B, Midweek Lent 4 - Mark 15:1-32 "Barabbas' and Simon's Passover"

Mark 15:15,21 (ESV)  So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.   And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.

The Passover from the viewpoint of Barabbas and Simon of Cyrene, stand out as two remarkable events.

Barabbas was being held for murder in an uprising.  We know the Ten Commandments does not pass over a person for killing another person.  At the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus extends this, by saying if someone calls another a fool, they are liable to hell fire (Matthew 5:22). 

Barabbas’ deserved death yet those in authority rallied the mob to have him released and Jesus crucified.  Pilate asked “Why?  What evil has he done?”  Jesus had done nothing wrong.   However, because the crowd was seething for Jesus’ blood,  Pilate sought to please the people.  He freed a murderer and delivered the innocent Son of God over to death by crucifixion.

Imagine Barabbas learning his fate!  Guilty yet set free!  A dead man, passed over, now with a second chance at life!  I reckon Barabbas wouldn’t have believed his good fortune, having done absolutely nothing to deserve his stay of execution. 

So, it’s Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father who takes the place of Barabbas.  Jesus, the king of the Jews, serves as the Son of Man, taking the place of a murderer, Barabbas, the son of Abba, the son of a father.

You and I, the sons, and daughters of a father, like Barabbas, have had our stay of eternal execution because of Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Father.  Like Barabbas who was passed over and given new life, you too have been passed over and given eternal life.  You can, and should, give thanks to God your Father for your “Good Friday fortune”, having done nothing to deserve this stay of eternal execution. 

Jesus has changed places with you at the cross.  All daughters and sons have received Jesus’ Sonship through adoption,  accepting you as God’s holy Son through Jesus’ exchange, a true and faithful elder brother.  Eternal death now passes over you and me, borne by the King of the Jews.  Now, with Jesus, the exalted King of Creation, you will be raised from death.

The cross was the crossroads for Barabbas, and so too was it for Simon who innocently, perhaps accidentally, crossed paths with the crucifixion party at the Passover.

After being brutalised by the battalion of Roman soldiers, we could assume Jesus was too weak to carry his cross.  Or perhaps he was not moving quick enough for the soldiers, who wanted to get on with the job they were tasked to do.  Whatever the reason, the soldiers grab Simon who was passing by on his way in from the country. 

If Barabbas could not have believed his good fortune, we can imagine that Simon could not have believed his bad luck!  Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Simon carried the cross of a dead man.  He carried the curse of death on his back.  Albeit for a brief time, he walked the walk of death, under the means of death!  Was it unfair that he carried the cross?  He may or may not have felt the injustice of the Romans’ expectation, but he did what he had to do under their compulsion.

Unlike Barabbas, it seems Simon did not deserve what was put on him, carrying the cross to Golgotha, or at least part of the way.  Yet like Barabbas, there is relief for Simon!  Once at Calvary, his job is done, and he is set free.  Perhaps, he breathed a big sigh of relief!  No longer having to feel the weight of the cross, the experience leading to death.  

Christ is left to bear the greater burden, bearing the sins of all people.  This includes Simon.  Who, although an innocent passerby, is not passed over before God as innocent from sin. 

Like Simon, you feel the burden of the crosses you bear in this life.  There is also relief, like Simon, as you know when you get to the destination of death, you will put down your crosses, and be carried through death to victory by he who has borne the burden of your sin on the cross.

When Simon put down Jesus’ cross, he was putting down his cross; the cross all humanity deserved to carry and on which you, and I, should have justly been nailed.

Those who seemingly are guilty, like Barabbas, are passed over.  Those who are supposedly innocent, like Simon, are not passed over.  The consequences of Christ’s cross, pass over nobody’s guilt or innocence, at this Passover. 

The cross of Christ sets us free!  Yet the cross of Christ calls us to carry our cross!  Like Barabbas and Simon, you suffer from your sin, yet are relieved to know that your sin is carried by Jesus Christ on the cross.

Those two robbers nailed on either side of Jesus, easily could have been Barabbas and Simon, you, and me!   Like Barabbas our deeds condemn us, and like Simon, the humanity of our being condemns us too. 

Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews, is at the right place in the right time.  The fullness of time had come, and the Jews killed him.  It is his blood that saves Barabbas and Simon, not from Roman law, but from the greater law of God.  Jesus is our King of Kings, and yet our sins of commission, our sins of omission, and our nature seemingly innocent but guilty, breaks God’s law and killed the King of the Jews. 

Your blame and my blame are not passed over but passed onto Jesus.  As a result, the consequences of our sin are passed over! 

Like Barabbas, who could not believe his good fortune, and like Simon, who realised it was his good fortune to only carry the cross, we look forward to our Good Friday fortune.   Our sins are before us on the cross, very real, very deadly, yet very forgiven, and very much paid for! 

Jesus is our greatest wealth in this world.   We, sinners like Barabbas, receive the fortune of freedom, while our guilt remains on the cross.  We, fortunate forgiven sinners carry our cross, like Simon, knowing it was Christ who was lifted up on it in our place. 

Our sin is not passed over, yet we sinners are being passed over.  You are being passed onto the prosperity of an eternal resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord!  Amen.

Let us pray.  Heavenly Father, when we have carried our cross to the end of life’s road, help us give thanks for the Holy Spirit’s help to carry it, knowing we are sinners, but forgiven sinners.  Help us to not let the fortunes of Good Friday pass away, so that we are not passed over, but pass through death to our resurrection with you, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.   

B, Lent 3 - Psalm 19:14 John 2:13-22 "Acceptable Fellowship"

Psalm 19:14 (ESV) Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.  Amen.

The words of Jesus’ mouth and the meditation of Jesus’ heart, as he drove the traders and their stock out of the temple, destroyed the fellowship of both, those changing money, and those selling animals for Passover sacrifices.  It seems Jesus was angry as he bound cords, made a whip, and drove them out of the temple!  What type of fellowship was Jesus dispersing?

Jesus’ disciples remembered words from the first half of Psalm sixty-nine verse nine, “For zeal for your house has consumed me.”  (Psalm 69:9 ESV)  Also, we can consider Psalm one hundred and nineteen, verse one hundred and thirty-nine, as Jesus rouses the temple traders and their wares, “My zeal consumes me, because my foes forget your words.”  (Psalm 119:139 ESV)

Rather than anger, Jesus was jealous for his Father’s house!  His words were solely concerned with our Father’s word!  If we consider this jealousy as anger, his anger was restoring fellowship rather than wrecking it.

However, anger does destroy fellowship!  We all know when we become angry, or someone becomes angry with us, we lose connection with the other party.  This is the sin of presumptuousness; when one seethes and becomes high-handed.  Fellowship and peace fly out the window when our feelings and the musings of the heart, become words unacceptable in God’s sight.

Instead of God being our rock and redeemer, in our anger, through our fear and lack of trust in God, we presume from our internal reckonings, we are good and righteous, they are bad and wrong.    Therefore, we presume, “they” need correction. 

However, our presumptions are assumptions with little to no evidence. God is put out of the picture and is replace with our assumed divinity!   What  is good for us is not necessarily good for God who knows what is truly good and evil, the true reality of our way, our truth, and our life!

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life of God the Father.  His way in all things, including his way in the temple, is begotten of the Father.  Jesus’ word is “the truth” and is begotten of our Father in Heaven.  The life Jesus lives, being led to the cross by the proceedings of the Holy Spirit, is also begotten by God our Father.

What appears to be anger on Jesus’ part is far from the divisive anger you or I perpetuate.   Even the most righteous human anger kills fellowship.  Whereas Jesus’ jealous word, works to restore our fellowship with God and our fellow human beings.

At the sermon on the mount Jesus equates our anger with murder.  Murder kills fellowship!  Yes, literally for the one murdered.  But it kills fellowship with God, for the one who has lifted his hand in murder.  Even an insult of “you fool” cost the name caller their fellowship.  Jesus tells us, “Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”  (Matthew 5:22 ESV)

Jesus takes our words of anger and stretches them, so neither you, nor I, are free of God’s judgement in the Ten Commandments.  God knows all active aggression hidden behind closed doors!  God knows all passive aggression hidden behind a polite smile!  He knows the disobedience of your human heart.  Anger in all humanity’s activities.  Anger in the buzz of business.  Anger within cultures and between countries.  Anger over lack of other’s discernment.  Anger instead of empathy.  Anger born out of frustration.  Anger between generations, and anger even between the sexes!  God sees all unacceptable fellowship played out between people today, as sin.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Paul tells Timothy what to expect as a result of the fellowship breakdown of humanity before Christ  returns.

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.  For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,  treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.  For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,  always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”  (2 Timothy 3:1–7 ESV)

Today as God is being killed in our society, it’s as if humanity is a hive of bees busy buzzing away in  human activity.  Yet, when the beekeeper comes to check on the hive, his workers become increasingly agitated, for being disturbed, and attack he who has given them their hive as their home.

Before Jesus came,  temple Judaism had become like a hive of bees devouring themselves!  Their hive was empty of honey, God’s word was used presumptuously, against each other, therefore, against God.  Fellowship had failed.  Paul reminds us in his letter to Timothy that in the last days this will happen too.  God and his fellowship will not only be killed in society, but bold presumptuous attempts to kill him will occur inside the church before Christ comes again.  This is because we in the church busy ourselves with the same love of self, as those outside.

Yet Jesus says to the Jews of the temple, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19 ESV)

Begotten by God, Jesus was raised by God the Father, and by the Holy Spirit who proceeded from the Father to raise Jesus from the dead!  Like a seed planted in the ground, the life of God contained in the perfect husk of Jesus’ human flesh, sprouted back to life.

The temple was destroyed, and the Son of God, raised up the temple of his church.  You and I are seeds of the Son, grafted into fellowship in Christ.

But what of the fellowship Jesus dispersed with a whip of cords?

We return to Psalm sixty-nine to the words of God the Son, written down by King David…

“Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonour through me, O God of Israel.  For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonour has covered my face.  I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons.  For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.” (Psalm 69:6–9 ESV)

”Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.“ (Psalm 69:16 ESV)

“You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonour; my foes are all known to you.  Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair.  I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.  They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.”  (Psalm 69:19–21 ESV)

Jesus’ zeal consumed him!  He cleansed the temple!  Yet he became the reproach!  He allowed his fellowship with our Father to be severed, so God might temple within us, and reseed in us fellowship with the father.

No longer do we need to fear the world, or what the world is doing within the church.  After all, it is God’s church, and those who resist God’s correction, God’s call to confess and receive forgiveness, will not be blameless and innocent of great transgression.

But for those who willingly receive God’s word, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring them to confession so that they not only glorify God for the gospel of salvation, but even love the Law of God despite its condemnation of their sin.

God’s Word in the church is sweet like honey.  In Psalm nineteen we hear, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;  the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;  the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.  More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.  Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”  (Psalm 19:7–11 ESV)

When we hear and busy ourselves under God’s word, God’s church is a harmonious hive.  May we like the Psalmist, be kept from presumptuous sins, so they do not have dominion over us, nor separate us from the forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Rock and Redeemer.  Let us pray.

Lord God Holy Spirit may the words of our mouths be Jesus’ Word of forgiveness and fellowship, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable in the eternal sight of our Father in heaven.  Amen.