Looking Ahead to April 2, 2021 -- Good Friday

Our Good Friday service this year will be live streamed on our You Tube channel at 7:00

The Scripture for this service will be the Passion Story as told in John 18:28-19:37

The Sermon title is So You Are a King?

Early Thoughts:  Good Friday is always a bit of a conundrum. Do we simply tell the story and let it be? Do we try to do some sort of annotated telling of the story and touch on all the parts? How do you preach the Passion narrative?

My approach has been to ask what jumps out of the story in any particular year and focus on that part of the story. Other parts of the story can be explored in other years.

The piece about John's account of the Passion that has always  caught my attention is the discussion between Jesus and Pilate. It has a note of philosophy about it as they discuss kingship and truth and authority. And that is how it raises up the different worldviews we see in the Passion narrative. 

Jesus is not a king as Pilate and the Jewish leadership use the word in this story. Despite what Jesus says, Pilate has authority (in his worldview) that allows him to pronounce life or death over Jesus of Nazareth. And, as Pilate notes, truth is a bit of a fuzzy idea at times -- or as Andrew Lloyd Webber has Pilate say:

What is truth?
Is truth unchanging law?
We both have truths
Are mine the same as yours? [Source]

At the same time....
Jesus is a king. Authority belongs to God. Truth is a real thing, something Jesus calls people to see, something God calls people to live by. How we see the world greatly impacts the way we live in the world.

What kind of king gets enthroned on a cross? What kind of coronation procession is accompanied by jeers and taunts? What kind of power or authority exists in the sight of a broken beaten man?

A few days ago one crowd cheered and celebrated as Jesus came into the city. Now another crowd calls for his death. Does that mean that people are fickle? Possibly, there may be some overlap between the two crowds. But I think it points to the clash that happens when "the way the world is" is challenged by "the way the world could be". Which viewpoint will we choose?

Is Jesus the king we have been looking for? Who has real authority? What truth guides our lives?
--Gord