"CREDO ..."
Sermons on The Apostles Creed by Dr. Loren Kramer
5. RESPONSIBILITY / RESPONSE-ABILITY. Acts 3:11-26
While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them, "Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.
"Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you – even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from the people.'
"Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, 'Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.' When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."
Last Sunday's sermonic study of the Apostles Creed virtually had us celebrating Christmas in July, for the Scripture we considered was Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus. It underscored for us the mystery of our salvation – that it was won for us by one who is both True God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity, who became also True Man, our Brother in the flesh, "conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary." Today we move to Good Friday and Holy Saturday and the suffering and death of our Savior. So easily the words of the Creed roll off our tongues without making us even wince: "He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried." But perhaps those of us who have seen Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ with its graphic depiction of the torment and torture that was deliberately a part of crucifixion, appreciate more fully what our Savior endured for us.
A Torturous Way to Die
In the days of the Roman Empire men would do almost anything to avoid the cross. Sometimes the poor victims hung on the cross for days, in and out of consciousness, until finally suffocation brought death and release from suffering. So dreadful was crucifixion that by law Roman citizens were exempt from that form of execution no matter what their crime.
In the Passion Play at Oberammergau, Germany, the crucifixion of Jesus is one of the most vivid scenes. For almost twenty minutes the key figure, the actor who plays Jesus Christ, is suspended on the cross. Of course, he is not nailed to the cross. He grasps huge spikes in such a way that it appears as if his hands have been impaled. There are all kinds of props to assist the actor. He is seated on something like a bicycle seat. A belt, hidden by the loin cloth he is wearing, fastens him to the cross and helps to support his weight. In addition, the cross is tilted slightly back so that its wood also helps to carry his weight. Even with all of those supporting props the simulated crucifixion is not easy for the actor. The moment he is taken down from the cross and is back stage, they vigorously massage his muscles so they will not cramp. In fact, they use two actors who alternate so they will have a day of rest between performances. And the whole thing is just a reenactment that lasts only twenty minutes. How traumatic the real crucifixion must have been. There was no one to take Jesus' place as he was suspended on the cross for six hours. His passion was not a play or a movie – it was a real crucifixion.
The crucifixion of Jesus confronts us with some burning questions: Who was responsible for this most heinous crime in all of history? Why did the heavenly Father not intervene on his Son's behalf? What is the significance of the cross – why has this instrument of torture become the supreme symbol and the very heart of the Christian faith?
One question it prompts is as old as Job's lament: "Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked flourish?" Sometimes we think that if we were in charge of the world it would be a better place. We would do things the way they ought to be done. It would be the wicked who would suffer and it would be the righteous, which, of course, includes us, who would flourish. Most of us are concerned about law and order, justice and fairness, especially when our own well-being is involved. Just let someone transgress against us, step on our ego, our property, our physical well-being, and we are quick to react. We live in a litigious society, ready to sue at the drop of a hat or the dent of a fender. I read recently of a woman who actually wanted to haul God into court because her property had been struck by lightning. She said, "I'm a good person. I didn't do anything to deserve this." Just let someone offend us and we are quick to ask for justice; but let someone point an accusing finger at us and we get defensive and say, "Don't blame me!" Let's keep all of this in mind as we approach the cross of Jesus.
Peter's Analysis of the Crucifixion of Jesus
What we have in this text is Peter's eyewitness account and inspired analysis of the crucifixion of Jesus. Peter was put on the witness stand by the crowd in Jerusalem. They wanted to know how the lame beggar they were accustomed to seeing at the temple gate was now walking and jumping and praising God. Peter testified to them that it was the name of the crucified and risen Jesus, and faith in his name, that had brought the lame man complete healing. And Peter used the opportunity to talk to them about responsibility for the death of Jesus. He pointed to two parties as directly responsible.
The first was an individual – the one person other than Jesus Christ who is identified in the Apostles Creed by name. The name Pontius Pilate would surely have been forgotten long ago had he not been responsible for the death of Jesus. You remember, he tried hard to get out from under his responsibility. He sent Jesus to Herod for judgment, but Herod sent him back to Pilate. He ordered his soldiers to punish Jesus with the dreadful Roman scourge – but that produced no sympathy on the part of those who wanted to get rid of him. He gave the crowd a choice between releasing Jesus and Barabbas, a murderer and insurrectionist, and the crowd surprised him by choosing Barabbas. Finally, under the pressure of the crowd and their leaders, Pilate publicly washed his hands to deflect away from himself the responsibility for the unjust crucifixion. But it wouldn't wash. Peter said it here, and we say it, too. Every time we speak the words of the Apostles Creed we say Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilate." He had direct responsibility.
But he was not alone. The second party was the people to whom he was speaking and their religious leaders. Peter said to them, "You handed Jesus over to be killed; you disowned him." We need to realize that the one of whom we sing "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" also made some enemies. Stuffed shirt clerics, petty governing officials, people concerned with protecting their own positions, were frequently offended by Jesus. And Jesus did not back off from condemning their hypocrisy. They regarded him as a threat to the status quo that gave them prominence and power, and finally it got to the place where they said, "Something's got to give; it's either him or us." And when it gets down to that kind of choice it doesn't take long to make a decision. So Annas and Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, the Jews' supreme court, ignored God's commandments and disregarded ethical behavior and acted to rid themselves of the irritation and the threat that Jesus had become to them. The crowds, disappointed that Jesus had not asserted himself to overthrow the Romans and restore the throne of David, turned away from him and let it happen. Peter pointed the accusing finger at them and said, "You killed the Author of Life." They were directly responsible.
We All Share Responsibility
When the Oberammergau Passion Play comes around in its ten-year cycle it usually is met with some charges of being anti-Semitic in depicting the responsibility of the Jewish leaders in condemning Jesus to death. It is suggested that such prejudice has been the cause of persecution of Jews down through the centuries. Let's let the script of the Passion Play speak in its own defense – and provide us some insightful guidance in the whole matter of responsibility. In the Prologue, after the narrator has welcomed the crowd for the presentation, he takes a moment to address the following words to Jews: "Greetings also to you, brothers and sisters of the people who brought forth the Redeemer. Let none of us find the blame in others, but let all of us recognize our own guilt in these events. God sees all of us full of disobedience, but to all he has brought mercy and salvation from the Cross."
Do you get the point? Even though it is evident that Pilate and the Jewish religious leaders had direct responsibility for the death of Jesus, there is no way the rest of us can breathe a sigh of relief and tell ourselves that we are off the hook. The Bible tells us, "Jesus carried our sins in his body on the cross." Paul wrote, "Jesus was delivered up for our offenses." When the spiritual song asks us, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" we have to say, "Yes, we were there." By our sins and shortcomings, by our pious pretensions, by our unforgiving attitudes, by our unloving actions, by our dishonesty with ourselves and with God, we are responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. There is no doubt about it.
That judgment can make us terribly uncomfortable. It can make us wiggle and squirm and try somehow to shift the blame away from us. We may even point the finger at God himself. You remember, Adam tried that. He wanted to shift the blame to God when he had sinned and was confronted by God. He said, "The woman You put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." It's so human to want to pass the buck.
God's Responsibility
In a magnificent play called The Sign of Jonah, an East-German Lutheran pastor, in 1948, set the following scene: The whole world is gathered before the throne of God for judgment. The throng is restless. They don't like the idea that God is about to judge them. Included in the crowd are American black people who have suffered under slavery, Jews who have died by the millions under persecution, the "unclean" castes of India and other countries. "Who is God to be judging us?" they muse. "He has led such a sheltered life. Before we consent to be judged by him, he is going to have to be judged by us." A murmur of approval goes through the crowd. They think it is a good idea – and they come up with the sentence which God must endure. "Let him be born a Jew. Give him a work so difficult that even his family will think him out of his mind when he tries to do it. Let him try to describe what no one has ever seen or heard. Let him be rejected by the same people he has created and loved. Give him for friends only those whom others hold in contempt. Let him be betrayed, tried, and convicted by a crooked jury. Let him die alone, abandoned by his friends. And so there can be no doubt that he has died, let his grave be sealed by the authorities."
As this sentence is announced quiet murmurs of approval go up from the great throng, but then there is a long and uneasy silence. Gradually, those who pronounced judgment step back. No one speaks. No one makes a sound. Then Jesus steps forward. He points to his hands, scarred by the nails. An awed hush comes over the assembly. All are riveted to their spots. And then they all begin to realize that God has already served his sentence.
The point of the story is evident: God says, "I'll take responsibility for the cross." The cross was not an accident. It was much more than a miscarriage of human justice. Behind the scenes, in a way far deeper than our minds can comprehend, God was at work. He was not the cause of the cross; human sin was the cause. But it was God's eternal will and purpose to work through the cross to deal with our sins with divine effectiveness. Everything that he had foretold through all the prophets, that the Christ would suffer, came true on the cross. Christ was "wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities. By his stripes we are healed." Someone has said, "At the cross God's justice and God's mercy meet, and both go away satisfied."
In his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, Peter told the people, "This man Jesus was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge." Think of it. Because of his loving desire and his saving will for mankind, God was responsible for the cross. That means the cross stands before us, not as an accusing finger, but as a welcoming hand. Its message is not "Depart from me, you evil-doers" but "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
Our Response
When we see the cross in that light, the big question is no longer "Who is responsible?" but "What should my response be?" Peter pointed to the desired response: "Repent! Turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out and times of refreshing may come from the Lord." There's a world of assurance and invitation in his words. When we respond to his assurance and accept his invitation, we know that our sins have been wiped out, and we know that wonderful times of refreshing will bless our lives.
An English clergyman, Studdert Kennedy, wrote a verse that spoke pointedly to the unresponsiveness of the English populace: "When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged him on a tree; They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary. They crowned him with a crown of thorns; red were his wounds and deep, For those were rude and cruel days, and human life was cheap. / When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed him by. They never hurt a hair of him; they only let him die. For men had grown more tender, and they would not give him pain. They only passed on down the street, and left him in the rain."
That surely is not the response God desires from you and me. When someone loves you, the cruelest thing you can do when they offer their love is to be indifferent. Peter said to those to whom he was witnessing, "When God raised up his servant Jesus, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways." His words not only invite your response; they offer you response-ability.
The One who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, was also raised in glorious victory. When he comes it is not empty-handed. He comes with the power of the Holy Spirit to turn us from sin and self to him. And when that has happened, all that's left for us to do is to thank him for making it all possible.
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