[Expletive Intended]

The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday (Year A, RCL)
March 16, 2008

The Reverend Paul R. Abernathy, Rector

Who killed Jesus?

On this annual day when the Christian Church reads, revels in the Passion Narrative – the story of Jesus’ suffering and death – somewhere, someone hearing this sordid tale of malice and injustice will ask, “Who killed Jesus?” And somewhere, someone will answer, “The Jews!”

The question and the answer receive an even greater emphasis on Good Friday when the Passion Narrative is read from the gospel according to John, who makes a point of repeatedly using the words, “the Jews.” Words, which – despite John’s intent to reference only Jesus’ enemies and not the countless numbers who heard and welcomed him gladly – often historically, sadly have been misinterpreted, misused as a damning accusation against all Jews.

But that’s on Friday when church going crowds are smaller. On Palm Sunday, the congregations are larger and the story is the same. With it, the attendant question, “Who killed Jesus?” With the question, the ever attendant answer, “the Jews.” With the answer, for some, the attendant certainty, “This I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Several years ago, a Jewish friend, with the searing sorrow of a Hebrew prophet, said to me, “I despise your Palm Sunday, your Holy Week, and your Easter celebration, for every year lunatics take license to curse me, calling me, 'Christ-killer!'”

I grieved with my friend, then. I grieve with her now and for myself, for the sin of anti-Semitism remains an indelible stain on Christian history.

So, this Palm Sunday, I ask afresh, who killed Jesus?

Perhaps we might gain some clue by looking at the Passion Narrative,^[1] and before asking, who, ask why. What did Jesus do to deserve death?

It’s hard to tell. He was accused by the chief priests and elders,^[2] the charges, unspecified. So, I shall assume that they were baseless, so lacking foundation that Jesus chose not to reply. Perhaps the lesson here is not merit of the charge, but the person of the accuser (and woe betide you if your accusers are the powerful and privileged!).

So, again, what did Jesus do? Apparently, nothing. Certainly nothing legally actionable. Even Pilate’s wife, through the subconscious agency of a dream, was convinced of Jesus’ innocence.^[3]

So, what did Jesus really do? (When people in high places are mad at you – enough to kill you – you must have done something!) To answer this question, I believe, is to answer the question: Who killed Jesus.

According to Matthew, Jesus came proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”^[4] Jesus called us to turn around and away from our selfish self-interest so that we might bear in our bodies – in our thoughts and intentions, our words and deeds – the very life of God, the life of love for all and justice toward all.

Jesus also came teaching – “Blessed are the poor in spirit”^[5] and “love your enemies,”^[6] and “the first shall be last and the last, first,”^[7] and “whoever wishes to be great must be a servant,”^[8] thereby exalting the marginalized and, even more, recognizing that one’s dignity has nothing to do with one’s affections for or from another, still less with one’s earthly possessions, but rather, the very fact of one’s creation.

Jesus also came reaching out to the least, women and children, the last, the poor and oppressed, and the lost, “sinners,” who were considered outside of the law and beneath the contempt of the respectable.

What did Jesus do? In proclaiming, in performing in his very being the near presence of God, he challenged the legitimacy of the status quo, which then and now, is founded by power, grounded in privilege, and sustained by maintaining those cherished possessions – with the least, the last, and the lost needing not, needing never to apply for membership.

Jesus threatened all who enjoyed the life and liberty of the way things are. He still does. This, I think, is why historically most Christian preaching has focused on who Jesus is, his identity, his destiny and not what he said and did. For if we take his words and deeds seriously, then, he also challenges and threatens us.

So, who killed Jesus? Matthew tells us, using a four-letter word, an expletive intended, they.

They bound Jesus and led him away, handing him over to Pilate. They accused Jesus. They shouted, “Crucify him!” They stripped him and clothed him in a scarlet robe, placing a crown of thorns on his head. They mocked him, spat on him, and beat him. They crucified him.

Who killed Jesus? They did. Who is “they”? The people. Who are “the people” now? We are! And we kill Jesus whenever we, jealous for our possessions and zealous for our privilege, face life with balled fists of selfish fear and hearts whose portals are closed to those other than our own.

In Christian tradition, it is held that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our redemption was once and for all. Perhaps. More truly, I believe there is at least one sense, one instance in which crucifixion is a daily necessity. Our own – as we, to quote the Apostle Paul, “crucify our passions and desires,”^[9] so that we might be raised to a newer, truer life of love for all.

[1] Matthew 27.1-54

[2] Matthew 27.12

[3] Matthew 27.19

[4] Matthew 4.17

[5] Matthew 5.1ff

[6] Matthew 5.44

[7] Matthew 19.20

[8] Matthew 20.26

[9] Galatians 5.24