Hands of self-preservation.

 

Sermon for 6^th midweek Lent, March 24, 2021

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and the Lamb of God His beloved Son.  Amen.

Matthew 27:15-26  ¹⁵At the time of the Festival the governor had a custom to release to the crowd any one prisoner they wanted.  ¹⁶At that time they were holding a notorious prisoner named Barabbas.  ¹⁷So when they were assembled, Pilate said to them, “Which one do you want me to release to you?  Barabbas—or Jesus, who is called Christ?”  ¹⁸For Pilate knew that they had handed Jesus over to him because of envy.  ¹⁹While he was sitting on the judgment seat, Pilate’s wife sent him a message.  “Have nothing to do with that righteous man,” she said, “since I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him.”  ²⁰But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus put to death.  ²¹The governor asked them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”  “Barabbas!” they said.  ²²Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?”  They all said to him, “Crucify him!”  ²³But the governor said, “Why?  What has he done wrong?”  But they kept shouting even louder: “Crucify him!”  ²⁴When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing and that instead it was turning into a riot, he took water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, “I am innocent of this righteous man’s blood.  It is your responsibility.”  ²⁵And all the people answered, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”  ²⁶Then he released Barabbas to them, but he had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified. (EHV)

Hands of self-preservation.

Dear blood-bought friends,

            Blood at a murder scene is one of the hardest things there is to wash away, yet murderers still so often try.  They scrub and scrub, buckets of soap and water, even using bleach to try to hide the stain.  If the murder happened in a house or apartment, the carpeting is often rolled up and hauled away.  They may even try painting the walls to cover up the guilt.  Yet, when the detectives come, traces of blood always remain as evidence of the guilt.

This evening, we see Pilate’s vain attempt to cleanse his blood-stained hands.  He didn’t want a Jewish uprising to ruin his already suspect, political reputation nor did he want to be accused of the murder of this innocent Man, so we see Pilate act with Hands of self-preservation.

Though there would have been lots of blood at the scene when Jesus was ruthlessly scourged by the Roman soldiers, what we are really talking about is the guilt of Jesus’ blood being shed.  Pilate’s own testimony proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was an innocent Man.  The Jewish leaders had already established that fact, because they could not find two corroborating witnesses against Him, even when they paid wicked men to lie against Jesus, so there was a lot of blood guilt to go around.

The jealous leaders of Israel had blood-soaked hands for rejecting God’s Son and plotting to have Jesus executed.  The mob of ordinary citizens and thugs in the city that morning had hands dipped in the crimson stain as they listened to the leaders rile up the crowd to shout for the release of the criminal Barabbas and to yell the continuous blood-curdling screams for Jesus’ crucifixion.  Likewise, the soldiers’ hands were covered in blood from their relentless torture of our Lord.

Pilate had blood on his hands, too.  Pilate was guilty of terrible betrayals that day.  He betrayed his office as Roman governor.  The Romans prided themselves on the rule of law.  When Pilate recognized that there were no grounds to have Jesus punished, his duty to Caesar was to set Jesus free, but he feared the Jews more than his emperor.  Pilate betrayed his wife, as well, because in the midst of this trial, she warned Pilate not to bring the guilt of Jesus’ death on himself and his household, but again, Pilate was more afraid of rebellion in his district than of being caught in his own injustice.  And, though he didn’t know it, Pilate was betraying his Savior, just as the Father in heaven had known that weak governor would do. 

It’s too bad that Pilate hadn’t heard Jesus when He said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)  It is too late for Pilate, and the historical record doesn’t hold out much hope that the Roman governor ever came to believe in the Savior he sentenced to die.  For us, however, there is still time, even though like Pilate, we too have blood-stained hands.

It wasn’t just the people in Jerusalem that day who have blood on their hands for Jesus’ crucifixion; Cain had the blood of Abel calling out to the Lord.  Moses had blood on his hands for killing a nasty Egyptian guard.  King David had the blood of Uriah staining his, and you and I have our own blood-coated, guilty hands.  For every time we have felt hatred for someone, even an enemy, we have guilt.  For every vile thought and every time envy stirs in our hearts, we are just as guilty as those Jewish leaders of causing Jesus’ death on a cross.  Even for every time we are misled by those who have evil intentions, our hands are sprinkled in scarlet. 

So much blood has been shed throughout the history of the world.  Murders, war, terrorist actions, the befuddling, desperate actions of the mentally ill who swipe the lives of innocent victims, such as we’ve seen again in just the last few days.  Prejudice, greed, immorality, disrespect—all of those things and more stain the hands of the whole human race.  Whether we consider ourselves wicked or good, we share in the guilt that sentenced Jesus that day.

Pilate was motivated by one main concern, preserving his own skin.  Of course, he made several lame attempts to exercise his duty of conducting an honest and fair trial, but in the end, all that really concerned him was keeping the rioting crowds at bay.  Thus, “When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing and that instead it was turning into a riot, he took water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, ‘I am innocent of this righteous man’s blood.’”  In a pretense of keeping his hands clean, Pilate tried to shift the blame to the Jews.  Yet, the Jews already had more than enough guilt to deserve their destruction, and Pilate’s guilt remained on his hands.

There are a lot of ways people in our world try to shift the blame or wash the stain off their hands.  Some merely ignore their own sins and weaknesses and imagine themselves more righteous than others.  Some people imagine that we can bargain with God using our own works to buy freedom from the eternal punishment we deserve.  Many have devised man-made ceremonies to try to cleanse away the guilt.  Lots of people merely hope to hide from God’s wrath if it should ever come upon them—which they doubt will happen.  Still others imagine that living a more or less obedient life will count as good enough to wash away the stench of guilt.  The natural man makes all kinds of attempts to have Hands of self-preservation.  Yet, all of these things are about as effective as trying to sterilize a slaughterhouse with a feather duster.

Dear friends, the God of love has a better plan.  In Isaiah, we read, “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord.  Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow.  Though they are as red as crimson, they will be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)  Remember who was put on trial that day: “Jesus, who is called Christ.”  The name, Christ, means the Anointed One—the Messiah, to use the Jewish equivalent.  Jesus was God’s specifically chosen Man to pay the price for all the sins of the world.  I have to tell you; God’s economy operates a little differently than that of our world.  In this world, people very often seek revenge and retribution for every hurt—the guilty must pay for their crimes.  At the same time, we tend to ignore our own violations, at least until our consciences bear down on us a little too much. 

Now, God does tell us, “Vengeance is mine.  I will repay.” (Hebrews 10:30)  And repay God does, but not in the way we might have expected.  Instead of wreaking vengeance on all of us who sin most grievously, God appointed His own beloved, and completely innocent, Son to take our place, so Isaiah tells us, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and to allow him to suffer.  Because you made his life a guilt offering.” (Isaiah 53:10)  Thus, Paul could write for our comfort and hope, “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

The whole Old Testament was pointing to the day of our text.  All those lambs and bulls slaughtered at the temple throughout Israel’s history pointed to this one perfect sacrifice for your sins and mine.  Hands of self-preservation are nothing but a mirage.  Nothing we do can wash away the stain of our sins.  Yet we have hope, because God provides a way that truly washes away all the blood from our hands. 

The disciple who calls himself “the one Jesus loved” was there at the Jordan River when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist; John was there on the mountaintop when Jesus was transfigured so that the disciples could see His true glory and hear the Father declare from heaven, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him.” (Matthew 17:5)  John was there too at the trial, at the cross when Jesus hung there giving His life for ours, and three days later, John witnessed the empty tomb after Jesus rose from the grave triumphant over death.  Therefore, John is a faithful witness when he tells us, “If we walk in the light, just as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) 

To walk in Jesus’ light means to believe and trust in Him as your Savior and Redeemer.  All who have been granted this faith, from the time of Adam and Eve all the way until the last baby baptized before Jesus returns to judge the world, are entered into the fellowship of the kingdom of heaven, and in that faith, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, has by His blood perfectly cleansed our hands of all the blood-guilt we had ever accumulated.

Dear friends, we don’t need Hands of self-preservation.  We need Jesus who willingly gave Himself into suffering and death on a cross to preserve for His Father a people made holy by His blood.  We need Jesus in our lives, in our hearts, and in our hearing.  We needed Him to wash us clean of all sin in Baptism.  We need Him to clean us again ever time we eat and drink of the precious supper He gives us with His body and blood in the bread and wine.  Taste and see that Jesus is good.  Through faith in Christ, we rejoice with King David, “Remove my sin with hyssop, and I will be clean.  Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” (Psalms 51:7)  Amen.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his own blood and made us a kingdom and priests to God his Father—to him be the glory and the power forever.  Amen.