Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.
Welcome once again to The Dwelling Place.
Today our reading comes from Luke 23 verses 1 to 25 where Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate and Herod,
Declared innocent and yet is still condemned by the crowd.
As we begin,
As always,
I invite you to still your thoughts,
To take a deep breath,
And today something a little different,
Maybe a little difficult,
To let yourself enter the crowd,
Not to judge it,
But to witness the deeper truth of a love that stands silent in the face of injustice.
Today's passage is Luke 23 verses 1 to 25 and in verses 22 and 23 of the passage,
Pilate says I have found in him no grounds for the sentence of death,
I will therefore have him flogged and release him.
But they kept urging,
Demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified,
And their voices prevailed.
The trial begins not as a trial of truth,
But of pressure and of politics and of power dressed up in reason.
Jesus is brought before Pilate,
Accused without evidence,
Questioned without cause,
And Pilate finds no fault in him,
And neither does Herod,
And still the shouting begins,
Crucify him,
Again and again,
Louder,
Insistent,
Urgent,
Until finally Pilate caves,
Not because of guilt,
But because the voices of the crowd prevailed.
This is the place where justice breaks,
Where fear triumphs over truth,
Where power protects itself,
And Jesus,
Who could have called legions of angels,
Who could have silenced the crowd,
Chooses instead to absorb the violence without returning it.
Jesus,
You stood before power unarmed,
Unjustly accused,
But rooted in truth.
You did not argue,
You didn't beg,
You didn't retaliate,
You let love be your defense,
And somehow your love speaks louder,
Your silence speaks louder than any verdict rendered the day.
Lord,
I confess,
I know what it is to want the crowd to like me,
To go quiet when truth becomes costly,
To stay safe when courage is called for.
How many times have I chosen silence in the name of self-protection?
How often have I let the voices of the crowd prevail?
Jesus,
You were declared innocent,
And yet still were condemned.
Help me sit with that discomfort,
And let it teach me the cost of grace.
You didn't suffer because you were guilty,
But because love took the place of the guilty.
You stepped into the story that we couldn't fix,
And rewrote it from the inside out.
Barabbas walked free that day,
A guilty man exchanged for the sinless one,
And today still,
I am Barabbas.
I am released because you were not.
I go free,
Not because I earned it,
But because you chose it.
And that kind of mercy,
Well that kind of mercy undoes me,
And remakes me.
Jesus,
When the pressure to blend in,
To keep quiet,
To avoid the cross,
Remind me of this moment.
Remind me that your way is not the way of approval,
But of presence.
Not the way of winning,
But of surrender.
Not the way of protecting power,
But pouring it out.
Help me be unafraid,
To stand with you in the place of risk,
In the place of silence,
In the place where love refuses to retaliate.
You were condemned,
So that even the condemned could come home.
Let me live as someone who has been set free.
And as you walk free,
And share that freedom and abundant life with others,
May grace,
Peace and love go with you,
Every step of the way,
Today and always.
Amen.
Until tomorrow my friend,
Peace be with you.
