“…Suffered Under Pontius Pilate”

A Sermon Based Upon  Matthew 27: 1-26

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

February 5th, 2017, Series: Apostles Creed 6/15)

A German Christian tells about living in Hamburg through the Allied bombings of World War II.  With all the bombs falling all around him, taking the lives of many of his friends, he still wonders how and why he survived. Interestingly, he commented that the main question people were asking themselves during that time wasn't ‘why’ God, but it was ‘God, Where are you?’ (Jurgen Moltmann)

 Hopefully you will never have bombs falling around you.  But whether you are a good or bad, whether you are Christian or not, some day, somehow and some way, either physically or emotionally, you will suffer.  There’s simply no insurance policy against this. It is part of being human.  And If you’re a Christian, it is even more likely that you will also suffer by being persecuted ‘for righteousness sake’.  Faith cannot insulate you.  Even a life of joy and pleasure, can quickly become ‘a vail of tears.’

 Since we all must suffer, it was necessary that at the center of Christianity is the suffering Christ.  Here, the Apostle’s Creed speaks volumes when it speaks only four words about Jesus: “….suffered under Pontius Pilate”  Now we know we have moved into the center of Christian Faith, for no true faith can avoid questions that arise out of human pain.  And it is straight into our human situation of harm and hurt that Jesus Christ was born. 

 SUFFERED UNDER PILATE

This simple phrase “suffered under Pontius Pilate” will mean even more to you if you replace it with words like “suffered under President Bush, suffered under President Trump, suffered under Chancellor Angela Merkel, or suffered under some other notable, historical person.   The point here is not to say how corrupt Pilate was, or to say anything negative about these prominent people, but the creed names Christ’s suffering under this Roman governor to affirm Jesus as a real person who lived in a real place, at a real time, with a sad, but human story.   

 But this phrase is not just to remind us that Jesus came into our world with skin on, but also to claim that Jesus came into our human situation, emptying himself of his ‘equality with God,’ so that he could put on our ‘human form’ (Phil. 2: 6-7). Only by becoming fully human could Jesus also reveal our desperate need for God’s saving goodness and grace. For this reason, this creed is entirely focused on Jesus.  As Judas told Jesus in the play, ‘Jesus Christ, Superstar: “The problem is that you’ve begun to matter more than the things you say.” 

  
Pontius Pilate appears in the gospels as the final, legal, political authority in Jesus’ trial and execution.  In that ‘kangaroo court’ we see the ugly intersection of the political expediency and self-preservation at any cost, which was willing, for the sake of power, to crush the life of an loving, human being, who was full of integrity and compassion even for those who would wrongly murder him. Jesus was a Jewish preacher, who was only sent to stand before Pilate because the highest Jewish court, the Sanhedrin, refused to carry out the sentence of blasphemy that was charged against him.  Although capital punishment by stoning, decapitation, or by flogging was granted them, the cowardly religious authorities were afraid to carry it out because they knew the charges against Jesus were concocted and unfair.

 When taken to stand before Pilate, one account tells us that Jesus daringly called the governor’s own authority into question, informing him that even with all the might of the empire at his disposal, he would have ‘no authority over him’ had it not been granted by his heavenly Father (Jn. 19:11).  More than Pilate would want to admit, Jesus revealed the shaky foundation of all earthly powers and politic as frustrated, fleeting and limited.  This loose footing is verified in how Jesus’ trial plays out. Pilate was required to make a ruling concerning Jesus. Instead, Pilate ends up washing his hands and relinquishing his own power to the cry of the crowd (Mat. 27:24). Pilate is supposed to be strong, but his hand was forced by the influence of others. Jesus, on the other hand, stands strong, even in his humiliation. Jesus is only controlled by his heart’s desire to do God’s will because he trusts the final outcome rests in God’s hands. The only power Pilate really has is to personally decide what he will do with Jesus. When he stubbornly decided to do nothing, he ended up doing the worst thing of all. By not choosing, he chooses to allow an innocent man to be condemned to the cruelest death.

 "Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah (Matt. 27:22)?” This is the question Pilate refused to answer for himself. It is also the question Christ’s suffering invites us to answer too. And if we dare say we will have nothing to do with him, we too make a definitive choice. This silent, suffering Jesus invites all humanity to stop and consider the point of this strange drama.  The Romans crucified thousands to maintain the ‘peace’, but this crucifixion is the only one that is actually remembered. It is a story that should have been forgotten long ago, but it keeps returning to invite us to make our own decision about what his life and suffering means.

 SUFFERED WITH US

Dear people, the Jesus we worship, Sunday after Sunday, as the Son of God, suffered.   This is the shocking, difficult, but most original Christian claim. Think of the shock this way: On the cross God was murdered. People have been trying to kill God off for a long time, but Jesus lets them win get by with it. How could this happen? Everybody assumes you can't kill God. But they did, and the truth is we still do. Haven't you heard of the modern ‘death of God’ movement? Haven't you heard of ‘trampling underfoot the blood of Jesus? Haven't you heard of people playing God; living as if God doesn't matter or doesn't exist?  People still get away with murdering God.

So, why did Jesus let them do it?  Why does God let the world get by with what it does? Why did Jesus allow Pilate to hang him on a cross, when he could have called ‘twelve legions of angels’ to his assistance (Mat. 26: 53)?   Why did Jesus submit to such humiliation and suffering to die such an cursed, horrifying, death (Gal 3.13)?

 What we actually do get out of this very strange and shocking story about a ‘crucified God’ is that Jesus was not an angel like, elite hero, far removed, isolated, nor oblivious to our human situation, but Jesus was, as the prophet wrote, ‘a man of sorrows, acquainted with our infirmities’ (Isa. 53:3). Jesus lived, suffered, and died in a human way that all suffer, but Jesus also lived, suffered, and died in a way no human should. He suffered as one who was innocent; full of love and life, but exactly because he was pure and righteous; his suffering proved the world guilty of rejecting God’s living presence and loving purpose, then as we still do now.

 If you recall, Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of Christ was the first ‘big screen’ attempt to detail the full scope and horror of Christ’s physical pain and suffering.   Commenting about the movie, the late Roger Ebert wrote that if there was ever a film with the right title this was it.  The word ‘passion’ originally meant ‘suffering’.  Ebert said, ‘this movie is full of it.’   The movie is only 126 minutes long, but at least 100 of those minutes, maybe more, are concerned specifically and graphically with the details of the torture and death of Jesus.  As a movie critic who had seen more movies than most, Ebert concluded: “THIS IS THE MOST VIOLENT FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN.”  (http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-passion-of-the-christ-2004).

 Christians, with good reason, were repulsed and repelled by Gibson’s portrayal of Christ’s pain, rather than being reverenced by it.   It was a brutal portrayal---perhaps too brutal. To elevate the ‘Messiah’ as a Savior who must suffer is never a pleasant, nor a pleasing topic for anyone.   His own disciples were as shock as anyone to hear Jesus announce: ‘the Son of Man must undergo great suffering , and be rejected….and be killed’ (Mk. 8:31).  

Yet, Jesus’ suffering was not merely physical pain, but it was mostly emotional hurt and relational rejection which is the Gospels reflect. John’s gospel makes the point loud and clear: He ‘came unto his own and his own received him not.” (Jn. 1:12).  We cannot underestimate Jesus’ hurt when his own family called him crazy and he was almost lynched in his home town.  We also should not under value the mental drain pressing upon him as evil powers constantly gunned and conspired against him. The cross Jesus bore, he carried daily until that final day they took his life without regard for truth or tradition.

What happened to Jesus in the Gospel accounts is undeniably realistic, as human behavior goes, but in spite of this (or maybe because of this), the whole idea of a having a suffering savior is still rubbish or gibberish  to many. Now, as then, it is still ‘foolish’ to Greeks and is still a ‘stone’ many good Jews will trip over (1 Cor. 1.23). Besides, why should it matter at all that a certain preacher-prophet from Galilee once suffered under a Roman governor?  So many others, before and since, have also suffered as greatly, and perhaps in even more severely horrifying ways. Why did Jesus’ suffering become a matter of faith?

  
When I reflect on just how much our own culture thrives on thrill-seeking, pursuing pleasure, or all kinds of trivial pursuits (as Pokemango), I wonder how a faith based on a suffering savior ever came into being or has existed so long?   Who would dare think that a belief, a faith or a religion would have ever had a chance? Christ’s suffering sounds ridiculous, senseless, or useless to a culture being told that life is primarily about pursuing ones dreams. Why would anyone consider such a morbid tale so far removed from getting all our wants? Yet, the strangest truth of all is that each of the four Gospels, which we call messages of ‘Good News’, aim for us to focus on this one moment of great suffering, which we call the Betrayal, Trial, and Crucifixion of Jesus. The gospels appear as introductions to the main event of how Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate.

 In today’s text, Matthew 27, before we get to the terrible deed of ‘crucifixion’ itself, we can already see the great emotional, spiritual, and psychological suffering Jesus is under. We already see, even before the beatings, before the crown of thorns, and before the nail pierced hands, how Jesus took upon himself the full spectrum of human sin and suffering in this fractured, fallen, and fault-ridden world. 

·        Jesus experienced fully the hurt of betrayal, when friend betrays friend.

     ·        Jesus experienced the corruption of religion, which became more harmful  

             than  helpful.

    ·        Jesus experienced gross injustice, as human systems failed and proved flawed.  

    ·        Finally, Jesus experienced the dark side of humanity when people think of self.

While we may never fully understand the ‘why’ of Christ’s suffering, just like we cannot always understand our own, we can understand that Jesus suffered with us, as one of us, as he was subjected to the same kind of physical, emotional and relational hurts we all can feel.  This made him as much ‘one with with us’ as he was ‘one with God His Father’. 

SUFFERED FOR US

Why does this Christ’s solidarity with us in human suffering matter?  This is a question you will finally have to decide yourself.  But the early Christians, having witnessed Jesus’ suffering firsthand, were ‘inspired’ to explain both the pain of his passion, as both prophetic and personal. As Simon Peter preached the very first Christian sermon, with full conviction, he expounded: ‘This man handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed…But God raised him up” (Acts 2:23). 

While Peter will not let humanity off the hook, he also affirmed that Jesus’ pain was also God’s plan. Peter goes on to speak of the reason for this plan: “For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him”(Acts 2:39). Here, from the very beginning of the church, the suffering of Jesus is explained as an intentional, vicarious, sacrificial suffering “for” or “in behalf of” ‘everyone, whom…God calls.’   

Can you hear this very personal message? It goes like this: “You killed him!  “God raised him!”  and now, “The promise is for you..!” Repeat this message over and over to yourself because this is the surprising, strange message Peter and the church preaches over and over. Peter clarified: This “Jesus’...who was ‘crucified....God exalted…as Leader and Savior’ to ‘give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31).

 It was the apostle Paul who gave this message an even greater eloquence, but the message never changed. The suffering of Jesus was most dramatically proclaimed as ‘God reconciling the world unto himself…” (2 Cor. 5:18). This was the only explanation of the events that made sense: Christ’s suffering wasn’t the Jews’ fault, nor was it simply our fault, but Christ’s suffering was God’s will and plan. Paul concludes: ”For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).

 WILL WE SUFFER WITH HIM?

That Jesus suffered with us, and for us, is the indisputable message contained in these four words: ‘….suffered under Pontius Pilate’. What still remains uncertain is how this pertains to us,--- whether His sufferings challenges us and the world.

One day I accidentally encountered this challenge as a young boy.  Then, I loved to play with my GI Joe action figure.  But one day the fun of “playing army” ran out and I used my creative skills to turn my GI Joe into a ‘Jesus figure’. I made long hair and a beard out of paint-dripped cotton balls.  I stripped GI Joe of all his clothes and military gear, making a linen cloth out of mama’s sewing pieces. I then built a wooded cross and took thumb tacks and crucified my GI Joe-Jesus.  Using left over model car paint for blood, I painted wounds on his hands, feet, and side. 

When I finished my home-made crucifix, I waited for my Baptist, Adult Sunday School teacher, deacon Father to come home from work.  I couldn't wait to show him. I hoped he would be proud.  But when I finally got to ask if he liked my self-made ‘model’ of Jesus dying on the cross, maybe he first said that I did a good job, I don't recall. What I do recall is the strange feeling I had when he informed me that Jesus is no longer on a cross. He went on to explain that we should focus on the fact that Jesus is now resurrected and alive, not still suffering and dying for us on a cross.

 Very few times in my life did my father not have a positive, supportive word for me. His dislike of my model of a suffering Jesus still impacts me. Now that I'm older, have three theological degrees, have lived in Europe, and have seen so many crucifixes in beautiful churches, some dating back to the Middle Ages, I understand and admire even more my father’s dislike of “empty” images, even one of a crucified Jesus. People still get too easily fixated on images of the past, substituting feelings about then, for what the gospel should mean for our life, here and now.

To answer what Jesus’ suffering should mean now as more than an image in a painting, more than a decorative altar piece at church, and more than piece of Jewelry to wear around your neck. What the suffering of Christ should mean to us brings us again to Paul’s word to the Corinthians: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). Additionally, in Romans 8, Paul wrote that only when we ‘suffer with him’ and for righteousness sake, can we also be ‘glorified with him’. Only provided ‘we suffer with him’ can we know we are his children, ‘joint heirs with Christ in God’(Rom. 8: 16-18).

 What Paul suggested to the Roman Christians was not some sadistic glorification of pain, nor was it a call to suffer for the sake of suffering. In a world where we all will suffer, Paul calls us to take up our cross and to suffer for something, and not for nothing. Jesus never said, come to me and relax, take it easy, and let me take away your burdens, but Jesus said come to me, take my yoke upon you because my burden is light.

  
When you follow Jesus, life can still hurt, it can be hard, and at times the going may get very tough, but as you bear his cross and when you pay the cost of doing good, at least you will suffer for something as you are ‘yoked together with Christ’.  And only in Christ, when you share in his sufferings, will you also share a love that may cost you, but also promises a joy that will be more than you've ever dreamed.  Amen.