Hello and welcome to this Holy Week reflection on Tuesday, Holy Tuesday of Holy Week. I’m glad that you’re joined us and of course today we’ll be talking about a part of the narrative in John 18 and 19, the Passion Narrative, as we move from the garden to the cross. Today in particular, we’re going to be talking about Jesus and the religious officials, his experience before the religious officials.Thursday, we’ll be talking about Jesus’s experience with secular officials. 

And so as we read, let us listen for how Jesus speaks about what he’s about. He has been living out his work for the last three years. How does he speak about what he is about? How does he share about that work? That has something to speak to us today, a way to instruct us. 

Scripture: John 18:12-14, 18:19-24

12 So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him. 13 First they took him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. 14 Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people…19 Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. 20 Jesus answered, “I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. 21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said.” 22 When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck Jesus on the face, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” 23 Jesus answered, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” 24 Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

In this scene, we see Jesus before Annas, and he is being considered for his work. What’s happening here, of course, we know the underlying thought is that they’re looking for something to charge Jesus with so they can have him executed. They themselves cannot execute him. It’s not allowed by their law, but they want to find something that they can then turn him over to the Romans so that the Romans will execute him on their behalf.  They are so fed up with Jesus and what they believe to be his rabble rousing and the way that he is taking people away from the true faith as they understood it, that they are looking for a reason to have him executed.

And you can see that in verse 14 where Caiaphas was the one who advised the public that it was better to have one person die for the people. If we’re going to save the people from this guy who is taking them away from us, then what we need to do is make sure that he is executed and then the people will come back to us, is the thought process behind Caiaphas’s remarks.

So, this puts Jesus in a very defensive position. And in that position, we might want to speak directly against the ways that we’re being accused or try to find a way in order to speak in a way that will convince others that we haven’t done anything wrong. I think that would be a natural human reaction.

But notice what Jesus does. Jesus here in verse 20 says, I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. And then in 21, why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them. They know what I said. 

What I hear in this is that Jesus is basically saying, my life speaks for itself. My work speaks for itself. I’ve always done things publicly. I’ve always done things above board, as we might say. I’ve always done things in a way that will reveal who God is.  And if you go and talk to the people who have heard me, they’re going to reveal that to you. They’re going to agree that what I have done has been public. And it’s been in a way that reveals God.  

I think that’s pretty impressive for, I know you along with me, for sure, have probably experienced tension sometimes where we might want to do something that we think is necessary, but we think if people knew I was doing this or if the right people or certain people knew I was doing this, they might not like it or they might think differently of me. 

Not necessarily that we’re thinking of doing something sinful, but sometimes when we’re working or laboring, whether that’s a job that we have or an organization we support, a board that we sit on, a place that we volunteer, sometimes we might think that the best thing to do is to do something that is kind of in secret, is a way that we, the right people, the people we’re concerned about won’t know what we’ve done. 

And Jesus is saying, I have done everything publicly. I’ve done everything out in the open. And imagine with me, if where you work or where you volunteer or the boards that you labor on or the organizations that you support, if everything everybody did was out in the open, what would that look like?  And how might things be different? 

One of the things that I got in the habit of doing when I was appointed as associate pastor at Vineville is I got in the habit of doing these prayer walks around the facility. If you’ve ever been in Vineville, you know, it is a very confusing facility. They’ve got lots of signage up trying to help you find your way around, but it’s still a very confusing place. So when I was first appointed there, every day I would go and walk the facility. And eventually I tell myself I want to go to the youth room or I want to go to the chapel and I would figure out how to get there so that I learned the facility.  That process ended up turning into a prayer walk.

And as I would walk around the building, I would pray. And I would pray and ask God, that everything I did reveal God to the church and then ask that God would reveal to me where I might be doing things or might have done something that failed to reveal God. Because ultimately we should be like Jesus.

Everything we do should be out in the open and everything we do should reveal who God is.  So, in other places that I’ve been appointed: when I moved to Reinhardt University, I would walk the campus and do this; I had a brief stint at Adairsville First United Methodist Church, with a very small facility, and it was right off of a cute little downtown, so I would actually walk the downtown loop instead of the church, because there really wasn’t much space to walk the church; and then when I got moved to Eastman, I did the same thing; and I’ve done the same thing, here at Mulberry. There have been many times that I have walked through that door that goes right into the hallway from my office started walking around, praying.

So here is our think for today, our way of thinking. Again, we are thinking and then we pray and then we do our way of responding to these devotionals. 

Think

Our think is: what does your work, your labor, the way you engage with the world, tell the world about who you are and what you’re about?  Another way of asking that is, do your labors, whether you’re working a job, you’re volunteering somewhere, maybe at the church, you’re serving with an organization as a volunteer or paid person, whatever your labor is, we all have labors, does it reveal God to the world? Guaranteed, and this is true of me too, even as a pastor, There are ways that I reveal God to the world, and there are ways that I do things that fail to reveal God into the world.  

Pray & Do

So here’s our pray and do. It’s combined today.  Take a prayer walk,  and as you walk that space, wherever that is, wherever you labor, as you walk that space that where you labor, ask God to reveal God’s self through you, and then ask God to tell you where you fail to reveal God through your labors. 

That’s a tough thing to do. We have to really open ourselves up, be willing to be vulnerable.  When we do a prayer walk, we are asking these questions of God, and then we are also holding silence as we walk.  Sometimes when I walk at Mulberry, I’ll see something, a piece of art or a cross on a table or a room where I have a memory. And it will cause me to answer one of those questions: where am I revealing God, where am I failing to reveal God? It will be a way that the Holy Spirit is speaking into my life. But we have to be willing to hold the silences in between the questions of how am I revealing God and how am I failing to reveal God.  

So I encourage you today or at the next opportunity that you have to do this kind of prayer walk where you labor.

Today, we’ve talked about Jesus and the religious officials, and we’ve seen how Jesus has lived his, his life out, always in the open, always ready to give an answer for what he did, because his ultimate goal was that everything he did reveal God into the world.

And so it can be for us.  Let us pray. 

Pray with Me

God, you have made us in your image  and through the labors that you call us to, we have the opportunity to reveal you into the world: more of your light, more of your peace, more of your hope, and more of your love.  As we take these prayer walks, reveal to us where we have failed to do so, and where we are currently doing so, and then give us, equip us with what we need, that we may shun those things that fail to reveal you, and do more of those things that are revealing you through our labors. In Christ’s name, Amen.  

Take care, and I’ll see you tomorrow.