Sermon for Palm/Passion Sunday, Year C
Based on Ps. 31:9-16; Isa. 50:4-9a; Lk. 23:1-49
By Pastor Garth
Wehrfritz-Hanson
“Innocent Suffering”
Preaching on Palm/Passion Sunday is like trying to see and appreciate the details
of a beautiful landscape, while, at the same time, you’re traveling 500 miles
an hour past it. It’s just not possible because there’s so much in our biblical
passages. Most of us are unable to absorb all of the details at once—if we try,
we’ll end up with a classic case of information overload!
So, instead of
this, we’ll focus on two themes, which leaped out at me as I pondered today’s
texts: Suffering and innocence, innocent suffering.
In our passages
from Psalm 31, Isaiah 50, and Luke 23, innocence and suffering loom
large-as-life. It was Mohandas K. Gandhi, the non-Christian and great spiritual
leader of India who once said: “Freely accepted suffering is the greatest force
the world has ever known.” In many respects, Gandhi himself emulated his own
words by choosing to live and work with all people in India, regardless of
caste, race or creed. Indeed, he willingly suffered many things for the just
cause of his nation’s independence from British rule.
Here in Canada,
most of us are familiar with legal cases involving innocent suffering. One
example of this was the Peter Marshall case, where he was wrongfully convicted
and imprisoned several years for a crime that he didn’t commit. Such cases
raise the larger question of: How many others have been wrongfully convicted
and imprisoned like Peter Marshall?
Then, there are
people who suffer innocently because they are victims of aggressive bullies,
tyrants and abusers. A lot of this suffering is silenced because the ones who
suffer either fear even worse reprisals from those who inflict the suffering or
they simply don’t have the resources and support to seek justice—or they are
skeptical that the legal system will rule in their favour. Others become
innocent sufferers because of: the colour of their skin or their gender or the
social class they’re born into or a disease they’ve inherited from their
biological parents or being born in a poor nation.
In our psalm
today, the writer has endured a lot of suffering. It seems that some sort of
illness has inflicted the psalmist and everyone has judged, scorned and
abandoned the psalmist. Even worse than that, the psalmist says: “they plot to
take my life.” When feeling the most vulnerable, the most down-and-out, people
seek the psalmist’s destruction. God is the only one the psalmist can trust and
turn to in times of suffering. We too often find ourselves trusting in and
turning to God when we’re feeling most vulnerable and everyone else has
abandoned us. God is the only one who accepts us; who really understands and
cares for us in times of greatest need.
Our passage from Isaiah presents us with the
picture of the Suffering Servant, who suffers willingly and innocently. He
faced physical torment and verbal abuse without running away from it. Moreover,
through it all he is vindicated because God is his helper; God gave him the
strength to endure all of his suffering.
The questions he
asks of his enemies and those who persecute him are cast in courtroom language.
The tables have turned, it is not the Suffering Servant who is on trial—rather,
it’s his opponents who are now on trial. The questions serve to convict them of
their guilt and underscore the Servant’s innocence. He is basically saying: “I
know God is on my side. Therefore, everything you try to find me guilty of or
plot to do away with me will be in vain.” No one is able to escape the just
judgment of God. In the end, if God’s help is with the innocent sufferer, the
truth will win out. So it is with us too; whenever we suffer innocently and God
is helping us; we are given the strength and all other resources to endure our
sufferings. If God is helping us, then we too can cope with even our worst-case
scenario sufferings.
For us Christians,
Jesus epitomizes innocent suffering. One of the chief concerns of Luke’s
passion story is his emphasis on Christ’s innocence. For Luke, Jesus was tried
and convicted of false charges; Pilate and even Herod—elsewhere a treacherous
man—both are at pains to find adequate evidence that would warrant the death by
crucifixion penalty. The Daughters of Jerusalem weep for Jesus, believing him
to be innocent. The words of forgiveness that Jesus speaks from the cross
emphasize his innocence. The words of the one criminal to the other: “This man
has done nothing wrong,” serve as a defense of Christ’s innocence. Jesus’ last
spoken words from the cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”
emphasize that he died, not guilty or condemned, but rather, peacefully,
trusting in God. After Jesus dies, even an enemy soldier testifies that:
“Certainly this man was innocent.”
Gandhi was right: “Freely
accepted suffering is the greatest force the world has ever known.” This is
especially so when that freely accepted suffering is the innocent, righteous
Jesus Christ who died on the cross. His innocent suffering and death has
changed the world—perhaps even more so than any other human being in history.
His innocent
suffering has an effect on us, touching us at the very deepest level of our
being. His innocent suffering was all for us. We are unconditionally accepted,
loved, forgiven and saved—thanks to Christ’s innocent suffering and death. How
is it possible to remain indifferent to Jesus and all that he’s done for us?
Surely this touches our lives more deeply than anything or anyone else, does it
not? Who other than Jesus would do all of this for us? During this Holy Week,
may the story of Christ’s innocent suffering and death touch us and move us so
much that we shall willingly want to go out into the world and share in the
hurts, brokenness and sufferings all around us; knowing and trusting that
Christ is with us as we faithfully bear our crosses and follow him, wherever he
leads us.
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