The First Station: Jesus is Condemned

"Pilate brought Jesus outside and said to the people, 'Look at your king!' At this they shouted, 'Away with him! Crucify him!' Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified."

Jesus is brought to Pilate. He is innocent. But the mob cries out for Pilate to condemn him, and the good people are silent.

All around us there is evil. All around us there is injustice. All around us there is pain. Drugs are dealt out on the street in front of our church, and we look the other way. Young people are victimized by drug dealers, pornographers, those who sell them for other's pleasure, but we are silent. A woman is ripped off in the street, and we look the other way. A neighbor cries out for help, but we pretend not to hear.

It is so easy to look the other way, to pretend that we do not see. It's not that we want to be that way, but we are afraid if we speak up, we may be condemned as well. We don't realize that, because of our silence, we have already been condemned, and condemned others as well. As the saying goes: "All it takes for evil to win is for good people to remain silent."

One day I was doing a little canvassing of our neighborhood. I thought it would be good for our neighbors to know me, and to see what they knew of our church. One door opened, and an African-American woman stood there, holding a baby, while three other small children surrounded her. I’m sure they wondered what an old white preacher was doing there. I introduced myself, and told them I was from St. Andrew Lutheran Church. Noting the children, I mentioned some of our children’s ministries to her – Sunday School, Children’s Church, Scouts, the Afterschool program, Vacation Bible School. She looked up at me and said, more of a statement than a question, “Do you really think we’d be welcome there?”

Now, I know most folks would welcome her with open arms. They’d be glad just to see her here. But I also remember those who have not felt welcomed. I remember times people have talked about the poor. I remember times when things have been said about those of other cultures. I know there are times when people weren’t so sure they wanted kids disrupting the service – especially kids who don’t know what church is all about, who may be unruly or disruptive. I remember how some have struggled with our liturgy. I wonder how much the welcome may is really out. Especially to those who aren’t like us.

That doesn’t sound like evil to us – but isn’t it evil, when a child doesn’t hear about Jesus, just because he doesn’t know the rules of “church?” Isn’t it evil, when a woman has to struggle on her own with four children, and no one reaches out to her. We know she is there. We know her need. Yet we are silent.

So Jesus is delivered over to be executed - simply because the good people would not speak up. Because no one would stop the madness. They, like us, became prisoners of their silence and fear. So the King of the Universe was condemned to death.

What does it take to break the silence? Something stronger than our fears. It takes hope. It takes love. It takes knowing that God is stronger than all the forces of evil, of sin and death. It takes the knowledge that, whatever the outcome, we are held in God's strong arms. It takes a commitment to justice - to doing the right thing, and being willing to put the consequences in God's hands.

Easier said than done. But do it we must, if we are to walk with Jesus.

We take our stand with Jesus. We want to walk with him, walk all the way to Calvary.