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Sermon for Sunday, November 22, 2009

The Toughest Thing”

John 18:33-37

You remember Bobby Bonds?  He was a great baseball player. And then came Barry and  Bobby faded into memory. It was in 2002 that Barry stole his 500th base and became the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs. Big stuff.

The sports writes in USA Today put their heads together several years ago to list what, in their opinion, were the toughest and hardest ten things to do in sports.  It reminded me of David Letterman’s top ten list. 

10. Skiing the alpine downhill race at 80mph..

9.  Saving a penalty kick in soccer.

8. Bicycling the Tour de France covering 2114 miles

7. Running a marathon

6. Landing a quadruple toe loop in figure skates.

5.  Return a 130-140 mph tennis serve

4.  Hitting a golf ball straight and long

3.  Pole vaulting

2.  Driving  a race car while enduring 5 G’s in the corner in 120 degree heat knowing a mistake can kill you.

1.  Hitting a major league baseball pitch thrown at 90mph by judging it in a 1/100th of a second.  If you pull that off successfully 3 out of ten times you’ll land a multimillion dollar contract.

Pretty difficult stuff isn’t it?  They take endurance, strength, skill, talent, and training and ultimately they are not important. At the end of the day they do not matter. After all, at the end of the day, they are games. Life is considerably harder and much more challenging than any of these sports. So what is the hardest thing to do in life?  Let me share with you a list of life’s ten most challenging events that require daring, hope, skill and talent. Keep in mind they may not necessarily be yours but could be your neighbors. We all have our challenges that would make the list look different, but here is a list of some major challenges:

10. Raising children

9. Giving forgiveness

8. Apologizing

7. Loving your enemy

6. Quitting cigarettes, getting sober, any addicition

5. Regaining the lost trust of loved one

4. Keep faith in God amidst trials and tribulations

3. Living homeless

2. Burying a child

1. Removing hospital life support for a loved one.

That makes a sport’s lists look easy doesn’t it?

The life list is a tough list, but that last one, making decisions about life or death, is one of the toughest.  Even when all the facts are known medically and even understood, after the prognosis is clear and the choice obvious, it is tremendously agonizing decision to remove a respirator.  You’ve become the judge. You’re going to decide between life and death. Top world athletes don’t have to make that kind of choice.  Is this kind of stuff in your job description?  Is it what you expect in life? Probably not.

It was in Pontius Pilate’s job description.  As Governor of the Province of Judea for Rome, he was always making serious choices, yet at the same time, he is a sort of everyman. He was troubled in difficult situations just as we often are when he tried to resist certain pressures, listen to his spouse, have courage, recognize goodness, then make a choice. He did well for 11 years. The Samaritan Uprising on the year 36 was his downfall. He made a wrong choice. The result was that he was exiled to Gaul in shame and ended up committing suicide.

Pilate was good at the keeping the peace, but keeping the peace isn’t always the same as doing what’s right. Sometimes keeping the peace is just the opposite of doing what’s right. Some times we choose not to apologize. Sometimes we choose not to forgive. That kind of peace has a cost. Sometimes it is better to take the risk.

Did Pilate lose sight of what was important? Do we?

It was just another work day for Pilate when Jesus showed up. One can imagine Pilate dropping what he was doing and having to deal with Jesus, another criminal. It is just another day of the week to keep the peace and to keep his job. Just another life to judge. Ask questions, listen, weigh the evidence, then decide. Live or die.

The governor probably got a little cynical and smirked as he looked at the situation, a captured, bound man accused of claiming to be a king. A peasant. An unarmed Jew. And Pilate asks him, “Are you a king?”  Can you see the smirk on his face? He probably did not take this kingship thing seriously.  It seemed preposterous. Jesus was not a king. He had no army. He had no city. He had no money. He had no robes. He had no weapons. He had nothing. He was nothing.

Jesus responds to Pilate’s question with an unexpected question of his own. How often are we faced with unexpected questions in our lives when facing terrible or tricky choices.  “Governor,” says Jesus “why ask your question? Do you think I am a king or were you told I am a king?”

Pilate may have wondered, “What in the world is going on? Is this stupidity or what?” But he plays the situation as a game. With perhaps a smirk, he replies, ‘how should I know? Am I one of your people? Your people, your leaders, brought you here to me. What have you done?”  The answer he got was not what he had anticipated.

Jesus says he is king but from another world. Another world. This man is no threat. The peace is kept. There is no reason for killing him. It is a no brainer. And at the end of this short little conversation, Pilate asks him the question, “what is truth?”

What is truth?  For Pilate it was being a good politician. But there is another answer because there is such a thing as godly truth.  For Pilate godly truth was standing right there in front of him, but he missed it. He was too busy trying to keep his job and keep the peace. He missed it.

I wonder how many times we miss it. We miss the truth when we become so pressured by difficult choices that we forget or never notice that Christ is standing within us, beside us and among us just like he said he would.  In life we are not abandoned. Jesus has always promised to be with us. That’s the kind of king to follow, one that will be with us through all of life. In all of our days and all of our ways, He will be present.

In the end Pilate gave Jesus over to the whims of the crowd. He did the politically expedient thing. He kept the peace. He might have prevented a riot.

That’s where Pilate and the rest of us are similar. When we are presented with life’s difficult choices we may choose to be expedient rather than do what is ultimately right. Sometimes the right choice isn’t always easy or popular.

But is it Christian?

“So you are a king?” Pilate asks with a sneer, for a second time.  You can almost hear the laughter of the crowd. This one, king? On this last Sunday of the church year, we are once again confronted with the age old question:  Is this Jesus, the One who stands before us and with us, is he King?

Jesus answers Pilate when he puts the question to Jesus. But then the question comes to us answer because he wants you and me to answer. Is this one who live and taught love, who forgave his enemies and embraced the outcast and the marginalized, is this one King…for you? And if he is, how then shall we live?

Prayer

O God, King of King and Lord of lords, help us to live lives that honor you. Increase our desire to put our trust in you as the source of truth for the living of days in the name of Christ the King. Amen.

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Address
First Baptist Church, Ashland
800 Thompson Street
Ashland, VA 23005

Phone
(804) 798-9014

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  9:45 a.m. -  Sunday School
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