Sunday of the Passion, April 4, 2004
Sermon on Luke 23: 1-49 (RCL) by David Zersen
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WATCHING DEATH DIE

Introduction
Can you name a place from which you began to view your life more comprehensively? I remember walking up a long street in the sunshine during my student days when suddenly everything was put in perspective for me. I also remember with nostalgia a sand cliff over Lake Michigan from which our family watched sunsets in quiet awe, believing that life couldn’t be more perfect. In your world and in the world at large there are those patches of holy ground from which we view things differently. Within our Christian perspective, Holy Week is such place for us. Everything comes together for Christians in the days of this week. There may be people who get lost in the details of the events. I think of the people of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, many of whom surely believe that blowing up papier-mâché statues of Judas is the high point of the week. And in Greece, for many the solemn Good Friday climb up Mt. Lycabettos behind the mock coffin of Jesus has no counterpart. However, it’s the overall progression from this Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to Easter to which we must now pay attention. We catch the meaning in a sweeping overview, not in the details. In the larger scope we sense the power of evil being destroyed and the true meaning of life affirmed.

Going for the larger perspective
One of the most dramatic sentences in today’s longer reading of the passion story is the final one: “But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.” (Lk. 23:49 NIV) The words encourage us to believe that these observers, keeping their sensitive and respectful distance, captured the larger scope of things. In Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, much as I appreciate his commitment to use his own money to produce a religious film when Hollywood provided no support, I found too little of the larger scope. The desperate need for public approval among competing cinematographers has pressed the zoom lens into exaggerated service. Scenes of sex, murder and violence are now “in your face” experiences. Whether we can truly capture meanings better because we can smell the death or taste the blood is questionable. Sometimes one gets lost in the details and loses the larger meaning. Sometimes, as Mies van der Rohe liked to say, less is more.

Perhaps it is as true for theology as it is for cinematography. The passion account of Luke has been dissected from every angle. Did Luke really have a view of the atonement? Did Jesus die without cause simply as an innocent martyr? Perhaps he was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s suffering servant? Or simply a hero in the style of the Greeks? Theologians can lose their way in the details. Helpful to me, as I reflect on this conundrum, is one of the more treasured paintings in our home. The viewer looks past the burly shoulders of the centurion, past Mary, being comforted by John, and past Mary Magdalene. They are positioned at a distance from the crucifixion scene, as the text suggests, not, as is portrayed in Gibson’s Passion, almost groveling at the foot of the cross. In the center of the painting is Jesus, and close by the thief who will join him in paradise. To the far left, in darkness is the thief who rejected Christ. The artist, the last great painter of Canadian impressionism, Robert Anand, allows the viewer to ponder this scene along with these disciples through the swirling majestic brush strokes of his impressionist style. Here there are no details. In general, however, within the mystery and profundity of the portrayal, one captures meanings that will not let us go. Let’s pay attention to them for a moment.

Glimpses from a distance
There are at least four stories being told within this larger story. In the first place, we watch religious officials use lies to make their case. They accuse Jesus of subverting the nation, opposing the payment of taxes and claiming to be a king. Of course, Jesus never did/said any of these things, but if your sense of authority and self-importance is being challenged, you can twist incidents to be seen from your point of view. We know this story well. This is how cases are tried in our courts. At least one side is lying. Perhaps both are. This is how politicians run their campaigns. Someone is not telling the truth. Perhaps both are not. This is how nations escalate tension in the world. The Israelis say that they have a right to protect themselves against terrorists (and the White House supports this view). The Palestinians say that their land is being systematically taken away and they have no other means to retaliate (and the Arab nations and most other nations support this view). Both views are based on half-truths. This is how it was with Jesus. They misrepresented his views and lied to make him out to be subversive. We know all about such tactics, but this is no way to run a world.

Secondly, we watch leaders failing to lead. Pilate, according to Luke, can’t make a decision, so he seeks a way out when he discovers Jesus is from Galilee, Herod’s territory. Herod treats his subject with contempt because he regards him as unimportant. We know these tactics as well. There is a crisis of leadership in the United States right now. Enron has become a symbol for this crisis in which CEOs in many companies lack moral integrity, introducing sexual and financial scandals into the boardroom. They didn’t care about people and many lives experienced financial ruin in the aftermath of the collapse. Universities now develop programs in ethical leadership to attempt to provide what a previous generation ignored. Jesus became the victim of such amoral tactics. We know about them too, but this is no way to run a world.

Thirdly, we watch mob pressure and crowd hysteria redefine justice. In response to Pilate’s claim that he will punish Jesus, the crowd shouts “away with him.” To Pilate’s decision to release him, they scream “crucify him.” And then we read, “Their shouts prevailed!” Vigilante rule! We know exactly what this is like. We had it in the pioneer days of our country and even through the beginning days of the civil rights movement in the U.S. We have experienced it with labor riots and race riots. We had psychological vigilante rule when, for example, the press inundated us with propaganda about potential anti-Semitism in Gibson’s Passion, and suddenly every TV commentator asked whether this could be tolerated in the U.S.! Jesus was a victim of such mindless extremism too. We know all about this, and it’s no way to run a world.

Finally, in this story on the Sunday of the Passion we watch unchallenged cruelty masquerade as a legitimate lifestyle. People are allowed to ridicule and mock a fellow citizen. Punishment, torture and crucifixion are valid approaches of retribution, even in the highest seats of power. Luke quotes Jesus speaking a poignant proverb, “if this kind of thing happens in the green tree, what will happen in the dry?” Yet, we know all about this. We seem not to bat an eye when one of the highest rated television programs, NYPD Blues, allows Sipowitz to beat up the accused in the arraignment process. We cringe perhaps when we remember the stories of Matthew Shephard who was mauled and tied to a fence to die because he was gay or James Byrd who was hauled by a pickup-truck with chains until his head fell off because he was black. Jesus was the victim of such terrible things too. We know all about it, but it is no way to run a world.

What you and I see from a distance as together we gain a perspective of the events of Holy Week from this Sunday of the Passion is that terrible things characterize this world in which we live. Dishonesty seems to triumph, leadership to flounder, mob rule to have its way and cruelty to be an accepted way of life. As Jesus comes to experience all of this first hand, he encounters all that is evil, all that is sinful in our world. In Jesus’ own death, brought at the hands of dishonest, unethical, hysterical and cruel people, God is naming that which is unacceptable in our world. In the death of Jesus, God is rejecting the unacceptable lifestyles of our own creation. At the cross he says “no” to all the evil that causes and creates death among us. The broader perspective in Holy Week which we cannot miss from this vantage point on the Sunday of the Passion is that in Jesus’ crucifixion we are watching death die!

The View from the Cross itself
Do you really understand what this means for you? Death, in the Biblical sense, is all that prevents us from full and lasting life. This very death God is putting to death in the horrors before our eyes. Yes, there is blood and torn flesh and agonizing cry. These are the details and they are excruciation ones. We can’t stay there and feel overwhelmed by it all, however. In and through this death, God is introducing new life. Dishonest liars have a new day coming. Pilate may well say “what is truth?” (as John tells the story), but Jesus introduces us to an integrity for which the world has been waiting. Leaders who have forgotten how to lead are exposed to the servant style of leadership in which those who are elevated to responsibility and authority serve the majority. Mob pressure has had its day in the new rule of Christ. We no longer follow what everybody wants, but rather we follow our new master and lord. Cruelty also is dealt a death blow by the one who says “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” It’s a new world in the process of dawning. This is what we see when we stand at a distance with the disciples and allow the grand scope of things to claim us for God’s new age.

In the controversial novel become a movie by Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ, Jesus, agonizing upon the cross, has some choices before him. He can choose to say “no” to this negation of death at the cross. He can return to other possibilties. He can seek a relationship with Mary Magdalene (which, of course, Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code has him do). He can go back to all those things in life which seem so attractive, so fulfilling, so enticing. This is the last temptation! But he says “no” to this temptation, and with that he dies (putting an end to Brown’s thesis if only everyone had read Kazantzakis first!). Instead, he lets God in his own death negate all in this world that leads to dead ends and death itself. In the process, Kazantzakis allows the readers to know instead the life which is God’s choice for them.

Conclusion
Standing together, looking from a distance, you and I can see the larger picture now. We can see why this week, not spring break or the Christmas holiday, is the week of all weeks. In the events of these days, in the final twelve hours, Jesus came to experience all of the evil that humans could concoct, yet God refused to call that life—refused to allow such human expression to have the final word. That’s no way to run a world! In canceling the power of evil in Jesus’ death, he opens to all of us the possibility of new and lasting life through the resurrection of Jesus. As we begin our journey into this week, let’s not get lost in the details, but look for the meanings that will no let us go. Here we can watch the life which is “death” actually put to death, and the life which is lasting offered to all who know Jesus as living Lord. This is holy ground. Let’s walk the days together.

Prof. Dr. Dr. David Zersen, President Emeritus
Concordia University at Austin
Austin, Texas
dzersen@aol.com