Sermon John 18:28-19:16 March 30, 2018 Good Friday Community Service
The Passion of Christ-The Arrest
‘Crucify Him’
On this Good Friday we come mournfully as we remember the
events of today 2000 years ago. On this day we recognize the darkness that
surrounds the story of our Lord. It is dark day, a day where dark memories return
to us. We will not pretend the darkness does not exist. Darkness was with the
world on that day of trial. Darkness took hold of the people, the leaders, the
faithful, the ordinary, the crowds, and even the silent ones. We observe the story
as it unravels and can’t imagine how a people could become so evil toward our
Savior. We need this story of the crowd, of the darkness, of the power to turn
our backs on those who would save us. We need this story because we repeat it
over and over again. The dark days of Good Friday continue. We condemn our Lord
over and over again. Year after year.
You see the power of a crowd to praise or curse is amazing. We
are a people who loves to cheer and jeer. Let me share how well we are doing
this. How many of you are sports fans? How many of you love to go to games? How
many of you are awesome super fans?
I’m going to ask each
of you to become a fan. On this side I want you to cheer ‘Go Blue’. On this
side I want you to cheer ‘Go Red’. So let’s give a little competition now, who
can cheer the loudest. Alright red and Blue team. You get the idea of how
powerful your voices can ring out. When Jesus was entering Jerusalem the crowds
were cheering Hosanna. Can we give Jesus an Hosanna cheer together, all of us
raise our voices and shout, Hosanna! Yes, one more time, “Hosanna to the King!”
It is exciting to be together in celebration and joy and raise our voices
to bring honor and praise to our King.
But, this same crowd of people who sang out together joined
in anger and hate and yelled to Pilate, ‘Crucify him, crucify Him!’. How angry
do we get (no matter how justified we think we are) and yell out ‘crucify him?’
You may say to yourself, “Not me, I’ll never betray my Jesus.” You may say, “I
can’t be persuaded that easily, no one has control of my mind.” But, look around
at advertising, at editorials, at the TV stations, people’s minds are being
changed all the time. Here in Holy Week and on this Holy Friday we are reminded
how much damage people can do to each other just by the power of the negative
voices surrounding them.
Every time we get angry, every time we get riled up, every
time we throw around the expletives, every time we hurl insults, every time we
broil inside, we are condemning Jesus.
No, that’s not true, preacher, we’re just airing our feelings. But, when we let
one angry thought pervade our emotions, it has the chance to take hold and make
us an angry person. Jesus was condemned by a bunch of angry people; people afraid
of what love might do. We cannot be angry people. We can be people filled with
love even all the way to the cross.
Today is the day the light disappears and the flame goes
out. It is the day that we would say death has won. But, we know the truth. We
know that even in the condemnation of Jesus-as we are haunted by the shadows,
the light will come, the light of redemption will reign.
It’s never too late to let love win. Amen,
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| Community Pastors Eastern Shore of Virginia |
#GoodFriday, #crucifyhim, #love, #condemn, #communityservice, #light
