The reading today is from John 18:1-19,42 What stands out to me is a six word sentence. “I find no case against him.” (18:13)

Pilate finds no case against Jesus and yet he follows the custom of asking the people who to release instead of releasing Jesus himself. There are some hard things to read in this entire passage and I think it’s so important for people in our generation to remember that Jesus already forgave all the sins involved in this circumstance. I think it’s important that Jesus didn’t blame any particular group of people, although he did say to Pilate that Caipahas the High Priest had committed a greater sin than Pilate, we need to remember that at the end of Jesus’ life he asked God the Father to forgive everyone involved with his crucifixion because they didn’t know what they were doing.

It’s more grace than we can possibly comprehend. And if we are going to learn anything from this we should learn the importance that all of Jesus’ disciples are to be messengers of God’s love and God’s truth and God’s desire and God’s commandments and when humanity fails in living that kind of love, fails in truthfulness, fails in understanding God’s desire for people to live in peace and serve one another and allowing people to serve other people and when we fail to follow God’s commandment of no killing – – – oh it’s so hard to say, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. They didn’t know because they didn’t know who he was in this world and because they lacked understanding. When Jesus told Pilate his kingdom wasn’t from this world, Pilate said he couldn’t find a case against Jesus.

We want people to know who Jesus was and this story because we want people to know and experience his loving power and grace, from the beginning of his birth story through the end of his earthly life. We want people to understand Jesus’ teachings so we can learn better how to live in peace in this world. We want people to know Jesus so they will repent and believe in the good news of God’s love and how God’s love can change their lives and help them to stop hurting and to love God more and to love themselves better and to love other people better. We want them to understand that. We want God and his people to be loved, respected and his children protected. We want people to believe that everything and everyone created by God is capable of learning the truth and learning how to love and allow themselves to be loved.

If people are too busy doing things their own way and are unwilling to take time to listen and learn and accept the Spirit of God’s Love and Truth, what are we to do? We are to not lose hope and to believe in the power of God’s Holy Spirit to be poured out upon all the earth to capture and overcome evil and to preserve the Living Word in Spirit and Truth. We are to pray and perhaps today is a good day for us to pray the way he taught his disciples to pray in Matthew 6:9-13

Let us pray,

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven
our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the
evil one. (Matthew 6:9-13 NRSV)
AMEN

The kingdom of Our Father is filled with holiness, peace and kindness. Is that the kind of life you would like to experience on earth? If you have never been filled with the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus said he would give to everyone who asks, no strings attached, you don’t have to do anything but ask. Here is a good way to ask for yourself and other people.

Come Holy Spirit, pour yourself upon me and all people of the earth, pour yourself into me, into my family, my friends, neighbors and strangers.
I welcome you, we need your presence, heavenly power, love and help in the world today now more than ever. AMEN

The Posts for Praying Through Holy Week do not appear in my book Praying Our Way Through Stress. But there are Chapters discussing very briefly the Lord’s Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount. The book is available through Westbow Press.