SPEAKER_00: Morning, Church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, my name is Eve, and I'm Zimbabwean.
SPEAKER_00: Um, our reading is taken from the Church Bible, Luke 23, verse 44 to 49, and it's on page 1060.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the death of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It was about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: For the sun stopped shining and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus called out with a loud voice, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: When he had said this, he breathed his last breath.
SPEAKER_00: The centurions, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, Surely this was a righteous man.
SPEAKER_00: When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.
SPEAKER_00: But all those who knew who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things.
SPEAKER_01: And we asked the question, why did the centurion praise God?
SPEAKER_01: Why did the spectators beat their breasts as they went away?
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna come up on the screen a prayer of confession.
SPEAKER_01: Uh no, I'm going to speak to you before we do that.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll hold the prayer of confession.
SPEAKER_01: We will hold communion until after I've shared with you.
SPEAKER_01: So we've been through a series of eight readings, and we've actually only scratched the surface of the text.
SPEAKER_01: I would encourage you when you go home to read all of the text and fill in the blanks that we haven't had the time to cover this morning.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm going to just take us very briefly through those questions and a reflection on the answers to them as a way of helping us to engage with what was going on on that first Easter Good Friday.
SPEAKER_01: We asked why did Jesus do as he usually did and go to the garden?
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus ask God for another way?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus went where he normally went for at least two reasons.
SPEAKER_01: First, it was a quiet place away from the noise of the city and the crowds.
SPEAKER_01: It was a place his betrayer Judas would know to find him, and a place where the authorities could arrest him without stirring up a rebellion amongst the people.
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, it was a place to pray, to talk to his father in heaven, to find comfort and strength for what was ahead of him.
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus ask his father if there was another way?
SPEAKER_01: Because he is human and understood only too well the pain and suffering he would endure through his trial and crucifixion?
SPEAKER_01: He chose obedience to his father for our sakes, but it was the costliest form of obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And we asked the question why?
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus allow himself to be taken prisoner at the hands of a friend who betrayed him?
SPEAKER_01: And why did he respond with such gentle compassion to the servant whose ear was cut off?
SPEAKER_01: This was the way it had to be, the way foretold in history past by King David in Psalm 41, verse 9, when he wrote, even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread has turned against me.
SPEAKER_01: And as Luke recorded himself in his account of the Last Supper, which we looked at just a couple of weeks ago, Jesus showed restraint, humility, and compassion all the way through the account of his arrest, trial, and crucifixion.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder what this miraculous act of healing did for the servant as he observed the events that would follow.
SPEAKER_01: Did he pay attention to all that had happened?
SPEAKER_01: There was a saying in the Bible, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_01: And then we asked the question: why?
SPEAKER_01: Why did Peter fail so spectacularly within hours of assuring Jesus that he would rather die than let him down?
SPEAKER_01: Peter's failure was a lesson for us all.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't weaker, he wasn't less courageous than any one of us.
SPEAKER_01: He is a reminder that our best intentions and our efforts in our own strength will not save us.
SPEAKER_01: We each need to acknowledge that we have had our Peter moment, a time when we spectacularly failed to live up to the example that Jesus set, a time that Jesus saw our failure, just as he did Peter's denials when he looked across the courtyard at him.
SPEAKER_01: Before the reality of yours and my own failure overwhelms us, be reminded that John, in his gospel account at the end, writes of Jesus restoring Peter and to his calling and to his mission.
SPEAKER_01: There is hope even for such a sinner as you and I.
SPEAKER_01: And we asked the question: why did Jesus answer the question, Are you then the Son of God?
SPEAKER_01: As he did.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus replied, You say that I am.
SPEAKER_01: Whilst that is not the clearest English, make no mistake about its meaning.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is emphatically affirming he is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: He makes the question from the Jewish leaders a declaration that he is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Whilst they may have argued the semantics of who said what, they didn't bother because they had heard enough to judge Jesus as guilty of blasphemy, a crime punishable by death.
SPEAKER_01: And the fifth question: why did the Jewish leaders lie to Pilate?
SPEAKER_01: And why did Pilate respond as he did?
SPEAKER_01: The leaders attempt to deceive Pilate with a lie about Jesus opposing paying taxes to Caesar, hoping to force him to act.
SPEAKER_01: Pilate doesn't take the bait.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps he reasoned, every Jew objected to that.
SPEAKER_01: Pilate isn't interested in the claim that he is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: That is a Jewish religious matter.
SPEAKER_01: Pilate asks Jesus if he is the King of the Jews, and Jesus replies exactly as he did to the chief priests.
SPEAKER_01: He turns back the question to the questioner.
SPEAKER_01: Pilate is unmoved and likely smells a trap.
SPEAKER_01: Jewish politics was messy and best kept well away.
SPEAKER_01: He tries not to be drawn in.
SPEAKER_01: Sixthly, we ask the question: why did Pilate surrender to the will of the crowds rather than do what was right and just?
SPEAKER_01: Pilate is in a no-win situation.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly what he was trying to avoid.
SPEAKER_01: He knew Jesus was innocent, and that the Jewish leaders were conspiring to have him killed.
SPEAKER_01: If he let Jesus go, there would be a riot in Jerusalem, and many more people may die.
SPEAKER_01: And word would get back to Rome that he, Pilate, had lost control of his territory.
SPEAKER_01: That might cost him his post and may ultimately cost him his life.
SPEAKER_01: The easy option was to give in to peer pressure, to wash his hands of the matter.
SPEAKER_01: What Pilate did was morally wrong and inexcusable.
SPEAKER_01: But you could argue that it was politically astute.
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus forgive the soldiers?
SPEAKER_01: Why did the criminal ask Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're following the worksheet, you'll have noticed there's only eight boxes on there and nine stories, and the number seven is missing.
SPEAKER_01: If you take a look carefully on your worksheet, there is a gap between the top two boxes and the next two.
SPEAKER_01: And if you trace around the shape between those boxes, you'll draw box seven.
SPEAKER_01: It is the shape of a cross.
SPEAKER_01: Cunning plan.
SPEAKER_01: Sophie's impressed.
SPEAKER_01: There is a sense in which the soldiers and the crowds knew exactly what they were doing.
SPEAKER_01: The soldiers were professional and experienced at crucifying criminals.
SPEAKER_01: But just like the high priest's servant, who Jesus had mercy on, Jesus purposed that his shed blood and his death would cover the sins of everyone, even the soldiers who nailed him to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Elsewhere in the Gospels we read that both criminals mocked Jesus, but Luke tells us one of them comes to a startling realization.
SPEAKER_01: The man on the middle cross is not guilty of any crime except that written on the notice above his head, that he is the king of the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: This unnamed criminal.
SPEAKER_01: Realize that Jesus was king of a greater kingdom than that ruled by Rome, the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: He asked that Jesus would remember him when he came into his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus promised him that he would be with him that very day.
SPEAKER_01: What a promise.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have that assurance of life with God after death?
SPEAKER_01: If you do, or if you will trust him now, write your name on the cross and rejoice that your sins are forgiven and the gift of life, life in all its fullness, is yours.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have that sheet to be able to write your name, visualize the cross, put your name on it, and know that Jesus took your place and bore your punishment.
SPEAKER_01: He died your death, that you are no that's Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Wait for it.
SPEAKER_01: And then question eight.
SPEAKER_01: I believe the centurion is struck by the power of that occasion, a death like no other.
SPEAKER_01: The prayers, pleading for mercy, offering forgiveness, the assurance given to the criminal, the supernatural darkness and the manner of Jesus' death.
SPEAKER_01: He had not suffocated as he should, nor has he died of his injuries.
SPEAKER_01: He has been crucified, but he has not been killed.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' life has not been taken from him.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, he has given up his life, dying in the place of sinners.