“It’s Your Choice”

Matthew 27:11-54

March 20, 2005 (Passion Sunday)

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming, Senior Pastor

Courtroom dramas are right up our alley, aren’t they? Some of you, I know, have watched television court shows like The People’s Court with Judge Wapner. I have watched that show for so long that Judge Wapner has retired. There is a new judge on the bench when that show airs. For some of you, The People’s Court is too tame. You would rather watch Judge Judy, who, in fits of rage, lets someone in her courtroom have it. I know people who would not dare miss her antics on the bench. Susie does not watch that courtroom drama, but she hardly ever misses Judging Amy on Tuesday nights. Judging Amy does not fit in the categories of the above mentioned judge show. Judging Amy is about a judge and her courtroom, the cases she tries, the grace she offers, and the life that she lives as a daughter, sister, and mother. If you have not seen it, it is worth watching.

There is something in the drama of the court room that interests us, that keeps us watching, that grabs our attention. My guess is that if I were to ask you if you knew who Judge Ito was, you would remember that he was on the bench during the infamous Orenthal James Simpson trial. My guess is that if I mentioned the name Scott Peterson, you would know what he was accused of. You might even know that he is now serving his term in the San Quentin Prison.

If I mentioned, the Melendez brothers, you would know their crime. And if I mentioned Robert Blake, you would also know his crime.

Some judges are famous or at least infamous. Some have wide discretionary power and have the power to help design sentences that fit particular crimes. I heard about a school teacher who had to go to traffic court. She was there because one afternoon, in her hurry to get home, ran a red light. An officer on traffic duty saw her crime, pulled her over, and now she was having her day in court. The judge somehow knew that she was a schoolteacher. He looked up front his notes, and with a gleam in his eye, said, “I have been waiting years for you to come to my court. You probably don’t remember me. But I was in your first grade class once upon a time.” She was not sure if she should be relieved or frightened. She frantically tried to remember the judge. Then she remembered him and sighed. She had been pretty hard on him. Listen to the judge’s words, his sentence, “I want you to sit at that table behind you and write five hundred times, ‘I must not run red lights.’” She could not help but to join the judge in smiling.

There have been some famous trials through the years, but the most famous of all is found in our scripture lesson for this morning. It is Matthew’s version of what happened during the last days of Jesus’ earthly life. On the bench was Pilate, the Roman governor of the province of Judea, a minor official in the grand scheme of things that history would have forgotten if the trial of all time had not landed in his lap. And now, almost every Sunday, we call his name in the sixth line of the Apostles’ creed that we say nearly every time that we worship. Join me in the words, “Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, and suffered under Pontius Pilate.”

Now, before we get too far into our sermon, I’d like to tell you about my struggle. As your pastor, I try to teach and preach lessons with words that will make a difference in your relationship with God. I usually use lectionary passages, scripture lessons suggested for particular days, to help us grow spiritually. This week’s suggestions give a choice. I could have chosen to go with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, on the not yet ridden donkey, with palm branches being waved and cheers coming from the crowd. Or, I could have chosen to go with the story of what happened at a makeshift trial and the crowd, the same crowd, who were no longer cheering, but jeering. To be honest with you, it is easier to preach the palms, especially with the children processing down our middle aisle. That lesson is shorter, just eleven verses long. The passion story is longer. I have chosen to use the shorter version of it, just forty-three verses long. The longer version is much longer than that. But there is a calling in my heart to use the passion story this morning, first because I never have, in eleven years of preaching. And second because unless you come to our 7:00 p.m. worship service on Good Friday, you won’t hear the story. You see, it is quite possible to go from the parade of Palm Sunday to the celebration on Easter Sunday morning.

I know that it is hard to hear. It is even harder to watch. Like millions of people, last year, Susie and I stood in line at a theater, took our seats, and watched Mel Gibson’s version of what happened to Jesus during his last few hours. We were amazed that standing in line just in front of us was a man who was seeing the movie for the second time. To be honest, once was enough, maybe too much, for me! Susie came home and read her Bible. Many people who saw the movie did the same thing. Some people I know have never read the story and when they do, for the first time, they are amazed with it. They say things like, “I never knew that it happened like that!”

Matthew’s version is not so graphic, so I would like for us to go to it, to imagine that we are there as Jesus is brought in before Pilate. Pilate is both the judge and the jury in Jesus’ case and the only deliberations are the ones that go on inside of his mind and heart. Pilate’s place would have been five steps up from the floor. He climbed those steps and looked down at the lone figure, Jesus of Nazareth. I can just imagine the thoughts running through Pilate’s mind. He may have thought, “He does not look like a Messiah.” He may have also thought, “He does not look like a teacher, either. He looks more like a laborer than anything else. For sure he does not look like a troublemaker.” Jesus’ his feet were swollen. One of his eyes is swollen shut; it’s been blackened and the one that is opened looks down at the floor, not up at Pilate. Experience has taught Pilate to steer clear of Jewish squabbles, especially religious ones, but he has to admit that this case, has raised his curiosity. More than once, he has wondered how this Jesus has stirred the people so.

Church, I would like to point out some things from this passage. Here is the first of a few. The first words out of Pilate’s mouth come in the form of a question. He asks Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” It is a political question. If you were asking it today, you might ask, “Are you making terrorist threats? Do you have plans against the government? What is ironic is that he is the king of the Jews. You have heard me preach here long enough to know that he is, but his kingdom is not like all the other kingdoms that have been set up in our world. I think that Jesus glances up, makes eye contact with Pilate, though his head remains down and he answers, “You say so.” Jesus cannot win answering yes or no. So one of the first things that we have to deal with in this passage is whether or not we believe that Jesus is our king and if we understand the significance of his kingdom.

Go back to Pilate’s place, looking down at Jesus. I think that Pilate searches Jesus’ eyes and his body for fear and for panic and for an explanation of who he is. Jesus does not show panic or fear, just peace. There is something about Jesus that appeals to Pilate. He had to sense that Jesus was different from everyone else. And of course he has heard the stories. Word out of Bethany is that he called a man out of a grave. He was trying to remember the details. Was it three, no it was four days since his death and the man standing in front of him called the man back to life. There were other stories, countless stories. Someone had told Pilate of the time near Bethsaida when Jesus had taken loaves and fish and fed more than five thousand. It was then and there that the people wanted to make Jesus a king, but he had resisted that. Friends, I think that Pilate looks down at Jesus and believes that the world, his world, could use a king, who could make sense of things. Pilate’s mind has been wandering. He is thinking about what could have been instead of what is. And down deep he is hoping that Jesus will give him one word that will allow him to set him free.

All of his thoughts are interrupted by a touch on his shoulder. A messenger leans in and whispers that Pilate’s wife has had a dream, a troubling dream. You need to know this. In Matthew’s gospel, dreams convey the word of God. You will remember that it was a dream that warned the men from the east to go home another way. And in this dream, Pilate’s wife hears the word that Jesus is innocent and that her husband ought to have nothing to do with this trial. All of this happens while Pilate is sitting on the judgment seat. Pilate must be thinking, “How many times have I sat here? How many stories have I heard? How many pleas have I received? How many wide eyes have starred back at me? How many pleas for mercy have I heard? And yet Jesus says nothing.

Now there is so much in this passage of scripture. The story seems to preach itself. But before we go home this morning, I want us to first hear and then try to answer Pilate’s question. You will find it in the twenty-second verse of our lesson. Here it is: “What should I do with Jesus, the one called the Christ?”

Some of us have been Christians from the get go, from the very beginning. Others of us are newer to the faith. All of us are puzzled by the claims of Christ on our lives. We watch with wonder as God descends from on high, comes down and places hope in the arms of Mary and Joseph. We have followed him for a time, maybe not as closely as we should, but close enough to hear his words, his teachings, and the claims that they have on our lives. What do you do with a man who claims to be God, who offers us a tough way of life, mixed in with more than amble times of grace, and who knows the time and place of his death, and goes there anyway? Let that question live in your heart for a minute or two right now. But more than that, let it live in your mind this week, especially this week. Consider it to be your question, “What should I do with Jesus?

You know, you have a choice. You can reject him. Some have. Some have thought that following this Jesus is too hard and so they don’t, or they do when it is convenient, when the way is easy. So that is a choice. Or, you can accept him. You can follow him, you can journey with him, as we like to say. You can listen for his voice among the hundreds of voices that call out to you everyday. You can follow that voice.

To close, let me give you a glimpse into the life of a man who settled that question. Neil Armstrong, the great astronaut, the first man to step on the moon, a year or so after his historic flight went to Israel. He was taken on a tour of Jerusalem. When they got to the Hulda Gate, which is at the top of the stairs leading to the Temple Mount, Neil asked if Jesus had climbed the steps. The guide said, “Certainly. Jesus was a Jew. These are the steps that led to the temple.

He walked up them many times.” Neil asked him if he was sure and the guide said, “Yes.” Neil Armstrong thought about that for a minute. Then he said, “Then I must tell you. I am more excited about stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon.” What will we do with Jesus? Let us pray.

(Special thanks to Rev. Bill Bouknight for two stories in this sermon. The two are the stories of the courtroom scene between a judge and a teacher. I modified the story a bit. The second story is the one at the end of the sermon, about Neil Armstrong’s visit to Israel and his walking the steps that Jesus would have walked).