we are called to be:
people of blessing, people of hospitality, people of love.
With a love that is willing to die, Jesus frees us to be people of blessing
despite all the forces that conspire against that.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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