When It Feels Like No One Can Win
(And it's hard to see the hope that's there.)
Mark 15:1-37
For a moment, let’s suppose every single person and group of people in the passion narrative is helpless. The chief priests, elders, lawyers, Sanhedrin - they all just don’t know any better than what they know and have been given charge of. Let’s suppose they are doing exactly what they think they are supposed to be doing. (In actuality, this is probably not too far from the truth.)
Pilate’s just trying to keep the peace (yes, perhaps for the wrong reasons, but he is charged with making sure uprises don’t happen). The crowd, in Mark, is simply following the instructions of their priests.
The last path to the cross, from the courtroom to Pilate’s palace to the cross itself - it’s a situation where it felt like no one could win. Most of all, Jesus was at the center of it all. The only truly blameless one. But even he felt the pressure and cried out to God, feeling resonant with the writer of psalm 22: GOD! WHERE ARE YOU?
When reading the story of the cross, we have the benefit of hindsight. And on this sixth and final Sunday of Easter, we certainly can remember - it’s vital to remember - that resurrection will come. But sometimes, when we’re in the thick of the difficult thing, it can seem so far away.
Hold on.
Hold on, Jesus, God the Father is there. God sees. God knows what is right. And in time, righteousness and justice will prevail, even when it seems impossible.
Mark 15:1-37
At daybreak, the chief priests—with the elders, legal experts, and the whole Sanhedrin—formed a plan. They bound Jesus, led him away, and turned him over to Pilate. Pilate questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus replied, “That’s what you say.” The chief priests were accusing him of many things.
Pilate asked him again, “Aren’t you going to answer? What about all these accusations?” But Jesus gave no more answers, so that Pilate marveled.
During the festival, Pilate released one prisoner to them, whomever they requested. A man named Barabbas was locked up with the rebels who had committed murder during an uprising. The crowd pushed forward and asked Pilate to release someone, as he regularly did. Pilate answered them, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” He knew that the chief priests had handed him over because of jealousy. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas to them instead. Pilate replied, “Then what do you want me to do with the one you call king of the Jews?”
They shouted back, “Crucify him!”
Pilate said to them, “Why? What wrong has he done?”
They shouted even louder, “Crucify him!”
Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, so he released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus whipped, then handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led Jesus away into the courtyard of the palace known as the governor’s headquarters, and they called together the whole company of soldiers. They dressed him up in a purple robe and twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on him. They saluted him, “Hey! King of the Jews!” Again and again, they struck his head with a stick. They spit on him and knelt before him to honor him. When they finished mocking him, they stripped him of the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
Simon, a man from Cyrene, Alexander and Rufus’ father, was coming in from the countryside. They forced him to carry his cross.
They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means Skull Place. They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he didn’t take it. They crucified him. They divided up his clothes, drawing lots for them to determine who would take what. It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. The notice of the formal charge against him was written, “The king of the Jews.” They crucified two outlaws with him, one on his right and one on his left.
People walking by insulted him, shaking their heads and saying, “Ha! So you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, were you? Save yourself and come down from that cross!”
In the same way, the chief priests were making fun of him among themselves, together with the legal experts. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself. Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross. Then we’ll see and believe.” Even those who had been crucified with Jesus insulted him.
From noon until three in the afternoon the whole earth was dark. At three, Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you left me?”
After hearing him, some standing there said, “Look! He’s calling Elijah!” Someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, and put it on a pole. He offered it to Jesus to drink, saying, “Let’s see if Elijah will come to take him down.” But Jesus let out a loud cry and died.
Prayer
God,
When all feels hopeless, hold me close.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.