Palm Sunday, Year B The Passion of Mark
Until about age 18, my
understanding of Holy Week was shaped primarily by frequent viewings of the
rock musical, Jesus Christ Superstar.
The musical was written in the 1970’s and to this day, when I think of
the disciples, I picture hippies and Jesus has a high whiny voice when he
breaks into song. While I still love the
musical and the movie, I realize now that some of its interpretations were a
little off. Pilate was depicted as a
pawn of the Jewish and Roman authorities who simply got caught in the middle of
it all. This interpretation is not
completely unfounded. Some of this comes
from the Gospels. Luke has one of the
most sympathetic views of Pilate. He actually
has Pilate arguing on behalf of Jesus when he addressed the crowd. Matthew has Pilate wash his hands and
proclaim himself, “innocent of this man’s blood.” Mark on the other hand, does
not feel the need to hide his weaknesses or faults. Of all the Gospel writers, Mark is the one
who seems to catch people at their worst.
I suspect that this was because Mark was the first Gospel written. The rest of the Gospel writers had more time
to make the life of Jesus seem a little more polished, a little less gritty.
All of the
Gospels agree that Jesus is brought to Pilate by the Jewish leaders. Pilate did
not arrest Jesus. It was the Jewish
leaders who found him, held their own trial, and then brought him to Pilate to
be condemned to death. Pilate was the
Governor of Jerusalem and Judea. It was
his job to make sure that the Jewish people did not revolt against the
Romans. He was the keeper of the peace. Apparently he was not very good at this job because
during his 10 year reign, there were 33 riots of the Jews. The Jewish leaders knew that Pilate was
probably desperate to avoid another riot.
They preyed on this fear by labeling Jesus as a disturber of the
peace. The person who we now call the
Prince of Peace, was killed for being a disturber of the peace.
While Mark’s Gospel is the shortest
of them all, it includes some interesting details that are not in the other
Gospels. In his description of Pilate’s
interaction with the crowd, Mark writes, “Pilate, in his desire to satisfy the
mob, released Barabbas to them; and he had Jesus flogged and handed him over to
be crucified.” Pilate knew that Jesus
was innocent of the charges brought up against him. He was aware that the chief
priests had brought Jesus to him out of malice and jealousy. He even knew that the crowd was not even
speaking for themselves, they were being provoked by the chief priests and
other Jewish leaders. Knowing all of
this, Pilate succumbed to the will of the mob and killed an innocent man. He did this because it was more important to
keep peace than carry out justice. In
the end, it was no peace at all.
It is very
easy to read this story that we heard today and believe that we would never
have been part of the mob that demanded his crucifixion. We would never have spit on him, or flogged
him. We would not have betrayed him, or
denied him. These things are all
dramatic gestures that seem almost incomprehensible to us now. Yet how often have you gone against your
better judgment, your conscience, maybe even your faith, to satisfy or please
others? I often find myself saying to
others, and to myself, “You’ve just got to choose your battles.” You can’t always get your own way, and
sometimes you shouldn’t. Compromise can
be a good thing.
However, what I have found is that
sometimes it is less about compromise and more about fear. You want people to
like you, so you let something slide. It
starts small, but then all of a sudden you realize you are not fighting for
anything anymore. You’re just trying not
to rock the boat. That is why of all the
characters in this story, I can identify most with Pilate. I can see myself wanting so badly to maintain
peace, that I would allow the crucifixion of our only chance at peace. He probably even convinced himself that one
death would actually save many lives.
Ironically, he was right. Jesus’
death saved us all.
Some people
think that the important thing about being a Christian is being nice and not
offending people. Jesus died because he
offended the wrong people. He was not
mean spirited or cruel. But he refused
to conform to what society and the religious establishment of the day expected
out of its leaders. Being Christian is
not about being nice, it is about loving and sacrificing. And sometimes loving means speaking a truth
that people do not want to hear. The way
I see it, if the church isn’t offending someone, it’s probably not doing its
job.
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