Rev. Dr. M. Taylor Bach

Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 22:14  23:56

Our denomination has requested that we ministers downplay Palm Sunday this particular Sunday and instead emphasize the Passion of Christ because so many people will not hear the Passion this coming Good Friday and really don't know about it. In order to make that emphasis, I am going to invite one of the apostles to speak to you through me. If you will give me a moment, I will allow that to take place.

Some of you will recognize me immediately. I won't give you my name but I am known as the beloved disciple. I've written five books of the Bible. I wish God would have given me a better body to appear in but this will make due! I am glad to be speaking to you because I am one of the eyewitnesses to this history-altering event. Yes, I'm one who was there. There were others but I played a key role and I do want to share what that was with all of you. You just heard words from my Gospel. Let me flesh that out a little bit for you&

Palm Sunday was the beginning of it. Jesus had just arrived from Bethphage which was a city where Martha, Mary and Lazarus dwelled and Jesus had stayed at their home. He instructed us to find a donkey that He would ride on into Jerusalem. The donkey was also accompanied by a foal, one recently born. The symbolism of Him riding in town and people shouting and singing and being joyful with Him coming in on a donkey was that He came in humility but He also came as a Davidic King. He was the Messiah. He fulfilled scripture. People got that. They understood that. They expected it. So they were waiting for Him then to bring together mighty armies and overcome the Roman government. But instead, He did something strange. He went right to the Temple and there He saw money-changers. He made a whip out of the cord that was around his waist and he beat the money-changers with it. He accused them of turning His Temple into a den of thieves and drove them from the Temple. Well, needless to say, this enraged the Sanhedrin because they actually made money off of the money-changers and profited from their selling animals for sacrifice and profited on them exchanging different currency. The money-changers often cheated the poor. So Jesus' rage was justified. It was righteous indignation.

Those of us who were with Him knew immediately that it was over now. The Sanhedrin had threatened to have Him killed before this but now it would be certain, so we hid. Jesus instructed us to prepare an upper room. We went to that upper room and there we celebrated what now is called the Last Supper. We didn't realize it would be the last supper at the time. There is a picture over on your wall representing it but it is not historically accurate. That picture is more like da Vinci would have drawn with the apostles sitting in chairs. In fact, it is probably a copy of da Vinci's picture. We all lounged on couches as the custom was. We rested on our left elbow and kind of laid on each other as we fed ourselves with our right hand. I was fortunate enough to be right next to Jesus and kind of laying on His chest which is one of the reasons why all the other apostles called me The Beloved Disciple. It sure felt safe and secure. I wish you all would have that experience of resting in the bosom of Christ. You know you can have that just by praying for it and asking for it. During this supper, Jesus instituted what you now call Holy Communion or the Eucharist. It was that sacred meal that would make Him present among all Christians for all times.

He did some other things, too, that were of tremendous significance. First, He prayed for Himself which gives us all permission to pray for ourselves when we need to. Then He prayed for us disciples and that felt comforting. Lastly, He prayed for all of you. He said that He wished all of us to be one as He and the Father are one. Then He said, “As I have loved you, you are to love one another.” This is the Great Commandment. We knew it and we experienced it.

But then He moved on to dialog that didn't make sense predicting His death. He said that Peter and someone else who was there would deny Him. The others didn't hear the conversation too well. I did because I was right there when He identified that Judas would be the one. He gave Judas bread to mark him and then He said to Judas, “What you need to do, go do it quickly.” Judas got up and left. But the rest of the apostles just thought since Judas was in charge of the treasury, the money, that he was going out to pay a bill or something. What we didn't know was that Judas had betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. And as Ann read, when Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane, He took us with Him and He prayed that this cup could pass from Him. Then Judas appeared and kissed Him on the cheek. That had to be a strange thing. We observed this although we were just coming out of a deep sleep. We were exhausted from the things that had happened. Jesus was peeved with us because we wouldn't watch even one hour with Him and pray with Him. But we knew He would accept us. He said to Judas, “Would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” Then the centurion arrested Him. As Ann read, Peter cut off the ear of one of them and Jesus immediately restored it and said, “Put away your sword because this is my destiny. I have to move forward now.” And He allowed them to take Him to the palace where He stood before Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate was puzzled. Peter and I were able to sneak in because I knew the High Priest. But then Peter, deadhead that he was, denied Christ three times before the crock crowed. Just as Jesus predicted. From a distance, Peter and I watched this whole drama played out and couldn't believe it. We kept expecting Jesus to send His legion of angels or to amass an army of people and it wasn't happening. As Jesus stood before Pilate, Pilate said, “They are accusing you of being a king. Are you a king?” Jesus said, “For this I was born. I am a king” using that “I AM” statement. Pilate didn't get it but the Sanhedrin got it. They said, “He blasphemes” because the “I AM” statement is taking the name of God. Jesus was claiming His divinity at that moment. Pilate says, “Where is your kingdom? Are you the King of the Jews? Where is your kingdom?” Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” So Pilate said, “Then you are not a problem to the Roman government. You are not a problem to us. I'll just wash my hands of this. There is a custom that occurs right now at Passover that we release a prisoner. I'll put up Barabbas who is a murderer and a horrible thief. I'll put you up, Jesus, so you can be released. But before that happens, I am going to have you beaten. I am going to send you to be scourged and beaten close to the edge of your life” which he did. Jesus was hit with rods and canes and whips with chunks of bone attached on the bottom of them ripping through His back, struck thirty nine times. They believe that no one could survive forty beats so He had thirty nine. Then Pilate stood Him there in front of everybody along with Barabbas. The Sanhedrin in the meantime had infiltrated the rabble, the crowd, and instructed them all to ask for Barabbas and not for Jesus. Some of my cohorts, other apostles, were in the group yelling, “Release Jesus! Release Jesus!” The crowd said, “Give us Barabbas! Give us Barabbas!” Pontius Pilate could not comprehend this. He says, “I find no fault in this man.” But he let Barabbas go and he sent Jesus then to be crucified washing his hands of it. Only the Roman government could crucify so they had to use a fiction. The fiction was that Jesus was a traitor because He said He was a king. He was said to be a threat to Caesar which wasn't the situation since Jesus had identified that His kingdom wasn't of this world.

The next thing we knew, Jesus was carrying the crossbar of the cross on His back walking through what now is called the Via De La Rosa, The Way of Sorrows, a road from the Praetoriam to Calvary. He needed help getting there. Simon of Cyrene was asked to help carry His cross  what a privilege. Then they laid Him down. They drove nails through His hands and His feet and nailed Him to the cross. They hoisted Him up and He died a terrible death. Just a few of us were there. All the rest of my friends, the apostles, were afraid and didn't come. But I stood there with Mary Magdalene and Mary, Jesus' mother, at the foot of the cross and we watched this whole horrible thing.

Jesus was amazing. He said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” How could He say that? How could He do that as He suffered so greatly. He had a crown of thorns on His head. He had nails driven through His hands and His feet. A person dies of suffocation on the cross. As they hang there, as long as their muscles are strong and they have energy, they can hold themselves up. But when their muscles give out, their body slumps, and they can't breathe and they die an agonizing death of suffocation. We watched this happening to Jesus. At one point, He cried out, “Eloi, Elio, lama sabachthani?” “Father, why have you forsaken me?” Some thought He was calling for Elijah but in His humanity, He was calling out to His Father in pain and in suffering. Then there was silence. No one moved. He said, “It is finished.” He completed His job. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” and He died.

We took Him down. Oh yes. I forgot to tell you. Right before that moment, He did something that was quite important. He looked at His mother, Mary, and said, “Mary, I am giving you to this man standing beside you” and He looked at me and said to her, “Behold your son.” Who am I? I am John, John the Apostle. You probably knew that, didn't you? You have figured it out by now. But in doing this, He was symbolically establishing a new family which would ultimately become the family of God  the church. Well , that is all I am going to tell you for now. But come back next week to hear the rest of the story. It has an amazing ending you will want to hear.