Feb. 29, 2004

Lent 1

Romans 10:5-13 (NLT)

For Moses wrote that the law's way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. ⁶But the way of getting right with God through faith says, "You don't need to go to heaven" (to find Christ and bring him down to help you). ⁷And it says, "You don't need to go to the place of the dead" (to bring Christ back to life again). ⁸Salvation that comes from trusting Christ—which is the message we preach—is already within easy reach. In fact, the Scriptures say, "The message is close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart."

⁹For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. ¹¹As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed." ¹²Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They all have the same Lord, who generously gives his riches to all who ask for them. ¹³For "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Ps. 91

Luke 4:1-13 (NLT)

Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit to go out into the wilderness, ²where the Devil tempted him for forty days. He ate nothing all that time and was very hungry.

³Then the Devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, change this stone into a loaf of bread."

⁴But Jesus told him, "No! The Scriptures say, 'People need more than bread for their life.' "

⁵Then the Devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶The Devil told him, "I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them—because they are mine to give to anyone I please. ⁷I will give it all to you if you will bow down and worship me."

⁸Jesus replied, "The Scriptures say,

'You must worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.' "

⁹Then the Devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, "If you are the Son of God, jump off! ¹⁰For the Scriptures say,

'He orders his angels to protect and guard you.

¹¹And they will hold you with their hands

to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.' "

¹²Jesus responded, "The Scriptures also say, 'Do not test the Lord your God.' "

¹³When the Devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.

Sermon: “Who Killed Jesus?”

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone has said to me, “I read this book” or “I heard this preacher, or this theologian, or this bishop, or this scholar talking about God. Some of the things he said didn’t sound right, but he said he believed in God, he called himself a Christian, and he quoted scripture. So he must be OK, right?” Does quoting scripture and acknowledging God make you right?

The answer to that is found in the Gospel reading for today. We are reminded that even the devil knows who God is and can quote scripture when it suits his purpose, but that isn’t going to save him. People say a lot of things about what they believe, but that doesn’t make it true.

Since the movie, “The Passion of the Christ” came out, a lot of people have been saying what they think. Is it too violent? Is it the truth? Did any of this ever actually happen? Was Jesus really crucified? Did the Jewish leaders have anything to do with it? There are all kinds of books you can find that will contradict just about everything the Bible says, especially about Jesus. Many of them are written by people who are considered “scholars.” They will say things like, the disciples could have faked His death, or that He actually married Mary Magdalene and lived out His life in Damascus. They will tell you there was no crucifixion, and no resurrection. If you believe that, then we are wasting our time here. As St. Paul said, if Christ was not raised from the dead, then no one will be raise. If there is no resurrection, we are still in our sins. So you have to decide what you believe. Is the Bible true or not? Are you going to believe the eye witness testimony of Peter, James, John, and Paul all of whom lost their lives in the telling of this story, or would you rather base your life on the theories and speculations of modern men with nothing at risk, too much time on their hands, and too much need to sell another book?

• The Da Vinci Code, a best-selling fictional thriller that has sold 4.3 million copies. Its plot hinges on a supposed husband-wife relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.  A film based on the book is scheduled for release in 2005, and is directed by Ron Howard.
• Feminist biblical scholars are reinterpreting the life of Mary Magdalene.      
• The Gnostic Gospels written by Princeton professor Elaine Pagels are being used as a supplement by church study groups.     
•     The popularity of all of this material may be rooted in "America's appetite for mystical spirituality." This appetite had been encouraged by a 1945 discovery of the biographies known as the Nag Hammadi noncanonical gospels. It was further stirred by the popularity of Eastern religion in the 1970s. This spirituality has been promoted as debates over the historicity of Jesus ensued in the 1990s.

I can’t tell you what to believe. I can only tell you what I believe, and I believe that the testimony of the Apostles found in the New Testament is the most reliable, most exhaustively tested, proven, accurate and authoritative document in history.

One thing I do know is that in this movie Mel Gibson accurately tells the story of Jesus’ death as it is recorded in the New Testament. So, did the Jews kill Christ? Is the movie anti-Semitic? Because the movie is so accurate to the text, it raises an even more troubling question. Is the Gospel that we find in the Bible anti-Semitic? Does the Bible say that the Jews killed Christ?

Well, according to the Bible, certain religious leaders who happened to be Jewish had an important part to play in the story of the crucifixion, and that fact won’t go away. But Pontius Pilate was the one who gave the execution order, the only one who had the authority to execute anyone. Every Sunday when we say the Creed, we declare that “for our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.” Why not rather say that it was the Romans who killed Christ?

The Bible is clear that the meaning of Jesus’ death, and the responsibility for His death, does not rest with any one group of people. As we understand it, His death was for “the sins of the world.” Anyone who understands that and believes that must first accept his personal share of responsibility for that.

When I became a Christian, I had to accept the fact that I killed Christ. My sins nailed Him to that cross. Isaiah described it so well. “He was bruised for our transgressions. The iniquity that was in us was laid upon him. For the sins of my people was he stricken.” All you have to do is ask yourself who “your people” are, and you’ll have the answer to the question, who killed Christ.

Just because some Jewish leaders of the first century were involved in the crucifixion does not mean that we have any right to blame Jewish people today. There are many parallels to this that I could draw. For example, there were Christian leaders during WWII who collaborated with the Nazis. So much so that to many Jewish people today it seems that it was the Christians who killed the Jews in Nazi Germany. I completely reject that idea, but I can understand how a Jewish person would see it that way because they don’t define “Christian” the same way I do.

Likewise, there were many church-going, Bible quoting “Christians” who were members of the Ku Klux Klan in the South, including quite a few clergy. Does that mean that the responsibility for the deaths of thousands of black people in slavery and during the struggle for civil rights is to be laid on the church? To the extent that the Church remained silent about this atrocity, I would say a qualified yes! There were some churches that had direct responsibility for that evil. But that doesn’t mean that every Christian in America today is a racial bigot or a murderer. You can’t be a bigot and a murderer and be a Christian. You can’t hate people and love Jesus.

As we have already seen, just quoting scripture or talking about God doesn’t mean you’re telling the truth. Nor does it make you Christian. But it can make other people think you’re Christian, if they aren’t.

You see the problem? We always want to assign blame when something bad happens, but we seem to want it be placed on more than just the people immediately involved in the actual crime. We want to extend the blame to everyone who shares in any way the viewpoint, the cultural identity, the social standing, the race, or the religion of the people who did the wrong. That is a dangerous expansion of blame. It demeans people who had nothing to do with the wrong that was done, and it deflects attention away from the specific individuals who actually did the killing.

No, I don’t believe that “the Jews killed Christ.” I believe that two priests named Annas and Caiaphas were involved in His trial and condemnation. They, and all who followed their lead, will bear the responsibility for what they did just as surely as you and I will bear the responsibility for what we have done. The fact that they happened to be Jewish adds nothing to the meaning or scope of what they did. I also believe that a Roman Governor in Judea authorized the brutal way in which He was killed. The fact that he was Roman does not incriminate a Roman housewife in Galatia, or a shop keeper in Corinth. They had no input into Pilate’s decision.

But years later when that shop keeper in Corinth heard a man named Paul proclaiming the cross of Christ, and saying that “to the Jews it is a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles it is foolishness, but to those who are being saved it is the wisdom of God, the power of God,” and that shop keeper knew that this message was for him, then he must be willing to admit that the death of this Man, Jesus Christ, was not only for him, but because of him.

You see, the acceptance of responsibility for the death of Christ is not the result of race or nationality. It is the result of faith. When you put your whole trust in Him, you accept your personal responsibility for the debt of sin that required Him to offer up His life. And this is the mystery. He in turn sets you free from that debt. That’s the “Good News.”

Here’ the real problem with the blame laying that is going on right now over this movie. It is only those who are not Christian who ask who killed Christ, because for Christians, it was not a “killing” but an offering. This was the declaration of Christ Himself about the crucifixion: “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own free will. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.”

So the question we should be asking is not who killed Christ, but for whom was Christ offered? If you can limit the answer to that question to a certain group, or race, or nationality, then you have not known Him at all. He offered Himself for the whole world. That’s a fact, and it’s done. It’s a gift. Now, all we need to do is accept it!

Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,

The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land,

A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way

From the burning of the noontide heat and the burden of the day.

Upon the cross of Jesus mine eyes at times can see

The very dying form of One who suffered there for me;

And from my smitten heart, with tears, two wonders I confess;

The wonder of redeeming love and my own worthlessness.

I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place;

I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of Thy face;

Content to let the world go by, to know no gain nor loss,

My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.

Adult Sunday School Notes:
The Passion of the Christ

Contrast the performance of Jim Caveicel with other famous performances of the Gospel. Jesus has too often been portrayed by frail, pasty, effeminate men who don’t look anything like a carpenter, and whose attempt to look “mystical” comes off as just weird! (“Jesus of Nazareth”) Hollywood seems to enjoy showing a Jesus who doesn’t really know who he is. (“Jesus Christ Superstar”, “The Last Temptation”)

By contrast, Jim Caveizel looks like a carpenter. A strong, robust man who enjoys working with his hands and is full of life. In the flashback scene of him working on a table, we see a man full of life, love, and joy. His playfulness with Mary when he splashes water on her, then hugs her. In the scenes with the disciples, he is a strong, confident leader. He obviously knows exactly who he is and what he has come to do. He enjoys being their leader, and they enjoy being with him. This is the Jesus of the New Testament. Rarely has this image of Christ been seen on film, until now. For this, above all else, I want to thank Mel Gibson and Jim Caveizel for giving us a portrayal of Christ that actually looks like someone we would love being around, someone we would love to follow as our leader, someone we would give our lives for.

Other Points worth noting in the movie:

Pilate was a brutal governor who had been reprimanded by Caesar for his heavy-handed tactics which had kept Judea in an uproar. Pilate was being watched, and he lived in fear, and he was later recalled to Rome for his failure as a leader.

The extreme brutality of the soldiers- The Romans hated, absolutely despised the Jews. For a Roman soldier or politician to be sent to Judea was considered a punishment, or at least, a demotion. Every Roman who was stationed in Jerusalem hated being there, hated the Jewish people who constantly threatened their lives, and would have taken sadistic pleasure in any opportunity to punish and torture a Jew. That is completely accurate.

The extreme brutality of crucifixion- Crucifixion was later outlawed by the Roman government because it considered too horrible for a civilized society to allow.

The uniqueness of Jesus’ crucifixion- When you see him finally on the cross between to two other criminals being crucified, why does Jesus looks so different from them? Why has he been torn to pieces before being crucified? Why was Jesus the only one who was beaten, scourged, and crucified? You normally did one or the other. Not all three.

This was a trial that got completely out of hand, for two reasons. First, the Jewish leaders stirred up a riot. Second, Pilate had long ago lost control of his own government, and allowed the proceedings to be forced out of his control, both by the angry mob, and by the sadistic hatred of his own men.

Jesus was in control-

Of all the verses Gibson could have chosen for the flashback scenes from the cross, the most important one was the verse from John 10:18, “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own will. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.”

One of the most important points that this film captured, which so many others have missed, was the fact that Jesus remained in control of his own life force in spite of all that was done to him. I think that is the most important reason why this movie goes to such extremes to show the full extent of the brutality that was inflicted on him. As you watch the unrelenting torture and brutality, you keep asking yourself how he can possibly still be alive. The answer comes at the very end, and again, it is a credit to the acting ability of Jim Caveizel. When he looks up to heaven and says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” immediately contrasted with the scene of the devil sitting in a wasteland, looking up to heaven screaming with rage. Then it hits you. Jesus was in complete control right up to the end, and he won the victory. He would not, he could not die until he was ready to die.

Ultimately, it wasn’t the Jews who killed him. It wasn’t the Romans who killed him. It wasn’t the devil who killed him. It was his freewill offering of himself for the sins of the whole world. No one forced him to do that. No one, human or angelic, ever could. He did it because he loves us!

The backlash:

A rabbi interviewed on Fox News complained that the movie was unnecessarily violent, and this should be a concern when we are seeing too much violence in the media. There needs to be a distinction between gratuitous violence as perverted entertainment, and the accurate portrayal of historic events which were violent.

No one would argue that we need to remember the holocaust. That means exposing ourselves to scenes of grotesque violence and destruction.

Should we not have made movies like Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot, or Pearl Harbor because they are too violent?

New York Times: “Mel Gibson may have trouble finding work in Hollywood after this.” Is this a threat?

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd tries to woo her Passion-hating audience with sarcasm, nicknaming the film "A Fistful of Nails," after Clint Eastwood's spaghetti western.

The New Yorker’s David Denby, blasted the film as a "sickening death trip." But the same David Denby once called “Pulp Fiction,” a film noted for its non-stop violence, “one of the great wild rides of recent cinema.” It seems that gratuitous, cold-blooded murder is great cinema, but a wrenching, accurate portrait of the passion of Christ is deserving of sarcasm and derision.

Andy Rooney (CBS), has ridiculed the movie and Mel Gibson, and he has done so without even having viewed it himself. Commenting on the movie on Larry King’s show, Rooney said, “I haven’t seen it. I don’t plan to see it. I don’t need to pay $9 for some laughs.” Laughs? I understand that Rooney is a secularist, and I don’t hold it against him that he isn’t a believer. But when he uses his media power to attack people of faith simply for proclaiming their faith, and does it so ignorantly, then I think CBS should be reviewing his contract!

When Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took him to the temple to be dedicated to God. There they met a man, a prophet, named Simeon. This is what Simeon said to Mary about what was to come. “This child will be rejected by many in Israel. But he will be the greatest joy to many others. A sword will pierce you own souls also, that the deepest thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” That is what is happening today. This movie is revealing the thoughts of many hearts. What about yours?