"What Are We Going to Do with Jesus?"

Epiphany 2/20/08

Luke 23:4-12

Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no basis for a charge against this man."

 5But they insisted, "He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here."

 6On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. 7When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

 8When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. 9He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. 11Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. 12That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.

          "What are we going to do with this Jesus?"  Maybe the answer to that question seems obvious to you.  But before you set the question aside, you should realize that that there are a lot of people who have answered that question the wrong way.  That's what we see at the crossroads the Scriptures put in front of us this evening --- the crossroads between Pilate and Herod and back again.

          At this crossroads, we learn that Jesus doesn't always say and do the things we want him to.

          Today at the crossroads, we have three examples of people that thought that Jesus just didn't fit into the nice little preconceived role they had imagined for them.  As a result, they found themselves thinking, "What are we going to do with this Jesus?"  The way that they answer that question will teach us some things about ourselves.  And the way Jesus responds to them will teach us something about what Jesus is really like.

          The first example is the chief priests of Israel.  "He stirs up the people by his teaching!" they claimed.  And in a manner of speaking, they were right.  Not in the sense that they meant it, though:  Jesus was no rabble-rouser, gathering strength for an uprising against the Roman government. 

          But Jesus' teaching did stir up people in this sense:  It is impossible to hear Jesus teach and preach without having your heart stirred up.  Ironically enough, no one was stirred up by the preaching of Jesus more than the chief priests and teachers of the Law.  Of course, aome people heard Jesus preach and were stirred up to repentance, faith and praise.  The chief priests, however, heard the same teachings of Jesus and were stirred up to hatred of Jesus.

          Why would they hate Jesus so much that they would have an emergency trial at the crack of dawn and drag him over to Pilate to get permission to execute him?  Why?  Because Jesus said things that just got them all worked up with anger. 

          Israel's leaders, after all, were highly respected in their community.  They were looked up to as fine, upstanding, godly men.  They were used to people looking at them with awe and admiration.  "And rightly so," they would have said.  "We are pretty good."

          But Jesus had this nasty way of exposing their faults.  Their greed, their hypocrisy, their pride, their self-righteousness --- Jesus laid it all out there for everyone to see.  And they couldn't stand it that someone would possibly dare to suggest that there was something wrong with them.  "What should we do with this Jesus?"  Their answer was simple:  get rid of him.

          Could that ever be us?  Before you say, "Surely not I, Lord," think about it.  We may know better, but don't we still sometimes fall into the trap of thinking we're pretty good?  We like it when Jesus says nice things about us, but Jesus still has a way of exposing the worst part of us.  Could Jesus say to any of us:  "If you think you're so good, why do words that dishonor your God, or words of gossip that tear down your neighbor, still come out of our mouth?  If you're so righteous, why do you choose entertainment that makes a mockery of God's commands?  If you're so good, why do you feel such hatred and resentment when someone does something you didn't like?"

          So what do we do with this Jesus?  Do we ever just want him to be quiet about our sin?  Do we ever want to tune him out?  Yes, Jesus exposes the worst in us.  In fact, he even exposes the best in us for what it really is:  damnable sin.  It can't be helped:  Jesus' words stir up our hearts.  May our hearts be stirred, not to hatred, like the chief priests, but to sorrow and repentance.

          The second person who had to decide what to do with Jesus was Pontius Pilate.  Based on what we know from history, Pilate doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would have much of a problem with executing an innocent man.  But Pilate is doesn't really know what to do with Jesus.  The Jewish leaders accused him of being a rebel.  But Jesus claimed to be a king of an altogether different sort.  He was so different from any other prisoner Pilate had ever seen.  He didn't respond to the charges lodged against him.  He claimed to know the truth.  And then there was his wife's troubling dream.  For any or all of these reasons, Pilate didn't really want to answer the question, "What should I do with Jesus?"

          Can't you almost hear the sigh of relief when he finds out that Jesus is under Herod's jurisdiction?  Instead of boldly doing justice and setting Jesus free, he was glad to pass him off.  Let someone else decide what to do with Jesus!

          And what about us?  Do we ever just pretend Jesus isn't there or hope he goes away?  Have you ever had the opportunity to set the record straight about Jesus, but were afraid about what the crowd would think or what someone might think of you?   "Let someone else stand up for Jesus," we think.

          Have you ever been talking to someone and hoped that the subject of God or church or Jesus didn't come up?  Maybe there are, after all, times in our lives when we would rather have Jesus be somewhere else --- like Pilate did.

          And then there was Herod.  Unlike Pilate, Herod was eager to see Jesus -- but for the wrong reason.  Herod was hoping it was showtime.  The miracle worker was finally here!  What might Jesus do?  The answer was . . . absolutely nothing!  Not a single miracle, not even a single word.  Herod must have come to the conclusion that Jesus was utterly boring as a source of entertainment and completely worthless as a miracle worker.

          "What should we do with this Jesus?"  Herod's answer was to make fun of him and send him back to Pilate --- to reject him as a worthless laughingstock.

          Clearly, Herod misunderstood what Jesus had come to earth for.  We may not take it to the extreme that Herod does, but do we sometimes regard Jesus as our good luck charm or "fix-it" man?  Do we ever have the impudence to think that since we do Jesus the "favor" of believing in him, the least he can do is make our lives a little bit easier?  Do we ever feel that now that we believe in Jesus, he should make all our problems disappear? 

          Herod, Pilate, the Jewish leaders -- there's a little bit of all of them in us:  proud, self-righteous, unwilling to take a stand for our Savior, expecting things from Jesus that he hasn't promised us.

          So what should we do with Jesus?  What is his purpose?  Who is he, really?  We find answers to those questions in Jesus' response to those who hated him, those didn't know what to do with him, and those who had no use for him.  He did nothing.

           He could have watched the chief priests and their cronies grovel in fear as he showed them his true heavenly glory.  He could have easily shown Pilate what a bunch of hypocritical liars they were.  He could have given undeniable proof of his innocence.  One miracle before Herod, and he could have gone free.  Or he could have struck Herod dead on the spot.  (How's that for a miracle, huh?)  But he didn't, and we all know the reason why.   "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth."

          He willingly endured the injustice, the mockery, the false accusations without saying a word, because his job was not to be and earthly king or fix-it man or show-off miracle worker.  His job was to be our Savior.  So he would go to the cross to suffer in our place --- for Herod, who rejected him as worthless; for Pilate, who didn't want to deal with him; for the chief priests, who hated him; for us, don't treat Jesus the way we should a lot more often than we care to admit.

          Everything Jesus did on that road to the cross, he did for every one of us worthless, miserable sinners.  Every time we have mistreated him in any way has been washed away in his blood shed on the cross.

          "What do we do with this Jesus" --- this Jesus who responds to those who disregard, reject and ridicule him by giving his life for them, for us?  Let's listen to him as he points out our sinful flaws and respond with genuine sorrow and repentance.

          Let's trust in him that he has saved us from sin, death and hell by his sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead. 

          Let's speak up for him, and don't leave the job to someone else.

          Let's love him, worship him, praise him, serve him!  That is what to do with this Jesus -- the one who loves us and gave himself for us.