Who's in Charge?

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.  So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.  (John 19:7)

Here is an example of irony in John's gospel. Pilate "hands Jesus over" to be crucified. The soldiers "take charge" of him. Following these statements, Pilate and the soldiers continually and unknowingly fulfill scripture after scripture through their actions. John almost describes them as acting out a script.

It is not that they were forced to do something they didn't want to do. Pilate meant to shame Jesus and the Jewish nation by calling Jesus "King of the Jews." The soldiers acted out of greed in stealing Jesus' clothes and perhaps out of malice in giving him vinegar for his thirst and a spear thrust to ensure his death. If they were actors in a play, they were not playing parts, but just being themselves.

The scene was laid out long before. The cruelty and mockery of people at the cross was nothing less than the picture of human justice without God painted long ago. However such a scene was foreseen, it was true to fallen human nature. Entirely predictable. God's plan was to take the irony of people who thought they were in charge and show that his plans and hopes would supercede all of theirs.

Pilate and the soldiers and the Jewish leaders thought they were in charge because they were giving the orders not realizing that their orders were already accounted for and allowed by Jesus and his Father. They were allowed to show what kind of people we truly are and how God cannot be outmaneuvered by any evil. Like a two-year old saying "Mine!" or "No, I won't!" these people found themselves swept into a much larger world than Rome or Israel. The kingdom of God was present and superceding their little actions with the reality of God's influence on the behalf of his Son and his people. Human will opposed Divine will and was overcome with goodness. Scripture fulfillment just showed the inevitability of God's victory.

The irony is not that everything is planned out before I do anything. The irony is that my efforts to oppose God and his kingdom will end up working for him. Nothing will circumvent the kingdom of God. All will bring God glory and show his goodness. God's light may show in spite of my actions and intentions, but it will shine. The irony is that thinking and living as if I am in charge clearly shows that I am not in charge even of the "little" things that are mine to do.

As John thought and wrote, he saw the hand of God in the cross. Each moment seemed choreographed for this purpose. This was to give Jesus' followers certainty that the cross was not a mistake or a problem, but the known outcome of human sinfulness confronting God's mercy and grace. It was the final, best effort of humanity to push God away when he had come too close. The resurrection is God's answer to that effort. He will not leave. He will not abandon us.  God's love is in charge, not human rebellion.

The other picture at the cross is John and Jesus' mother. Jesus entrusted John with the care of his mother. Perhaps he also explained to the ones who knew they weren't in charge what they could take charge of. Realizing God is in charge frees me to work under him and for him in my own place, in my own family, and in my own ways. In the midst of the apparent tragedy of Jesus crucifixion, Jesus says to his closest friend and his mother: "Love each other. Do what you can for each other. This is what you can do. I'm in charge of all that is happening here.  Now I'm giving you this to be in charge of: Love each other." So the ones who thought they were in charge were not and the ones who stood helplessly before Jesus were given a command by the one who was really in charge.

Lord, let me stand before your cross with helplessness. Let me stand before you knowing I am not in charge. Let me be so faithful to stand and wait for you, even as John and Mary did. Let me follow your commands even if they come from the cross. Only in this kind of helplessness can I find what you would have me to do. Amen.

So here are the two pictures of myself. Either I think I am in charge and I go forward to do what I think is best. In the end I crucify Christ either through fear, greed, or necessity. I can also stand in utter helplessness before the cross. I can watch the will of God being done all around me. I can do what he asks me to do, knowing he is in charge: Love one another.