My Brothers Sermon, Which BASIN are you BASIN your life on

Today, I’m holding in my hand a basin. Also known as a bowl, I use the word basin because that’s the word used for it in scripture. It’s basically some sort of container that holds water, and if you trace the word history, it’ll take you back to a large scale, artificial water holding feature built into the landscape. Something like a retention pond. The word has evolved over time through various language translations, and it’s word we don’t use often – yet there is a very profound lesson from scripture that I want to share with you this morning. It’s a word that, in one way or another, describes, summarizes and pictures the essence of your life. I guess you could say it all comes down to BASIC theology. And the question that I want you to consider this morning from the stand point of your faith and your relationship with Jesus is this:
What are you BASIN your life on?

You see, in scripture we find two very important basins that represent two very distinct, very different, lifestyles. We’ve heard about these basins before, we’ve read the stories connected with these two basins many times, we have heard sermons and Sunday school lessons on them, but most of us have probably never consider those basins as heavily as we will consider them today, and certainly, probably never TOGETHER as we will examine them today.

And each basin represents one way or the other way that every person in human history chooses to live their lives. I want you to consider these two basins together, and then look at your own life, and figure out which basin is the best reflection, the best example, the best picture of your life. The first basin is found in Matthew 27 and the second basin in found in John 13. These basins were used literally just hours apart from one another by two different persons – each one summarizing the choice we make concerning how we live our lives.

The first one is PILATE’S BASIN. In Matthew 27, the true story of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ unfolds. The Jewish leaders determined that they wanted Christ dead because, in their view, He was guilty of blasphemy, claiming to be God, claiming to grant forgiveness of sins, claiming to be ONE with the Father, yet His ministry looked nothing like what they expected their Messiah to do. They wanted Him dead because many were believing and following Him, and He posed a threat to their elevated position of religious power and superiority.

But under Roman rule, they could not sentence Jesus to death. Only the Roman governor could make that call. And His name was Pilate. Pilate began His interrogation of Christ to see if the charges had merit with this question: “Are you the King of the Jews?” And Jesus answered that He was. The slander and abuse by Jewish leadership increased, while Jesus grew silent in face of verbal and violent physical abuse. The Bible says Pilate was greatly amazed at what He was watching – He’d never seen someone endure such abuse and not at least try to defend himself and escape capital punishment.

Every year at Passover, the Roman rulers would release a Jewish criminal to placate the Jew’s hostility toward the Romans – a diplomatic, peace seeking effort on their part. Pilate felt that Jesus was innocent and should be set free. In fact, his wife had a dream that put the burden of the innocence of Christ in her spirit, and she pleaded with her husband to let Jesus go free. So He suggested freeing BARRAABBAS – a famous – Timothy McVeigh type anti-government violent protestor, we would consider him a domestic terrorist. Surely – Pilate thought – the Jewish crowd would chose Jesus to be set free – and BARRABBAS to be crucified. But he underestimated the power and influence of the Jewish leaders to persuade the crowd to cry out for Jesus to be crucified.

If you’ve ever been to a bucs game, you might recall that at certain times in the game (and college teams do even more of this kind of thing) but one side of the stadium cries out in unison “TAMPA” and other side yells “BAY.” And once it starts, it picks up momentum and it’s an amazing phenomenon that so many people would speak together with such unity and precision and it keeps going back and forth “TAMPA” “BAY” “TAMPA BAY” “TAMPA BAY”

It was something very similar to that when such a large crowd of people cried out in unison in answer to Pilate’s question, who do you want me to release, and they kept crying out together: “BARRABBAS!”

And he said what do you want me to do with Jesus? And they said “CRUCIFY HIM…” And that’s where we pick up the story and read about this first basin – Pilate’s basin:

Matthew 27:24 (The Message)

24When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere and that a riot was imminent, he took a basin of water and washed his hands in full sight of the crowd, saying, "I'm washing my hands of responsibility for this man's death. From now on, it's in your hands. You're judge and jury."

But no amount of water, no mixture of chlorine bleach, there is no cleaning chemical strong enough to absolve Pilate’s guilt in history’s gravest miscarriage of justice!

Now church, I want you to know some of us are living our lives out of Pilate’s basin. We are constantly trying to absolve ourselves from guilt we feel from our sin by washing in waters that are not strong enough for the job. We continually avoid responsibility for those very decisions that WE and WE ALONE made and are responsible for. We know what we should do. We know what’s right, and yet, we take the easy way out, and pass the buck somebody else. We blame other people, play the victim and cry victimization – and fail to see all along that HIS BLOOD in on OUR HANDS. HIS BLOOD IS ON OUR HANDS, but we dip our hands in Pilate’s basin of weak and worldly water to alleviate our guilt, but it never works!

Pilate’s basin means we fail the make the connection about who we are and what role WE PLAYED in the brutal beating and violent death of Jesus Christ. We’re so busy playing the victim to our pain and placing blame somewhere else that we can’t even see the pain our sin causes in heart of Christ. We want to wash our hands of the mess were in and blame on our fathers, blame it on our mothers, blame it on the politicians, blame it on the courts, blame it on the democrats, blame it on the republicans, blame it on our husbands, blame it on our wives, blame it on our children, blame it on the teachers, blame it on the school system, blame it on the economy … It’s doesn’t matter who it is, Pilate’s basin refuses to accept responsibility – and plays blame game – just pawn it off on somebody else!

I want to challenge you to look at your life today and see if the whole problem is Pilate’s basin. See if your life is marked by running from responsibility, passing the buck, and placing blame. Pilate’s basin means as you read the Ledger, you fail to make the connection, you fail remember, it is impossible for you to conclude that:
YOUR SIN is the SAME SIN as the sin of 5 pimps and 19 prostitutes arrested by Sherriff Grady Judd in a CraigsList sex sting. YOUR SIN is the SAME SIN as the sin of those listed on the state of Florida’s sexual preditors list. YOUR SIN is the SAME SIN as

And you keep washing in water that fails to do the job!

Now Pilate’s basin is one basin, but there’s another basin that’ll work a lot better for you life if you’ll pick up, use it, and live out of it. It’s Christ’s basin. And just a few hours before Pilate picked up his basin, JESUS picked up His.

Jesus was teaching and healing, but knew His time was coming to an end. He left Jerusalem to spend six months or so out in the region where John the Baptist had, preached, and developed a following. He returned to Jerusalem during the week of Passover, knowing that His time had come. During the last days of his public ministry before His arrest, He spent a great deal of quality time with His disciples, preparing them, training them, equipping them, praying for them, and tying up lose ends before Judas would betray Him to authorities –
all of which is recorded for us in John 13-17. And Jesus begins that intense time of fellowship and training with His disciples by picking up that basin of water, which defined His life. It was surely nothing like Pilate’s, either literally or symbolically. They are gathered in the upper room, and we pick up the action in John 13:1-6 (The Message)

1-2 Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.
3-6Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron.

I hardly know where to begin with this most beautiful, glorious, dignified basin of lowly service and loving sacrifice. It was a common custom in those day – (something like offering a glass of tea to a guest in your home) it was not embarrassing as we perceive it today – and it was usually carried out – literally – by a slave, a servant in the home. No slave was present on this day, so Jesus assumed that role.

I can’t help but notice that this basin, among other things, is a basin of love. Verse 1 reminds us that He LOVED his disciples and, in fact, loved them right up to the very end of His earthly life. Regardless of how they treated Him, when they deserted and abandoned Him, how they lied about knowing Him, and one of them even arranging to betray Him for something like $15,000 in todays terms, HE STILL LOVED THEM! In fact, don’t miss that Jesus even washed Judas’ feet!

Walking the dusty roads in open sandals left feet much more dirty than our feet get today. They didn’t have stores like “Happy Feet Plus” and products like “Dr Shoals odor eaters” back then. The feet of His disciples were no doubt covered with dust and dirt and grit and grime and soil and sand from their journeys. As disciples, they probably didn’t have their feet washed by anyone very often. Judas’ feet were probably as clean as they had been in a long, long time, and those same feet that Jesus washed carried him away later that night to the place of betrayal, back-stabbing, and greed. BUT STILL, JESUS LOVED HIM because that basin is a basin filled with love!

It’s also a basin of HUMILITY. Remember that Pilate’s basin was probably on some sort of table or stool, and he simply stood as he washed his hands in that barbaric basin, but Jesus stooped, He knelt down, He had no choice but to bend over in order to use His beautiful, blessed basin.

Not only is it a loving, humble basin, but it’s a serving basin. Sometimes we get to spiritualizing so much of the Bible that miss the practical nature of many things that Jesus did. And this was a very practical act of service – it was one way Jesus met a very practical, physical need. We don’t wash one another’s feet these days because our shoes help keep them clean, and we don’t walk everywhere we go and we’re able to shower and keep our own feet clean ourselves. I don’t need you to wash my feet, and you don’t need me to wash your feet.

But there are times when God call us and there are times when we respond in obedience to meeting a practical need through a simple act of service – like delivering a meal, or mowing a neighbors yard, or putting gas in someone’s tank – helping to get an elderly person to a doctor’s appointment – cleaning the church kitchen, painting the kid’s rooms, planting sod – and now, most recently, we have another class that is taking on a project – they are committing to renovating the ladies restroom just outside the worship center.
… on and on we could go …
And I might suggest today that every time we meet a practical need in someone’s life, we have washed their feet. We have taken that beautiful basin and filled it with water and in humble, loving service, and we have met a practical need in their lives that might would have gone otherwise unmet.

And at the end of the day today, I just wanted you to see that every man, every woman, every teenager and younger person here this morning PICKS UP and LIVES LIFE OUT OF, either, PILATE’S BASIN or CHRIST’S BASIN! And I would hope and pray that if you have been living life out of Pilate’s basin, that you would realize today how broken, and how sad you are, and what a devastating way to live your life. I pray that you grow sick of the water in Pilate’s basin and try the blood of Jesus Christ! I pray that today, you would for the last time put down Pilate’s basin of blame, and excuses and cover-ups, and pick up the loving, humble, serving basin of Jesus Christ and live out of it for the rest of your life.
Some of us struggle and tend to go back and forth. Honestly, we have our good days and our bad days. In fact, truth be told, we’d like to carry both basins through life. But you can’t. That’s impossible. That just means that at times, you serve God out of your flesh to make yourself look good in front of others and feel good inside.

But you haven’t really picked up Christ’s basin!
You can’t stand and kneel at the same time.
You can’t wash your hands and other’s feet at the same time.
You can’t love and be bitter at the same time.
You can’t be humble prideful at the same time.
You’re just playing games. You’re just trying to look part. You’re just going to church and going through the motions. You live from Pilate’s basin and make it look like you’re holding Christ’s! But you aren’t fooling anyone!

Closing:

You know, Lord, how I serve You
With great emotional fervor
In the limelight.
You know how eagerly I speak for You
At the women's club.
You know how I effervesce when I
Promote a fellowship group.
You know my genuine enthusiasm
At the Bible study.

But how would I react, I wonder
If You pointed to a basin of water
And asked me to wash the callused feet
Of a bent and wrinkled old woman
Day after day
Month after month
In a room where nobody saw
And nobody knew.

You see, it all boils down to the basin.
Which basin are you basin’ your life on today?