Sermon -- Lenten Vespers (2nd Sermon)

This sermon was preached at Good Shepherd in Novi on March 27, 

at St. Paul's in Belleville on April 3, 

and at St. Peter's in Plymouth on April 10.

JOHN 19:14-18

THREE WORDS OF TRUTH: 

Away With Him!

In the name + of Jesus.

     There can only be one king.  There is no higher authority.  The king's word is the final.  What the king says must be obeyed.  It cannot be challenged.  Whoever would dare to defy the king suffers his wrath and is subject to his punishment.  The king can have no rivals.
     Jesus was presented before Pilate as a king.  He certainly did not look like one.  Pilate had plied him with questions and was threatened neither by the way Jesus answered nor by the way Jesus carried himself.  Pilate's investigation had determined that Jesus was innocent.  Nevertheless, Jesus was dressed in a purple robe, crowned with thorns, and mocked as a king.  Pilate even had Jesus flogged.  In his pathetic, bloody appearance, Jesus was presented before the crowd.  This vision was supposed to inspire pity; it ended up inciting rage.  Pilate said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”  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.”  So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. (John 19:14-16)  
     We should be surprised that the tongues of the chief priests did not snap off their rollers when they said this.  The Jews had nothing but disdain for the Romans.  They considered it offensive that God's people would have pagan rulers.  They would not pledge allegiance to the Romans; they wanted the Romans out.  The Jews did not want Pilate as their governor or Herod as their king.  They longed for their own ruler, for Messiah King.  But when Messiah King finally had come, they did not even want him.  The Sanhedrin summed up their desires rather succinctly: The chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do?  For this man performs many signs.  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” (John 11:47-48)  
     There can only be one king.  Only one whose word is final; one whose word must be obeyed; only one whose word can never be challenged.  For the chief priests and Pharisees, they were the kings of their own world.  They would do whatever it took to cling to their positions of authority.  They wanted no rivals, not even the King of heaven and earth.  Therefore, when God stood before them in the flesh, they would not submit to him or believe him.  Rather, they shouted, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” (John 19:15)  They cheered for the death of the true God so that they could be the gods of their own world.
     The chief priests and teachers of the law make such easy villains in the Gospels.  Their stubborn unbelief is on full display.  But our rejection of the king is just as real.  Satan's original temptation to Adam and Eve was that by rejecting God's word, they would be like God.  Satan still peddles that same lie, and we still buy it.  We want to be our own gods, enforcing our own opinions, desires, preferences, and plans.  For, there can only be one king.  There is only one throne in each heart.  We set ourselves up on it.  We question God, wondering if he even knows what he's doing because this world has so many disasters, so many deviants, and so much death.  We are convinced we could do better.  We take matters into our own hands when we think that better results can be had by our selfish pride, goals, and desires.  We want all things in life to go our way, so we exalt our ideas over God's word.  This rebellion is nothing other than crying out, “Away with him.  Away with him.  We have no other king!”  This is rebellion against God, as there can only be one king.
     Guess what?  Everyone else feels the same way.  We deal with people who also want their opinions, desires, preferences, and plans to rule.  When yours conflict with theirs, watch out!  They are supposed to fall in line with your desires and plans.  You are supposed to honor their opinions and bend to their preferences.  It leads to insults, slander, and sarcasm.  It leads to bullying, assault, violent crimes, and to war.  Enraged people cry out about their fellow man, “Away with him!  Drop dead!” because each one seeks his own good and sees other people as the enemies who get in the way of that.
     But the earth is the LORD's and … those who dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1)  When the Lord tells us how we are to live on this earth, his word stands.  It is his world.  He created it.  He rules over it, and he sets the rules.  To challenge or defy his word is to cry out, “Away with him!  Away with him!”  But he is the King of the Universe, and there are no others.  To rebel is to incur God's wrath and to earn his punishment.  And it is what we deserve.  Repent.
     But here is the marvel: Your heavenly King is not a tyrant.  He does not crush the rebels with one swift blow as you probably think should be done to rebels.  Rather, he comes to redeem the rebels and to restore them to his kingdom.  He comes not to kill the rebels, but to be killed for them.
     Even though Pontius Pilate made efforts to have Jesus delivered from death by crucifixion, Jesus made no such efforts.  Pilate had found Jesus innocent, but Jesus accepted all charges of guilt upon himself.  Jesus was linked to criminals in his death, being set between two felons who were worthy of the death penalty for their rebellion.  More than that, Jesus was linked to your rebellion by taking upon himself the guilt of your self-centered preferences and plans and self-glorifying desires and opinions.  So, when the chief priests and teachers of the law cried out, “Away with him, away with him!”, that is precisely what Jesus committed himself to.
     The Scriptures declare: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” (Galatians 3:13)  Jesus took our sin and its curse and took it away from us.  Jesus went away to the cross where he gave up his life—the King for the rebels, the innocent for the guilty, God for man.  He took it all away.  The Psalms remind us, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:10-12)  He takes your sins and they are gone.  Away with your sins!  Away with your guilt!  Away with your death!  Away with your curse!  They cannot hurt you or condemn you.  Your King has decreed it to be so.  His royal decree is that you are justified—that is, declared “Not guilty,” pardoned of every offense, free of all charges.  And the King's word is final.
     There can only be one King, and he is the Lord Jesus.  This king is most merciful.  This king serves you.  He loves you and seeks your good.  He has gone into death for you to win your salvation, and he is risen to guarantee that your place in his kingdom means eternal life—forever away from sinning against others and being sinned against, away from all regret and sorrow, away from every struggle and temptation.  For, the Lord does not rule by tyranny, but by grace.  He does not crush you for your rebellion, and he does not even breathe out threats over your weaknesses.  Your King continues to speak words of comfort, peace, and encouragement.  Therefore, there would be nothing worse for us than to be away from him.  But you are not, and you never will be.  For Jesus lives and reigns and is with you always to serve you, to bless you, and to work all things for your good.
     There can only be one king.  His word stands.  And rather than challenge it, we rejoice in it.  For his word is grace, and his decree is salvation.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.