Whom Are We Looking For?

St. Paul’s Church in Bergen & The Church of the Incarnation, Jersey City NJ

March 25, 2016

Good Friday

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Psalm 22

Hebrews 10:16-25

John 18:1-19:42

Whom Are We Looking For?

            Just like in the beginning, once again we find ourselves in a garden.

            Once again, we’re in a garden and once again human beings mess up in a very big way, seeming to ruin everything, yet again.

            We’re told that Jesus and his disciples are in a garden when suddenly Judas shows up with soldiers and police bearing lanterns and torches and weapons.

            Then Jesus, who, we’re told, knew all that was going to happen to him, asks the authorities, asks them twice, in fact, “Whom are you looking for?”

            “Whom are you looking for?”

            Whom are we looking for?

            Especially today, that’s a very good question, isn’t it?

            Whom are we looking for?

            From very early days, on Good Friday, the Church has read and heard the account of our Lord’s Passion according to the Gospel of John.

            It’s a powerful and rich telling of this old, sad, tragic story.

            But, it also presents us with some problems, some baggage, that we need to address right at the start.

            Over the centuries, as the Church retold and reheard this story, it just about forgot something very important: what we are hearing is a Jewish story.

            It’s a story of bitter disagreement and conflict among and between first century Jews, a story of some Jewish leaders rejecting Jesus of Nazareth as the messiah.

            Jesus lived and died as a Jew as did all of his first followers.

            Over time, the Church, either by accident or on purpose, or probably a bit of both, just about forgot that and so this old, sad, tragic story became even more tragic because Christians began to hear it as a story of conflict between Jews and Christians.

            And, as I’m sure I don’t need to tell you but I’m going to say anyway, this story fueled horrific anti-Semitism which I wish I could say has been finally extinguished, but in this season of renewed hatred, ugliness, and violence, we all know better than that.

            “Whom are you looking for?”

            The soldiers and the police answer that they’re looking for Jesus of Nazareth.

            They’re looking for Jesus because they’ve received their orders to arrest him – orders given because some of the religious leaders saw this charismatic rabbi from Galilee as a threat – this rabbi who healed the sick, expelled demons, raised the dead and announced that the Kingdom of God was at hand, this rabbi who had been welcomed into the capital city with waving palms and shouts of “Hosanna!”

            And, you know, the leaders were right to feel threatened, though Jesus wasn’t interested in being chief priest or the kind of king who wears a golden crown and lives in a palace.

            The soldiers and the police come looking for Jesus in the garden and what do they find?

            They find Jesus with a few of his disciples.

            They find Jesus who doesn’t resist.

            They find Jesus who tells Peter to put his sword away.

            They find Jesus who offers a different way.

            They find Jesus who shows us the Way, who is the Way.

            Whom are you looking for?

            Whom are we looking for?

            If we’ve come here this evening looking for Jesus who is far off, hidden, and completely unknowable to us, then we’ve come to the wrong place.

            If we’ve come here this evening looking for Jesus who, how about that, shares all of our opinions and prejudices, likes the people we like and isn’t too crazy about the people we’re not too crazy about, then we’ve come to the wrong place.

            If we’ve come here this evening looking for Jesus who is going to make us rich and successful in the eyes of the world, if only we pray hard enough and follow all the rules and pay our pledge, then we’ve come to the wrong place.

            If we’ve come here this evening looking for Jesus who is going to save us from suffering, who us going to wave a divine magic wand and make our troubles go away while other poor souls continue to languish in pain and despair, then we’ve come to the wrong place.

            So, whom are we looking for?

            Well, if we’ve come here looking for Jesus who makes himself known to us, makes himself known through his teaching, makes himself known to us through his love and sacrifice, makes himself known to us when we wash away the filth that clings to our suffering and broken world, makes himself known to us in the breaking of the bread, then we’ve come to the right place.

            If we’ve come here looking for Jesus who loves everybody, very much including the people we’re not too crazy about, loves us even we’re not too crazy about ourselves, loves, yes, loves Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, loves the soldiers and the police, loves Judas and the chief priests and scribes, if we’ve come here looking for that Jesus, then we’ve come to the right place.

            If we’ve come her looking for Jesus who in the eyes of the world was a complete failure, weak and ineffective, a loser, managing only to attract a small band of less than faithful, less than stellar, followers including one who betrayed him, followers who almost all abandon him at the end, Jesus who hangs on the cross humiliated and quite dead, if we’ve come here looking for that Jesus, then we’ve come to the right place.

            If we’ve come here looking for Jesus who knows all about suffering, Jesus, who still walks with the suffering on the streets of Jersey City, who still makes his home among the people drunk on the corner or shooting up in some dark and dirty room, who still makes his home with those imprisoned in all the ways we imprison ourselves and others, the Jesus who still makes his home with people grieving their losses and fearing what is yet to come, if we’ve come here looking for that Jesus, then we’ve come to the right place.

            We’ve come back to the garden, back to the place of tragedy, the place of betrayal, abandonment, and death.

            But unlike at the beginning, this time, despite appearances to the contrary, things are not ruined.

            This time we’re welcome to stay in the garden for a while, welcome to grieve, welcome to pray…and welcome to wait for resurrection and new life.

            Amen.