Way of the Cross - 1

THE WAY OF THE CROSS – 1

(Preached Lent 1997 and 2003)

Journeying

I would love to be able to pick you all up and take you on a journey to Jerusalem this Lent.

However, I am afraid it will not be financially possible. But, do not give up hope. If I cannot take you to Jerusalem, perhaps I can bring Jerusalem to you.

So I invite you to join the many millions of Christian pilgrims, who, over the centuries, have walked the Via Dolorosa or the Way of the Sorrows.

We shall stop, as we journey along the Via Dolorosa, which today winds itself along the narrow cobbled streets of the Muslim quarter of that ancient city, up into the Christian quarter, and consider the various things that happened to Jesus.

However, we shall not just be reliving the past but also seeking to determine its relevance to us today, as we journey along our own Via Dolorosa, or the Way of the Cross.

Jesus invites us to join him in picking up our cross and carrying it.

That is why I have summed the experience of each stop along the way by using an active verb like "Pleasing" or "Rejecting" because we are concerned not just about what happened to Jesus 2000 years ago, but also about what happens to us when we find ourselves the casualties or victims of other people’s actions.

We are concerned about how the experience of Jesus can speak to us along our own Via Dolorosa.

And so we turn to our first scene, that of Jesus being condemned to death by Pilate which I have called "Pleasing".

Today, the site in Jerusalem where this is alleged to have occurred is occupied by The Ecce Homo Convent Sisters of Sion. It is built on part of the Antonia fortress which is one of the two places where the Roman Governor would have resided when visiting Jerusalem from his headquarters at Caesarea-on the Sea.

Spanning across the road outside the convent is an archway upon which it is suggested Pilate exhibited his scourged prisoner to the crowd and said "Behold the Man" (Ecce Homo). However, the arch was built many years after Christ.

In the basement of the convent some beautifully cut red stones have been unearthed which formed a part of the market place which Hadrian built and may have been the courtyard of the earlier Antonia fortress. This could well be the pavement upon which Pilate passed judgment upon Jesus. Certainly, letters and figures scratched into some of the stones suggest that a corner of it was used by the Roman guards to play the game of "King", which may well be connected with the mockery of Jesus.

JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATHI

"Then Pilate saw that he was making no impression, that in fact a riot was imminent. So he took some water, washed his hands in front of the crowd and said 'I am innocent of this man's blood. It is your concern' and the people to a man, shouted back 'His blood be on us and on our children!' Then he released Barabbas for them. He ordered Jesus to be crucified". Matthew 27.24-26

Pleasing

Pilate wanted to please. He wanted to please the crowd. He wanted to please his superiors of the Roman government. He wanted to please his wife. Above all, he wanted to please his conscience. So he passed the buck and washed his hands of responsibility.

Pilate was not the most popular of Roman Governors to rule Palestine. He had caused, and continued long after the crucifixion, offence to the Jews. Eventually, he had to be recalled to Rome.

Palestine was a hot bed of anti-Roman feeling and he did nothing to improve the situation. On the contrary, he tended to aggravate the situation. Unlike his predecessors, he did not tactfully remove the images from the Roman standards when his soldiers entered Jerusalem. These images were seen by the Jews to be symbols of idolatry.

On the walls of his palace in Jerusalem, Pilate had fixed golden shields which bore the name of the Emperor. To the Jews this symbolised Caesar worship.

And then at the time of acute water shortage he had had built a new and necessary aqueduct, but, unfortunately he financed it out of the temple treasury.

With such a record of blunders, it was natural for him to want to please the people. This was particularly desirable at Passover time when the population grew to about 3 million. He neither wanted, nor had he the soldiers to contain, a political uprising so Pilate took the easy way out and sought to please the people.

First, he tried to pass the responsibility to Herod by having him pass sentence upon Jesus. Herod merely passed Jesus back to Pilate. Next Pilate passed the responsibility to the crowd and washed his hands of the whole matter. Thus Pilate condemned Jesus, who he knew was innocent, to death.

To stand up for what we know to be right in the face of angry people is often very difficult. To speak the truth in spite of what people may say demands courage. To go against the tide and stand alone is never easy.

But that is the Christian way. And if as a result we suffer by not seeking to please people, we suffer not alone. For Christ himself suffered, refusing to please. No Christian should ever expect to be top of the popularity polls.

JESUS IS MADE TO CARRY HIS CROSS

"And when they had finished making fun of him they took off the purple and dressed him in his own clothes". Mark 15.20

Rejecting

On Palm Sunday the crowds welcomed Jesus. Peter, on behalf of the 12, had assured Jesus that he would never leave him.

The blind can now see. The lepers have been made clean. The lame can now walk. The sinners are now received back into society. The tax gatherers have been made respectable. Women are now accepted as being of equal worth to men. For three years, the crowds have flocked to Jesus and welcomed him from far and wide.

Now that welcome is turned into rejection. So Jesus is rejected - not just by the scribes and pharisees, not just by Pilate and Caiaphas, not just by Herod and Judas, but by those who have eaten and lived with him - those to whom he had given new life, new hope. No matter what he has been instrumental in doing for them - this is now all forgotten. He is rejected. He is alone.

So Jesus is made to carry his cross.

The cross was the most shameful form of death used only for slaves, foreigners and criminals.

Here is a Jew brought by his own kinsfolk to be sentenced to death by the despised Roman overlords. Here is a man discredited by public demonstration of servitude to Rome. Here is a man forced to carry the cross bar of the means of his death. Here is a man forced to walk between Roman soldiers carrying a placard bearing his name and the reason for his death to act as a deterrent for all to see. Here is a man, who having been beaten is now forced to walk the longest route to his place of execution, so that as many people as possible may see this socially undesirable person. My friends - what a shameful means of death does that cross represent. Jesus is made to carry his cross to demonstrate to all that he is rejected not just by his friends but by all of society.

It is said that people remember one’s faults and forget one’s virtues. To live the Christian life means being prepared to accept rejection. That rejection is made even more painful when one recalls how one may have helped these same people in the past. Alas, gratitude has a funny way of showing itself.

Rejection is very lonely. At the end one is left by oneself - with only one’s memories, hopes and dreams. It is easy to allow bitterness to enter into the heart and take root. Yet in that aloneness one is never totally rejected. For in that aloneness one stands hand in hand with Jesus who knows and understands what one is going through, for he has trodden the path before us.

So one takes up one’s own cross and follows him, even if it means rejection.