Preached at St Peter’s, Poulshot and Christ Church, Bulkington
Colossians 1. 11-20; Luke 23. 33-43
“The soldiers also mocked him … saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’”
Being a king can be a dangerous business. William II, aka William Rufus, son of the Conqueror, combined unbridled tastes for the pleasures of the flesh with a steady and wise hand in steering the affairs of state. That didn’t stop him being shot by an arrow in a hunting accident that many believe was no accident. Edward II died in mysterious circumstances while in the custody of his wife’s lover. Richard II was another unlucky second, and was murdered while in prison, just like the much later Henry VI. (Henry II actually survived!)
We might think of Presidents as kings in a democratic era, and Kennedy, Garfield, Lincoln, and McKinley were all assassinated, meaning America’s chiefs have a one in eleven chance of being shot dead in office. The leader of Ireland’s War of Independence, Michael Collins, never even got the chance to become his country’s prime minister, ambushed while Chairman of what was still a Provisional Government, shot by his own side (although the people ultimately to blame were – of course – the Brits). From Pharaoh Ramesses III through Julius Caesar to Yitzhak Rabin and Muammar Gadaffi, the head man of any society has always been in particular danger of losing his head.
So, in being put to death, Jesus is very much in the mould an earthly king, despite the humiliating misery of His circumstances in today’s Gospel reading. To be a leader is to be a target. Yet this is happening to Christ even though He has rejected every attempt to have Him seize earthly power, much to the disappointment of His closest followers. Having sought no power He is sentenced to death with, in Luke’s record, neither Pilate nor even Herod having found any possible charge that could stick to Him.
He is executed merely to appease a baying mob and perhaps avoid a nasty bout of rioting. He is literally a scapegoat, slaughtered for the sins of others in the politically tense and often violent circumstances of Roman Palestine. Put to death because the corruption of the Herods, the arrogant brutality of the Romans, and the Jews’ delusions about their own strength combine to create a land constantly bubbling on the edge of violence.
What is the death of one man if it preserves the fragile peace, and is the price that must be paid to spare misery for a million? All states make calculations of this nature from time to time, from blind eyes turned to obvious injustices through to bloody wars of choice. Perfect justice eludes human attempts to create it. There are always difficult calculations and trade-offs to be made in a world of laziness and prejudice, and even where these sins are avoided, a world of clashing perspectives and imperfect information.
