Amazed by Christ

If you miss Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, you miss a crucial part of the Easter story. As we roll into Holy Week tomorrow and the final days of Lent, I encourage you to go to the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services that you have available to you so that you can participate in the parts of the story that you won't hear in Sunday worship. The Passion Story is incredible and yes the triumphant entry (triumphant? I question if this is the appropriate description.) into Jerusalem and the actual story of the stone rolling away are important. But I would argue that what happens in the upper room, what happens in the Garden of Gethsemane, what happens before the Sanhedrin, and what happens before Pilate are equally as important.
That's my soap-box moment.
I've been reading the Passion story in the Gospels this week and watching Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell ad nauseum (as I do every Easter) and as I was reading through Matthew, one phrase really stuck with me. "Pilate was amazed."
Pilate has never met Jesus Christ, but I'm certain he had heard of him. King Herod also heard of Jesus Christ and demands miracles. Pilate doesn't demand miracles. What he does require is a reason to condemn Jesus of Nazareth. Pilate, prefect from Rome, is charged with deciding what to do with this Jesus of Nazareth. Does he simply go along with the schemes of the religious leaders? Does he release Jesus on the grounds that there's nothing really concrete to suggest that Jesus really is trying to overthrow the Roman government?
As an interesting side note, even Pilate's wife tries to weigh in on his decision. In the book of Matthew, Pilate's wife goes to him and asks him not to have anything to do with "the innocent man" since he was giving her nightmares. Ultimately Pilate does listen to his wife and he "washes his hands" of the whole thing, leaving it up to the responsibility of the religious leaders to condemn him to death.
But back to this phrase "Pilate was amazed." That stuck with me this week while I read through Matthew. Throughout the gospel, people are amazed by what Jesus does and says. The disciples are amazed when Jesus calms a storm in Matthew 8. The crowds are amazed in Matthew 9 when Jesus exorcises a demon and they are amazed in Matthew 13 when Jesus speaks in the temple with such authority. Pilate is amazed by Jesus when Jesus stays so calm and does very little to plead his case away from the inevitability of death. Jesus answers none of the charges against him in Matthew 27 and "the governor was greatly amazed."
When was the last time you were amazed by Jesus Christ?
So much of this Easter season is about routine. We expect certain things about this season to be the same. Our church and family traditions are largely the same every year, and there is something to be said for sameness. I know I get uncomfortable when you mess with my family traditions (and since my grandmother died in 2008 and especially since I moved in August, there's not a single family tradition for me that hasn't been changed, so I have to admit on a sidenote I'm extremely glad my family will be coming to Illinois on Easter Sunday because I don't think I could emotionally deal with them not being here that day). We come to expect certain things about Easter when truth be told, there's not a single thing about the Easter story that was expected.
Which on one level is odd. Jesus tells the disciples he will be crucified and raise from the dead in three days, yet they arrive at the tomb still expecting the body to be lying there waiting for the proper burial annointing. They expect certain things and what they find surpasses their expectations. He is risen! He is risen indeed!
So don't expect the expected. Think about what Easter means to you and what part of Easter is, for you, unexpected. It's good to be amazed. It's good to allow yourself that space to be amazed. During this Holy Week, let yourself be amazed by what's happening. This Easter, as you celebrate the event that separates Christianity from our Jewish heritage, be amazed by Christ. There's a child-like wonder in the concept of being amazed.
You have a similar choice to make: What do you do with Jesus of Nazareth? Do you accept Him as a part of your routine or do you open yourself up to be amazed by Him in whom all things are held together?
Think about it this way: If Pilate -- a Roman governor, not a pacifist, and by no means someone who believed that Jesus was the Son of God -- could be amazed by Jesus, how much more should we be amazed by all the awesome things Jesus did and continues to do?

Here's hoping you find the amazement of Christ in unexpected places and may you have a very blessed Easter,
Pastor Becki