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Today’s Scripture ends with these ominous words, “Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.” With these words, we are at the precipice of the denouement of Christ’s tragedy. And, ultimate, triumph. But first, there is a matter of great significance we must attend to: What kind of a verb is that third one in the last paragraph?!?
I know! You’ve been wondering the same thing, too! Haven’t you?!? I can imagine it, you got to church, hung up your jacket, silenced your phone, perused the announcements, and then gave the Scripture a once-over. And from that moment on, you’ve been on the edge of your seat, or should I say pew. No doubt you’ve been wondering, nonstop, whether that third verb in the last paragraph is transitive or intransitive!
Worse still, you’ve been on pins and needles until this very moment, wondering if your honorable Reverend would have the courage to address this hot button issue! Well, dear sisters and brothers, rest assured, I am up to the task! Controversial or not, we must tackle this significant and practical grammatical consideration!
So then, let us consider the matter at hand. The verb in question is “sat.” “When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench…” And the issue is whether the verb sat is transitive or intransitive.
For the few of you who need a brush-up, the way I was taught is that transitive verbs transfer their action. Transitive verbs need an object to transfer their action onto to be complete. “Bring,” for instance, is a transitive verb. Bring will never be right without an object! “Would you please bring?”
You hear that?! It sounds wrong, doesn’t it? Bring needs an object to transfer its action to! Like this: “Would you please bring a pillow. Pastor Ryan is giving another one of those grammar sermons.”
Intransitive verbs, on the other hand, are the exact opposite! They’re more self-contained. They don’t need a who or what to act upon. In fact, some intransitive verbs can even be a complete sentence all by themselves! To demonstrate this, I’ll say two sentences. And it’s the second sentence that will be composed solely of one intransitive verb. Ready?
“Pastor Ryan is giving another one of those grammar sermons. Run!”
Grammatically, the issue of transitive and intransitive verbs is a matter of quality. How the verb is working. For our purposes today, though, the matter is of even greater significance! It’s a question of who sat on that judge’s bench!
Is the verb transitive? Is sat transferring the action of sitting onto Pilate? Was it Pilate who sat on the judge’s bench? Or is the verb intransitive? Is sitting what was done? Did Pilate sit Jesus on the bench? Was Jesus brought outside and sat on the bench?
Catch the distinction?!? It’s the same word! But the way the verb works changes who sat on the judge’s bench entirely! Either Pilate himself sat on the bench. Or, Jesus was sat on the bench!
…Well, what do you think? Before you answer, let me give you some dynamics. That way, you don’t have to answer on grammar alone.
First of all, Pilate sitting on the judge’s bench makes perfect sense. He’s giving his ruling on Jesus’ sentencing. In this situation, sitting on the judge’s bench is exactly what you’d expect Pilate to do.
However, throughout this scene, Pilate has been mocking the crowd by rubbing their nose in the fact that he’s the who’s one in control. Like when he parades Jesus before the crowd as a mock king, he’s reminding he represents the real king, Ceasar. Could Pilate be doing the same thing by sitting Jesus on the judge’s bench?
So then, is the verb transitive? Was Pilate the one who sat on the judge’s bench? Or is the verb intransitive? Was Jesus the one who was sat on the bench? What do you think?
…Well, the folks who study this sort of thing say it had to be Pilate. As much as Pilate was yanking the crowd around that day, there’s no way he would have ever sat Jesus on the judge’s bench. Mockery or not.
But, like someone explaining love doesn’t actually make you weak in the knees, the only response is to concede that while they may be technically correct, they’re really all wrong! More than likely, our preacher, John The Evangelist, is aware of the ambiguity of this verb, and he’s milking it for all its preaching potential! Yes, John is saying, it may look like Pilate is sitting on the judge’s bench. But, as he goes to the cross, it’s really Jesus who’s doing the presiding!
Scholars call this “Johannine irony.” But normal humans just call it “a paradox.” And Christians down through the ages have called it “a mystery.” Luther, though, preferred to call it “the theology of the cross.” And he said everything stands or falls on this!
Luther said that discrepancy between the way things appear and what God promises to do is at the heart of all theology. Good or bad. Luther said a theologian of the cross, like St. Paul, is determined to know nothing other than the cross. A theologian of glory, on the other hand, must have some evidence to go with their theological musings. A theologian of glory demands they see God’s work with their own two eyes.
The cross REVEALS, though, is that when it comes to the work of God, you can’t trust your eyes! You have to put your eyes in your ears! You can’t see God’s work in the cross. You can only hear what Jesus promises he’s doing there!
Faith comes by what is heard, as St. Paul said! Because it’s through our ears, and our ears alone, that the Word of God arrives, makes promises, and takes action, too! This is why, after the Gospel is announced, we say, “Praise to you, O Christ!” Not “Praise be the Holy Writ!” Because when God’s Word gets spoken aloud, Christ himself gets loose! Gets to work!
Only, it won’t look that way. Not in the moment, anyway. It will look like nothing more than this. A bunch of people sitting around, doing nothing. Your only chance at perceiving Christ’s work in your life is to close your eyes and open your ears!
Yes, it may look like that old bureaucratic tyrant, Pilate, is sitting on the bench. But in reality, it’s really Christ who’s presiding, preaches John! And it’s no different for you and the judge’s bench in your life, either!
There’s no shortage of voices rendering their judgment on you and your life. Is there? And the truth is, we’re often those very ones speaking these judgments. But today, here and now, Christ takes the bench! And he does for you what he did for that woman who was caught red-handed. He demands all those other voices that accuse you to be silent. And then he fills that void with these words: “neither do I condemn you!”
+ On account of Christ, all your sins are forgiven!
But that’s not all! Jesus isn’t a judge like the ones we have. Jesus doesn’t make you prove your innocence, and he won’t leave you live with the stigma of the trial, either! No, Christ is a judge who makes things happen! When Christ declares your innocence, everything changes! When Christ pronounces you innocent, he gives you all the privileges, benefits, and zero of the responsibilities that come with being a free and innocent citizen of his kingdom, right there on the spot!
And this, too, is happening today, right here and right now! Jesus has come to take the bench in your life! The honorable Jesus is now presiding!
Yes, for now, it doesn’t look like it. All too often, it looks like chaos, happenstance, and even misfortune reign in our lives. But Christ, who comes to judge the living and dead, sees what we cannot! He sees what has been accomplished by his death! When Christ suffered all the dregs of life on this side of the grave, he brought them all under his jurisdiction!
Now, our tough breaks, our fragmented relationships, our fragmented society, our flagging health, our planet’s health, our broken families, our weary war-torn world, our justice deferred, and even our own very deaths have all been bent to Christ’s will! And he wills to ply his resurrection on every last one of these tragedies! And all the rest of them, too! Christ wills to bring each and every last aspect of our lives under the triumph of his cross!
This is what St. Paul meant when he said we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another! Our lives are being shaped into the shape of the cross! And although that’s tough in the moment, in the end, it will be the very source of the tender mercy of God getting to work in your life!
Or, to say it another way, Christ has come to make every last aspect of your life the object of his eternal, never-ending, always TRANSITIVE grace! Hear this loud and clear, God’s grace is a transitive verb, always! It imparts its action! It transfers it! And the object of all that glorious action is you and your life!
And that, dearly beloved, is why, although life will make a theologian out of you, grammar will instruct you the high and holy art of it!
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