There
They Crucified Him
The
Rev. Dr. Johnny Ray Youngblood
(This
sermon is also available in audio)
The
word that's on my heart to share today is a very interesting
word. It is a word out of Luke's legacy that begged to be preached
for a number of years, and I could not get to it because what
I felt was an immaturity in the Gospel. I've since had a chance
to labor with it for a while, and all week long it has really
been begging for attention, so I want to share it with you
as I depart this time. In
Luke's Gospel, chapter 23, verse 33, I want to kind-of break
some grammatical rules. You can do that when you are out of
school. You've got to graduate first, though. It says this: "And
when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they
crucified him." It goes on to say some more things, but
that is the part I want to deal with this morning. "And
when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they
crucified him." I want to lift as a thought around this
text: Why Calvary? It is up out of Luke's legacy that I am
led to lift this word about our Lord. Luke
is, indeed, the third of the three Synoptic Gospels. Luke is
the heavily editorialized biography of Jesus of Nazareth. Luke
is the one that was written and addressed to that Roman dignitary,
the most excelled Theophilus. Luke's Gospel is a most distinct
biography. It is loaded with luscious tid-bits and a plethora
of detail on the man from Galilee, his message, and his mission.
Matthew's Gospel is a great Gospel, some scholars have called
it the Jewish Gospel in that it points out that Jesus was the
fulfillment of the promise. Mark's Gospel, I think, is a very
interesting Gospel. Scholars lay claim that it is the first
one, and rather rustic in its presentation. But the main emphasis
is that whatever situation Jesus entered into -- when he exited
that situation, things were different. Luke's legacy is one
that begins way back with the genealogy of Abraham. John's
Gospel is the one that begins way back before Abraham, back
where Moses started in the Pentateuch, "In the beginning
. . ." Luke's
Gospel is the one that has some unique stories in it. Only
Luke carries the story of the annunciation to Mary. Only Luke
carries the story of Anna and Simeon in the temple. Only Luke
carries the story of Jesus at the age of twelve being in the
temple. Only Luke carries the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah.
So I guess, as is bound to be, it would be Luke's Gospel and
a luscious bit of detail that would demand our attention for
this preaching moment. Luke
announces to us in this twenty-third chapter and thirty- third
verse, "And when they were come to the place called Calvary,
there they crucified him." In a sense, Luke, serves as
a tour guide within the walls of old Jerusalem. He points out
to us the place where Jesus was illegally arrested and taken
to Pilate's judgment hall. He points out that place where Jesus
was arrested on trumped up charges, and where Jesus was unduly
tried and unjustly convicted. Follow Jesus as he falls and
as he rises, and then, finally, outside of the western gate
on a little eighteen foot mound that is shaped like a skull
known as Golgotha. Luke says, "And when they were come
to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him." Calvary--Golgotha--the
place of the skull. It symbolizes the seat of death, the rule
and reign of the grim reaper--Calvary. It was the citadel for
that cold, unconscionable reality that has no eyes, no ears,
and no heart. Death ruled and reigned on Calvary. Death was
the real hallmark in the minds of those of that day on Calvary,
and, "When they were come to the place called Calvary," listen
y'all, "there they crucified him." There's
seemingly a malicious and blasphemous intent to take Jesus
specifically to that place of the skull, that place where death
ruled and reigned. "And when they were come to the place
called Calvary, there they crucified him." Notice Luke
says, "they" did it. "They." "They" is
nameless. "They" is faceless. "They" is
classless. "They" is gender-less. "They" is
colorless. "They" did it. "They" did it.
Why do you wear what you wear? Because they wear it? Why do
you talk the way you talk? Because they talk that way? Why
is that your value system? Well, everybody has this value system. "And
when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they
crucified him." It's a terrible thing to just be a part
of the they, but why Calvary? I
raise this question in the Spirit: Why Calvary? What is going
on here? It seems that there is some sinister intent to take
Jesus specifically to this place called Calvary, Golgotha,
the place of the skull. In my search, this is what was borne
up out of my labor on this word. There is no entity, my brothers
and sisters, of nature that is any more recognized in the scriptures
than that tall accumulation of rock called the mountain. The
mountain is recognized everywhere in the scriptures. God always
utilized the entities of nature to get His will done. He turned
water into wine. He turned water into blood. He changed the
nature of ravens from being scavengers to being servants. God
used the wind, and God used the rain. God used the frogs and
the lice. God used nature, but the mountain was the one that
seemingly was used most of all. Remember, the law was handed
down on Mount Sinai. The arc came to rest after the flood on
Mount Ararat. Moses viewed the Promised Land from a peak called
Pisgah on a mountain called Nebo. In the New Testament, there
was the transfiguration of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah on Mount
Tabor. Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac on Mount Zion. "I
will look to the hills from whence cometh my help, for my help
cometh from the Lord." That's what the Psalmists said. The
mountain has its place in salvation's history, so why, why
does it seem to be that Calvary was the intentionally designated
place to bring Jesus to his damnable end? Why does it seem
that there is a satanic plot to get Jesus just to Calvary?
I believe this: Number one, those who held sway in the precincts
of religion didn't want to desecrate their already sacred mountains
with this figure from Galilee. They didn't want to dirty-up
their sacred spaces with this sinner, this friend of sinners,
this man who hung out with prostitutes. They didn't want to
dirty up their sacred places, so they bypassed those holy places
to take him out to this hell-hole called Calvary. But
not only that, something tells me that they didn't want to
take him to that hill, and then [have] God show Himself and
then [see] Jesus catapulted into being all that he said that
he was. The record says, "And when they were come to the
place called Calvary, there they crucified him." But
not only that, death was reigning on Calvary, and death was
the last word. Death was the bomb, y'all. Death was king. Death
had the last word. Death had taken everybody. Death had taken
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Death had taken all of the prophets,
major and minor. Death had to wait on Methuselah for 969 years,
but death won out. Hezekiah got a fifteen-year extension, but
death still won out. Elijah resurrected a boy, but he only
lived long enough to die again. Death was the bomb, and they
wanted to make sure that they put Jesus in the hands of death
so that he would be finished, so ". . . when they were
come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him." That's
what I got out of why they took him specifically to Calvary.
But I had another question borne in my being and that is--Why
did God the Father allow them to carry out their diabolical
plot? Why did He allow evil to go that far? Why? Why did God
let that happen? Why is it that the righteous suffer while
the wicked prosper? Why does God not nip evil in the bud? Have
you ever raised that question? I discovered that: He may not
come when you want Him, but we learn that whenever He shows
up, He is always on time. We've learned that Truth crushed
to earth will rise again, and the reason God allowed this to
happen was that this is how God was going to show that He was
God. God doesn't have to nip anything in the bud because evil
is temporal. Good is eternal. God
said, "Let me tell you, Youngblood, why I allowed them
to go as far as they did with my Son. I want to tell you why.
I wanted them to know that there really is no line of demarcation
between the sacred and the secular. I don't participate in
the philosophy of dualism. Ain't no Saturday night is the devil's
night and Sunday is the Lord's day. I let them do all that
they wanted to do so that they could affirm Psalms 24, 'The
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and
they that dwelleth therein . . .' I wanted to affirm," says
God, "Psalms 139, 'That even if you make your bed in hell,
I am there,' I am there.'" Have
you ever raised the question of why? What is God doing in hell?
I raised that question, and I have learned that when you raise
a question seriously, if you hang in there a while, the Spirit
will talk to you. I wanted to know, "Why was God in hell?" The
Spirit told me, "Because we are the ones with the wrong
notion about hell." See, we think that Satan is in charge
of hell, but you've got to know that Hell is a prison, and
Satan is a lifer. God is still the warden. You can't get away
from omnipresence, and God wanted to affirm the scriptures.
That's why He let them go all the way to Calvary. But
is there another reason? And the Spirit said, "God didn't
want any questions about who was really in charge. He let them
go to Calvary because He inarguably wanted them to know that
He was the victor. He wanted the victory of Jesus uncontested,
indisputable, and the reason He let them go all the way to
Calvary is because if they thought that Calvary belonged to
Satan, then God was going to show that He was the Captain Ship
God by whipping Satan on his own turf. He was going to beat
him even though Satan had home-court advantage." So
what happened that fateful Friday? What happened was when the
soldiers grabbed Jesus and laid him down on that old rugged
cross, Jesus was talking to them all the while. He was saying, "Now,
you can go on and nail my hands, but whatever you do, don't
raise me. You can go on and you can rivet my feet, but whatever
you do, don't raise me. You can go on and spear me in the side,
and my head is already crowned with thorns and you've already
whipped my back. You go on and do whatever you got to do, but
I am trying to warn you now, whatever you do, don't raise me,
don't raise me." I heard somebody say that what they did
was they made the mistake of doing what he told them not to
do. They raised him from a dead level to a perpendicular on
the square. They raised him, and when they dropped him in that
hole, the black preachers from Louisiana said that the whole
world reeled and rocked like a drunken man. Midnight told midday, "Move
over and let me sit on the throne, because the sun refused
to shine, because two suns can't shine at the same time." When
they raised Jesus, he said, "I told you not to raise me.
I told you it is all right to nail my hands and rivet my feet,
but I told you don't raise me." When they raised him that
is when he said, "And I, if I be lifted up, I draw all
men unto me." So they raised him, and in their raising
him, guess what? It
changed all of history, because guess what? The law, the love
of the law, was given on Sinai, but the law of love was given
on Calvary. See, the waters receded on Ararat, but at Calvary
all my sins were washed away. There was fire on Mount Carmel.
Oh, but there's blood on Calvary. There was a transfiguration
on Mount Tabor, but if you come to Calvary, you can be born
again. Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac on Mount Zion, oh, but, "For
God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting
life." King
of my life, I crown thee now. Whatever you do, I know a hill
that is higher than Capital Hill:
On
a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
the emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
for a world of lost sinners was slain.
Lead
me to Calvary. I don't care where you go, but I eventually
want to arrive at Calvary. Can't you hear the angels singing, "Surely
he died." Can't you hear the church bells ringing? 'Surely
he died on Calvary."
And
when they were come to the place called Calvary,
there they crucified him.
May
we stand together.
Thank
you, Lord.
In memory to our forebearers, thank you, Lord.
In memory to Martin King, thank you, Lord.
In the name of Jesus, thank you, Amen.
Copyright ©2001
The Rev. Dr. Johnny Ray Youngblood This
homily was delivered at the Lenten
Noonday Preaching Series at Calvary Episcopal Church, Memphis,
Tennessee, on April 6, 2001.
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