Good Friday, 2014 – The
Passion according to John, the 7th Petition
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
But deliver us from evil. This you have just heard your Lord do when you heard His passion. When we talk about “evil”, we aren’t speaking about anything abstract, we aren’t speaking against just some vague idea in some sort of mamby-pamby way. No, we have the Scriptures, we been given by the Spirit the ability to see things as they are, we will call a thing what it is. There is evil. Sin is evil. This fallen world is full of evil. Death is evil. None of it is right, none of it is good anymore. The good that I want to do I do not do, the wickedness that I do not want to do I do – who will save me from the body of death, who will save me as all of creation groans as in travail, with earthquakes and tempests and lightnings - literally the world is tearing itself apart – that evil, who will save, who will deliver us from that evil?
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
But deliver us from evil. This you have just heard your Lord do when you heard His passion. When we talk about “evil”, we aren’t speaking about anything abstract, we aren’t speaking against just some vague idea in some sort of mamby-pamby way. No, we have the Scriptures, we been given by the Spirit the ability to see things as they are, we will call a thing what it is. There is evil. Sin is evil. This fallen world is full of evil. Death is evil. None of it is right, none of it is good anymore. The good that I want to do I do not do, the wickedness that I do not want to do I do – who will save me from the body of death, who will save me as all of creation groans as in travail, with earthquakes and tempests and lightnings - literally the world is tearing itself apart – that evil, who will save, who will deliver us from that evil?
Christ Jesus rises from prayer, and evil comes to seek
Him. Betrayed by His friend, set to be
handed over to wicked kings and spineless judges who will heed not the law but their
own ambitions and an angry mob. Evil
comes for Christ Jesus, and so that we would be delivered from it, He faces
it. Whom do you seek, Evil, do you seek
Jesus of Nazareth? Well, I AM He… and
evil recoils. He must tell them again –
I am He, I am Jesus of Nazareth, I have come to be handed over to evil, “so
if you seek Me, let these men go.”
Let these men be delivered from evil – for I, Christ Jesus will give
Evil more than it can handle. No Peter,
put down your sword – I am not going to consign you to a life of violent evil –
I will drink this cup of woe and wickedness down to the dregs, and you will be
delivered from evil.
And Christ goes. He
is taken away, bound by the tyranny of evil men. And even before His sacrifice for His friends
begins in earnest – His friends deny Him.
Peter, in the courtyard, I swear that I don’t know the man. John hanging silent in the shadows, watching
but saying nothing – the others have run for the hills, run for their
lives. They didn’t quite think that
Jesus really would get them out of this.
So much doubt and fear around Him, and yet onward He presses. The fears and failures of the disciples don’t
dissuade Him – indeed, your failings don’t cause Him a moment’s pause. That is
why He is there. He knows you are weak,
He knows that you cannot fend off evil, and so He will be strong for you. And His strength is shown as He goes unto His
passion.
Various muckety-mucks of the Jews examine Him – not to seek
the truth, but to assert their own power and control. Again, thus is evil in the world. Adam was created to tend and serve, Eve to be
a helper – yet since the fall we have been striving more and more to show who is
boss, who is in charge, our lives are endless shows of dominance and
control. The soldier smacks Christ – is
that how you answer the High Priest?
Yet, the irony is this – Christ Jesus is the Great High Priest, the One
who will offer up the true sacrifice to thoroughly deliver people from
Evil. And He lets it be. He will deliver you from evil, and so He is
slapped.
Then it is on to Pilate.
Pilate is so concerned about making friends and influencing people –
what does the mob think, what will Caesar think (if you let Him go, you are no
friend of Caesar). Maybe this Christ
will give Pilate influence – so you are a King?
Oh, Your kingdom is not of this world… then I guess you can’t help me
and I really can’t help you. There is a
mob out there, and they want blood – better Your blood than mine, Jesus. And the wonder – Jesus agrees. Yes, I will be crucified, I will be delivered
unto Evil so that even you, Pontius Pilate, you who quips “what is truth” may
be delivered from evil by the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life
Himself!
There also is the flogging, the mocking, the crown of
thorns. The cross laid upon His shoulder
as His already wrecked Body is paraded towards His execution. His people reject Him – We have no king but
Caesar – nothing more blasphemous or evil could be spoken by a Jew, for God is
their King. Jesus is delivered to that
evil; He takes up even their blasphemy.
All evil, it all comes swirling upon Him.
And He is crucified.
Adam and Eve, when they sinned knew that they were naked, and they were
ashamed, and they hid. There is Christ,
not hiding behind bushes or trees, but hung naked and exposed upon a tree,
nailed to it – behold His shame, see Him, mock Him, wag your head at Him – let
all the evil come at Him, let His clothes be gambled away. So be it – He is there to deliver people from
evil – and even in the midst of His suffering, He pauses to deliver His mother.
John, behold your mother. Care for her –
do not let the evil of poverty or starvation take hold of her when I have
died. Even as evil is heaped upon Him,
He delivers others. As the other Gospel
writers note, even as woe and wrath is piled upon Him, He delivers from
evil. You, O repentant Criminal, today
you will be with Me in paradise, for I deliver you from evil. Father, forgive these who are mocking Me, for
I deliver them from evil.
And
one other little blip of evil. I thirst
– and what do they give Him? Sour
wine. The very One who turned water into
wine at Cana so that there would be joy and
celebration and life now meets His death with vinegar. Let even wine which was given to gladden the
hearts of men be rather sour and bitter and joyless– let all the evil of the
world of all times and of all places come flowing upon Him there upon that
Cross. And it comes, all the evil, and
it is laid upon Him, and He cries out “It is finished”. All evil, all of it, there upon Christ. And He dies.
He
dies, and Evil is finished. It is spent
upon Christ. There is no wickedness, no
vice, no shame that can ever happen that is not tied to Christ upon the
cross. The sin you did today – Christ
has tied that sin unto Himself upon the Cross.
The shame you feel from something long ago – Christ has tied that shame
unto Himself the Cross. The wickedness
that you suffer from, that people do unto you – that has been tied to Christ
upon the Cross. Even your own death –
tied to Christ upon the Cross. And all
of it – it is Finished. You are
delivered from Evil.
“It
is finished. And He bowed His Head and
gave up His Spirit…But One of the Soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and
at once there came out blood and water.” Christ Jesus takes up all the
evil in the world… and then what does He do?
He gives out His Spirit, He pours out blood and water. Your evil is taken away, you are delivered
from Evil – but you are not left empty.
Christ Jesus’ Word and Spirit come to you, giving you faith,
forgiveness, life, and salvation. The
water which poured from Christ’s side has washed you clean, been placed upon
you to mark you One delivered from evil, redeemed by the Crucified. This is true, this is reality. And should evil still sniff around you,
should your sins mock you and threaten you with punishment, should you suffer
rejection, indeed, even if death itself should hound you – take and eat, take
and drink, this is My blood, shed for you for the remission of sin. Evil is finished and you are delivered. Even death is destroyed – this we shall see
on the third day.
But
deliver us from evil. We pray in this
petition, in summary, that our Father in Heaven would rescue us from every evil
of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour
comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow
to Himself in heaven. Christ Jesus has
walked through the valley of sorrow, the valley of the shadow of death, and you
are indeed delivered by Him from evil.
It is finished, now and forever more.
Amen. In the name of Christ the
Crucified +
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