THE KING ON THE WAY OF THE CROSS

Sermon delivered on the Palm Sunday the 5th April 2009 by Fr. Nicholas J.G. Sykes in the congregation of St. Alban's Church of England (Cayman Islands).

Scriptures: Mark 11: 1-11    Isaiah 50: 4 - 9a     Philippians 2: 5 - 11     Mark 14:1 - 15:end

Mark 15:2 And Pilate asked Him "Are you the King of the Jews?" and He answered him, "You have said so."

THE APPOINTED ROAD

Jesus treads step by step the road appointed for Him, in complete submission to the will of His heavenly Father. First He is given recognition by the crowd of followers who accompanied Him into Jerusalem as the King who comes in the Name of the Lord - the Messiah-king. St. John's Gospel says that many people believed in Him because of the great sign of the raising of Lazarus. Indeed as the Palm Sunday hymn puts it, He rides on, rides on in majesty, but in spite of His careful teaching, nobody could then accept that His most kingly responsibility was in lowly pomp to ride on to die.

THE KING

Several days later after the appalling and scandalous events of His betrayal and His condemnation by the court of the Jews, Pontius Pilate's main interest in this prisoner hangs upon this issue of kingship. The religious leaders of the Jews, the chief priests, the elders, the scribes and the council have carefully used the situation to obtain His condemnation. Yet even this they were incapable of bringing into effect without the remarkable cooperation of the Prisoner Himself. For Jesus showed Himself not to have the slightest intention of defending Himself from them. The evidence of the witnesses against Him, in the face of which He remained silent, was incapable of forming the basis of a conviction in the Jewish court; so the judge of the court, the High Priest, questioned Him, contrary to accepted court procedure, with the aim of provoking a blasphemy. To Him, as to Pilate later, Jesus answered with complete candour, just as if they were making enquiry to seek the truth for themselves. For indeed, His kingdom is the Kingdom of Truth, and over that kingdom He will reign supreme.

THE METHOD OF THE JEWISH COURT

In the eyes of the High Priest and the Jewish court Jesus condemned Himself by answering affirmatively that He was the Son of the Blessed, which was to say the Son of God. That gave them just enough leverage to accuse Him before Caesar's representative, Pilate, that He was purporting to be a king other than Caesar over the Jewish people. The fact that Jesus' Messiahship was no insurrection, as the records clearly show, did not prevent the religious leaders from making many lying accusations to Pilate. They justified this behaviour on the pretext that their own court had condemned Him for the blasphemy of claiming to be divine, deserving of death. They knew that to the Romans, claiming to be divine was competing with the claim of the Emperor to be divine, and therefore, the false argument went, He was competing as an alternative king to the emperor.

PILATE'S TAWDRY MOTIVES

Pilate seems fixated by the idea that this gentle and wounded Prisoner before him could be made out to be a king. He sees it as a great opportunity to taunt these Jews, by purporting to recognise Him as their King. So He condemns and mocks the Lord for His actually true role as the divinely appointed King. For the sake of His subjects, it was the Lord’s kingly responsibility to be condemned and mocked. The crown of thorns was indeed a sacrament of mockery, a sign that effectually brought about what it signified, excruciatingly painful and made doubly so by the beating of His head by the soldiers, which was no doubt aimed to drive the thorns further into the skull.

REAL KINGSHIP

Throughout it all the Lord bore the pain and insult with kingly fortitude, indeed in a way that everlastingly provides a fresh measure for the concept of royalty. The most royal action ever done by a king for his subjects was the action of our Lord, in taking upon Himself the sins of mankind, so that He who knew no sin was made sin for us. And then in that mysterious darkness over the land, in which the sun’s radiation is temporarily suspended, the face of the heavenly Father who cannot look upon sin is averted from His Son, who was made sin for us. Jesus is forsaken so that we might never be. His obedience, His kingly obedience, was unto the death, even, of the cross.

"Therefore, as St. Paul proclaims in Philippians, "God has highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the Name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth."

THE JUDGMENT AND THE SPOILS

So the judgment was made, but it is for us to understand who really judged whom. The court of the High Priest was forced to transgress its own rules to secure conviction when the witnesses to the substantive charge failed to agree. The conviction on the new charge of blasphemy relied solely upon the truthfulness of the One being condemned. So who and what were really being judged in the court of truth? It is a terrible thing to trade truth for some temporary advantage, as both the High Priest and Pilate in their different ways did. It is easy enough for us to do the same, as individuals, as a community, whenever we want to secure some temporary benefit. In fact they gained nothing and He who suffered and died took all the spoils of victory from His encounter. For it was not He that was condemned then in the court of truth, but the High Priest and Pilate. Indeed, for the King of Truth, it was "Ride on! Ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die; bow Thy meek head to mortal pain," - but then, "take, O God, Thy power, and reign." For us, it is to hear and obey that call: "Follow Me!" Let us take that place in His procession to which we are invited; let us desert those places, those sins and betrayals in which we know ourselves to be justly condemned, and follow after Him on His hard but high and victorious way.

BIBLE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. What was the original plan of the Jewish religious leaders for securing His condemnation before Pilate? Why was the new course of action a devastating exposure for them?

2. Show how the true Messiah took upon Himself the anti-Semitism of the Gentiles.

3. How might humanistic concepts of "human rights" apply to the facts of the Atonement?