Ourselves At Witnesses To The Crucifixion
John 9:2 Isaiah 53: 4-5 Luke 23-24
Nick Cotton joined the last two sessions of the confirmation class.
Both the adults and juniors were dismayed.
For they knew Nick Cotton well.
He was a liar and a cheat. A petty criminal and a bully boy.
He had been behind bars on several occasions and was making his poor Mother’s life hell.
Nick Cotton is a character in Eastenders.
An East End rogue of despicable proportions.
In those days, his name and face were a by word for villain.
And here he was presenting himself for confirmation in Haywards Heath.
Nick Cotton is played by the actor – John Altmann – a lovely man, and John was in the middle of filming when he came to be confirmed.
So he looked the part. Long lanky hair, two days growth, leaning against the church wall smoking.
To begin with the children would not go anywhere near him.
But when they came to terms with the fact that Nick Cotton is not real, they relaxed and some of the children presented to the Bishop of Chichester on that occasion have two signatures in their confirmation bibles – the Bishop’s and the soap star.
People are not always as they seem.
We should always have our preconceived ideas ready to be shattered – and about Godif necessary.
Jesus began his ministry with a cry.
“Repent and believe the Gospel”
We tend to think this is about admitting our horribleness before God.
Confessing our guilt and casting ourselves upon God with just a modicum of hope that we might escape eternal punishment.
But this is not the intention here.
Repent comes from the Greek “metanoia”- which means “change your mind”
Jesus is inviting his hearers to change the way they look for God in order to see God differently and thus – live differently themselves.
In their day – it was to ask – can you see the presence of God whilst the Romans remain in charge?
Can you see the presence of God whilst your sufferings continue?
Can you see the presence of God in me, Jesus, whilst your personal circumstances are grim.
Or can you only recognise the presence of God in the way you always thought you must.
God is among you, but not as expected – he is among you in me!
And if you have followed this far, listened to all the witnesses that tell you this cannot be so, just come a little closer here at Calvary as time draws on and see how you need to repent now – how you need to see things differently.
I have struggled with some of the traditional atonement theories – and I know I am not alone in this.
I struggle with something like – “God in his mercy wished to save us, but his justice demanded an infinite sacrifice, and so his innocent Son must die so that the debt of our sins might be paid.
I struggle to find that as a way forward alongside everything else I try to say about love
I struggle because I think one of the characteristics of the kingdom of heaven is that we shall be liberated from violence – not find it perpetuated in what the Father requires the Son to do.
I am grateful for the thinking of Rene Girard who briefly surfaces in Tomothy Radcliffe’s recommended Lent reading.
Girard claims that every society finds unity by alighting on scapegoats upon whom it loads its fear and its hatred.
Take any prime Minister.
Sir Fred Goodwin, at the moment.
Jade Goody, for when she originally came to prominence there was no one more vilified.
We lick our lips with anticipation at MP’s expenses revelations.
When something happens which even mildly irritates us we cry out “Who did this!”
This is not a new trait in human kind and I think it is precisely why Jesus came and why he had to die.
He came to challenge the ways in which we heap violence and vengeance on each other.
His teaching is run through with this challenging theme
The sermon on the mount says you are blessed when persecuted.
His confrontation of the religious leaders of the day was so vehement because they had turned the practice of faith into a vengeful and judging thing – which always put them on the right side of the tracks and made everyone else questionable.
This had rubbed off on the disciples who, when they saw a man blind from his birth immediately wanted to understand who was to blame “Rabbi” they said pointing at the man “Who sinned, this man or his parents”?
So Jesus did not die because God demanded a victim but because we do.
As we stand at the foot of the cross the desire that we find someone to blame and beat up is cruelly unmasked.
On the cross God occupies the space of our victim so as to show us that we need never victimise again.
I think as the ministry of Jesus unfolds we get ever more hints that he understands that the cross awaits him – because if you unconditionally love and refuse to meet violence with violence – the lynch mob will track you down and demand your blood.
His non violence gathers together all those who seek a victim – and we can so easily be among that number.
The prophecies of Isaiah start getting too close for comfort
“He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed”
His death is meant to be transform the lynch mob into the Communion of the Church.
Repent and believe the Gospel – in which you see everyone differently.
There is a second little picture at the back of the church. A fairly unremarkable icon of the raising of Lazarus. It is a copy of the last one written by Malcolm Ramsey before his death.
Malcolm Ramsey lived on a council estate in Portsmouth and the local lynch mob heard that he was a paedophile and they set fire to his flat causing the man to have a heart attack which led eventually to his death.
Malcolm Ramsey was not a paedophile at all – he was a haemophiliac – the mob didn’t care though – what’s in a name – someone had to take the blame.
That’s appalling – but so often we wade in to one another without a thought for the full story – without a glance at the cross and why it is Jesus had to die – and what it is that our transgressions add up to.
During these three hours we have drawn near to the experience of various witnesses to the crucifixion. We have examined their short comings and listened to their strange outbursts and yet we have seen how each of them has circled closer to the truth of things than they realised. Pulled closer to the never failing love of God than could have been imagined.
In them we see our own struggles being expressed.
In them we see a hope of salvation which calls us all to paradise.
A battalion of Soldiers, and a awe struck centurion.
Two arguing thieves and some angry passers by..
A wondering disciple and a grief stricken mother
Women who loved but were powerless to help.
It would be easy to get them all to stand in the place of victim for us.
But the truth is each of them in their response to the figure of Jesus on the cross has something about us in them.
Something that does not need to be vilified or even crucified.
But from which the living Lord, in three days time, will mold us into citizens of such a kingdom that we have never dreamed of.
Repent then, repent, so that on this cross you do not see a deluded, suffering man breathing his last – but the king of our lives – on the verge of the greatest of kingdoms
RH 10.4.09