Now they call it the via da la Rosa, the way of sorrows, then it was just another street. And as Christ made his way up the crudely paved streets to Golgotha the crowd pushed and shoved to get a glimpse of the one who was called king of the Jews. The way was packed as Jews from all over the world descended on Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And this was an added bonus a crucifixion to boot. And so Jesus the son of Joseph, the carpenter from Galilee trudged through the streets of Jerusalem carrying on his back the very cross upon which he would die. But who was responsible, who was to blame, who would bear the guilt of the blood of the son of God. Judas Iscariot, the high priest, the scribes and Pharisees, the Romans, Pontius Pilate? Who was to blame? Mark 15:15 So Pilate, anxious to please the crowd, released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to crucify him.
It was the crowd. The crowd, that wild demented creature, with a multitude of heads and no brains, countless hearts and no compassion. No doubt many of the same people who less then a week before had waved palm branches and cried hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna to the highest. And then, five short days later, just a scant 120 hours and the crowd’s voice changed from a melodious hosanna in the highest to a venomous crucify him. The crowd. How could the religious leaders of the day stir these people into a murderous frenzy. No longer were they shopkeepers and butchers, shepherds and tailors but now they had become a blood crazed mob. Why, why? How could it have happened. When the Dutch master Rembrandt painted the crucifixion scene he painted his own face into the crowd that thronged about the foot of the cross to remind himself that it was for his sins that Christ died that agonising death on the cross. Think about it. On that Friday afternoon so many years ago what would you have been doing? Where would you have been? Would you have been just another face in the crowd? That great old spiritual asks the question “Were you there when they crucified my Lord? O sometimes it causes me to tremble, were you there when they crucified my Lord? 2) were you there when they nailed him to a tree? 3) were you there when they laid him in a tomb? 4) were you there when he rose up from the dead?” Where would you have been on that fateful day that they crucified that young Nazarene carpenter Jesus bar Joseph? Would you have been part of the mob? Matthew 27:39-40 And the people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “So! You can destroy the Temple and build it again in three days, can you? Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!”
There was no doubt about it; the mob was openly hostile to Christ and his claim to be the son of God. They would have been more than happy for Jesus to go around healing the sick and feeding the hungry but when he claimed to be the son of God, and challenged the morality they were outraged.
The crowd that was there that day represents the world. You see the vast majority of the unredeemed are quite happy to have the church in the world, if it stays in it’s place. They don’t mind us playing church, and feeding the poor and helping the outcast but let us step out of line and condemn the world for it’s ungodly actions and see how quick they are to turn hostile. It’s true, the world wants the church as a contented lap dog, but let it show it’s teeth and see how long before it’s on a chain in the back yard or worse.
And the big problem is today that a lot of our churches have gotten so they enjoy the role of lap dog, and you can be sure they’re not going to bite the hand that feeds them and strokes them. It isn’t long after we take a stand against abortion or pornography or homosexuality or booze and they claim that we are shoving our morality down their throats. Well bully for them, somebody ought to be shoving some morality down their throats, if the only way they are going to get it is to be force fed. It worries me that we are so popular, that we are seen as harmless and inoffensive. And if that is the case then we aren’t reflecting the true character of Christ because he could turn a community into a lynch mob.
And when the world turns ugly they justify their open hostility by echoing the words of the crowd that gathered on that Good Friday afternoon to kill the son of God. Do remember what the crowd said, “if you are the son of God, come down from the cross” and today people say “Well if Jesus is God, then why doesn’t he. . .?” And you can fill in the blank “why doesn’t he feed the poor, stop the wars, heal the sick, cure cancer?” Of course the fact is that he has given us the resources we need to feed the poor, stop the wars, heal the sick and probably cure cancer. But we are so busy satisfying selfish needs that we don’t do those things. Would you have been part of the crowd on Good Friday? Whose face would yours replace in the crowd?
1) Perhaps Your Face in the Crowd Would Have Replaced Pilate’s.
Matthew 27:22-24 “But if I release Barabbas,” Pilate asked them, “what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”
And they all shouted, “Crucify him!”
“Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”
But the crowd only roared the louder, “Crucify him!”
Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this man. The responsibility is yours!”
Here was Pilate, ever the politician; he attempted to wash his hands of a politically dangerous situation. He wanted to remain neutral. He had yet to learn that only thing you get from straddling the fence was splinters, as the man said “the only thing in the middle of the road is yellow lines and dead skunks.” He could have freed Jesus if he had wanted to; the basic problem was that he didn’t want to. Doing what was right took a back seat to doing what was politically expedient.
Politicians haven’t changed much in the last two thousand years have they? When you think about it most politicians are more interested in maintaining their meal ticket then doing what’s right. From abortion, to pornography, to the deficit the politicians know what needs to be done but we don’t have a party that is willing to do the right. Winston Churchill said, “If a man is not a liberal when he’s 20 he has no heart, and if he’s not a conservative when he’s 40 then he has no brain.” Of course Churchill wasn’t around in 2003 to realise that in Canada there is very little difference between the conservatives, liberals and N.D.P. Other then the colour of the campaign buttons.
But enough of that, a lot of people play political games with God as well. They know what they ought to do, but they don’t want to offend those who cast the vote of popularity in their lives. And so they vacillate, not wanting to be a non-Christian, but not willing to make the commitment needed to make them a believer. It’s not that they are indifferent to the claims of Christ; it’s just that they are not quite sure that they are willing to pay the necessary price. And so in their indecision, they have already decided to continue to follow the course their life is taking and that is to ignore the claims of Christ, and hope that they aren’t true.
2) Perhaps You Would Be In Barabbas’ Place Matthew 27:26 So Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to crucify him.
Barabbas was the very first human being to benefit from Christ’s sacrifice. It was very much a reality as Barabbas walked away from Calvary that someone was dying in his place. But how did that come to be? Why did Jesus the carpenter end up on the cross while Barabbas the murderer went free? What cruel and peculiar twist of history was taking place here?
The tradition and custom in Palestine was that the Roman governor would release one prisoner at the feast of Passover and Pilate saw this as an ideal opportunity to release Jesus Christ. It seemed perfect, he could ease his conscience by not condemning Christ, but at the same time he wouldn’t actually refuse to do what the Jewish leaders wanted done. Pilate had to have been a seasoned politician to come up with that one. Talk about doing the two step, Pilate was an expert at doing the side step.
And so to the crowd Pilate gave the choice, Barabbas the rebel, Barabbas the bandit, Barabbas the murderer, or Jesus Christ the son of God, Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. And when Pilate presented the people with the choice in Matthew 27:21 So when the governor asked again, “Which of these two do you want me to release to you?” the crowd shouted back their reply: “Barabbas!”
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And I’m sure that Pilate couldn’t believe his ears. But the crowd began to chant, and the chant became a roar, “free Barabbas, crucify Jesus, free Barabbas, crucify Jesus, free Barabbas, crucify Jesus. But who was this Barabbas, Doctor Luke tells us in Luke 23:19 (Barabbas was in prison for murder and for taking part in an insurrection in Jerusalem against the government.)
And John tells us in John 18:40 But they shouted back, “No! Not this man, but Barabbas!” (Barabbas was a criminal.)
Now let’s be truthful, Barabbas wasn’t the boy next door, he really wasn’t who you wanted to be picking up your daughter for a date. He was one of the Jewish rebels who sought to overthrow the Roman government by force. His name Barabbas actually means son of the rabbi, and tradition tells us that Barabbas had a very common first name Jesus. And so it leaves us to wonder if perhaps Barabbas was the son of one of the Jewish leaders of religion, perhaps even one of the very men who clamoured for the crucifixion of the Galilean carpenter named Jesus.
And as Barabbas made his way from Calvary, probably sowing dissent and discontentment along the way he knew that he walked free because another had died in his place. It wasn’t idle theological speculation, or doctrinal presumption. Jesus Barabbas walked free because Jesus bar Joseph hung on a cross. Oh Barabbas knew that Jesus had died for him, but he didn’t care. There are folks like that in every church, they’ve been brought up with the gospel, they know it inside and out, they know all the bible stories, and they know that Jesus died for them, but they just don’t care. Perhaps you are a Barabbas, you know the truth, but you’re not willing to act on it.
3) Perhaps You’d Find Your Place In The Crowd With The Disciples. Mark 14:50 Meanwhile, all his disciples deserted him and ran away.
For three years they’d been with him, for three years they had listened to his teaching, for three years they had called themselves his closest friends, and now all but two had disappeared. John stayed and Judas hung himself. Peter where are you? Andrew, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, Simon, Thaddeus, where are you? Why have you left me?
When we think about Christ being denied, we think of Simon Peter, the big burly fisherman, quaking in fear in front of a little maid while swearing that he had never met the one called Jesus. But the only difference between Peter and the other nine was that he did verbally what they did silently.
Perhaps you’d find a place with the disciples, you’d made a decision to follow Christ, but now you deny his power in your life. Perhaps you deny him by refusing to believe he can straighten out the problems areas of your life. Maybe you deny him but avoiding his house. Maybe he’s your Saviour but he’s never become your Lord. But all was not lost
4) Then There Were The Faithful. John 19:25-26 Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Woman, he is your son. “
I always find it interesting to find that four out of the five people who stood at the foot of the cross were women. And even today it’s not unusual to find women outnumbering men in his service, and his services. From the very beginning Christ’s ministry is marked with the presence of women, from the wealthy female sponsors who kept Christ and the twelve fed and clothed, if that’s a surprise check Luke 8:2-3. To those who came to bury him, Christ had more contact with women than his culture found acceptable.
You say ’pastor it’s not right for women to exercise authority in the church.’ Maybe yes maybe no, but if they do it’s only because men have surrendered that authority to them. And as we found out in judges when God used Deborah, the Good Lord will use whoever is willing to be used, and whoever he wants to use. Back to the sermon, of the five we know nothing of Mary the wife of Clopas other then her name was Mary and she was the wife of Clopas. But what do we know of the other four?
A) There Was Mary The Mother Of Christ. Maybe she didn’t understand what was happening to her son, but she could love. Her presence there was the most natural thing in the world. Jesus might have been a criminal in the eyes of the law, a blasphemer in the eyes of the religious, and a rebel in the eyes of Rome, but he was her son. As Kipling wrote, “if I were hanging on the highest hill, mother of mine, o mother of mine, I know whose love would follow me still, mother of mine, o mother of mine. If I were drowned in the deepest sea (chorus) I know whose tears would come down to me. (chorus) if I were damned of body and soul, (chorus) I know whose tears would make me whole. (mother of mine, o mother of mine.)
B) There Was Jesus Aunt. In John she’s not named but in Mark 15 and Matthew 27 we discover she is Shalome the mother of James and John. The strange thing is that it was Shalome that Christ rebuked so strongly when she sought the chief position for her sons in heaven, and yet here she is at the cross. Her presence says much for Shalome’s humility for she had the ability to accept rebuke and love on with undiminished devotion, something each one of us could stand to learn.
C) There Was Mary Magdalene, all we know about Mary is that what we are told in Mark 16:9 It was early on Sunday morning when Jesus rose from the dead, and the first person who saw him was Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom he had cast out seven demons. But Mary would never forget what he had done for here. His love had rescued her and her love would never forget him.
D) There Was John, the only one of the twelve who stayed. He is often called the disciple whom Christ loved and perhaps this explains why.
Five people, of all the people he had touched only five people stood by him. Five people, of all the people he had healed only five people stayed with him. Five people, of all the people he had fed only five people stayed true to him. We have those in the church that if it snowed more then five flakes in a row it would be enough to keep them home on a Sunday morning. But praise God we have those that if a tornado levelled metro next Saturday they’d be here on Sunday to praise his name. Those whose words prove Christ, but more then that so do their actions.
Story is told of a hog and chicken who were out for a walk and strolled by a restaurant advertising ham and eggs for breakfast. “let’s go in” said the chicken. “that’s alright for you to say” replied the pig, “all they want from you is a contribution, but from me they want a commitment.”
How deep is you commitment level? Would you have been at the cross?
5) AND LASTLY THERE WAS THE FORGIVEN. Luke 23:42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
He was the odd man out, as far as we know he had no previous contact with Christ. And yet perhaps he had been on the Mount of Olives and heard the Sermon on the Mount. Or perhaps he ate quietly in the crowd when Christ multiplied the fish and loaves. All we really know is that on Golgotha hill that the thief on the cross did what even the faithful five neglected and that was that he acknowledged Christ for who he was, the son of God.
Where would you be if you were painted into the crowd?
Hope you enjoyed this message, PowerPoint may be available, contact me at denn@bccnet.ca
If you could build a church for a dollar. . .
Would you?
