Maundy Thursday Homilies

John 18:28–19:42 ESV

Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” They answered him, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

Scripture: John 18:28-19:42

Homily 1: Who is The King of Truth? (Mocked by the World)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Pilate wanted to know the truth. When the Jewish officials brought Jesus to him, he wanted to know what Jesus was being accused of, what he was being charged with, why he was even being involved. Pilate wanted to know if Jesus was “the King of the Jews.” He wanted to know what that meant and what this guy must have done. Pilate had some sense of justice, at least in this situation. There was nothing Jesus told him, no evidence uncovered that made Pilate believe he should involve himself much in what he saw as a Jewish dispute. This was their trial, their religion. The truth Pilate uncovered was not giving him cause to even charge Jesus with a crime, let alone put him to death as the Jews had demanded.

           That being said, Pilate was told by this man on trial, that he was a king. In John 18:36, we heard, “‘My kingdom is not of this world,’ said Jesus.” The NIV translates verse 37, “Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’” Jesus didn’t stand before Pilate with a royal robe and a fancy crown on. He didn’t have diplomatic credentials or an entourage. He hadn’t come with chariots or stallions. He hadn’t been brought over from a palace or headquarters. He certainly did not look like a king, yet he claimed that title.

           So, who is Jesus the King? The Gospel of John doesn’t give us much of his birth story, but we read in Matthew 2:1-2, “…Wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we…have come to worship him.’” Around the time of Jesus’ birth, they were looking for the King of the Jews. God had revealed that to them. Jumping to Jesus’ ministry and calling his disciples, John 1:49, Nathanael, one of the Twelve, declared “‘Rabbi…you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!’” God had revealed that to him. In John 12 verses 13 and 14—in both the shouts of the triumphal entry crowd and the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy, Jesus was identified again as Israel’s king. Throughout chapters 18 and 19, twelve times we read Jesus being labeled or asked if he was “the king of the Jews.”

To the public, Jesus was a teacher, a miracle-worker, a healer. That was what he had done and how he had spoken. Yet he absolutely was the King of the Jews, the King of Israel. Not only that, but as Jesus testified to Pilate: he’s the king of heaven, ruling over a kingdom that is not constrained to a single town or city, a state or province, a country or region, or even the entire world. One commentator remarked that Pilate’s task, the scope of his questioning, really just had to figure out how Jesus “might affect the sovereignty of Caesar.” For believes now, we can say, “Jesus’ kingship totally affects the sovereignty of Caesar. Caesar is beneath Jesus! Caesar’s a small pawn compared to the eternal Son of God.” Yet it’s doubtful Pilate comprehended that at this point.

Jesus is king over all creation. As king, he came to die that he might save sinners who trust in him. As this king, he came into the world, he came in flesh and blood, to show people that he is the one to believe in. On Sunday, we heard how the devil, Satan, had gone into Judas prior to his betraying Jesus. The devil is the father of lies, the deceiver; he is anti-Christ and anti-God. Yet King Jesus brings truth, truth which points us back to our Creator and his desires for us, truth which gives hope to what the Redeemer will one day fully give. During his time on earth, King Jesus lived and breathed and offered in his actions mercy and justice for all who believe in him. His truth is that there is grace, grace that cleanses all our sins and guilt. 

As we heard in the final section, the soldiers mocked Jesus in a variety of a ways. They took the truth, the King of the Universe, and they spit on him, the slapped him, they rejected that which they did not understand or believe. May God in his grace make clear to each one of us the truth of his Son the Savior. If we have rejected him or are rejecting him right now, may God keep us from missing this truth of Jesus, the King who suffered. The hour has come; listen to the King.

Homily 2: The Only King Worthy of Worship is Definitively Rejected By His Own

           Brothers and sisters in Christ, Edwin Blum writes of when Pilate brought Jesus out in John 19:5, “Jesus by that time must have appeared as a pathetic figure, bloody and wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.” The soldiers hadn’t just thrown a couple punches to give Jesus a bruise or two. Jesus had suffered at their hands. He hadn’t looked like a king before, and he certainly wouldn’t have now—he could not have been a pretty sight. The truth is, with each section we just heard, Jesus grew weaker and weaker, he suffered more and more, and when he was hung up on the cross, this was where he would die.

           In the first homily, I focused a lot on Pilate, so I want to draw our attention to the Jews now. They brought him to Pilate as a criminal, who they wanted put to death. They were willing to have the revolutionary, the insurrectionist, the rebel, Barabbas—a real and dangerous criminal released for this man who they knew had done nothing wrong. To the Jewish officials and crowd, they wanted his life, because they viewed him as a blasphemer and a rival to Caesar. If Pilate was looking for the truth, the Jewish officials had made up their minds against the truth.

           Why is that so devastating? Why does that fill multiple speakers and writers in the New Testament with such sorrow? Part of it is the reality that a king isn’t just all the royal garb and all the power, but if we go back again to the wise men who came around Jesus’ birth, they came to worship him. The true King should be worshiped. Moses had taught that to their forefathers and mothers, back in Deuteronomy 6:13 through 15, “Fear the LORD your God, worship him, and take your oaths in his name…The LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise, the LORD your God will become angry with you and obliterate you from the face of the earth.” That’s one of the passages Jesus answered the devil with when the devil tried to tempt him with all the kingdoms of the world and giving him “‘their splendor and all this authority.’” All Jesus had to do was worship him. Yet Jesus knew that the LORD God alone is to be worshiped.

           Most committed Jews, especially their leaders, would have know that verse and others like it. They knew the greatest commandments were to love God and love their neighbors. Yet Jesus was God in the flesh, fully God and fully man, and they rejected him. They wanted him dead. They could not love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

All this is not to say that after these events that they couldn’t have been converted. After they had not believed in him and rejected him, God could have mercifully revealed the truth to them, forgiving their sins, and granting them the promise of eternal life. God could and may have done that! But this does show us the weightiness of people’s hatred when they don’t know Jesus. We heard earlier in John in this series how the world hated Jesus and would hate his disciples, too. That can be easy to identify among extreme religious groups that hold a loud hostility against anything remotely Christian. Yet there are many people who want little or nothing to do with Jesus, who we can sometimes see as different, not so bad, not terrible.

But the undeniable, the unchangeable truth of God’s word is that he alone is to be worshiped and served. He must be worshiped in our lives—that is the action and the duty and the fruit that will come about if we believe Jesus is King, if we believe he is Savior. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be worshiped by a person every minute, hour, day, and year of their lives. That may mean that he’s worshiped for mere minutes. No matter how long or short, the way of salvation accepts what the Jews that we’ve been following were rejecting at this point.

Jesus is the true King. What that means for the believer, according to Heidelberg Catechism Question and Answer 31 is this, “…He has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be…our eternal king who governs us by his Word and Spirit, and who guards us and keep us in the freedom he has won for us.” What we can’t do for ourselves, what we can’t even fully wrap our minds around, Christ offers us freedom as the King who died and yet who we know also rose again. The hour has come; believe in the King.

Homily 3: Cleansing

           Jesus was dead. It was such an obvious, undeniable reality that the soldiers who were ordered to expedite the execution process by breaking the legs of these men who had been crucified skipped over doing that to Jesus. They weren’t trying to be nice. They likely had no knowledge of any texts about the Christ’s bones not being broken. They had joined others in the crowd to mock and humiliate the men on the crosses. While some stood by full of sorrow and mourning, this was just work for most of them. Jesus was dead, that’s what mattered.

           It mattered to the religious leaders could now celebrate. They had finally accomplished what they had been trying to do for a while. Now they could be relieved, surely the people would turn back to them. They—who didn’t recognize that this was the Christ, the one they were to be waiting for—they had finished, they had completed what they wanted to as well. These men had twisted their religion and their laws to fit their desires, not to do God’s will. Yet God used all this to accomplish his purposes for redemption and salvation! Sin had brought death, sin had brought the curse, but now Jesus took those—in spite of the actions of men—to give life and hope!

           Let’s go to the burial, though. Some of us have been studying the book of Leviticus this year, and we’ve heard dead things were to be considered unclean. God’s covenant people were to avoid touching dead bodies. Leviticus presents this regarding at least the priests, and Numbers 19 verses 11 through 22 shows that it applied to normal people, too. If they came into contact with something that was dead or otherwise unclean, then they were considered unclean. What belongs to God must be cleansed and purified. They were not to defile the things of God with unclean things, so God gave them rituals for cleansing. If you touched a dead body, you were unclean for seven days and you had to wash on the third and seventh day or be cut off from God’s people.

           Being defiled, risking profaning God, was the rationale the Jews gave for not going into Pilate’s headquarters earlier in John 18. Executing Jesus themselves would have broken their law, according to them—his blood couldn’t be on their hands. So, too, while they needed to get rid of this Jesus, they also needed the bodies to come down before the Sabbath. They were concerned about all these things even when they missed the greatest One of them all—Jesus himself.

           Joseph and Nicodemus, both Jews and officials, they came and took the dead body of Jesus down. They took it and wrapped it with myrrh, aloes, and spices. They became ceremonially unclean so that Jesus’ body could be properly cared for. I don’t think they or the women or the disciples expected Jesus to rise from the dead. This was not how they hoped for things to go, but this was where they had gone. They would have gone home this night and mourned, they mourned the whole next day the Sabbath, and when they woke up on the third day, they expected the nightmare to continue.

           Thanks be to God, we know Sunday is coming, Easter is coming, the day on which the nightmare ended! Death was defeated and Jesus was alive again! Do not miss, though, that loving God, believing in Jesus who died as Joseph and Nicodemus did, was of ultimate importance. The Sabbath mattered and we’re told in Luke 23 verse 56 that they observed it, but at this moment, this mattered more. They would be ceremonially unclean for touching his body, but instead of washing the way they had always been taught, the blood, the perfect sacrifice of Jesus gave way to such a better cleansing. Hebrews 9:13 highlights the old covenant, “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ,” while his literal blood and water poured out onto the ground beneath the cross, his blood, his life, his death is given to any and all who believe, “through the eternal Spirit…[to] cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.” Joseph and Nicodemus could know there was a better cleansing for themselves, a purification of the outside and insider. He died “to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time…to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Amen.”