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The Governor March 14, 2021 Dr. Tom Pace Matthew 27:11-26 Now

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The Governor March 14, 2021 Dr. Tom Pace Matthew 27:11-26 Now People of the Passion: The Governor March 14, 2021 Dr. Tom Pace Matthew 27:11-26 Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?” But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. 1At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.” Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” All of them said, “Let him be crucified!” Then he asked, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” Then the people as a whole answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. Matthew 27:11-26 Let’s pray together. Gracious God open us up. Open our eyes that we might see and open our ears that we might hear your words in the midst of these words today. Open our hearts that we might feel. And then, in response to our open eyes, ears, and hearts, open our hands that we might serve you. In the name of Christ, Amen. My daughter, Coatney, was driving down the road in her mini-van, and it happened. There was a dog - a pit bull actually - wandering on the road. Just wandering on the road, walking out and about, and she had a difficult decision to make. I don’t know how you deal with those things. Now, if you are not dog people, I get that - it’s understandable. But for those of us who are dog people, it’s so hard to decide what to do, “Do I stop and pick up this dog? And if I do, then I’ve got some responsibility for this dog. Or do I drive on past and say, ‘That’s someone else’s dog. I can’t deal with this. I already have enough dogs.’” We go through this situation at our house periodically. My wife always says, “Oh, let’s take the dog!” And I always say, “We already have two dogs - we don’t need any more dogs!” In fact, one time, we picked up a giant yellow Labrador, and it was knocking everything off our table with his giant tail. I named the dog Sed - and that stood for “Someone else’s dog.” This was not our dog. Well, I’ll let you see what Coatney decided to do. She picked up the dog, found a no-kill shelter, and is in the business of marketing the dog until she can find a home for him. So we always face these responsibilities, these difficult decisions about whether to take responsibility for something or to pass that responsibility. So there are so many tensions in Christian life. We can look at all of them. Like the tension between faith and works, between grace and judgment, between individual and corporate, between now and the future. All these things are there. Last week Rev. Katie Montgomery Mears preached an excellent sermon about how at some times, we have to let go. We have to release life - hold it more loosely is the image that she gave. She quoted the Serenity prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr, which Alcoholics Anonymous uses - at least the first stanza. It says, “The serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” How do we struggle with those tensions? 2 And last week, we heard about Caiaphas, who just wanted to manipulate everything, so it turned out his way. That fear gripped him, and he was going to just punch every button and pull every string to do everything he possibly could so Jesus would end up crucified. And that his fear of losing the things and power that he had gripped him, so he was going to manipulate and hold tight. Today we have Pontius Pilate, who took the opposite approach. He said, “You know, I want to pass off this responsibility. I’m not going to make this call. Somebody else needs to deal with this.” Let me tell you about Pontius Pilate, so we have the background. If you’re a person who may not want to know about the history, then check your Facebook feed for a little while we go through this. So Herod the Great was appointed by Rome as the King of the Jewish area of Rome. And that Herod is the one we see when Jesus is born. But soon after Jesus is born, Herod the Great dies, and his sons and one daughter divide up the territory - Rome divides up the territory and puts each of his sons in charge of a part of it. There was a man named Herod Archelaus who was in charge of Judea - the southern part where Jerusalem is. Herod Antipas was given control of Galilee, the northern part where Jesus lives in Nazareth. Then Herod Philip is in charge of the part to the northeast across the Jordan River. But what happens is Herod Archelaus, who was in charge of Judea, is so cruel, so incredibly cruel, that the people rise up against him. They also take a delegation to Rome to ask that he be removed. So Herod Archelaus was removed from ruling over Judea, and instead of sending another Jewish king to rule, they send a Roman governor- a procurator it was called, or sometimes called a prefect. This governor is going to rule on behalf of Rome as opposed to a kind of a puppet like the Herods were. They said that they were just going to put a Roman in charge. Pilate is really only in power at all because his wife Claudia was the granddaughter of one of the emperors. So he’s been sent there - you could be in Rome or sent to this far away crazy Palestine where it’s desert and dreary. So he’s not happy. He’s known to be exceedingly cruel. Pilate was an exceedingly cruel governor. In fact, in Luke 13, we see this: “Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.” (Luke 13:1 NIV) 3 Oh, my goodness! So not only did Pilate’s soldiers murder these Galileans, but then as a way of just desecrating and adding insult to injury, when they made their sacrifices to their idols, they’d use Galilean blood as well to desecrate their bodies. Here’s what happened, and you probably know part of this. Caiaphas, the Jewish High Priest, brings Jesus to Pilate because he says, “We have no law to execute.” And the first thing that Pilate does, and we only see this in the Gospel of Luke - Pilate sends him to King Herod Antipas in Galilee because that where Jesus was from. But King Herod says, “All this is happening in Jerusalem,” so he sends Jesus back to Pilate. The Scripture that we read today is the second time that Pilate has an interview with Jesus. As you know, Pilate then presents Jesus and Barabbas. It’s the time of the Passover, and it’s the custom to release a prisoner. He presents Jesus and Barabbas to the crowd and the crowd cry for Jesus to be crucified and Barabbas to be released. Then there’s this dramatic scene where Pilate washes his hands. He says, “I am not responsible for this man’s death! It’s on you!” One of the things that Katie Montgomery Mears said last week that really spoke to me was where she said, “In each of our hearts, there is a little bit of Jesus and a little bit of Caiaphas.” Well, I’ll say to you that in our hearts, there’s a little bit of Jesus and a little bit of Pilate as well. A little bit that wants to shirk our responsibility - that wants to push it off. So what can we learn? Let’s take a look and see what we can learn from Pontius Pilate. Here’s the first thing.
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