Tuesday, April 17, 2012

2nd Sunday of Easter


2nd Sunday of Easter

John 20:19-31


There was never any doubt that Jesus was dead.

The Romans were as efficient with the death penalty machinery as governments are today.

But, the leaders who caused Jesus= death were insecure.

What if some of Jesus' followers stole His body and then claimed that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

So they wanted the Roman governor Pontius Pilate to make Jesus' grave secure lest His claim that He would rise from the dead on the third day would seem to have come true.

That's the irony of our text tonight.

The insecurity of men led to the crucifixion of Jesus in the first place.

Now the insecurity of men leads them to demand a security detail to be placed at Jesus' tomb ‑ presumably to keep Jesus where they thought He belonged ‑ dead!

It's really no different today.

The world thinks that preachers really need to know their place.

Keep preachers in a pulpit talking about innocuous things like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or what caret gold the streets of heaven are paved with.

Preachers should never talk much about anything really important like politics, or what people do in private with their bodies, or how money is or is not spent.

That's when preachers quit preaching and go to meddling.

Preachers are often reminded that they don't want to step on the wrong toes.

Those that are used to wielding power are likely to take the preacher aside to explain what should or shouldn't be said or done.

Some seem to think that preachers need to be taken down a peg or two on a regular basis lest they forget their place.

If that's true of preachers today, imagine how true it was when God's Son came as an ordinary rabbi from the backward province of Galilee.

He was always meddling with people's sense of how He ought to behave.

He was always talking about money.

He was always stepping on toes.

He was always challenging peoples' assumptions about what it meant to be God's people.

The tipping point, as some like to call it today, was that Jesus started messing with Jerusalem and the Temple.


He started upsetting the applecart by challenging God, Inc.

Jesus just wouldn't keep in His place.

In short, He became a threat to the comfort of the religious leadership and a threat to the Temple‑based economy of Jerusalem.

It's no surprise that the Roman governor would want to keep the peace particularly at the most important local religious festival when the population swelled with pilgrims.

That's how Jesus ended up dead at the hands of the Romans.

He caused the religious leaders to feel insecure.

He caused those that made their living from the Temple to feel insecure.

Finally, Jesus caused even the Romans to feel insecure.

That preacher needed to know His place.

Indeed His place was to be numbered with the dead!

So, it's funny and ironic that even after Jesus was dead the Pharisees still wanted to make sure He was kept in His place.

But that was really too much for the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.

The governor reminded them that they had their own temple police if they just had to make sure Jesus stayed where He belonged.

Pilate's response is classic: "Go make it as secure as you can."

Of course, when you're dealing with God, it highlights the insecurity of men!

There are plenty of people today that still want to keep Jesus in His place.

Some are Bible scholars, some are bishops, some are pulp fiction writers, some are preachers that invent a Jesus that looks and sounds a lot like the one they see when they look in the mirror. Plenty of religious people today prefer Jesus to stay in His place in a tomb in Palestine where He just won't make them feel any more insecure than they already are.

There are plenty of people that will be sitting in pews today or tomorrow who just don't want Jesus to get out of that tomb and start meddling with their politics, with what they do with their bodies, and with what they do or don't do with their money.

For if Jesus gets loose, there will be no end to the trouble He can cause.

Indeed if Jesus gets loose, He will turn the whole world upside down.

For if Jesus gets loose, men and women, boys and girls will feel even more insecure than they ‑ than we already are!

Indeed recognizing the insecurity of men and women and boys and girls is the beginning of wisdom.


For God is a jealous God who will accept no other gods!

Indeed death came into the world at God's command in order that we might not live endlessly separated from God in a hellish eternity brought by our own foolish choices.

From before the foundation of the world, the Lord God knew that He would have to become human in Christ Jesus and live the life we cannot live and die the death we don't want to die in order to rescue us from sin, death, and evil.

God's Son Jesus could not be kept in a tomb by death or a huge stone or even by temple police. For in Christ Jesus: love is stronger than hate, good is stronger than evil, light is stronger than darkness, and life is stronger than death.

His place was never in a tomb.

Christ Jesus is the King of the Universe, and the Holy Spirit is on the loose in this world.

Of course, that's the real danger of the Christian story.

It's never been about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or what caret gold the streets of heaven are.

It's about the death of sinners like you and me.

It's about dying and rising with Jesus in the waters of Holy Baptism that we might be His own and live under Him in His Kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

There's nothing quite so dangerous as a group of baptized children of God whose lives are being turned upside down one day at a time.

For people who are convinced that their Lord Jesus isn't in that tomb refuse to accept that there is any corner of the universe or any corner of their lives that doesn't belong to God.

And such faith is contagious.

Yes, that kind of faith is extremely dangerous and pushes the fear buttons of people who, in their insecurity, must keep insisting that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit should be kept somewhere far away from anything that really matters.

I almost hate to break it to them, bad preacher that I am.

But Jesus isn't in that tomb in Palestine.

A security detail couldn't keep Him there 2,000 years ago, and no one today can keep Him from turning the world upside down!

Easter Sunday


Easter Sunday

Luke 24:13-35


There was never any doubt that Jesus was dead.

The Romans were as efficient with the death penalty machinery as governments are today.

But, the leaders who caused Jesus= death were insecure.

What if some of Jesus' followers stole His body and then claimed that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

So they wanted the Roman governor Pontius Pilate to make Jesus' grave secure lest His claim that He would rise from the dead on the third day would seem to have come true.

That's the irony of our text tonight.

The insecurity of men led to the crucifixion of Jesus in the first place.

Now the insecurity of men leads them to demand a security detail to be placed at Jesus' tomb ‑ presumably to keep Jesus where they thought He belonged ‑ dead!

It's really no different today.

The world thinks that preachers really need to know their place.

Keep preachers in a pulpit talking about innocuous things like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or what caret gold the streets of heaven are paved with.

Preachers should never talk much about anything really important like politics, or what people do in private with their bodies, or how money is or is not spent.

That's when preachers quit preaching and go to meddling.

Preachers are often reminded that they don't want to step on the wrong toes.

Those that are used to wielding power are likely to take the preacher aside to explain what should or shouldn't be said or done.

Some seem to think that preachers need to be taken down a peg or two on a regular basis lest they forget their place.

If that's true of preachers today, imagine how true it was when God's Son came as an ordinary rabbi from the backward province of Galilee.

He was always meddling with people's sense of how He ought to behave.

He was always talking about money.

He was always stepping on toes.

He was always challenging peoples' assumptions about what it meant to be God's people.

The tipping point, as some like to call it today, was that Jesus started messing with Jerusalem and the Temple.

He started upsetting the applecart by challenging God, Inc.

Jesus just wouldn't keep in His place.

In short, He became a threat to the comfort of the religious leadership and a threat to the Temple‑based economy of Jerusalem.

It's no surprise that the Roman governor would want to keep the peace particularly at the most important local religious festival when the population swelled with pilgrims.

That's how Jesus ended up dead at the hands of the Romans.

He caused the religious leaders to feel insecure.

He caused those that made their living from the Temple to feel insecure.

Finally, Jesus caused even the Romans to feel insecure.

That preacher needed to know His place.

Indeed His place was to be numbered with the dead!

So, it's funny and ironic that even after Jesus was dead the Pharisees still wanted to make sure He was kept in His place.

But that was really too much for the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.

The governor reminded them that they had their own temple police if they just had to make sure Jesus stayed where He belonged.

Pilate's response is classic: "Go make it as secure as you can."

Of course, when you're dealing with God, it highlights the insecurity of men!

There are plenty of people today that still want to keep Jesus in His place.

Some are Bible scholars, some are bishops, some are pulp fiction writers, some are preachers that invent a Jesus that looks and sounds a lot like the one they see when they look in the mirror. Plenty of religious people today prefer Jesus to stay in His place in a tomb in Palestine where He just won't make them feel any more insecure than they already are.

There are plenty of people that will be sitting in pews today or tomorrow who just don't want Jesus to get out of that tomb and start meddling with their politics, with what they do with their bodies, and with what they do or don't do with their money.

For if Jesus gets loose, there will be no end to the trouble He can cause.

Indeed if Jesus gets loose, He will turn the whole world upside down.

For if Jesus gets loose, men and women, boys and girls will feel even more insecure than they ‑ than we already are!

Indeed recognizing the insecurity of men and women and boys and girls is the beginning of wisdom.

For God is a jealous God who will accept no other gods!

Indeed death came into the world at God's command in order that we might not live endlessly separated from God in a hellish eternity brought by our own foolish choices.

From before the foundation of the world, the Lord God knew that He would have to become human in Christ Jesus and live the life we cannot live and die the death we don't want to die in order to rescue us from sin, death, and evil.

God's Son Jesus could not be kept in a tomb by death or a huge stone or even by temple police. For in Christ Jesus: love is stronger than hate, good is stronger than evil, light is stronger than darkness, and life is stronger than death.

His place was never in a tomb.

Christ Jesus is the King of the Universe, and the Holy Spirit is on the loose in this world.

Of course, that's the real danger of the Christian story.

It's never been about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or what caret gold the streets of heaven are.

It's about the death of sinners like you and me.

It's about dying and rising with Jesus in the waters of Holy Baptism that we might be His own and live under Him in His Kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

There's nothing quite so dangerous as a group of baptized children of God whose lives are being turned upside down one day at a time.

For people who are convinced that their Lord Jesus isn't in that tomb refuse to accept that there is any corner of the universe or any corner of their lives that doesn't belong to God.

And such faith is contagious.

Yes, that kind of faith is extremely dangerous and pushes the fear buttons of people who, in their insecurity, must keep insisting that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit should be kept somewhere far away from anything that really matters.

I almost hate to break it to them, bad preacher that I am.

But Jesus isn't in that tomb in Palestine.

A security detail couldn't keep Him there 2,000 years ago, and no one today can keep Him from turning the world upside down!

Holy Saturday Night: the Easter Vigil


Easter Vigil

Mark 16: 1-11


There was never any doubt that Jesus was dead.

The Romans were as efficient with the death penalty machinery as governments are today.

But, the leaders who caused Jesus= death were insecure.

What if some of Jesus' followers stole His body and then claimed that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

So they wanted the Roman governor Pontius Pilate to make Jesus' grave secure lest His claim that He would rise from the dead on the third day would seem to have come true.

That's the irony of our text tonight.

The insecurity of men led to the crucifixion of Jesus in the first place.

Now the insecurity of men leads them to demand a security detail to be placed at Jesus' tomb ‑ presumably to keep Jesus where they thought He belonged ‑ dead!

It's really no different today.

The world thinks that preachers really need to know their place.

Keep preachers in a pulpit talking about innocuous things like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or what caret gold the streets of heaven are paved with.

Preachers should never talk much about anything really important like politics, or what people do in private with their bodies, or how money is or is not spent.

That's when preachers quit preaching and go to meddling.

Preachers are often reminded that they don't want to step on the wrong toes.

Those that are used to wielding power are likely to take the preacher aside to explain what should or shouldn't be said or done.

Some seem to think that preachers need to be taken down a peg or two on a regular basis lest they forget their place.

If that's true of preachers today, imagine how true it was when God's Son came as an ordinary rabbi from the backward province of Galilee.

He was always meddling with people's sense of how He ought to behave.

He was always talking about money.

He was always stepping on toes.

He was always challenging peoples' assumptions about what it meant to be God's people.

The tipping point, as some like to call it today, was that Jesus started messing with Jerusalem and the Temple.

He started upsetting the applecart by challenging God, Inc.

Jesus just wouldn't keep in His place.

In short, He became a threat to the comfort of the religious leadership and a threat to the Temple‑based economy of Jerusalem.

It's no surprise that the Roman governor would want to keep the peace particularly at the most important local religious festival when the population swelled with pilgrims.

That's how Jesus ended up dead at the hands of the Romans.

He caused the religious leaders to feel insecure.

He caused those that made their living from the Temple to feel insecure.

Finally, Jesus caused even the Romans to feel insecure.

That preacher needed to know His place.

Indeed His place was to be numbered with the dead!

So, it's funny and ironic that even after Jesus was dead the Pharisees still wanted to make sure He was kept in His place.

But that was really too much for the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.

The governor reminded them that they had their own temple police if they just had to make sure Jesus stayed where He belonged.

Pilate's response is classic: "Go make it as secure as you can."

Of course, when you're dealing with God, it highlights the insecurity of men!

There are plenty of people today that still want to keep Jesus in His place.

Some are Bible scholars, some are bishops, some are pulp fiction writers, some are preachers that invent a Jesus that looks and sounds a lot like the one they see when they look in the mirror. Plenty of religious people today prefer Jesus to stay in His place in a tomb in Palestine where He just won't make them feel any more insecure than they already are.

There are plenty of people that will be sitting in pews today or tomorrow who just don't want Jesus to get out of that tomb and start meddling with their politics, with what they do with their bodies, and with what they do or don't do with their money.

For if Jesus gets loose, there will be no end to the trouble He can cause.

Indeed if Jesus gets loose, He will turn the whole world upside down.

For if Jesus gets loose, men and women, boys and girls will feel even more insecure than they ‑ than we already are!

Indeed recognizing the insecurity of men and women and boys and girls is the beginning of wisdom.

For God is a jealous God who will accept no other gods!

Indeed death came into the world at God's command in order that we might not live endlessly separated from God in a hellish eternity brought by our own foolish choices.

From before the foundation of the world, the Lord God knew that He would have to become human in Christ Jesus and live the life we cannot live and die the death we don't want to die in order to rescue us from sin, death, and evil.

God's Son Jesus could not be kept in a tomb by death or a huge stone or even by temple police. For in Christ Jesus: love is stronger than hate, good is stronger than evil, light is stronger than darkness, and life is stronger than death.

His place was never in a tomb.

Christ Jesus is the King of the Universe, and the Holy Spirit is on the loose in this world.

Of course, that's the real danger of the Christian story.

It's never been about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or what caret gold the streets of heaven are.

It's about the death of sinners like you and me.

It's about dying and rising with Jesus in the waters of Holy Baptism that we might be His own and live under Him in His Kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

There's nothing quite so dangerous as a group of baptized children of God whose lives are being turned upside down one day at a time.

For people who are convinced that their Lord Jesus isn't in that tomb refuse to accept that there is any corner of the universe or any corner of their lives that doesn't belong to God.

And such faith is contagious.

Yes, that kind of faith is extremely dangerous and pushes the fear buttons of people who, in their insecurity, must keep insisting that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit should be kept somewhere far away from anything that really matters.

I almost hate to break it to them, bad preacher that I am.

But Jesus isn't in that tomb in Palestine.

A security detail couldn't keep Him there 2,000 years ago, and no one today can keep Him from turning the world upside down!

Good Friday of the Lord's Passion


Good Friday

John 18:1-19: 1-42

Crucifixion, Freedom, and Forgiveness

“Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” (Luke 22:14)

Today once again we commemorate the death of the freest man who ever lived. Jesus of Nazareth, whose challenge to the civil and religious leadership of his day was so extreme that extreme measures were used to silence him. On this fateful day two thousand years ago, it was his freedom that made all the difference.

As we heard today from John’s gospel, Palm Sunday from Luke’s, and as many of us have seen perhaps too graphically depicted in Mel Gibson’s new movie, The Passion of the Christ, the 24 hours prior to Jesus’ death had been horrible. He had eaten his last Passover meal with his disciples. He had wrestled with God in prayer in the Garden at Gethsemane; experienced betrayal by one of his closest friends. He was insulted, humiliated, and tortured. He was called a blasphemer, a sorcerer, a threat to the political order. The mob chose Barabbas, a murderer, for release over him. Peter denied him three times, and then fled in fear with most of the other disciples.

Jesus preached a message of love, yet there he was hanging in agony on a cross between two criminals. His fate was theirs, though he did nothing wrong. The soldiers poking at him, mocking him, called him “King of the Jews.”

It takes a totally free person to respond in the way he did. Jesus didn’t let Pilate, or the religious establishment, or his fickle disciples, or the cruel soldiers, or the mob, or the pain and injustice dictate how to respond. To the end, he never forgot who he was or why he was here.

Jesus came into the world to make all things new; to inaugurate and lead people into a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom they would help build. He came to set them free, as free as he was. And nothing was going to stop him from fulfilling his mission. .

His first words from the cross? “Father, forgive them….” This too is what Jesus came to do – to bring forgiveness and reconciliation to a fallen world. He came to break the chains of sin which keep people from making ethical choices. Sin had no power over him, nor would death. The pain and humiliation he suffered didn’t have their expected effect – they didn’t make him hateful or bitter. Quite the contrary, Jesus chose to surrender and respond with love. He was free to make that choice. And three days later, he won for all humanity the same freedom of choice.

“My God, why have you forsaken me?” This is the way we feel when we’ve been deeply hurt, when a family member or friend, for example, lets us down. Lonely. Isolated. We crawl metaphorically into a little ball to protect ourselves, thinking nobody could possibly know the pain we feel. This is the initial stage of the forgiving process. Feeling cut off. Feeling angry and hurt. When you feel like this about a relationship, you know there’s need for forgiveness.

“I thirst.” After a while, you start to miss the family member, the friend you’ve lost, and long for the way it was. Forgiveness is hard emotional work. You have to really want to make things right with the person who hurt you, even if it means admitting your own shortcomings.

“Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” Jesus looked at the people around him and saw them as something more than just the cause of his suffering. The soldiers were trapped in a job that forced them to act cruelly without pity. The disciples were confused and frightened. The mob was misguided. The Jewish leaders who opposed him feared the undermining of their authority. Pilate worried about losing control of a volatile situation. There was much more to the story of every single person taking part in the tragedy than met the eye.

Yet no one there saw the big picture, perhaps not even Jesus. Nobody fully understood that he was the Son of God. No one at the time could have possibly understood that since the dawn of creation Jesus was destined for this very moment. The people who hurt him were blinded by sin. And it can’t be emphasized too strongly that his suffering and death were caused by the sins of all humanity throughout the ages, not just the actions of the Romans and Jews

Mel Gibson’s controversial new movie has sparked fears of a resurgence of anti-Semitism. For centuries labeling all Jews as “Christ-killers” based on the passion narratives has resulted in horrific violence against millions of innocent people, which serves only to perpetuate the tragedy of the cross and to offend deeply the tenets of our faith. What Jesus did out of love for us must never again be distorted into an excuse for hating. Hating anyone in his name is the worst sort of “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” To forgive means that you give up the hate, let go of the anger. You pray for your tormentor and ask God to transform your own heart, to fill it with love.

“It is finished.” When you forgive someone, the matter is over. You never bring it up again as a weapon. You don’t need to because it doesn’t weight on your heart anymore.

“Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.” When you’re reconciled once again with God and with your brother or sister, it feels good, like a slice of heaven, because there’s a bit of heaven reflected in every forgiven relationship.

Forgiveness is always a gift. No one ever deserves it. It’s always a surprise – no one really expects it. When you do wrong, you expect to be punished. When you hurt someone, you expect that person will try to get even. But forgiveness doesn’t get caught up in a game of tit-for-tat. Forgiveness is a gift that can only come from a person who’s truly free.

“Father, forgive them,” Jesus said, and the crucifixion went on toward its inevitable end. The soldiers gambled for his robe. The mob continued to laugh and mock. Jesus’ words seemed so powerless at the time. The words seemed to float up into the air and make no difference at all. Without belief in the Risen One they could have dissolved into the mists of history.

Except that a centurion at the foot of the cross heard them and made a statement of faith: “Surely he was the Son of God.” And a handful of women heard them who three days later at a garden tomb received the surprise of their life. Other disciples heard them as well and, after Pentecost, together with hundreds, then thousands, energized by the Spirit, went forth to preach the gospel that changed the world…which explains why 2000 years later we, along with over a billion Christians worldwide, once again commemorate the death of the freest man who ever lived.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Holy Thursday: Feast of the Lord's Supper 2012



Holy Thursday

John 13:1-15

April 5, 2012



Jerusalem welcomed Jesus as their king, “Blessed is the king of Israel”

And a few days later, on Maundy Thursday, Jesus is in the valley of darkness.

Later this night, he will be arrested and his procession to the cross will begin.

The disciples and Jesus meet under the cover of darkness, in secrecy.

We learn in chapter 12 that Jesus is in hiding—“Jesus left and hid himself” (v.36).

But at the end of the meal, Judas Iscariot will wander into the night to reveal Jesus’ hiding place to the Roman and Jewish authorities.

Jesus dwells in the tension, at the edge of death.

It is night, darkness everywhere.

Now, on Maundy Thursday, there is no more light.

It’s too late for hope.

Darkness surrounds Jesus and his followers.

It’s actually worse than that—with Judas at the table, the night has already pierced the center of Jesus’ kingdom of light.

It’s only a matter of time before the last bit of hope flickers and dies.

Jesus could have saved himself.

He could have retreated from the darkness in Jerusalem to safer territory.

He could have returned to a village and made plans for victory among friends, away from Jerusalem’s forces of death.

Feeling the encroaching darkness, Jesus could have discerned that now wasn’t the right time, better to go back to where he came from and start all over, find more followers, amass more supporters.

Instead, Jesus waits; he sits there; he eats.

John says, “Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and wipe them with the towel” (13:3-5).

Jesus offers no strategies for success; no escape plans; no rallying cries for a last stand; no solutions.

Jesus interrupts the meal, strips down to servant’s clothes, takes a basin and pitcher, circles the table, bowing down to the ground, taking each of his disciple’s feet in his hands, pouring water, drying them.

When night falls, when evil is about to triumph, Jesus washes feet;

Jesus serves; Jesus pours out his love with that pitcher.

He even washes the feet of Judas, who uses those same feet to run into the night and hand Jesus over to his killers.

Jesus loves even his enemy, the betrayer.

Night has fallen upon us.

It’s in our neighborhoods, even the safe ones.


Night has claimed our family and friends.

If the triumph of evil hasn’t happened already, it feels like it will happen tomorrow.

What are we supposed to do?

Well, we wash feet.

We learn the movements of a servant, of a slave.

We kneel and bow our bodies before one another.

We learn what it feels like to pour out our lives in love, with a pitcher—generously flowing water.

When the last bit of hope is about to die, what do we do?

Well, we let someone wash our feet.

We don’t do anything.

We sit there.

It’s a useless activity.

It’s an uncomfortable and unnecessary pause.

We can easily wash our own feet—some of us probably already have before we came.

But here we learn how to receive love.

We learn how to let go of ourselves, to let someone take our bare feet—

dirty, vulnerable, maybe even funny-looking in our own eyes.

Being loved, receiving love, takes work.

Pausing, waiting, letting go—it’s hard work.

But it’s blessed work because with those hands, with that water, with that bowed body, comes the love of God, Christ’s love poured out for the world, poured out for you.

When the night falls, when hope dies out, we practice foot washing.

We create spaces where the love of God may flow into our worlds—into our feet and through our hands.

Foot-washing is our protest of hope, that Christ’s love is still here, available, where we walk with our feet and where we serve with our hands.

What we are doing tonight, and the way it overflows into the rest of our lives, is how proclaim the good news of John’s gospel: “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (1:5).

Jesus said: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”

And that’s why what we have just done, humbly, caringly, washing one another’s feet, showing our love for one another.

We have done it so that we may receive the love of Christ.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012


Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Mark 15:1-39

April 1, 2012


The people who lined the streets of Jerusalem to cheer for Jesus on Sunday were silent by Friday.

They expected a triumphant king but found instead a powerless prisoner.

He would be of no help to them in their dream of political liberation.

Judas hung his hopes on Jesus as a revolutionary.

When Jesus did not seize the strategic moment and rally the crowd to revolt on Palm Sunday, Judas’s hopes were dashed to the ground.

Jesus own hopes for Judas were also soured.

He had seen in Judas one filled with great concern for justice and the plight of the poor.

This is why he had given him the responsibility as treasurer for the apostolic company.

In Judas he had placed full confidence that he would see to the needs of the poor. Jesus, knowing that Judas had become embittered against him for his failure to use violence to overthrow the Romans, yet offered him a sign of love and acceptance.

He did not want Judas to feel rejected even though his militant tactics were dismissed.

In one last effort to draw Judas to his side,

he offered him the first dip of bread in the sop, a ritual sign displaying a desire for intimate friendship.

But Judas could not embrace a friend, only a cause.

Peter promised unwavering loyalty.

He was convinced of his own strength and moral character.

But his boastful crowing would be replaced with shameful swearing leading to remorseful weeping.

Herod was looking for an evening of entertainment, a show of magic and wit. But Jesus refused to go on stage.

The curtain closed on Jesus for his was no act.

Pilate, ever the insecure political appointee, saw in Jesus an opportunity to increase his approval ratings.

At first he did not know which direction the political winds were blowing on the issue of this wannabe king from Nazareth and so he sent him on to Herod.

When Herod sent him back, Pilate knew he had to do something, but he must be cautious not to go too far.

Trying to play the middle and yet please the religious righteous he offered a scourging of the poor Christ.

Seeking next to please the gathered populace, he offered to release Jesus.

But he misread their wishes, their compassion was spent and so, in the end, Pilate decreed that what they demanded should be done.

Jesus would be executed.

Pilate failed himself for not being the leader he was meant to be, for going against not only his own conscience but the God sent dream of his wife.

Pilate had before him a call to conversion, wholeness, and leadership. Instead, he chose the way of the populist and went with the pressuring tide of public opinion. In the end, his cowardly choice was his undoing.

His career was washed up.

He would never rise in the Roman halls of power.

Perhaps we may find ourselves in the characters of this Palm to Passion tragedy.

Are we like the palm crowd, waving our patriotic flags and saying we want what is best for society, but too often looking for the quick fix, the easy answers, the short sound bites?

We shout our political slogans, but we do not accept our own responsibility to bring about change.

Or are we like Judas, having a deep concern for the poor and for justice, willing to work hard for the advancement of our cause, but confused in our philosophy, not knowing that unless the path to peace is itself peaceful, we can never arrive at true peace?

Are we like Peter, showy among other religious, but weak in our worldly encounters?

God forbid that we be like to Herod. “Jesus make me happy. Jesus do this, Jesus do that for me.”

And when he does not we send him away.

Or are we like Pilate, knowing what is right, hearing the call of God and needing to take the risk toward our full calling but giving into our insecurities and our need to be liked?

Do we wash our hands of the responsibility of our actions and thus miss the fullness of life offered to us in the total baptismal cleansing?

If we answer yes to any or all of these questions, let us pray that we might hear the same overly generous response of Jesus, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”