The Buck Stops Here

Because we live in a sin-infested, sin-infected world, this world has all kinds of problems. And one of the problems that this world has is there are what doctors and psychologists call syndromes. One of the ones that I have always found to be odd is what’s called the Stockholm syndrome. Are you familiar with that? It’s this very odd situation where a person who has been taken captive, either a prisoner of war or have been kidnapped by somebody, they come to not only like their kidnapper but to even support them and defend them. And I don’t know, to me that just seems wild, doesn’t it? How weirdly our mind works because of the impacts of sin upon it. Oh, the psychologists estimate, and because they can’t really do research on this because it’d be unethical, you could only do the post facto stuff, they guess that it only affects five, seven percent of people who go through something like that. So it’s not a lot, but it’s still some. In fact, there’s a whole bunch of syndromes out there. I just followed my curiosity a little bit. There’s a syndrome out there where people think that there are bugs literally crawling around under a person’s skin. There’s another syndrome out there where people think that they are always being followed, but the catch is that the person who is following them has the ability to make themselves look exactly like the person they’re following. There’s yet another syndrome in which people think that they are actually animals trapped in a human body. Rough, rough. And as I’m reading these things, I’m just going, “Wow, this is nuts.” And Lord, thank you that I’ve never had to struggle with any of those things. And Lord, thank you that very, very, very few people in our world have to struggle with those sorts of things. Amen? (audience murmurs) But my brothers and sisters, there is a syndrome that Dr. Luke points out this morning, which infects and infests every single one of us. And that’s the pass the buck. It’s not my fault. It’s not my responsibility syndrome. It’s really just sin, but because we’re using Dr. Luke, today we’ll call it a syndrome. It showed up for the first time ever in the Garden of Eden, right after the fall into sin. God comes to the garden looking for Adam and Eve. Adam, where are you? Have you eaten from the tree I told you not to eat from? Oh, the woman that you put here with me. In other words, not my fault, not my responsibility, somebody else’s fault. And then, of course, God comes to Ev,e and what does she say? Oh, the serpent, the serpent deceived me. Not my fault, not my responsibility. And that horrible, horrible syndrome was born into our world. And we come to our text, and we see it oh so clearly. Jesus has gone through the trumped-up trial overnight, all the false witnesses, all the lies, the illegality of the nighttime trial, et cetera, et cetera. Now it’s daybreak, now it’s morning. And the Jewish religious leaders, the Jewish religious leaders, they all come flocking to Pontius Pilate. Why’d they all go? Maybe the strength in numbers thing, I don’t know. And they bring him to Pilate, vehemently accusing him. The Greek word makes it clear that they weren’t just making casual charges; they were doing this vehemently. Gets even stronger later in the text. So, Pilate, Luke only gives a shortened version of it, examines Jesus and finds no basis for a charge against him. And he tells them that. I find no basis for a charge against him. So, obviously, the next step is what? We release him, right? Wrong. The Jews step it up. The Greek literally says they grew strong. The NIV translates it nicely by using the word vehemently. But they let slip a little bit of information that Pilate didn’t know. He started all this up in Galilee. Oh, wait a minute. Is this guy a Galilean? Pilate inquires very eagerly and interestingly. Again, the Greek makes it clear that he’s very interested in this. Are you telling me he’s from Galilee? Oh yeah, yeah. Oh. Not my responsibility. Herod’s responsibility. And oh, it’s Passover time, and happily Herod’s here in town. So, Jesus, off to Herod you go. Whoo. Can you hear Pilate breathing a sigh of relief? Relief? Look at that one. Herod’s thrilled to see Jesus. Why? He wants Jesus to put on a magic show. So, just who is this Herod? This is not Herod the Great, who tried to kill Jesus when he was a baby. That Herod is long dead. Instead, this Herod is the same Herod who had jailed John the Baptist. This is the Herod who had fallen in love, and apparently his brother’s wife had also fallen in love with him. And so this Herod had taken his brother’s wife and made her to be his own wife. John the Baptist correctly said, “That’s sinful, that’s wrong.” Don’t do this. And for his telling the truth, John the Baptist got jailed. But for whatever reason, Herod kind of like listening to John the Baptist and so he would call John the Baptist every so once in a while, and John the Baptist and they would talk, but Herod never repented. And one day, Herod threw a banquet and had a bunch of guests, and his daughter-in-law Salome danced for his guests and Herod was so impressed and thankful that he promised her anything she wanted, and she asked for the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter and that’s what she got. And now Jesus stands in front of that Herod. Can you imagine the emotions in Jesus as he thought about his cousin John the Baptist and how Herod had so wrongly dealt with his cousin? Do you think it might have been tempting for Jesus to call Herod to account? I gotta think so. But he doesn’t. And when it becomes clear to Herod that Jesus isn’t gonna put on a magic show, nor is Jesus even going to answer his question, they change tactics and start making fun of Jesus and ridiculing him. They dress him up in an elegant, dare I say, kingly robe, and what does Herod do? Passes the buck. Herod do passes the buck. Not my responsibility. Back to Pontius Pilate. Can you hear Pontius Pilate going, oh man, are you kidding me? So what does Pontius Pilate try to do? You guessed it. Pass the buck one more time. This time to who? The people. Again, Luke gives a shortened version of the account, but at the time of the feast, Pilate had the habit of giving the crowd the ability to ask for a prisoner to be released. And so Pilate puts up Jesus and Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a known insurrectionist and murderer. So, Pilate’s thinking is obvious. Certainly, the people will choose Jesus to be set free, right? Who in the world would want to set free the insurrectionist and the murderer, right? Give us Barabbas. Why? What should I do with Jesus then? Crucify him. Why? What crime is he committed? Crucify him, crucify him. Oh, and now Pilate finally has his out. Now my fault. I’m just doing what the people wanted. The people wanted this. So this is not my responsibility. It’s theirs. Lest we point the finger of guilt to harshly at Pontius Pilate and Herod, guess who else is infested with the it’s not my fault, it’s not my responsibility, it’s somebody else’s fault syndrome. How often don’t you and I find ourself thinking, if only my spouse would, or if only my parents would, or if only my children would, or if only my boss would, or if only my government would, or if only my neighbor would. Or if only this hadn’t happened to me, or if only this kind of upbringing hadn’t come my way, or if only I didn’t have this history. When we really should be saying, if only I hadn’t done whatever it was that I did, if only I hadn’t said whatever it was that I said, if only I hadn’t acted in whatever way I had acted, if only I had owned responsibility the way that God wanted me to. Lord have mercy on me as sinner. Guilty? I know I am. And what about Jesus through all this? What does Jesus do? He takes all of it. The one who could have called Pontius Pilate to account and demanded that he be set free doesn’t. The one who could have called Herod to account for his sinfulness, displayed his power and glory, and wiped Herod out doesn’t. The one who is the ultimate son of the father, that’s what Barabbas means. It means son of the father. Jesus is the ultimate son of the father. And what does he do? He allows himself to go through the humiliation of being put on stage with a different son of the father and allows that insurrectionist and murderer to become the chosen one to be set free so that he, the ultimate son of the ultimate father, will be sent off to a completely unjust death. That’s what Jesus did. Why? Because he had a responsibility. The father had given him a cup to drink. Father, take this cup from me, but not my will. Yours be done. And the father had said to the son, “This is the cup you need to drink.” And the son had willingly said, “I will go as you will.” And Jesus did. He never shirked. Never looked back. If it took unjust trials, so be it. If it took humiliation and degradation, so be it. If it meant being the unchosen one, so be it. Why? Because he wanted to win salvation for you and for me. Can you imagine? He went through all of this suffering, all of this trial, all of this struggle to pay for all of the times when you and I have passed the buck. Oh, and all the other stuff that we do besides, huh? He never shirked responsibility, not once, never. Because he loves you and me. My brothers and sisters, we live in a messed up world. Because of our messed up world, there’ll always be syndromes. Thank God that we have a God who saved us from what I would describe as the worst syndrome of all. It’s not my responsibility to pass the buck, it’s somebody else’s fault syndrome. He saved you and me from that. Having seen that, part of our thank you to God is to own our own responsibilities. To not be looking to pass the buck, to not be looking to shift the blame, to not be looking to rationalize our way out, but to take the responsibilities that God has placed upon us and to own the responsibility that when we sin, we say, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner, and my brother or sister, please forgive me for what I did to you. May seeing Jesus own his responsibilities lead you and me to that place where we take responsibility for the things God has placed upon us. And when we see people around us who are struggling with holding on to some responsibility or holding up under some responsibility, that we maybe even try to shoulder part of their burden along with us. And why? Because you have a God who is willing to do whatever it took to buy you, to buy you to be his children, his children forever. Amen? – Amen. – And amen.