Trial for the Ages

Sermon

A corrupt trial where a known violent criminal is let free. An innocent man from a colonized community killed by the state. The state and religion in a toxic power relationship. Mass fear causing the mob to lose sight of truth and be swept up by violence.

This is where we find ourselves in the trial of Jesus Christ before Pontius Pilate. My wording, of course, is meant to evoke thoughts about our present day, but I want to assure you my intentions in preaching are beyond narrow talking points. This sermon is applicable in your everyday spiritual life and firmly rooted theologically in the Biblical text.

So let me paint a picture. I know the trial and crucifixion of Jesus may be familiar to many of you, but just imagine with fresh eyes watching this on a human level. This man on trial, Jesus, is innocent. He has done nothing to deserve any incarceration, much less be put to death. And yet this outsider from the outskirts of Judea, Galilee, from the colonized Israelites, known to be with the poor and outcasts and criminalized of society, is already deemed a criminal as he goes on trial. The way Jesus is treated is UNJUST. And the gospel writer John, in this brilliantly written and narratively riveting text, wants you to feel that at every moment.

The religious leaders from his own religious group push for his death. And their hypocrisy and corruption are rampant. They are so religious they won’t go into Pilate’s headquarters for fear of ritual defilement, but they’re eager to have an innocent man be found guilty. They plead with Pilate for the death penalty while declaring “we’re not permitted to put anyone to death in our rules,” so you do it!

But please, let’s not let Pontius Pilate off the hook here. I am shocked at how many commentators throughout Christian history have painted Pilate with sympathy, perhaps, sadly, with anti-Semitic eyes. Historians have recounted Pilate as a brutal, uncaring governor. And many scholars and theologians have noted the Game of Thrones-like context here. You see, Pilate is a no-name governor in control of his own little fiefdom relative to the massive Roman Empire. And no-name governors were always afraid that if anyone started any trouble in their parts, especially any insurrections from wannabe kings, the empire would come down to deal with it, and someone would be blamed. Do you see what I’m saying?

So when a bunch of religious leaders come to Pilate and say, “You better put this man to death ’cuz he’s riling up the people and calling himself king,” do you see what’s happening here?

And lest you start to have some sympathy, Pilate does not handle it like some dignified responsible leader but like a lot of politicians—he’s feckless, cowardly, corrupt. At every moment, this head of the state tries to ward off responsibility like every sleazy politician. “You deal with it; don’t you have your own law?” He nonchalantly and mockingly repeats the religious phrase “king of the Judeans,” a leader with disdain with the religious leaders he appeases as long as it serves the empire. And perhaps obvious to any who have seen politicians favor political expediency over any sense of principal or morality, his only reply to testimony of truth and kingdoms beyond this world is “What is truth?”

All this nonsense, while an innocent life hangs in the balance. And then peel back a layer. This Jesus is the Messiah. Is GOD. And yet the religious institution that is supposed to be the voice of God and the political institution that is supposed to uphold God’s justice in society put. God. To. Death. And in exchange, God’s love is so threatening that the religion and the state release a guilty, violent criminal to quell the masses.

Who is on trial here? The religious leaders and the Roman cronies all think Jesus is. But, plot twist, Jesus is actually the judge. And religion without love, and the state without love, and the mob of people without love, all reveal the grave injustices of humanity.

But here is my point. This act of grave injustice is not an ancillary part of the Bible but occurs in the central story of our faith. And if we are to have any celebration or honoring of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we need to pause and see the injustice of how Jesus was treated, and also see the gospel in it.

How? A Black theologian around the civil rights movement, James Cone, noted something. This cross business looks a lot like a lynching. It’s not right. But if this story is true, God is with the lynched. This is GOSPEL for us Black people, who have to deal with a system that had literally enslaved us.

You need to follow me here, and let go for a moment of questions of what this means for politics. This is bigger than politics, this is a deeply spiritual matter. Jesus was put on trial and endured this grave injustice, and he had to do it alone. But Jesus endured this injustice so that all who go through injustice don’t have to go through it alone – ever again. Everyone who, as Howard Thurman puts it, “have their backs against the wall,” Jesus got their back. The God of the universe has got the back of all who are crucified.

And, now, follow me if you somehow don’t feel included: this moment also shows that Jesus has got your back too. Because on this trial, everything humanity has to offer against God is thrown at Jesus. A corrupt religion, a corrupt state, a violent people. Evil and injustice every single one of us has participated in, a selfishness that runs in part of all of our hearts. It’s all thrown at Jesus, and Jesus, God incarnate, takes it on himself to eliminate it so that God can still be with us. In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s verdict on injustice and evil and racist systems and political corruption – guilty. But God’s verdict on us? God is doing everything to keep us and love us. God’s got our back.

But how can God do this? How can God be just and condemn injustice while keeping us who still participate in injustice? Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God, the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead, is given to us. And that Holy Spirit, through the fruits of the Spirit, can move us inside to grow and move beyond participating in injustice. By the way, for those listening closely, this is classic Pauline theology. Don’t accuse me of being some wishy-washy liberal who doesn’t know their Bible—I basically just said in the most progressive way possible Jesus died for our sins. And so, and here is my point—

God’s got our backs. So we need to have the backs of all who have their backs against the wall. I’ll say it again, if you’ve been waiting for my thesis. God’s got our backs. So we need to have the backs of all who have their backs against the wall.

Let me make this more plain. We need to show up, have people’s backs when it matters, accompany folks, be there for people. In many situations we get the importance of showing up. Whether at a funeral or a wedding, or going to your kids’ plays, or answering a late-night phone call for family, there is power in showing up. This is what in some circles they call being a “ride or die” for someone. What I’m saying is, Jesus is our ride or die, so we need to pull up for the crucified. One of our community partners, Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice, has a program called accompaniment. In it, a person of faith accompanies an immigrant going through the immigration system because they need support and because judges may be more just if they see someone with a collar sitting next to the person in the proceedings. I’ve done this multiple times back in New York City, and I can’t tell you how many times immigrant folks told me how much they appreciated not having to go through the hearing alone. This is not unlike Black pastors showing up at the trial of the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery, accompanying grieving family members and witnessing the trial to make sure it’s fair.

We need to show up for people, have people’s backs just as Jesus does. On a larger scale, this means fighting to change systems in society that put people’s backs against the wall. Showing up for actions, advocacy, community building. Opening ourselves to understanding communities of color who say they are being deemed “criminalized” in society to keep a white status quo, to low-income and working-class people exploited by corrupt politicians, to LGBTQ folks who know what it’s like to be crucified by religious leaders, to trans people whose bodies are literally being put to death.

And also, we can as a spiritual practice figure out how we can model showing up for people whose backs are against the wall in our everyday lives. How can we model acting justly with the people we can interact with? Who are the folks struggling we can show up for? Do we have children in our lives we can model just living for or teach them the importance of justice? Who has had our back when we had our back against the wall, and how do we do so in return? Write it down if you need to.

And, finally, we need not be surprised when in having people’s backs, a guilty, violent criminal goes free. Because love threatens status quo. People having each other’s back, like say a Black Lives Matter protest in Wisconsin where white allies marched hand in hand with Black people experiencing injustice, that threatens the status quo, so of course Barabbas goes free.

We can be mad, and saddened, and in grief at how arbitrary the law is in terms of justice. But the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control—will prevail. There is no law against such things.