Holy Week part 3

Click here to read Mark 15:1-15

It is difficult for us to take responsibility for our actions and our words. There is always a reason that usually feels more like an excuse. For example, when we are on a diet and in walks a pan of chocolate brownies, we take one because, “we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings”. On a larger and more serious scale, we daily see our politicians try to spin their way out of comments made at such a rate I find myself dizzy.

Jesus after facing the religious authorities of his day was handed over the Pilate who was most likely a Prefect, a government position conferred by Roman and Caesar to watch over prisons and civil administration. Jesus is charged with saying he was “the king of the Jews”. Essentially, the religious officials involved Roman because if Jesus claimed he was king that statement implied Caesar was NOT! Caesar did not take kindly to people who challenged his authority. The whole pyramid system of top down power meant that even the lowliest Prefect knew that his allegiance was to Caesar first and foremost. And if anyone in the region where you were appointed to watch over questioned Caesar’s authority you dealt with it or found yourself out of a job. Let’s be clear that countless people challenged Caesar’s authority, so a Prefect had to sort out who was a credible threat. Given a Prefect’s job description it makes sense why Jesus found himself handed over.

So, you have a very public trial of Jesus. To demand someone to be crucified is still absolutely heartbreaking. It was one of the most violent and painful forms of death usually reserved only for the rebel-rousers who posed the greatest threats to Caesar. In many ways, God is always the greatest threat to any leader’s control because God will not be confined or controlled.

I wonder if you were in the courtyard amid the crowd shouting for Jesus’ death, would you have shouted too? Would you have kept silent out of fear? Would you slowly tried to inch out of the crowd to a safer spot? What do you do when confronted with the violence and fear? That question really stings because too often I opt to say silent rather than choose a side.

There is not an easy way to resolve this passage. It is painful because it shines a light on the violence and fear within our own world. Do we say something and risk the anger of the crowd turning on us? Do we keep silent and appear complicit? Do we try to find a third door that too often feels locked and we don’t have a key? I struggle with this and as do many people today. Where do you find your voice today? Where do you speak out and where do you think it is better to leave well enough alone? How do we as a church provide a safe place to talk about that?

I raise that question because it really points beyond Holy Week and Easter to the story of Acts we’ll be diving into after Easter. But for now, for today, I encourage you to prayerfully ponder where you share your voice and where you keep it to yourself in the midst of a crowd: whether that crowd is your family, your friends, the wider Janesville community and within our country.

Prayer: Gracious God, we move deeper into Holy Week remembering that we are created in Your image and given a voice that the Holy Spirit can move through. Watch over us this week, be found on the tips of our tongues in such a way that we participate in speaking Your truth in love. In the name of the One who heard people shout against Him, Jesus our Christ. Amen.