Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we may believe and in believing we may obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves. I took the title of my sermon for this evening from an old song by that single-named singer, Cher. It’s not that I’m a big fan of the music…or the words…or her. Instead, it was the title that clicked as I thought about what Jesus said to those who came to arrest him.
He faces the armed mob and chastises them by saying, Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a thief? The irony of the situation is not lost on the Lord. He has sat in the center of the Temple, teaching and preaching in the light of day, for all to see and hear, friend and foe alike. Yet his enemies come for him, themselves, like thieves under the cover of darkness.
His enemies include
– many religious guides of the nation,
– many political leaders of the nation,
– those charged with directing the people in the way of life and truth…and it is they who have stooped to dishonest designs to silence Jesus. So in the dark of the night, with his friend’s baleful betraying kiss still stinging his cheek, they arrest him… And the Lord allows himself to be led away stoically, silently, serenely.
Says the prophet Isaiah (53:7), He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth; Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
And like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
So he did not open his mouth.
As you think about that night,
as you ponder the powerlessness that Jesus must have felt,
as you imagine the agony of what he knew lay ahead,
here’s a question to add to your list:
Would YOU have gone so gently into that terrible night?
I wouldn’t – I couldn’t…especially with the way it all came to pass.
It was bad enough that Jesus
– incurred the wrath of both church and state,
– had lived for so long with a price on his head,
– knew that his mission…was to die—abandoned and alone. What makes it all worse is that his arrest came as the result of betrayal.
Now, betrayal is not something that our enemies can do to us. It has to come from someone we trust. We’ve all known people who dislike us, who wish us harm, who want to “get even” and make us pay…that kind of in-your-face opposition is certainly not enjoyable, but it’s at least predictable. Betrayal, though, can only come from those whom we consider an ally or associate, a comrade or companion, a fellow servant, follower, friend.
So let’s take a look at the “usual suspects”…who is it that betrays Jesus?
– Judas, certainly…anybody else?
– Peter who denied him,
– his disciples who abandoned him,
– the women who came to anoint his dead body,
– all who were helped and healed by Jesus,
– all who were taught and touched by Jesus,
– all who were fed and forgiven by Jesus…in fact
– all of us—since who has ever failed to trust and serve Jesus?
The truth is that everyone betrays him—and we all know what kind of justice awaits betrayers when they’re caught. Says the Lord in Mark’s Gospel, Woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born (Mark 14:21).
So here’s the question we need to wrestle with tonight: What does that mean for us, for the likes of you and me?
Well the good news is that the very title his enemies used against him is: music to our ears,
amazing grace to our guilty spirits,
pure gospel to our burdened souls.
The phrase, Friend of sinners, was intended by Jesus’ enemies as a scathing censure, an irreverent insult, a ruthless rebuke. But for you and for me—for all of us—gypsies, tramps and thieves, it has become a deeply felt and greatly appreciated term…of endearment.
It is all for us, and for all other gypsies, tramps, and thieves
– that Jesus submitted to his captors,
– that Jesus was silent before his accusers,
– that Jesus was willing to suffer,
– that Jesus died on the cross.
And, it is for us that Jesus offers his great gift of grace—that we might taste his body and blood, and trust his word of forgiveness and love.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Pastor Scott Fuller