# the lecturer is the co-pastor Mizuguchi

1. Sinners condemned righteous Jesus

This evening we observe the worship of the Passion. Jesus was sentenced to death in the court of Pilate*, governor of Judea at the time, then brought to the place of execution. ¡¡John reported ; - So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).(John 19:16-17)

To go to the place, the condemned were burdened with crosses which were about to be used for execution. Cross is formed by two short intersecting lines or pieces made with heavy wood. The path to the place was called ‘Via Dolorosa,’ which should be stony and difficult to walk on. On both sides of the path, curious audience looked at them. In short, the way to Golgotha was a part of harsh execution, which intended to give humiliation and physical pain.

John continues ; - Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle. (John 19:18)
The place of Skull is also called ‘Calvary’ in Latin, the term which is often chosen by hymnal poets. The place was for executions mainly of political offenders. The condemned were put on cross with nails into writs and feet. In consequence, their weight made body hung forwards and exacerbated injuries in causing horrible pains. They fainted then awoke repeatedly before death. It sometimes took one or even several days until they lost completely physical force. The execution was carried out in public in order to prevent other offensive attempts. It was the custom to fasten to cross a notice which read their charge. So ; - Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.(John 19:19)

Ironically, ‘ JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS’ was the first charge for which Jesus was accused by Jewish people who considered it to be an intolerably arrogant pretension. But the notice of Pilate would have justified the title then, before others, hight priest and law teachers should have kneeled in front of Jesus. Thereby ; - The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."(John 19:21)

* Pontius Pilate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate

2. Jesus’ absurd death

John reveals also conducts of Roman soldiers without scruple ; - When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” (John 19:23-24)

The expression, ‘Let’s decide by lot who will get it’ is alluding to Psalm 22:18 ; - They divide my garments among them 
and cast lots for my clothing. John implied this way that the prophecy of the Old Testament realized.
Prophesies come true with power of God’s will. Jesus loved the world, men and women and preached the Good News in order to save them by performing healing miracles. But, despite those acts based on love, humans despoiled him of clothes, even underwear, not only humiliated and killed him. However, through the allusion above, John tells us that all was in accordance with the will of God and Jesus. Jesus’ mission was to redeem sinful humans by undergoing pain of the Cross among criminals. That way we offered his own life as a sacrifice. But he was about to be resurrected.

And we decided to be baptised to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Thus we are about to receive blessing through his death and the Resurrection.¡¡Now we are united with him.

Today’s invocation verses are Romans 6:5-6 ; - If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—

As Paul said, the death of Jesus and the Resurrection is inseparable with the Salvation. So much so we call the day of the Passion, ‘ Good Friday.’ On the very day we are redeemed and forgiven.

3. Were you there

The hymn which we sing after the lecture is ‘Were you there,’ a Negro spiritual. Its lyric tells the essence of the Passion. Many say that they are profoundly moved when they listen to it.

Below around the Cross, there were numerous crowd. Hight priests and law teachers who put Jesus on it, Roman soldiers who were carrying the execution out and, of course, male and female followers of Jesus, including his disciples. All of them should be gazing at him. Then where were we? It depends on what we consider the incident to be. It occurred to a man called, ‘ Jesus of Nazareth,’ 2000 years ago. In a very ancient time ! Besides it took place in Judea, the place so far from Japan. If it were a mere historical event which would not have involved us directly, we should not be here today.

But we are here now because it we surely concerned with the incident. The lyric sings, ‘ Were you there when they crucified my Lord? ¡Ä Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?¡ÄWere you there when they laid him in the tomb?¡Ä Were you there when God raised him from the tomb? Oh sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.*

Crucifixion was a cruel and horrible execution. But the Cross was followed by the Resurrection. And, in light of the Resurrection, it turns into the blessing, the Salvation. When Jesus was raised up from death, his disciples were not in place, but the women who had followed him. Male disciples were fearing for being arrested. The attitude implies their hesitation to believe in Jesus as the savior, who had been executed on a cross. It might be natural and easy, for humans, even for his disciples to admire the strong, or the eminent. And we seek to avoid close relationship with the weak. Thus the disciples run away from the place of execution. As Paul said ; - but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, (1 Corinthians 1:23), ” the incident in Golgotha might be an obstacle on the path to faith.

Nonetheless those disciples began to preach that Jesus was the Savior, though he died of execution. What did happened to them ? At least, it is clear that they were totally changed by encountering resurrected Jesus. And those preaching acts resulted in numerous cases of conversion to Christianity and establishment of the church all over the Roman Empire. All happened in less than 100 years after the Cross. Because, overcoming the death, Jesus of Nazareth compelled peoples, “Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27)

Often we take the Passion as a historical event which does not involve us directly. But the hymn leads us to recognize that we were also among the crowd who looked at the Cross as mere observers. Furthermore, the lyric invites us to participate in redeeming act of Jesus on the Cross. We had been simple observers of life without spiritual aim for longtime. But, through hard trials of life, we received the calling to follow in Jesus’ footsteps by meeting resurrected Jesus. Our life was then became meaningful.

* ‘Were you their’ http://ingeb.org/spiritua/wereyout.html