Ask Those Who Heard
Notes
Transcript
Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said.”
Why would Jesus say this?
We know from the other Gospels that not only were “those who heard” (including Annas, the one questioning him) opposed to Jesus and plotting to have him killed, but they had a habit of misquoting him or quoting him out of context to intentionally try and make Jesus seem guilty of treason or heresy.
So why say this?
It helps to consider what Jesus was trying to accomplish here.
Was his goal to legally defend himself from the charges? No. While Jesus prayed that this burden might be taken from him, he also prayed that God’s will be done first, knowing that his burden was to bear our burdens, including our lack of faith in him.
Was his goal to win over the crowd there that day? Unlikely. Jesus knew he would be completely abandoned by humanity, despite his very incarnation being owed to a dedication to love humanity and the world no matter what.
Have you ever sent a letter to your future self, or buried a time capsule, or watched as a time capsule is opened?
Jesus’ target audience at this interrogation, at least in John’s telling, is not there that day, because it didn’t exist yet. Rather, his words were like a time capsule - meant for a different time than that in which they were said.
Some who were there clearly took note, enough that after his resurrection, his responses could be shared in the Gospels. But, as is so often the case, the people did not understand what he meant at the time and only made sense of his meaning after the fact, having seen the rest of his story.
But his target audience is also those who were not there, including those, like us, who were not even born. When he says “ask those who heard what I said,” Jesus simultaneously accomplishes three purposes:
1. he submits to the mis-construals of those who would have him killed,
2. he challenges those who were present and open to the word to share the Gospel as they began later to understand it, and
3. he calls those who were not present to seek out faithful testimony and judge for ourselves what is true
We turn to the Word (Jesus Christ) and the word of God (the Bible) to find the truth of what has been said, even though the Gospel has been misrepresented from the start, even before the first Good Friday.
Today is no different except in type:
Inside the church are thousands of denominations, most no more than a few hundred years old and many claiming they alone have a true understanding of the Gospel, and some even forbidding others from even praying with them.
Outside the church, the language of Christianity has been coopted (in contrast to Jesus’ teaching) to support political goals - instead of the opposite of basing political goals on Christian teaching. Just last week, Russell Moore, the editor of Christianity Today - one of the largest evangelical Christian magazines, wrote about the decline of virtue as a prerequisite for giving people power. He argues that much of evangelical culture has taken a utilitarian power-first view that is willing not just to look past moral failures but to treat them as permissible or even good.
The truth is, there are many ways to worship and many theologies that can grow and build up (just like Temple, tabernacle, and synagogue judaism). Adiaphora (literally “indifferent things) are practices, theology, and other parts of how we practice our faith that are neither commanded nor forbidden in scripture. Adiaphora can help to strengthen our faith but they are not necessary, and it’s fine for Christians to disagree.
But there are core truths and values that cannot be ignored. The reason we have creeds and we recite them weekly, along with the Lord’s Prayer, the reason the communion liturgy follows a specific format - these bring us back to core parts of faith that Jesus commanded.
While people disagree about how exactly Jesus’ act on the cross saves us - whether it’s as a substitute for us or more Jesus acting as our lawyer in the final judgment or any of a dozen other metaphors - what is clear in every Gospel and throughout church history is that the cross changed everything. Without it, we cannot hope to save ourselves. With it, we need no longer fear, for we have already been saved.
We are called to dwell in both Words (Jesus the Word and the Bible as Word) through Bible reading, prayer, and participation in Christian community because that is how we can reinforce these core truths and find their meaning in today’s context. Through the Bible, we ask those who heard Jesus and the first few generations of Christians after, who are far closer than we are to understanding what Jesus’ life was like and message meant. And in prayer and fellowship we become hearers ourselves through the work of the Holy Spirit.
So what is the word for today contained here? What does this whole story of Jesus’ death and crucifixion teach us?
It holds a mirror up to us, as those who today would just the same accuse or mock or betray him.
But even as we behold our guilt in the mirror, the image changes. Jesus says “I am thirsty” and we see his humanity and empathy. He says “It is finished” and we recognize that in the cross, his love was brought to completion. And then we come to see ourselves differently because the cross shines a light on us of a different kind - it shows us our sins but it also shows us that fullness of God’s love has passed from his pierced hands to us. He does not leave us abandoned on the cross. Even in the midst of such suffering, he made sure that Mary was taken care of by another.
When it was all over and Jesus “gave up his spirit,” a deep quiet of dis-ease must have settled over the area, as all recognized that something very important had happened that day, something crude and painful but also significant. In the midst of that, though, time didn’t stop. No, Joseph of Arimathea (a Jewish disciple of Jesus) and Nicodemus (the same Pharisee who came in the night to ask Jesus questions) undertook the work that they knew must be done of preparing the body for burial before the sabbath.
They, like the witnesses against Jesus, did not yet understand what was happening and why. But they understood their calls at that moment.
With the gift of hindsight, we can see more of how the story ends today. But even so, we walk in darkness much of the time - we can see the great light of Christ, but not always near enough to make out what is going on. That Friday and today, it is ok to live in that uncertainty, to not know what’s going on, even to question our beliefs.
Because the love we see on the cross, the love we hear in Jesus final words, the love we see enacted through communities of faith in some of the most trying times of history - these all hold steady and will not fail, even though we as individuals or even entire congregations or denominations struggle or turn away. Jesus is at his strongest willingly submitting to God and going to the cross. And neither our strongest resistance nor our weakest capitulation to the power of sin comes close to that power.
We weep, and rightly, for what the realization of that power took - the sacrifice of the only truly pure and good the world has ever known. It’s good to take time to let that sink in as much as it can, to appreciate the cross on its own and the meaning and finality of our death to sin in baptism. As Jesus goes to the grave, love may feel like it has left and will never return. But just when we are at our lowest, Jesus, through the Holy Spirit is there to remind us to “Ask those who heard what he said” for “they know what he said.”
I leave you today with this encouragement from Hebrews 12:1-3:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.
When all else is stripped away, we look to the cross so that we do not grow weary or lose heart. And we never do so alone. For the very witnesses that convicted and sentenced Jesus have, through the groundwork Jesus prepared while he was still alive, knowing that it would not be understood yet… they have become the witnesses to the power of faith’s perseverance and Christ’s singular act of love.