A Thought For The Week Of April 17, 2017

Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “You have said so,” Jesus replied. When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. (Matthew 27:11-12) Now that we've gone a few days beyond Easter Sunday I've had a chance to really think about the events we marked this past weekend. One part of the story that has always stood out for me was that of Jesus being brought before Pilate. In one sense, it's a pretty routine bit of the story, I suppose. There doesn't seem to be a lot that's noteworthy about it. It gets lost in the surrounding drama. But this year I noticed something, and it made me wonder if these two little verses might actually be the sign that the focus of Jesus' ministry had begun to shift. In the course of his life Jesus had been quite clear that he had come for Israel. We also know that, not very long after his death and resurrection, that focus would change, and the church would become a largely Gentile institution. I don't doubt that both Jesus' own identification of his primary mission and the later development of the church's mission were the will of God; a part of God's plan. So, somewhere, something changed; there was a transition. And now I wonder: was this it? All of a sudden - here - Jesus focus was on the Gentile authority. Jesus responds to Pilate's question - albeit in a somewhat cryptic way - but to the chief priests and elders "he gave no answer." Suddenly, Jesus' audience is different. Usually we identify the beginning of the church's mission to the Gentile world either with Paul's experience on the Road to Damascus or with the story of Pentecost. But I wonder - did it actually start here, in Jerusalem, before Pilate? Is Jesus' sudden acknowledgement of the Roman authorities over the Jewish authorities the sign that what is about to happen is happening for the entire world, and not just for Israel?