Driven by Fear

April 03, 2015

(Good Friday)
By John Partridge
Scripture: Isaiah 53:4-6
John 18:1 - 19:42
This may seem to be an odd place to start a Good Friday message, but have you ever seen any of the scary
Halloween horror movies? In movie after movie, from Friday the 13th, to Freddy Kruger, and others, everyone
seems to react out of fear, make bad choices, and end up in even worse situations. Many of us have been in
similar, though far less life threatening places, where we chose poorly because we were acting out of fear. We
have been sold life insurance and vacuum cleaners, cars, computer upgrades, investment vehicles and other
things simply because the salesperson was able to play on our fear. They knew how to play on our fear of
abandonment, our fear of death, our fear of being stranded, the fear that we have for our children, ironically,
they even played on our fear of being cheated. But whatever fear in us that those salespeople were able to
manipulate, it was our fear that caused us to make choices that we might not have otherwise made.
When we are driven by fear, fear will take us places that we never wanted to go.
It wasnt as if no one anticipated that the events of what we now call Holy Week would turn out the way that
they did. Eight hundred years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah told the world that the Messiah would
have to suffer. (Isaiah 53:4-6)
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Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
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But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
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We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
But despite the warnings of Isaiah and other prophets, the only Messiah that anyone was looking for was a
military or political one. Everyone was happy to shout Hosanna as Jesus entered the city because Hosanna
literally means save us. The people hoped that Jesus was the Messiah, the rescuer that the prophets had
written about, but what they wanted, what they hoped for, was a messiah that led an army. They hoped that
Jesus was the one. But they hoped that Jesus would use his popularity, strength, and the power of God, to raise
an army and overthrow the Roman government.
But that wasnt why Jesus came. This time.
That wasnt the role that Jesus had come to play.
Jesus was the creator of the universe. Jesus is the commander of the army of the Lord.
But that wasnt what he had come to do.

At this moment in time, Jesus had other work to do. Jesus had come to seek and to save the lost children of
Israel. Jesus had come to redeem the lost. Jesus had come to save the world. And to do that, he had to suffer
and die.
But at that moment, no one understood what Jesus was doing.
It wasnt because they lacked teaching because there were many scholars who had read and understood all of
the writings of the prophets. In fact, most of the people, just from regular teaching and synagogue attendance
probably had a better understanding of these writings than most of us do. But during this week of Passover
and the celebration of the feast of First Fruits, many of the people, young and old, rich and poor, educated and
uneducated, would allow themselves to be driven by fear, instead of by knowledge or faith. Even Jesus own
disciples, who had been told exactly what was going to happen, were captured by their fear and failed to see
what was really happening.
Before everything broke loose that night, Jesus stops to pray. Well, that isnt exactly right. John 18:1 says that
Jesus had finished praying. Jesus finished because he had been praying for what we read as the entirety
chapter 17. Before he was arrested, Jesus had spent hours in prayer and as a result he was calm, cool,
confident, comfortable and centered in his faith, and was completely prepared for what was about to happen.
He was the only one.
In verse 2, Judas comes to betray Jesus and with him are soldiers, and officials who had been sent by the chief
priests and the Pharisees.
Judas had followed Jesus hoping that he would become an earthly messiah and Judas had sold out to the
Pharisees and the chief priests because he was afraid that Jesus wasnt moving fast enough. Judas was afraid
that Jesus wasnt going to be rich enough, or powerful enough and Judas fear caused him to abandon Jesus at
the very moment in history when Jesus true nature would be revealed.
The Pharisees and the chief priests had disagreed with Jesus for years, but they had disagreed with one another
for much longer than that without resorting to this kind of violence. But with the events leading up to
Passover, with Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem, they were afraid. The leaders had made a deal with the
Romans to keep the peace and they were afraid that Jesus was too wise, too powerful, too popular and too
smart to allow him to run loose. Once crowds had begun to shout Hosanna in public, literally crying out for
Jesus to save them, these leaders were afraid that Jesus would do the unthinkable. They were afraid that Jesus
would make the attempt to raise an army and fight the Romans because if that happened, many would die, and
they themselves would lose their position and power. The fear of these leaders leads them to decide that Jesus
must die.
As Jesus is arrested, we discover that Simon Peter is also afraid. Peter is afraid that his friend is going to jail or
that he might die as he had told them. Peter is probably afraid of the leaders of the temple and afraid of being
surrounded by soldiers with swords and armor. And so, despite being hopelessly outnumbered, Peter draws his
own sword and attacks someone.
After Jesus is arrested, Peters fear continues to drive him. Whenever he is recognized as a follower of Jesus,
Peter is afraid that he too will be arrested or abused and so all night long he denies that he even knows him.
As Jesus appears before Annas, the officials are so afraid that they break every standard of procedure and
several important laws as they hold an illegal trial at night and resort to violence with their prisoner. In the
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end, Annas is afraid to make a decision on his own and sends Jesus to Ciaphas the high priest who, in turn
sends him to Pilate, the Roman governor.
Here again we see that the Jewish leaders are so afraid of Jesus that they want him dead, but they cannot kill
him themselves because they are even more afraid of the Romans. This is why they take Jesus to Pilate,
because Pilate has the power the use capital punishment.
Pilate is calm and rational enough to realize that Jesus is innocent of the charges that have been trumped up
against him, but when the Jewish leaders threaten to report Pilate to Caesar, he is afraid that he might lose his
job or his life. Pilate, as powerful as he is, is afraid of the mob, afraid of their accusations, and afraid of
Caesar. Because of his fear, Pilate does the thing that he knows to be wrong. Knowing that Jesus is innocent,
he surrenders Jesus to the mob and hands him over to be crucified. (John 19:16-42)
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in
Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 There they crucified him, and with him two othersone on each side and Jesus
in the middle.
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Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was
written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, Do not write The
King of the Jews, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.
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Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written.

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When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them,
with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
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Lets not tear it, they said to one another. Lets decide by lot who will get it.

This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,

They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
So this is what the soldiers did.
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Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mothers sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, Woman,
here is your son, 27 and to the disciple, Here is your mother. From that time on, this disciple took her into
his home.
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Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I
am thirsty. 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the
hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, It is finished. With
that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Even Jesus burial tells us a story of fear. Jesus was buried in secret because those who buried him were afraid
of the Jewish leaders. But one of those who was there was Nicodemus who was himself a Pharisee and a
member of the Jewish ruling council. Nicodemus was, in fact, one of the Jewish leaders, but was so afraid of
the movers and shakers that were railroading Jesus that he did not even try to stand up to them. From this
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example and others we know that not all of the Pharisees were opposed to Jesus, but a few leaders had created
so much fear, that even those who were good were too afraid to stand up for what was right.
As we read the story, we see that everyone but Jesus was driven by fear. Everyone, good, bad, and in between,
were taken places that they never intended to go. Judas found it impossible to live with what he had done
because of his fear. Because of their fear, the Jewish leaders never considered whether their actions were right
or wrong. Pilate knew what was right and allowed his fear to carry him along and do the very thing he knew
was wrong. And how many were like Nicodemus? Good people who were so afraid that they refused to stand
up for what was right, so afraid that they stood by and did nothing, so afraid that they allowed evil to triumph.
Alone among these characters is Jesus who began his journey in prayer. He alone was calm, cool, confident,
centered and prepared for what was about to happen.
But which of these characters looks like us?
Have we begun our day in prayer?
Are we calm, cool and centered in our faith?
And if we are not, where will we allow our fear to carry us?
Will be like characters in a horror movie, allowing our fear to carry us from one poor choice to another?
What evil will we allow because we are afraid?
How far from God will our fear carry us?
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We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

 You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first
page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry heights in Massillon, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part
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