Matthew: Everything Upside-Down

Listen along as we see everything upside-down as Jesus nears the cross.

Notes/Quotes:

Matthew 27:1-31

This passion of Jesus Christ, this unveiling of man’s rebellion and of God‘s wrath, yet also his mercy, did not take place in heaven or in some remote planet or even in some world of ideas; it took place in our time, in the center of the world history in which our human life is played out. So we must not escape from this life. We must not take flight to a better land, or to some height or other unknown, nor to any spiritual cloud cuckooland nor to a Christian fairyland. That the word became flesh also means that it became temporal, historical. It assumes the form which belongs to the human creature, in which there are such folk as this very Pontius Pilate. The people we belong to and who are also ourselves at any time on a slightly larger scale! It is not necessary to close our eyes to this, for God has not closed his either; he has entered into it all. The incarnation of the word is an extremely concrete event, in which a human name may play a part. - Karl Barth

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. 
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

 

“Who cares to admit complete defeat? Practically no one, of course. Every natural instinct cries out against the idea of personal powerlessness. It is truly awful to admit that, glass in hand, we have warped our minds into such an obsession for destructive drinking that only an act of Providence can remove it from us. But upon entering A.A. we soon take quite another view of this absolute humiliation. We perceive that only through utter defeat are we able to take our first steps toward liberation and strength. Our admissions of personal powerlessness finally turn out to be firm bedrock upon which happy and purposeful lives may be built.” - The Big Book, AA

Romans 3:23-24

“Oh my soul, oh my Jesus, Peter denied you three times, I have denied you more. Oh my soul, oh my Jesus, Judas sold you for thirty, I’d have done it for less.” - Kings Kaleidoscope 

“Remarkable parallels appear between the names of the two prisoners, along with remarkable differences in their character. “Barabbas” means son of a father in a simple, human sense. Jesus, on the other hand, was the Heavenly Son of his Heavenly Father, though not yet generally so recognized. Several important manuscripts and versions add in both vv. 16 and 17 that Barabbas’s forename was “Jesus.” Although the external evidence for accepting these readings as original is relatively weak, it is hard to imagine anyone creating this potentially embarrassing parallel if it were not true. Certainly, having both characters named Jesus tightens the parallelism and makes the irony of the crowd’s response all the greater. Pilate’s question then becomes, Do you want Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Christ? The “Christ” (Messiah) is still a title at this point in history, and Pilate does not think Jesus deserves it.” - Craig Blomberg

 

“It seems that every generation offers the people of God two Jesuses, one of whom is a popular, patriotic, hate-the-enemy Liberator. No church, of course, has the whole Jesus—he is not easy to capture. Every church makes an attempt to present the authentic Jesus in a way relevant to its time. It is the responsibility of every congregation in every time to discern the Jesus who is truest to canonical sources and, so, most relevant to the deepest (though not always most obvious) needs of the time. The permanent contribution of the Barabbas story is its teaching that the church’s main trial in every age will be her choice of the Jesus she wants…This raises the question: Are the people of God at any given time following the Jesus of the normative apostolic documents or are they following the Jesus of current voices? Are they choosing a Suffering Savior or a macho Messiah?” Dale Bruner

The answer to the question of who killed Jesus, therefore is that we all killed Jesus. The disciples killed Jesus by deserting him. The crowd killed Jesus because they were a crowd. The elites of Israel killed Jesus because they fear his call to holiness. Pilate killed Jesus because he had the responsibility to maintain order. The people as a whole killed Jesus because they had nothing better to do. We all killed and continue to kill Jesus. So let us all say that “his blood be on us and on our children.”  - Stanley Hauerwas 

"You have often left Christ; has he ever left you?
You have had many trials and troubles; has he ever deserted you?
Has he ever turned away his heart and compassion?
No, children of God, it is your solemn duty to say 'No,' and bear witness to his faithfulness.” - Charles Spurgeon