The Sanctuary Downtown / Relentless Love

Here in Denver, at our local amusement park, we used to have a “Haunted House.” It was fully mechanized. One would ride through in a cart on rails. No monsters, just darkness, swirling things, and automated mannequins. It was really spooky as a child, but pretty boring for adults who had gained the knowledge of mechanical automation.

One day in high school, a friend and I, trying to impress girls, got out. It was amazing. To the children, I was just one more semi-real dummy in an already enchanted world. But the adults would look, look again, and freak out. Just as we were about to get caught, I jumped into a cart with a mother and daughter saying, “Excuse me, but my cart broke down. Do you mind if I ride out with you?” I don’t think this woman heard me; she wouldn’t stop screaming. I wanted to say, “I’m just a teenager trying to impress girls at youth group. It’s me. Fear not.” But instead, I said, “Thank you,” and left rather quickly. I felt terrible. But at least for that woman, that day the ride wasn’t boring, predictable, and lifeless.

What type of ride do you prefer? One that is mechanical, predictable, and lifeless or one that is haunted with life? Do you prefer mechanized dummies or real ones? A universe with spirits or one without?

In John 19:30, Jesus “gave up the ghost” (King James Version). In 1611, “Spirit” and “Ghost” meant the same thing. During the Enlightenment, however, people started saying, “There are no ghosts. And you may think that you have a spirit, but we call it a brain.”

John 19:41, “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.” John is not casually referring to a garden; he’s screaming, “This is the End in the Beginning; this is the Revelation of the Plot — the Plot to every story that’s any story — the story of everything and you.”

Long before our modern addiction to materialism, early church fathers, in line with the Judaism of Jesus’ day, taught that the garden wasn’t simply situated in space and time. The garden shows up in the beginning in Genesis, at the end in The Revelation, on the Holy Mountain in Ezekiel, and in the heart of the Bride in The Song of Solomon: “Let my beloved come to his garden” (4:16).

The Garden is that place where eternity touches time. And the garden was in the heart of the temple, which wasn’t only a place and not even a time, but the very presence of the age to come — eternity. In that inner Sanctuary, behind the curtain and under the Wings of the Cherubim, which guard the way to the tree of life in the garden, was “the coffin” or “the Ark (same word)... of the Covenant,” containing the law written in stone.

The top of the box was called the Mercy Seat, Judgment Seat, and Throne of God. When God would speak to Moses, the Glory of God would appear on top of the box (I bet He looked like a Lamb.) Not dead knowledge of the Good, but the living Good — the Good and the Life. He told us in John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He was crucified on the sixth day, everything stopped on the seventh, and He is raised on the eighth day (Shemini Atzeret, the endless seventh day, the Sabbath of God),which in Hebrew, reckoning is the third day from his death, as well as the first day of the new week.

John 20:1, “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early...” As we preached last week, we are all Mary: Mary the mother of Christ, Mary the bride of Christ, and Mary the harlot who abused the Christ. Humanity is the harlot. Eve listened to the lie and took the fruit as though the Good and the Life were a commodity, and that first Adam who was with her, did as well—that’s harlotry.

Last week I said, “The Bible never claims that Mary had been a prostitute, but only that she had had seven demons. But I’d like to think she was a prostitute because Jesus seems to have this great affection for prostitutes, and all humanity is a prostitute, and that includes me.” But I had one other reason for saying this.

I have a friend who was horrifically and ritually abused as a child, then sold and trafficked for a time in the sex industry. Over 14 years, I watched Jesus deliver her from numerous demons and transform the meaning of her story — His-story. His love for her wrecked me, for I realized that I am her, and she is us, and this is the way that Jesus loves each of us for, in fact, all of us are Mary. We are Eve, and He, “the Last Adam,” is our Helper, our Husband.

Mary sees that the tomb is empty and tells Peter and John. They see. John “believes.” John 20:10, “Then the disciples returned to themselves (their own psyches).” Our psyche is the self that we think we control, the self that reduces others to objects and traps us all alone within ourselves.

Next verse: John 20:11-17: “But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels [cherubim are a type of angel] in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and said to him in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

After thousands of years, patriarchs, prophets, priests, and kings, the resurrected Christ appears first to Mary... Why Mary? I don’t know but I have a few ideas.

1.) Mary wanted Jesus... Jesus asked Mary, “Whom do you seek?” He once said, “Seek and you will find.” In our shame, we seek to be alone. And, “It’s not Good (that’s bad) that the Adam is alone,” said God on the Sixth Day of Creation before “the fall,” when we did not know Good or evil.

We seek to be alone, and then we find ourselves alone with other people who are also seeking to be alone yet cannot survive alone. And so, instead of loving each other as people, we bite and devour each other as things. And to me, that sounds like hell. And there are evil spirits that will help us do such things, so instead of being alone in ourselves, we find ourselves alone and yet haunted with evil. I suspect that God allows it, in order to scare the hell out of us or us out of hell, crying, “God, help!” that is “Yeshua”: Jesus.

I don’t know if I said that correctly, but having known the evil, Mary seeks the Good, even if He’s good for nothing — just Good. I don’t think there can be a better choice than choosing the Good when he seems to be good for nothing, just Good. I think that’s called Love. It’s actually the Judgment of God, that is God, having taken root in the soul like a seed, a seed that grows from an idea into an entire cosmos — a Kingdom.

Last week the sermon was titled “If God Is Dead?” And the point was, “If God is dead, then place His body in your tomb.” This week the sermon is titled, “If God Is Alive?” And the point is, “If God is alive, let Him out. Let Him out of your box.”

Mary thought Jesus was the Gardener and said, “Sir, tell me where you have taken him and I will take him.” Then, Jesus said, “Mary.” She ran to Him, and He said, “Don’t cling to me.”

God alone is Good. And Jesus is the Good in flesh. I’m so desperate for the Good that if I see the good, I’ll try to take the good, control the good, and keep Him in a box. Isn’t that what “the Sin” is? Trying to possess the Good like a commodity? A lie is Truth that I keep to myself. A murder is Life that I take. Fornication is a Love that I treat like a whore. And isn’t that what the Law is? Knowledge of the Good that I keep in a book, or maybe written on stone to be kept in a box, which I then try to use to make myself good because I don’t trust that the Good will make me Himself? And isn’t that what death is? To be trapped in that box all alone.

So Why Mary? 1.) She wanted Jesus. 2.) She surrendered control of Jesus; she let Him out of the box. “Tell my brothers that I am ascending to your Father and my Father,” said Jesus.

Jesus just spent four chapters (John 14-17) telling us where the Father is. “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me... In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” We are currently in Jesus, in the Father; and the Father is in Jesus, in us. How does that make any sense unless the Father is everywhere and nowhere, governed by our perception of space and time? As if space and time were a womb — or perhaps a bad dream that’s become a nightmare in the mind of a child asleep on her father’s lap, about to awaken to his presence, for a Word has been whispered in her ear: “Mary, now that you know who I am, don’t think I’m only small. I’m bigger than big. Don’t keep me in your box.” Jesus is “the only way to the Father.” But He’s going to the Father, and there is nowhere that the Father is not. Is He not the Breath trapped in the lungs of children too afraid to breathe until they hear the Word of Truth that descends into every nightmare, making all things new?

So, why Mary? 1.) She wanted Jesus. 2.) She surrendered control of Jesus. 3.) She didn’t despise gardeners. 4.) Mary wants to be His garden. Jesus is the Gardener; the eschatos Adam.

Jesus used to hold a mirror before the face of our friend. And she would see herself in a beautiful white wedding gown. In scores of vision and prophetic words, He would reveal that she had participated in His sufferings, and now He had dressed her in His righteousness. We discovered that, although her house had been haunted with evil spirits, it had somehow always been haunted by the Holy Spirit — or maybe I should say “enchanted”— enchanted with Jesus. Whenever and wherever she was willing to look, His presence would entirely change the meaning of each and every moment. The demons could no longer stay, and a world of terror revealed the most astounding truth: She is not a harlot. She is the Lord’s Bride. She is even His Mother.

Jesus said to Mary, “I want you to tell my brothers...” You know who it is that I AM.

If He seems to be dead, place Him in your tomb and hope. When you realize that He’s alive, let Him love you and your neighbor in every moment of your space and time. Soon you will see that we are all one house, everything is alive, and loneliness, death, and shame are no more, for everything is enchanted with Love. Everything is filled with God.

There is “one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all...” And “he who descended is also the one who ascended far above the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:6,10).

“The mere idea of you, the longing here for you. You'll never know how slow the moments go till I'm near to you. I see your face in every flower, your eyes in stars above. It's just the thought of you, the very thought of you, my love.” My wife and I have spent a lot of time on romantic vacations listening to those words sung by Billie Holiday or Nat King Cole.

If you were a first century Greek philosopher on a romantic vacation, you might sing, “The very thought of you, the mere logos of you... and foolish though it may seem, to me, that’s everything.”

The Greek word, “logos,” is normally translated into English as the word, “Word.” “In the beginning was the Word [logos: thought, idea, meaning, logic] and the Word was with God and the Word was God... All things were made through him. That which has been made is life in him... The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” That’s how John begins his Gospel in Chapter one. In Chapter nineteen, the Word in flesh hangs on a tree in a garden on the Holy Mountain.

A beast from the sea (that looks like Rome) in league with a beast from the land (that looks like Israel) nailed Him to this tree because Jerusalem who had just recently chanted “hosanna” was now chanting “crucify, crucify.” Just as the prophets foretold, Jerusalem was, in fact, a whore.

According to Irenaeus around 150 A.D., John wrote his gospel after returning from Patmos where he had received the Revelation. The Revelation is The Gospel According to Jesus, and you can see it all over the Gospel According to John. The Revelation is a call to conquer, and no one can conquer except a slaughtered lamb and those with him. “To Conquer” is the Greek verb “nikao.” It’s where we get names like Nick or Nicodemus, which means “conqueror.”

In Revelation 10:6-7, we read that “Chronos (time) will be no more. And in the days of the seventh trumpet call, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.” Then we see a woman give birth and a dragon who hates the baby. The Baby is caught up to God and His throne (which might very well be in you) and the dragon battles the little brothers and sisters of the Baby. It calls up a “beast from the sea” and a “beast from the land.” And there is a “Great Harlot” who rides the beast (She’s Babylon, Rome, and Jerusalem). A voice from heaven cries, “Come out of her, my people.” Then the Word of God, who is the Lamb riding a white horse, conquers them, cuts the flesh from all people, and the New Jerusalem descends from heaven on the very spot that the Word is now hanging on this tree in this garden — The New Jerusalem is a temple, a bride, and the body of the Lamb — the “last Adam.”

John 19:24, “So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene... When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished [tetelestai],’ and he bowed his head and gave up the spirit.”

Does it ever feel to you like... God is dead?

Maybe a loved one died, a marriage died, a ministry died. Jesus said, “I am the light,” but now everything seems so dark. He’s the logic (logos) of Love, but now you wonder if Love is nothing more than an idea or thought in your head. You wonder if God is dead.

The Good and the Life is hanging on that tree... and He’s dead. What are Mary, Mary, Mary, and John thinking? And why — at great risk to themselves — are they still standing there? He’s dead.

Have you noticed how all the women in the Gospel of John are either unnamed or named “Mary” except for Martha, the sister of Mary of Bethany? There’s Mary the mother, Mary the wife (bride) of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. John seems to be implying that all these women are one woman, and we are that woman. . . Mary.

Some associate Mary Magdelene with Mary of Bethany who anointed Jesus just a few days earlier. Many associate her with the “sinful woman” (most likely a prostitute) in Luke 7 who anointed Jesus with perfume and tears. She “loved much,” for she was forgiven much. Jesus delivered Mary Magdalene of seven demons, but Scripture doesn’t say that she was a prostitute — although I’d like to think she was a prostitute because Jesus seems to have a special affection for prostitutes, and humanity is a prostitute and that includes me. We learned that in Revelation 18 and in Genesis 2 and 3. Remember?

Adam cannot find his Helper (ezer), who is God. God makes Eve from Adam’s side. “This refers to Christ and his church,” writes Paul. Or as God says through the Prophet Hosea, “I desired hesed [covenant love, unconditional love] but at Adam you (Israel) transgressed the covenant. Eve (and that first adam) see that the fruit is “good for food, a delight to the eyes and to be desired to make one wise,” so they take the Good and the Life, the Wisdom (logos) in flesh hanging on that tree, as if He were a commodity... and everything dies.

Humanity, Israel, and Jerusalem, all harlots — and the worst harlotry is religious harlotry. Remember? In John 8, the Scribes and Pharisees throw a woman “caught in the act of adultery” at Jesus’s feet. Jesus says, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” then bends down and writes in the dust from which we were all made, and one by one the men drop their stones and leave. The message is clear: The rulers of the Jews, who justify themselves with their knowledge of Good and evil, are the real harlots. As this woman — as Mary Magdelene — looks up at Jesus, what is she thinking?

Perhaps, “He knows me, what it’s like to be used.” Why is Mary standing there? Why does she come back to simply anoint a corpse? He’s good for nothing... “the mere idea of him, the longing here for him.” Mary gives herself to Him for nothing. So... she’s no longer a harlot; she’s a bride; and she will be his mother. She will love much, and God is love, so real love is God. “The Jerusalem above is our mother,” writes Paul.

Sometimes people will say to me, “If everyone is saved in the End, why be good?” And I realize that they’ve only been using the Good like a whore. They’ve never really seen the Good and so don’t want to be Good, for in fact they hate the Good in order to obtain what’s not Good. Then I realize that we’ve all crucified the Good who is the Life that comes to us every day, but time and time again we just don’t see Him.... But Mary does.

The name “Mary” means “her rebellion.” Through Mary, God rebels against the Principalities and Powers of this world and conquers the Dragon; it’s the Seed of the Woman that crushes the head of the Snake. And “the Woman is saved through childbearing,” writes Paul... He’s not saying that single women need to have babies; he’s saying that we’re all the harlot who becomes the Bride and gives birth to Jesus: We are Mary.

We used to be a big and sexy church; now we’re a relatively small church without the bells and whistles and of very little benefit to the ego. So, why are you here? My wife says that Jesus says that I’m preaching to Mary, Mary, and John, and that you matter immensely to Him. You’re Mary.

John 19:33, “But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water... these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken.’” [He’s the Passover lamb] And again, another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

Eve was made from Adam’s side in the garden on the Holy Mountain. And Humanity (that’s all of Adam) is made from the eschatos Adam’s side in the garden on the Holy mountain. We are the Bride, the Body, and the Temple of the living God. He was in-carnate-ed (the Word became flesh) through the birth waters of a teenage girl named Mary. And He was out-carnate-ed (the Word left the flesh) through blood shed and breath surrendered on the holy mountain. And all who see Him — truly see Him — become Mary.

“I, the Lord, will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one... weeps over a firstborn... On that day living waters will flow from Jerusalem... And the Lord will be king over all the earth.” – Zechariah 12-14, Revelation 1:7

John 19:38: “After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.”

Nicodemus had come to Jesus because of the signs (John 3:2). “An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign,” said Jesus. Joseph and Nicodemus were both rulers of the Jews and harlots. But now they’re anointing the body of Christ like a bride. They’re giving up everything to do this. They will be excluded from the council, judged as unclean, unwelcomed at the Passover, and yet they hold the Passover — body broken and blood shed — in their old trembling hands as they anoint his battered naked corpse with 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes. Why?

“The very thought of you, the mere idea of you...” They had “fallen” in love. “I see your face in every flower, your eyes in stars above, the very thought of you... the mere idea of you, my love.”

Pilate gave them the corpse... Jesus is already conquering the beasts. And this is how He conquers the Harlot. This is the seventh sign that is the substance. The old city will be destroyed in one generation, and the temple leveled to the ground. The New Jerusalem descends from heaven with gates always open, and the temple is being rebuilt right here and right now. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” He’s already begun with Joseph and Nicodemus (“conquered” and “conquering” by the logos of Love).

If God seems dead:

Sometime around 1968, I learned about germs in school. They can be found in dirt and most of all, in the very pinnacle of depravity: poop. So, I began to wash my hands... a lot. I washed and washed, but I am a producer of human excreta, and so is everyone I know. So, it felt as if I was never finished. I was driven to cleanliness and then to the doctor, for my hands were red, raw, cracked and bleeding — open wounds susceptible to germs! I had been better off with no knowledge of “germs” and “not germs.” The doctor looked at my hands and said, “Stop (Shabat in Hebrew)! Stop washing your hands.” They hurt like hell, but it was hard as hell to stop.

I clearly remember the day that I walked out of my parents’ bathroom, looked up at my father, and with a ring of victory in my voice, I said, “Daddy, Daddy, guess what! I went #2... AND I didn’t even wash my hands!” He looked at me, smiled, and said, “Oh buddy, I am so proud of you!”

My hands healed, but I still struggled with lingering “poo-phobia” and neurosis.

Is God neurotic? Read Old Testament law regarding bodily discharges and ritual washings, and you might begin to think so. In Deuteronomy 23, He gives Israel detailed instructions on how to poop outside the camp, for He walks in the camp. Hebrews 9:22, “In fact, the Law requires that nearly everything be cleansed by blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.”

It’s strange to think of blood as a cleansing agent. But that is exactly what it is... in a body. Did you know that your body, your bag of dust, is almost an entirely different bag of dust than it was 10 years ago. Every time you use the toilet, you’re flushing yourself (your old self) goodbye. That could make a person anal-retentive, or on second thought, it might set them free.

Blood washes the body of death and sin. Sin is evil in us. Knowledge of Good and evil is called the Law. People first gained knowledge of good and evil at a tree in a garden on the Sixth Day of Creation... and immediately became very neurotic. At Mt. Sinai, God wrote the Law in stone and instituted the Sacrificial system to cleanse people of their sin. But even with all that blood (the blood of bulls, sheep, goats, and birds), nobody could get clean. Maybe there’s an even deeper problem in our flesh. No offense, but your body of flesh eats life (which is other bodies of flesh) and excretes death, which is a pretty good description of sin. So of course, the harder we try to clean ourselves with ourselves, the dirtier we get, for the problem is ourselves. We are each alone and unclean in a “body of sin and death.” So maybe I was really onto something in second grade, washing and washing and never finished, as if I (me, myself) was unfinished.

May 2, 1507: A young German priest was officiating at his first communion while dreadfully aware that he was unclean. He got to the portion where he was to say, “We offer unto thee the living, the true eternal God,” and he was terror stricken. For the experience, he had a word: Anfechtung. It describes the sense of anxiety, despair, and shame, which he felt before God. He desperately tried to rid himself of anfechtung, but the harder he tried, the worse it got. His name was Martin Luther.

Many academics think Luther was mentally ill. In college, I had to do a paper on the psycho-historian Erik Erikson and his thesis that Luther was “anal-retentive.” According to Erikson, the Protestant Reformation is the result of bad potty training, Luther’s desire to please his dad, and a quality “anal release” (that’s a poop) in the Wittenburg Tower privy. I mocked his thesis at the time, but potty training is quite stressful.

I once spied on my son talking to his Bambi doll with tears in his eyes. “I can’t go pee-pee in the potty, Bambi. Can you go pee-pee in the potty?” Once after an accident at Wal-Mart, which of course he tried to hide, I kind of blew up at him. He looked up at me with those big, beautiful eyes, now filled with anfecthung, and said, “But Daddy, you’re still proud of me, right?” I hate anfechtung. It separates me from the people I love.

Well, Martin Luther did need some sort of “release,” on or before some sort of “throne.” He claimed to have found it in reading Romans 1:7 on the privy in 1515. And yet, his own reformation started in 1513, studying and teaching the Psalms. When he read Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” he suddenly realized that Jesus was bearing and wearing his anfechtung as he hung on the cross. And Jesus didn’t just quote the first line; John indicates that he prayed the whole Psalm, ending with “It is finished.”

John 19:16, “So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.”

The early church believed that this was the place of Adam’s skull and that Jesus was crucified directly over the skull, such that the Cross — the tree of death and knowledge — turned into the Tree of Life as the Life in the blood dripped down through the ground and upon the skull of Adam. “For As in Adam all die, so in Christ will all be made alive.”

John 19:23-24, “When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.’ This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, ‘They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.’”

John is quoting Psalm 22:18. He assumes that we already know what Matthew and Mark convey. Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1, which was also the title of the Psalm on the cross (They used no numbering system to reference psalms in Jesus’ day.) Psalm 22:1-18 is a gut-wrenching account of crucifixion from the perspective of the crucified. In verse 19, the crucified begins to cry out to God for salvation and God answers him in the most astounding way, verses 27 to the end. “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord... before him shall bow all who go down to the dust... Posterity will come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.” In other words, posterity will say, “It is finished.”

John 19:28, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished [tetelestai], said (to fulfill [teliothe] the Scripture), “I thirst.” [This is Psalm 69 and fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about the Vineyard named Israel, which yielded sour grapes, would be cut down to a stump, and eventually fill the world with fruit.] A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished [tetelestai],’ and he bowed his head and gave [delivered] up his spirit (That’s the Holy Spirit).’”

“Tetelestai: It is finished,” said Jesus. What is “It”?

1) “It” is Sacrifice . . . (for sin). Luther realized that if the Lamb of God took away “the sin of the world,” there was no more sin to be taken away. He couldn’t earn grace with a good confession, for every good confession was earned by God with Grace through faith. And, “It is finished.”

“This is to behold God in faith that you should look upon his fatherly heart in which there is no anger nor ungraciousness,” wrote Luther. The Reformation began with Luther, but Luther didn’t believe it was over. And he wondered if God could justify some with faith even after the body died. Then he wrote, “Who would doubt his ability to do that?” The Reformation isn’t over.

Jesus is the Passover and the Sacrifice for Sin, the Sin offering. Hebrews chapters 7,9, and 10 tell us that Jesus was sacrificed “once for all.” Chapter 13 tells us that He was “the sin offering,” but then implores us to offer more sacrifices — sacrifices of praise and good deeds offered from glad and generous hearts. The Day of Atonement taught the Jews that their sacrifices didn’t work, for all their actual sin had been placed on a goat wandering around in the wilderness — a sin offering that hadn’t been sacrificed, the Scapegoat. Jesus is the Scapegoat that comes in from the wilderness to sacrifice our sin to God as well as His Spirit that rises in and through us as an offering of worship and Good Deeds. “Behold the Lamb of God” that takes away the sin of the world and becomes our righteousness. Faith is Righteousness. He was sacrificed once and for all people and all spacetime.

2.) “It” is “all.” He just said so. “Knowing that all was now finished... He said, ‘It is finished.’”

3.) “It” is “all” creation, and that includes all time (chronos) and space.

4.) “It” is “all” that is unfinished NOW finished. Do you feel finished?

5.) “It” is an illusion. If the Word of God says to you, “It (which means all) is finished,” and you say, “I’m not finished,” one of you is living in reality and one is having a bad dream. “Awake O sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you” (Eph. 3:14). He will give you Faith.

6.) “It” is the Judgment and Justice of God. We fall asleep at the Tree of Knowledge. We wake at the Cross. And we become one at the Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem (Its leaves are for “the healing of the nations.”) “Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days,” said Jesus.

7.) “It” is death, the death of death which is life. Life is an endless communion of sacrificial Love in one temple, the Body of Christ. One Life in One Body... I think that means no stink and no poop.

Thirty-nine years ago, I became a daddy, and it pretty much cured me of all “poo-phobia.” Jonathan was our first, but the law (threats of punishment and promises of reward) just wasn’t working. My wife obtained a book, Potty Training in One Day, and because I have the same plumbing as my son, she left me alone with Jon to carry out the instructions. When Jon had an “accident,” I was to put the accident in the potty, then make him sit on the potty anyway, in order to show him that hiding the poo is futile.

Jon had the accident. I stood him before the throne. I pulled down his underwear and turned to get some paper to grab the deed that he had done. I turned around just in time to see him look both ways, bend down, and grab the physical expression of his “body of sin and death,” then hurl it at the toilet. It bounced off the lid lifted against the tank and fell into the bowl. Two points! He turned and looked at me, his eyes filled with light, as if to say “Daddy, I did it! Aren’t you proud of me?” ...as he took his dirty little hand and began wiping it repeatedly across his clean white t-shirt. “Aren’t you proud of me?” And I was; I still am. I got just what I wanted. My son — no longer hiding from me, covered in filth, but full of faith. And I thought “It is finished: tetelestai.”

Last Sunday after preaching, as we were singing, my wife leaned over and said, “I just heard the Lord say... te-tel-estai? Does that mean anything to you?” I feel called to preach and love to preach but often feel totally neurotic having done so. Susan doesn’t know Greek, didn’t know the text for this week, or what I was going to say. “Does that mean anything to you?” she asked. I said, “Oh yes!” It literally means everything to me... AND now I know just who I am: A child of God, standing before the throne, wiping ‘scubala’ on my shirt, as I delight in the Love of God, my Father.” It’s good to be us.

John 18:38-40: “Pilate said to [Jesus], ‘What is truth?’ After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?’ They cried out again, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a robber [lestes: a taker].”

The other Gospels reveal that Barabbas was also an insurrectionist and a murderer. And certain ancient manuscripts of Matthew reveal that his first name was also “Jesus.” So repeatedly, Pilate asks the crowd something like this: “Who would you have me release to you? What kind of savior do you want? Jesus Barjoseph (son of Joseph) or Jesus Barabbas (son of abba, rabbas, or rabbi)?”

John 19:1-7: “Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’...’Behold the man!’ When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, ‘Crucify him, crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.’ The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.’”

That’s ironic: He is not making Himself the Son of God; He is the Son of God making all of us Himself.

John 19:8-15: “When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid... From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, ‘If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.’ So, when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat [or “sat him down on the judgment seat”]... It was about the sixth hour [sixth hour of the sixth day of the week on the sixth Day of Creation]. He said to the Jews, ‘Behold your King!’ They cried out, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’”

• Why would they all vote for Barabbas, the Robber?

• Why would the chief priests (the pastors of Jesus’ church), vote for Caesar?

• Why would God let them?

• What is it that John and Pilate want us to behold?

Pilate doesn’t say, “Behold this man’s policy statement and economic policy,” or “Behold this man is a capitalist or socialist, radical right or lunatic left.” He says, “Behold the Man.” On one level, I would imagine that he’s saying, “Just look at him; he’s harmless. For God’s sake, he looks just like a slaughtered lamb.” On another level, I think he’s saying, “Look at him, he’s terrifying me. He has the courage of a lion; he might be a son of God.” I’m sure that John is saying, “Behold the man.” In his native tongue that would be “behold ha adam (The Adam).” In the words of Paul, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ will all be made alive... The first adam became a living soul; the last Adam (eschatos adam) became a life-giving Spirit.” Behold the Super Man.

Can you imagine the fear that Pilate could instill in a man? But Pilate is terrified of this man, for something is different about this man. You don’t have to be a theologian to see it. What is it? No words are adequate, but here are a few ideas:

1.) He is the Truth. He’s honest. He’s not divided. Pilate can’t break Him; He’s breaking Pilate.

2.) He is Love, Unconditional Love in flesh. He loves God by loving His neighbor, and Pilate is His neighbor. And so, He looks Pilate in the eye and asks, “Who do you say that I am? You say I am King, don’t you, Pilate?” He is faith in Love — Love, who is “Our Father in Heaven.”

3.) He is utterly free, for He is entirely humble. If you’re truly humble, you are impossible to humiliate. You have no ego to protect, no false self that desires to be exalted; you have no need to be first, and you rejoice at being last; you are free of shame and have nothing to hide. You shine.

4.) Jesus is the Good; Jesus is the Beautiful; Jesus is the Glory of God. Jesus is the Light, not buried in “Me-sus” but all Jesus, the perfect image of the invisible God. He is unconditional Love; He is Grace. As John has taught us, Jesus is the Judge who judges by not judging; He is the Judgment. He is who it is that we all must be, will be, and most truly are.

So, why did they choose Barabbas, the robber? In John 10:7-8 Jesus said, “I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers [lestes]” . . . All takers! That would include David, Moses, Joseph, and Abraham. All people are takers before Jesus.

So maybe we project ourselves onto Jesus, which is projecting ourselves onto God. And so — under all this talk of love — we believe that God is actually a thief and a robber. Maybe we project ourselves on to God, assuming that God is like us, and yet infinitely more powerful than us — that He is a thief we cannot control, whereas Barabbas is a thief we can control, a thief we can use to make us more like Himself, which is to make us more like ourselves... better takers.

Just five days earlier, the crowd had chanted for Jesus, for they assumed that He would help them take Jerusalem from Caeser. But now it was obvious — Caeser was the winner; Jesus was the loser. And so, they put their hope in Barabbas, and they all began to blame Jesus. They made Him their scapegoat. . . And He let them. WHY?

Desperate, Pilate appeals to the pastors and priests of Israel, the ecclesia, the church. “Would you have me crucify your king?” They respond, “We have no king but Caesar.” WHY?

Maybe we’re all “robbers” and human religion is “organized crime.” “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27).

We will soon have an election. Who should we vote for? None of the big and controversial names are on this ballot, so maybe it’s a good time for a suggestion: “Behold the man.” Then, vote for “The Man.” I hear you: “You won’t find Jesus on the ballot. They once tried to make him king, and He ran away, for His kingdom is not of this world. And everybody knows, you don’t vote for king.”

That’s correct! That’s why some Christian denominations have forbidden voting or running for office — but most have encouraged it if one understands that earthly governments are ordained by God in a provisional capacity, like a babysitter. A babysitter can enforce some rules, but a babysitter cannot shape a child in the image of the parent — that takes more than laws, it takes grace.

In the United States, every candidate is an employee, and you are the employer, but Jesus is your King and the voice of our Father. No candidate can save you, but they can assist you in “looking after orphans and widows.”

Jesus refused to become king for he already is King, and yet He would have each of us vote for Him that He might be king in our hearts and we might obey Him, for we want to obey Him in the freedom of perfected love — that’s faith, the very thing that the first Adam was lacking.

In the New Testament, there are no government officials who are also followers of Jesus because Caesar keeps killing them. But in the Old Testament there are. Read the Psalms along with the New Testament, and you’ll discover that Jesus was actually living His life in David. And you can see Jesus is Joseph, can’t you? Jesus is not on the ballot but may be living His life in some that are.

So, “Behold the Man,” and vote for “the Man.” Behold the Man or woman, not the party or policy (at least not at first), not the one that you think will make you rich, or the one that exalts themself the best. Look for the One that Pilate displayed on Good Friday.

1.) Vote for the candidate that’s honest.

2.) Vote for the candidate that loves God by loving people.

3.) Vote for the candidate that’s humble. David sinned in the most horrific way. But at the Word of God spoken by the prophet (this is the prophet’s calling: to speak truth to power), he repented in the most astounding way — literally died with the son of David and rose with the son of David, that’s Jesus. And then wrote the Psalms.

4.) Vote for the candidate that’s Good; that’s the one that forgives; that’s the one that’s full of Grace. Joseph was utterly humbled, then exalted to the second most powerful position in the world. Then and there, he saved the world (and his abusers) from famine. And to his abusers, the sons of Israel, cowering at his feet in terror, he said, “You intended it for evil, but God intended it for good.”

And now, in case you’re thinking, “Maybe I voted for the wrong person?” Well, of course you did. Every time we sin, we vote for the wrong man, the false man, the Taker. But every time we speak Truth in Love, the True Man is voting in us, with us, and even as us. Even as we take His life, He fore gives His life, body broken and blood shed.

So, the next time you vote, forgive everyone, humble yourself, love your neighbors, for you know that you’re loved by God, and be honest. And then your vote will be the right vote. And if I forgive everyone, humble myself, love my neighbors, for I know I’m loved by God, and I’m honest, then my vote will be the right vote. And I believe that to be true even if you and I vote for different candidates. In the End, it doesn’t matter who we vote for, at least not in the way we think it matters (“The Most High rules over the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses and sets over it the lowliest of men,” said God to Nebuchadnezzar.)

It doesn’t matter in the way we think it matters. But nothing matters more than how we vote. For if we’re gracious, humble, bleeding love for all, and thoroughly honest, then we are “The Man.” We are the seventh sign that is the substance, the Temple of God, Bride of Christ, and Body of Jesus — the perfect image of the invisible God.

• Why would we all vote for Barabbas? We’re all robbers.

• Why would the pastors and priests vote for Caesar? They’re just organized crime.

• Why would God let us? So that all of us takers would see that He is the Giver of all; so that we would behold the Man on the tree in the garden on the Holy Mountain... And “beholding him,” be “transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”

• Behold “The Man,” and you will become the Man.