“I Find No Guilt in Him”
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Holy Week • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 19:04
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· 7 viewsFr. Michael’s Sermon for Good Friday, March 29, 2024
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Introduction
Introduction
I must confess that I find this one of the most difficult days to preach. That is not because I do not want to talk about the death of Jesus, but rather, because there is far too much that I want to say.
If this was a theology class, we would talk for hours about atonement theories and the various metaphors of the atonement in and outside of the New Testament, but that is not what this day is about. Today is not about the theory; today is about the fact that the savior of the world died on a Roman cross.
I said last night that in the Synoptic Gospels, to help his disciples make sense of his impending death, Jesus gave them not a lecture, but a meal. In a very real sense, we remember and celebrate this night every Sunday when we partake in that meal together. But I also noted last night that John does not record the words of institution. Instead, John tells a story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. I suggested last night that this too, like the meal, is how John wants us to make sense of the death of Jesus of Nazareth.
But one thing that both John and the Synoptics have in common is that the imagery and language of the Passover is present throughout the events of Holy Week and especially as we get closer to the cross.
One such moment occurs at the end of John 18. Jesus is standing before Pilate. For the reader who has been paying attention, the true King now stands before the impostor king’s representative. Jesus has come face to face with the empire. This is what makes what Jesus says to Pilate a bit later so remarkable. He says:
Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
“You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from…,” and notice what Jesus says: “above.” It’s ambiguous. Jesus clearly means “from my Father above” but Caesar was also an authority over Pilate. He was above him too. In fact, Pilate’s authority was quite precarious at this times, which is why he acquiesces to the Jewish leaders’ request. He can’t afford for there to be trouble and word to get back to Caesar.
Before Jesus says this though, Pilate is trying to find his out clause. He is trying to find his way out of this situation. At first he tries to pass the buck back to the Jewish leaders, but they won’t have it. Then he tries getting Jesus to deny the charges.
So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
This time, it’s Jesus who won’t have it. He replies:
John 18:36
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
If you’re following along in your ESV, you’ll notice I have changed the translation. That’s because nearly every translation gets this wrong. Jesus does not say, “My Kingdom is not of this world,” he says “My kingdom is not from this world.” But that’s a sermon for another day.
When that attempt fails, Pilate takes another route. He appeals directly to the Passover.
John 18:38–40 (ESV)
After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.
But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.
Before I go any further, I have to say that I don’t know what the ESV is doing here. The Greek word for robber is λῃστής. It can mean robber, but it can also mean insurrectionist, and that is exactly what Mark says Barabbas is.
And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas.
So Barabbas is not just a robber; he’s an insurrectionist. And here’s the other fascinating thing. Think about Barabbas’s name. In Matthew 16:1, Peter is referred to as Simon Bar-Jonah, meaning Simon, the son of Jonah or probably Jonas. So “Bar” means son, and “Abba” means father. Think about all that Jesus had said in the Gospel of John about the Father and the Son, and then realize that Barabbas means “the son of the father.”
Passover is the celebration of Israel’s release from its bondage to foreign oppressors. As an occupying army who had given the people the right to celebrate their religion as they pleased, including the Feast of Passover, this particular festival made the Romans more than a little uncomfortable. Tensions were high. One way the empire found to abate those tensions was to release a prisoner to the people during the Passover. It was a mini-reenactment of the Exodus that still left the contemporary “Egyptians” in charge and did not cost them very much.
Pilate hopes to use this custom to free Jesus. He says, “Here. Let’s reenact the Exodus. I’ll release Jesus to you. I’ll release to you the King of the Jews.” Do you see what he’s doing, whether he knows it or not? He is putting before them two ways of being the children of God. There is Jesus, the true Son of the Father, and then there is Barabbas, the Son of the Father in name only.
And the people choose which son of the Father they want. They say, “We don’t want Jesus. We want the insurrectionist. We don’t want the man who won’t take up arms to fight for what he believes in. No! We don’t want that kind of person. We want the violent person. We want Barabbas. We want the insurrectionist!”
Theology is full of irony and apparent contradictions. Pilate has created a situation in which Jesus could reenact the Passover and be set free. He can be released like the Jews of long ago when they were enslaved to Egypt. But the reader is supposed to understand the irony that this is not the role in the Passover that Jesus intends to play. You see, it is the people of God who get passed over, but it is the lamb who is slain with the wicked.
Notice what Pilate said.
John 18:38 (ESV)
After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.”
Now compare that to the Passover.
Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,
“I find no guilt in him.” “Your lamb shall be without blemish.”
Jesus did not come to be passed over, i.e., to be delivered and set free. That was not the role he came to play. Instead, he came to play the role of the spotless Lamb of God.
“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
God’s judgment will one day come upon the world, just as it came upon Egypt at the first Passover. Those who will be delivered are those marked with the blood of the true Passover lamb. The people, in their sinfulness and fallenness, chose an insurrectionist over Jesus, but in doing so, they paved the way for Jesus to become the true Passover Lamb of God.
To make the matter even clearer, John notes later:
Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”
The Jews had already chosen the imposter son. They had already chosen a violent insurrectionist over Jesus, and now they make another choice. Pilate says “Behold your King!” and the people cry out:
They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
And with that, their choice is made. They looked at Jesus, like I have asked you to do this Holy Week, and they made their choice. They turned away from Kingdom of God and chose the Kingdom of this world. They turned away from the world’s true king and chose an imposter. They turned away from the true Son of the Father and chose a violent insurrectionist instead. But you know what? At least they were honest. It’s even worse to chose those things in the name of Jesus Christ.
If we prefer violence over peace, if we prefer our own privilege, prosperity, and power above all other things, then let’s just say so. Let’s choose Barabbas. Let’s say, “We have no king but Caesar.” But assuming you don’t want that, then look at him. Watch as the one of whom Pilate said, “I find no guilt in him,” dies,,and say with John the Baptist:
John 1:29 (ESV)
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Behold your king. Behold your God.
Amen.