Matthew 26 and 27
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
You’ve heard the phrase, “Guilty by association.” It means that you are considered to be blameworthy simply by virtue of having a close relationship with a guilty person. If a family member of yours has done something wrong, then everyone thinks that you may have had some part in it, too. If a longtime friend is condemned for a crime, you yourself are considered suspect.
We see this happening in two different ways in the Passion Gospel. First, we see Peter trying to avoid being guilty by association. When a servant girl saw Peter on the night our Lord was betrayed and condemned, she pointed out that he was one of Jesus’ disciples. But Peter tried to nip that news story in the bud. He denied it, “I don’t know what you are saying.” Twice more Peter tried to avoid any association with Jesus, even cursing and swearing to emphasize his point. “I don’t know the Man!” And at that moment, a rooster began to crow.
Peter was guilty by association. For three years he had followed Jesus and had seen many miraculous things. He was present when our Lord was transfigured on the mountain. He had been with Jesus in the upper room as they celebrated the Passover and had said that he would never stumble. Peter had been with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, even trying to defend Jesus from those who had come to take Him captive. But after Jesus was arrested, when Peter saw that being an insider with Jesus was no longer what he thought it would be, he fled. He was afraid for his own life. Despite all his earlier hubris, now he didn’t want to be tied to Jesus and go down with Him. He wanted to save his own skin.
Before we think too poorly of Peter for his cowardliness, we should take a look at our own lives. Have we ever taken a slightly unethical action to protect our own livelihood, or to make sure we don’t lose our job or our position? Have we ever lied or failed to speak up to keep harm from coming to us? Even worse, have there ever been times when we have concealed some aspect of our faith in Jesus? Though we gladly confess the faith here, do our actions and our speech sometimes hide our Christianity out there? We don’t want to be guilty by association. We don’t want people to make fun of us and think of us as holier than thou and not include us. We cover up certain aspects of our faith so that we won’t have to face the consequences that might come if certain people knew what we believed. Like Peter we’ve all denied Jesus in one way or another–that’s what sin is. We all need to cry our own tears of repentant sorrow.
But there is hope for us poor sinners. For there is another person in this account who was not ashamed to be guilty by association, and that is our Lord Jesus Himself. In fact, that’s the very reason why He came into the world, to stand shoulder to shoulder with us and take the blame for our sin. When we view Jesus hanging on the cross, we recognize that the only way He could become guilty at all was by association. For He was and is the Holy One of God, without sin of any kind. Even Pilate could find no fault in Him. Yet He was put to death because He hung around with the wrong kind of people, and He wouldn’t lie to support the institutional status quo. He associated with sinners and ate with them: the Samaritan woman at the well, tax collectors, lepers, the poor. Even His disciples disputed about who was greatest among them; they were sometimes proud and faithless. Because Jesus associated with sinners, with the likes of us, He was nailed to a cross.
And please note that it was God the Father Himself who made Jesus to be the guilty One. It is written, “For [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). It was not just the angry mob screaming for Jesus’ crucifixion, but the Father Himself who called for it. However, whereas the people cried out for Jesus’ death out of hate, God the Father cried out for it out of love for you. It is written, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). That is why Jesus remained silent when He was falsely accused. For He came not to defend Himself but to defend us. That is why Jesus was willingly obedient even to the point of death on a cross–not because we asked for it or deserved it, but because this is the expression of God’s Fatherly heart of love and mercy toward you.
Jesus was numbered with the transgressors and lumped in with sinners. He was placed before the people alongside Barabbas, a murderer and a thief, as if they were on the same level. And even in His death He was hung between two criminals, as if He were just another low-life. But because He laid down His life like that, you now have eternal life through faith in Him. Jesus willingly became guilty by association, taking upon Himself all of the wrath that your sins deserved. And in turn, you become innocent by association with Jesus. Just like Barabbas, you are released and set free, because Christ has taken your place. He became the Sinner, so that you would become the holy ones, saints of God, His beloved children. That is what you are.
You are truly most closely associated with Jesus. For you are baptized into His death. Peter had it right. Being associated with Christ means having to die; the old Adam with all sins and evil desires must be drowned. But that is something we want in the end. For to be crucified with Christ in baptism means that Jesus’ death to sin counts as your own. The death sentence He served is credited to you by grace. Baptized into Christ, you are no longer guilty in the sight of God. You are forgiven and blameless, given to lead a new life before Him free from fear.
Living in that confidence, we are not ashamed to be associated with Jesus. We are free to be like the centurion, who boldly and publicly confessed that Jesus surely is the Son of God. We are given to be like Joseph of Arimathea, who took courage and asked the governor for the body of Jesus. So we also ask for the body of Jesus; and we receive His body and His holy, precious blood in the Sacrament for the forgiveness of our sins.
So if you ever feel like Peter, with the finger pointed at you for being one of Jesus’ disciples, rejoice and be glad. For to be guilty by association with Christ before men is to be innocent by association with Him before the Father in heaven.
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠