We’ve made it to the
bitter end! Though come to think of it
the end is not so bitter after all! Far
from it, the end is where we start from.
But make no mistake
about it – the end we reach in Luke 23 is far from sweet. Bitter is a feeble way to describe it. It seems to be the very end from which there
can be no beginning.
The end we reach in
Luke 23 takes us back to the beginning of Luke’s Gospel story. Luke was quite clear where the ministry of
Jesus began.
Luke 4:14-15:
Then Jesus, filled
with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him
spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by
everyone.
It’s in Nazareth that
he was given the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written
‘The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim
release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the
year of the Lord’s favour.’
20And he rolled up
the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the
synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this
scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’
And when the people
gathered together in that place turned against him he left them in no doubt at
all – he identifies himself as ‘a prophet’.
Luke 4:24
From Galilee that
prophetic ministry that ushered in the very kingdom and rule of God took him on
a long journey to Jerusalem and on a collision course with the Herod whose
jurisdiction was over Galilee who wanted to kill him (Luke 13:31). He was clear about this prophetic task
ushering in the Kingdom of God – “Today, tomorrow and the next day I must be on
my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from
jerusaloem.” He knew full well Jerssalem
was the city that kills prophets. Luke 13:33.
And so it came to
pass as Luke 23 opens. The powers that
be in Jerusalem are all too aware of Jesus’s concerted prophetic ministry that
has been directed at the way they have exercised their power.
When
the assembly rose as a body and brought Jesus before Pilate. 2They began to
accuse him, saying, ‘We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to
pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.’
3Then Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ He answered, ‘You say
so.’ 4Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, ‘I find no basis
for an accusation against this man.’ 5But they were insistent and said, ‘He
stirs up the people by teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee where he
began even to this place.’
In the words of
Jesus’s accusers – that’s the journey Jesus has made – and on the way he has
been setting about his prophetic task ushering in the kingdom of God. – from
Galilee where it all began, throughout all Judea even to this place.
It is at this point
that Jesus is handed over to the one he had been warned was out to kill him,
the one he had described in no uncertain terms as ‘that fox’.
His silence in the
face of accusation angers herod even more – and Even Herod with his soldiers
treated him with contempt and mocked him; then Herod put an elegant robe on him
and sent him back to Pilate, making a friendship with Pilate the procurator.
The sentence is
pronounced.
When they came to the
place that was called The Skull, the crucified Jesus there with the criminals
one on his right and one on his left.
Back there at the
start in Nazareth initially when Jesus spoke “all spoke well of him and were
amazed at the words of grace that came from his mouth.”
Now as the end is very
nearly upon us it is once again words of grace that come from Jesus’s
mouth. The most wonderful words. The moment of tortured death becomes the
moment of grace and forgiveness and renewal and peace.
Father, forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing.
What
forgiveness! What grace!
One criminal taunted him, the other appealed to him. His words could be ours ... as we turn once
more to this Jesus.
“Jesus remember me
when you come into your kingdom.
And more words of
grace come from jesus’ lips.
Truly I tell you
today you will be with me in Paradise.
And then that final
prayer. Yet more words of grace.
Father into your
hands I commend my spirit.
Into your hands –
that wonderful prayer that is the prayer of Jesus we can so often echo.
Luke 24:44-56
It
was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the
afternoon, 45while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was
torn in two. 46Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands
I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last. 47When the
centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, ‘Certainly this
man was innocent.’ 48And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this
spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts.
49But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from
Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
The
Burial of Jesus
50
Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a member of
the council, 51had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish
town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God.
52This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53Then he took it
down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one
had ever been laid. 54It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was
beginning. 55The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they
saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56Then they returned, and prepared
spices and ointments.
On
the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
We have come to the end. And there is a quiet, a peace.
But as we know full
well. It is not the end.
On his journeys through
the cities and villags of Galilee and on that journey to Jerusalem Jesus had
not been alone. (Luke8:1-3)
The
twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits
and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others,
who provided for them out of their resources.
These are the women
who are there on the first day of the week at early dawn.
These are the women
who found the stone rolled away from the tomb.
These are the women
who hear the voice of the angel declaring he is risen.
These are the women
who hear the voice of the angel reminding them of all he had said on his
travels:
‘Why
do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
6Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7that the Son of Man
must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise
again.’
These are the women.
Now it was Mary
Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who
told this to the apostles.
And as for the men?
But these words
seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
Though Peter did go
to the tomb.
And then that evening
at Emmaus “he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it’ to those two
travellers who had been prepared to welcome the stranger to their home. Then their eyes were opened and they
recognised him.
They had their own
journey to make to Jerusalem. And when
they got there that evening Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
You might have
thought the story has now come to its climax.
Not a bit of it.
It’s only just
beginning.
Then
he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and he said to them, ‘Thus
it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the
third day, 47and that repentance, a
whole new way of thinking about life and the world, and forgiveness of sins is to
be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are
witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father
promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from
on high.’
Jerusalem is where
the Gospel had begun. Right back in
chapter 1 with Zechariah serving his time at the temple and hearing of the
birth of the one who would be John the
Baptist.
Jerusalem is where
the Gospel had begun as the Christ child is presented to Simeon and to Anna,
that woman who herself was a prophet and had been the very first to speak about
Jesus to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Luke 24:50-53
Then
he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them.
51While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into
heaven. 52And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy;
53and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
The end is where we
start from.
Luke goes on to tell
how it all began there in Jerusalem with the outpouring of the Spirit and then
the spread of the Jesus Way from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
The end is where we
start from.
Drawing on that power
of the Holy Spirit we have a task – to take on that prophetic mantle, to get people
to have a whole new way of thinking about the world, to share those wonderful
words of grace, those words of forgiveness, and to open up a whole new way of
living rooted in love for God, love for neighbour and love for enemy too.
It’s up to us to work
that out in the living of our lives.
The end is where we
start from.
In a moment we are
going to hear the story of one remarkable woman who has given her life to doing
just that – and who we are going to be supporting in our communion collection
and in our Christmas collection.
But first we are
going to sing a paraphrase of the Nunc Dimittis, Simeon’s song when Jesus was
presented to him and to Anna in the temple back at the start of the story.
