After he said these things, Jesus went out with his disciples and crossed over to the other side of the Kidron Valley. He and his disciples entered a garden there. Judas, his betrayer, also knew the place because Jesus often gathered there with his disciples. Judas brought a company of soldiers and some guards from the chief priests and Pharisees. They came there carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus knew everything that was to happen to him, so he went out and asked, “Who are you looking for?”
They answered, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
He said to them, “I Am.” (Judas, his betrayer, was standing with them.)
When he said, “I Am,” they shrank back and fell to the ground. He asked them again, “Who are you looking for?”
They said, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
You went into a garden, a place of growing things,
a sanctuary that germinates, flowers, where leaves
burst from the earth like small green flames the spring.
You went into a garden, a safe place meant for planting seeds
that might grow into fruit that nourishes,
or trees that become homes for those who have none –
You and your friends went into a garden, and betrayal met you there,
a company of men carrying weapons
because they expected violence.
You were guided there by your friend,
a man who has been traveling with you all along.
Who are you looking for? you asked.
Jesus the Nazarene, they said.
I AM, you said.
The Gospel of John, 18 chapters earlier, begins:
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
You Are, you said, I AM.
You have been here from before time, one being, with the Father,
but right now, in the garden,
you are a man, a friend, an outlaw.
You are standing with those who love you and with those who hate you.
In the Gospel of John, you define yourself seven times:
I am the bread of life.
I am the light of the world.
I am the gate.
I am the good shepherd.
I am the true vine.
You describe yourself in the language of earth,
in the vocabulary of everyday,
in the objects you knew we would understand.
You said:
I am the resurrection and the life.
I am the way and the truth and the life.
But tonight, all you say is
I AM,
speaking the ancient name God gave himself
in conversation with Moses.
No wonder the powerful saw threat in you.
No wonder the powerless saw hope in you.
Jesus answered, “I told you, ‘I Am.’ If you are looking for me, then let these people go.” This was so that the word he had spoken might be fulfilled: “I didn’t lose anyone of those whom you gave me.”
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) Jesus told Peter, “Put your sword away! Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me?” Then the company of soldiers, the commander, and the guards from the Jewish leaders took Jesus into custody.
Peter, Peter, put away your sword, you said. You are absolved.
In this scene in the Gospel of Matthew, you say
those who live by the sword
perish by the sword.
Those who meet violence with violence
reap bitter fruit.
Here, you remind us that you are with us for a reason,
for just a little while,
and it is not an easy visit.
You have a lot of work to do
and not a lot of time.
Always the rabbi,
in living, you knew you could teach us
how to love,
and in dying you knew you could teach us
how not to hate.
They bound him and led him first to Annas. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. (Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it was better for one person to die for the people.)
Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Because this other disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard. However, Peter stood outside near the gate. Then the other disciple (the one known to the high priest) came out and spoke to the woman stationed at the gate, and she brought Peter in. The servant woman stationed at the gate asked Peter, “Aren’t you one of this man’s disciples?”
“I’m not,” he replied.
The servants and the guards had made a fire because it was cold. They were standing around it, warming themselves. Peter joined them there, standing by the fire and warming himself.
Meanwhile, the chief priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered, “I’ve spoken openly to the world. I’ve always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews gather. I’ve said nothing in private. Why ask me? Ask those who heard what I told them. They know what I said.”
After Jesus spoke, one of the guards standing there slapped Jesus in the face. “Is that how you would answer the high priest?” he asked.
Jesus replied, “If I speak wrongly, testify about what was wrong. But if I speak correctly, why do you strike me?” Then Annas sent him, bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.
Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing with the guards, warming himself. They asked, “Aren’t you one of his disciples?”
Peter denied it, saying, “I’m not.”
A servant of the high priest, a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said to him, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” Peter denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed.
This is one of those moments
where we look for ourselves
in your story.
We start to wonder
where we are.
Would we have been strong,
been honest,
admitted we traveled with you,
taught with you,
believed your heresies,
watched you touch lepers,
heal those who could not see or walk,
feed the thousands
with the bread of life,
Would we have admitted
that we shared a meal with you just last night,
that we fell asleep in the garden,
or would we have stayed awake?
Would we have
faced arrest and possibly crucifixion,
or would we have denied you too?
Are we Peter—afraid, impetuous, not wanting to die,
warming our hands by a strangers’ fire
while our friend is interrogated by the authorities –
Are we Peter,
the rock on whom the Church will be built?
The Jewish leaders led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s palace. It was early in the morning. So that they could eat the Passover, the Jewish leaders wouldn’t enter the palace; entering the palace would have made them ritually impure.
So Pilate went out to them and asked, “What charge do you bring against this man?”
They answered, “If he had done nothing wrong, we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.”
Pilate responded, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your Law.”
The Jewish leaders replied, “The Law doesn’t allow us to kill anyone.” (This was so that Jesus’ word might be fulfilled when he indicated how he was going to die.)
Pilate went back into the palace. He summoned Jesus and asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others spoken to you about me?”
Pilate responded, “I’m not a Jew, am I? Your nation and its chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?”
Jesus replied, “My kingdom doesn’t originate from this world. If it did, my guards would fight so that I wouldn’t have been arrested by the Jewish leaders. My kingdom isn’t from here.”
“So you are a king?” Pilate said.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this reason: to testify to the truth. Whoever accepts the truth listens to my voice.”
“What is truth?” Pilate asked.
In the middle of an interrogation,
a thrown-together “trial,”
Pilate, in confusion and frustration, perhaps exasperation,
throws this enormous question at you—
What is truth? –
stopping abruptly in the middle of this difficult story
of politics and perceived threats to human power
to ask you a philosophical question.
Did Pilate think you had the answer?
Did Pilate hope you had the answer?
For a moment, in the midst of this chaos,
the crowd shouting outside,
the fear of the emperor simmering inside,
did Pilate recognize that what was happening
was greater than the betrayal of one man,
greater than thirty pieces of silver,
greater than Roman power plays,
greater than the pettiness of leaders
trying to protect their own power?
Did Pilate look in your eyes and see
Rabbi, Teacher?
How do we answer that question—
What is truth? —
when we are surrounded by the shouts
of angry mobs?
What is truth?
How do we separate it from the cacophony?
How do we hear it
when the voices that speak it
are silenced?
This is the truth
we see in you:
that you so loved the
messy, weak, angry world
that you became
bread,
a gate,
a shepherd,
a vine.
You accepted life
in its joy and its agony
because of love.
After Pilate said this, he returned to the Jewish leaders and said, “I find no grounds for any charge against him. You have a custom that I release one prisoner for you at Passover. Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?”
They shouted, “Not this man! Give us Barabbas!” (Barabbas was an outlaw.)
Then Pilate had Jesus taken and whipped. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple robe. Over and over they went up to him and said, “Greetings, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
Pilate came out of the palace again and said to the Jewish leaders, “Look! I’m bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no grounds for a charge against him.” When Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here’s the man.”
When the chief priests and their deputies saw him, they shouted out, “Crucify, crucify!”
Pilate told them, “You take him and crucify him. I don’t find any grounds for a charge against him.”
The Jewish leaders replied, “We have a Law, and according to this Law he ought to die because he made himself out to be God’s Son.”
When Pilate heard this word, he was even more afraid. He went back into the residence and spoke to Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus didn’t answer. So Pilate said, “You won’t speak to me? Don’t you know that I have authority to release you and also to crucify you?”
Jesus replied, “You would have no authority over me if it had not been given to you from above. That’s why the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” From that moment on, Pilate wanted to release Jesus.
However, the Jewish leaders cried out, saying, “If you release this man, you aren’t a friend of the emperor! Anyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes the emperor!”
When Pilate heard these words, he led Jesus out and seated him on the judge’s bench at the place called Stone Pavement (in Aramaic, Gabbatha). It was about noon on the Preparation Day for the Passover. Pilate said to the Jewish leaders, “Here’s your king.”
The Jewish leaders cried out, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
Pilate responded, “What? Do you want me to crucify your king?”
“We have no king except the emperor,” the chief priests answered. Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified.
Over and over again,
you redefined our world.
You show us
a different way of understanding power.
My kingdom isn’t from here,
you say.
Your kingship isn’t about flattery
or self-preservation
or wealth
or worldly authority.
Pilate gives up on you,
but you give him absolution, saying,
You would have no authority over me
if it had not been given to you from above.
That’s why the one who handed me over to you
has the greater sin.
You say to Pilate:
It’s all right.
This is what is supposed to happen.
The Romans mock you,
giving you a crown of thorns
and a purple robe.
The crowds trade you
for a violent robber,
freeing a criminal
and sentencing an innocent,
and all the while
you do nothing to stop it.
You do not call soldiers
or angels to save you.
Put away your sword,
you say,
you, who rode into Jerusalem
on a donkey.
Kingship, you say,
is giving oneself
for the kingdom.
Kingship
is about love.
The soldiers took Jesus prisoner. Carrying his cross by himself, he went out to a place called Skull Place (in Aramaic, Golgotha). That’s where they crucified him—and two others with him, one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a public notice written and posted on the cross. It read “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Therefore, the Jewish chief priests complained to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The king of the Jews’ but ‘This man said, I am the king of the Jews.”’
Pilate answered, “What I’ve written, I’ve written.”
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and his sandals, and divided them into four shares, one for each soldier. His shirt was seamless, woven as one piece from the top to the bottom. They said to each other, “Let’s not tear it. Let’s cast lots to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill the scripture,
They divided my clothes among themselves,
and they cast lots for my clothing.
That’s what the soldiers did.
Jesus‘ mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene stood near the cross. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
What is truth?
That we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind
and love one another.
What is kingdom?
A world where all are family to each other.
What is death?
Not the end.
After this, knowing that everything was already completed, in order to fulfill the scripture, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was nearby, so the soldiers soaked a sponge in it, placed it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When he had received the sour wine, Jesus said, “It is completed.” Bowing his head, he gave up his life.
[Silence.]
It was the Preparation Day and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath, especially since that Sabbath was an important day. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of those crucified broken and the bodies taken down. Therefore, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men who were crucified with Jesus. When they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead so they didn’t break his legs. However, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. The one who saw this has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he speaks the truth, and he has testified so that you also can believe. These things happened to fulfill the scripture, They won’t break any of his bones. And another scripture says, They will look at him whom they have pierced.
After this Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate if he could take away the body of Jesus. Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one because he feared the Jewish authorities. Pilate gave him permission, so he came and took the body away. Nicodemus, the one who at first had come to Jesus at night, was there too. He brought a mixture of myrrh and aloe, nearly seventy-five pounds in all. Following Jewish burial customs, they took Jesus’ body and wrapped it, with the spices, in linen cloths. There was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish Preparation Day and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus in it.
You died a criminal, but you were buried
as a king would be,
by men who heard truth
in your words
and saw love
in your work.
Joseph of Arimathea,
part of the elite,
and Nicodemus,
who came to you first by night
seeking to understand
but afraid to be seen.
They are the ones who bury you now
with compassion,
with sorrow,
with no certainty that
there will be
resurrection.
Even as they move through
the aftermath of your death,
they may not realize it,
but their very faith
holds the spark of new life.
Even at the tomb,
there is hope.
Resources:
Kenneth Grayston, The Gospel of John (Narrative Bible Commentaries)
Raymond Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament
F.F. Bruce, The Gospel and Epistles of John
Pulpit Fiction lectionary commentary
— The Rev. Cara Ellen Modisett, Curate, Trinity Episcopal Church of Staunton
Good Friday, April 7, 2023
Reading: John 18:1 – 19:42 (Translation: Common English Bible)
