Headline News

“Headline News”
Luke 19:28-40; Luke 23:13-33 (Luke 22:14-23:56)
Preached by Mark Goad
Palm/Passion Sunday 2007

Luke 23:13-33
Pilate [then] called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people, {and said to them, "You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people; and here I have examined him in your presence and have not found this man guilty of any of your charges against him. {Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us. Indeed, he has done nothing to deserve death. I will therefore have him flogged and release him."
Then they all shouted out together, "Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!" (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city, and for murder.)
Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again; but they kept shouting, "Crucify, crucify him!" A third time he said to them, "Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him." But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted. He released the man they asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder, and he handed Jesus over as they wished. As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.
A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us'; and to the hills, 'Cover us.' For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.




Some things you don’t forget because you cannot forget, because they have changed who you are, and how you perceive the world – indeed! – because they have changed the world.

“What were you doing on 9/11?”

“How did you hear that JFK had been shot?”

“Where were you when the prophet Jesus rode into Jerusalem
like a king entering his kingdom?”


No one can fail to see the original “Holy Week” (as we Christians call it) as a “world-historical” event, a moment in history that changed everything. You don’t have to be a believer to know this is true.
Between a parade and an execution: That’s where we Christians find ourselves this week. From cheers to jeers; from celebration to desolation: That is the story we celebrate this week – no, Easter is a long way off yet! – a story which always manages to be front page news.
No matter that God’s Messiah was flesh-and-blood Jesus of Nazareth: The man from Galilee remains a figure for all time. Nearly everyone in the world knows his name and nearly everyone, believer or not, has an opinion. So many “Christs” in the world marketplace:

Liberator
Healer
Radical
Religious genius
Friend
Political Activist
Brother
Rabble-rouser
Victim
Conqueror
Zealot
Prophet
Wonder-worker
Teacher
God.
Will the real Jesus please stand up! Will the real Jesus please stand up?
In fact, the real Jesus has made himself abundantly known, has he not? In:
loving the poor,


embracing the outcasts,

feeding the famished,

slaving over disciples’ dusty feet,

challenging every power that rules by violence, mendacity and terror,

being the truth – even when being himself is a capital crime (although, curiously, Pilate, himself, Caesar’s thug, hardly has the stomach for it).


No, Jesus has made himself abundantly known. We may be amazed but we are not confused. The real question, therefore, the saving question, the questions upon which everything in our lives depends is: ‘Who is this Jesus for me? And who will I be in the name of Jesus for the world?’
You could answer in all sorts of high-falutin’ ways: Recite a creed, sing a hymn, quote a Bible verse; trot out the third volume of Barth’s Kirchliche Dogmatik and really impress the hometown crowd.
But for a disciple, for a disciple, the answer is really very simple: ‘Who is Jesus Christ for me?’

‘Jesus is the One that I follow.’

“Come, follow me,” Jesus invites. Those who follow are his disciples. And to follow -- what does that mean but to follow our Savior’s example? Following means to be like Jesus and to do like Jesus.

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,” wrote Paul to the Philippian church. “And the same heart and the same spirit,” we could profitably add. Christ’s gifts and power and insight, his very being, are not withheld from disciples. Follow, and the Master will get into you, empower and invigorate you – so much so that you may even find yourself saying with a very bold Paul: “It is no longer I that live but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)
Christ’s disciples follow Jesus’ example. And the beauty of it is, Christ never asks of us anything he has not already done – nor anything of us that we cannot do:

Putting the needs of others before our own (we could do that);


Living honest to God and our neighbor and ourselves;


Challenging injustice even at our inconvenience;


Serving the Kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of stuff
(You know: Stuff: possessions; prestige; advantage; comfort);


Being merciful as God has been merciful to us.


Simple. Not a thing on that list we couldn’t do and some, I know, that we have.
Christ never asks of us anything he has not already done – that’s the beauty of it. That is also the fly in the ointment, if you want to know the truth, the fact that makes discipleship so very intimidating and sometimes so hard to bear.
Harder than hitting Dice-K’s changeup.
Harder than understanding the U. S. Tax Code.
Harder than putting back together a country that has been demolished by war. Harder than, well, most anything we can think of. Why so hard to live faithfully as disciples?
Personally (and this is just between you and me), I think it’s that Cross ‘thing.’ Follow after Jesus and you just know a cross is going to be involved somewhere! And. . .
And if Christ came to Jerusalem to claim his cross, then comes the sneaking suspicion that, follow him, obey him, and you’ll get yours, too.
He admits as much, of course. There is full disclosure here: “Take up your cross and follow me!” That’s what he said. Nothing’s hidden in the fine print. “Take up your cross and follow me!” And unless he was talking pious nonsense he can mean only this: Follow me and give up your plans, your demands, your self-serving wishes.

Follow me into the streets: We’ll meet up with the people who need us; share some of our food, our money, our hope: That’s what the Good News is all about! What a celebration we’ll have!

Follow me into the temple: We’ll throw out the moneychangers – that is the hypocrisy, the comfortable piety, the faith that fails both God and neighbor.

Follow me to Pilate’s house: We’ll show that fox a thing or two. He thinks his army is invincible and the world is under his control but really, he doesn’t know the first thing about power.
Remember Isaiah’s promise: “. . .all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. . . . for unto us a son has been given.” (from Isaiah 9:5,6)

Follow me to Golgotha: You know as well as I that you will pay a price for standing up for what you know is right. “But what good is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul?”

Follow me, and if you give your life for my Good News – you just won’t believe what happens next!

Headline news. Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!