Something a little different here. First will be the finished sermon. After that, will be a bunch of notes I made in writing it. Just for posterity of my thought process, really.
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Today, we are looking at the court trials of Jesus - where he is found to be innocent of crimes he didn't commit, but is still sentenced to death. It's a powerful moment in history. There are several questions that come to our minds when we read about the trials. We want to know why Jesus stood there silent when he was accused. We want to know why the religious leaders hated him so much, and why the people chanted for his crucifixion. We want to know why the Roman government authorities go along with it. Finally, we ask why didn't Jesus just prove who he was and save himself? I want to answer these questions, because firstly, they are good questions that deserve good answers. Secondly, this account of Jesus' trials tells us something about ourselves. Answering these questions reveals something about how humanity reacts to Jesus, and how God acts toward humanity.
Our first question is why did Jesus remain silent? He is being charged with blasphemy, punishable by death under Jewish law, and treason, punishable by death under Roman law. Those are serious charges, with serious consequences. And yet Jesus stands there silent, giving glib responses when questioned. Now lying, of course, is not an option for Jesus - this is the perfect messiah we are talking about, so giving false testimony is right out. That would be breaking the ninth commandment. But why not just tell the truth, so he can deal with these charges properly?
One problem is not what he is charged with, but how the people determine his guilt. First of all, Jesus is hauled before a temple court of Jewish religious leaders. They charge him with blasphemy. What does that mean? Well, it means a lot of things, but in this specific instance they are charging Jesus with saying that he is God's son. Because a son inherits from a father, this is the equivalent of putting yourself as equal with God. Now at any other time in history, if you charged someone with blasphemy when they said, "I'm the son of God", you would have been right! This one time, though, the Jewish religious leaders were wrong in following this logic. Jesus really is God's son, really is equal with God. So what can he say? "Yes, I am God's son"? "Yes, I am equal with God"? He's proved that already - he healed a paralysed man, and forgave his sins. Repeating that he is equal with God is not going to change the outcome. In fact, it's only going to dig him in deeper.
It's the same when Jesus appears before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. The Jewish leaders don't bother mentioning the blasphemy charge, because the Romans don't care about blasphemy against a non-Roman god. Instead, they now charge him with being a king. Why doesn't Jesus say anything about that? Because the truth is he is the King of the Jews. He is the King of the Romans too. It's the same thing: every single time someone who wasn't appointed by the emperor claimed to be a king in the Roman empire, you could safely say they were being rebellious and committing a crime, and that they had no claim to the title. This one time though, Jesus really is the son of God, and King of all Kings. So what's he going to say, "Yes, I really am the King who reigns on high above your petty emperor"? How will that help him?
There is nothing wrong with these charges. The charge about taxes is false, and we'll get to that later. But with these charges, the method of determining whether someone is guilty of these crimes or not is pretty simple, but is usually effective. If a person said they're God or they're King, they are guilty. That person can't then justify it by saying, "But it's the truth," because it never ever is. Except this once. Except for Jesus.
It can be hard to understand this situation, so let me put it this way. Imagine you were on a jury in a murder trial. The accused man stands there in the dock, and when asked how he pleads, he pleads not guilty. The prosecutor has all the necessary evidence - the accused was there at the time. He had the gun. There's an eye-witness account that the accused man pulled the trigger. When he's called to give evidence, the man admits to all those things, because he was there, he did have the gun, and he even admits he did pull the trigger. Moreover, he even says he wanted to shoot to kill. All the elements of murder are there! So then the prosecutor asks, "If you were there, if you had the gun, if you pulled the trigger, if you wanted to kill, how are you not guilty of murder?" And the accused responds, in perfect seriousness, "The person I killed wasn't a human being. It was an alien from outer space. It's not murder because it's not a human being." No, the accused is not pleading insanity. Would you be surprised if the prosecution does not lead any evidence to prove that the victim was a human being? They say they don't need to prove the victim was a human, because there is no reasonable doubt the victim was human. The judge will tell you in this case that the threshold by which you need to make this decision of guilty or not guilty is 'beyond reasonable doubt'. It's not just the balance of probabilities, it's not a 50/50 chance. If you have even one reasonable doubt this person is guilty, you can set them free.
You're on the jury in this case. How would you vote? Is the accused guilty or not guilty? I think the vast, vast, vast majority would say this man is guilty. The only reason you would be wrong to make that finding is if the person he murdered really was an space alien. And what are the chances of that? What are the chances an alien really came to earth, and this man found it, and killed it, and no-one else noticed? Is that a reasonable doubt? The law does not deal with this situation, because it is so far out of the bounds of ordinary human experience.
But Jesus is really that unique. He is exceptional, one of a kind. Outside the bounds of ordinary human experience, or even extraordinary human experience. And this is a problem for people who hear about Jesus, especially in today's society where there are so many religions to choose from. It's really easy for so many people to listen to the claims of religions or religious leaders, and just decide they are not true, so they don't need to listen. I can go to any mental asylum and find for you someone who claims to be the Son of God, who claims to be the King of Australia. Would you believe them? No, of course not. It's really very safe to say that any time someone makes these outlandish claims, they're lying, or perhaps crazy. Except Jesus isn't lying. Jesus isn't crazy. He really is God's Son. He really is equal with God. He really is King of Kings. And that truth is hard to accept, because it is a unique truth, not true of anyone else.
Our second question is about the attitudes of the different people involved in Jesus's trials. Why did the Jewish religious leaders hate Jesus so much that they wanted him to be killed, and why did the crowds of people chant for Jesus to be crucified. After all, weren't they looking for a messiah, weren't they waiting for the promised christ, the king of God, to be born and come to them? Yes, they definitely were. But they have a problem - they have already made their decisions about what the messiah will be like before Jesus has arrived. They are looking for a charismatic, military ruler who will raise up an army, free Israel from under its Roman oppressors, and bring back the wealth and prosperity of King David's time. And they are looking for a messiah who will, of course, agree with them on every theological issue, because they are so sure that they are right.
But when Jesus actually arrives, he has come to deal with sin, and repair people's broken relationships with God. The religious leaders can't see it as their mistake. They have this idea stuck in their head about what God is like, and what the messiah will be like, and so even when the messiah comes to them, even when God comes to them in the form of Jesus, they reject him. This is The Messiah, but not the messiah they were expecting. This is not the messiah they wanted. For the religious leaders, Jesus was challenging their power. They were in positions of dominance over the people, and what they said was literally religious law. But Jesus comes and says they've got it all wrong, that God desires mercy, and that you must rely on God and his grace, not on following a list of rules. So they hate Jesus - because he points out that they're wrong, and he wants people to question what they say.
Is that you? Do you have it already stuck in your mind how the world works, how God works, how faith works? A lot of people see religious truth like a marketplace - they buy into whatever beliefs they already agree with. They pick and choose what is right and what is wrong. Does Jesus challenge your power over your own life, to choose how you relate to God, whether or not something is sin, or what your church or your life should be like? Because Jesus should always win that battle. If we refuse to give in to Jesus's authority, then we are like the religious leaders, calling for him to be crucified because even though Jesus is God, he is not the god we want him to be.
As for the everyday people, they were expecting a powerful military leader, victorious over their enemies. They had seen Jesus performing miracles, healings, exorcisms, wondrous signs. And he preached God's word with authority. They had high hopes for him. But they didn't put their hope in what he said. They put their hope in what they wanted - and they wanted a man who would drive out the Roman oppressors. So when they see that the religious leaders have arrested him, and he is handed over to Pontius Pilate, they feel betrayed. Here is the man who promised to be God's messiah - but now he is the enemy's prisoner. If he really is the messiah, then why doesn't he free himself? Why doesn't he fight against them and win? How can it be that he so quietly admits defeat?
And so they hate him. He doesn't give them what they want, or he can't give them what they want, and so they turn on him, and they cry out for him to be crucified. Jesus doesn't live up to their ideal of what the messiah should be, so they don't want him any more. I should point out that the thing the crowds wanted was a good thing. They wanted freedom, they wanted an end to tyranny and oppression.
Maybe you are angry with God because he lets people suffer, or because he doesn't stop people from destroying the environment. Those are good things, but it is important to understand that having faith in God, trusting God, means trusting him to decide what is most important for us. The anger and disappointment the crowds expressed was exactly what happens when we don't have faith in God to have the absolute best plan for us, and for everyone, and for his glory.
It is a failing of humanity that if we want something, and we are given something we need instead, we can end up resenting the thing we received, because we didn't get what we want. Have you ever resented a present, even though it was something you needed, because it's not that thing you had your heart set on, it's not the thing you wanted? This is an all too common reaction we have to God's will - he gives us what we need, not necessarily what we want, and because we have so little faith in God, we find ourselves resenting God's plan for our lives.
At my church there is a lovely older couple who came to faith in Christ later in their lives. The husband has cancer. For years they have fought against it with every kind of medical treatment. But he has not been healed. There are no more medicines left for the doctors to try. And yet they still praise God for his goodness to them. I'm sure you can all think of inspiring, godly Christians who find themselves in a terrible, difficult place in their lives, and yet can still praise God for his goodness. We find their faith inspiring. That's how we should be. But we are more usually like the crowds. God puts us in a position of difficulty, deals with our biggest problem of all in sin, and we cry out, 'Crucify him!'
Or maybe we are more like the Roman governor Pilate. He is presented with an innocent man, with whom he cannot find any fault at all. And what is his response when faced with complete innocence? It's not, "This man is innocent, free him at once." No, it's "I'll punish him for you, and then I'll set him free." Is that how you would like to be treated when you are being disciplined at work, or by parents, or by the law? Is this justice? "Well, you're not guilty of anything, but people are upset, so we're going to punish you anyway to keep them happy." This is totally unjust. Pilate does not care about justice, he cares about comfort. Having people yelling and screaming, and possibly rioting in his streets, will look bad for him, and it will cause him trouble. So justice takes second place to expediency. And so we should not be surprised that when the crowd keeps calling for Jesus to be crucified, Pilate eventually just agrees.
Are we like Pilate, caring more about our own comfort than about what is right? Do we decide that following Jesus is too hard, because we have non-Christian friends or family who put pressure on us to act a different way? Or is the pressure of the world to live for ourselves, to be selfish, to focus on money and security and family, is that just too tempting? Before you think that believing in God would stop you from acting that way, remember Pilate thought Jesus was innocent. He thought Jesus was innocent, and he still sent him to be crucified. Because it was easier. So even as Christians, we have to be so careful that even though we know Jesus is God, we don't still turn to the easy answers, the easy way of life, the things that make us comfortable, to just making people happy so that we can also be happy. We have to care about what is right more than about what is comfortable.
Finally, we have Herod. We are probably all a little bit like Herod. Herod was the accepted king of the Jews at the time and, unlike the temple leaders, he did not feel threatened by Jesus at all. He felt threatened by John the Baptist, and cut off his head. But not Jesus. For Herod, Jesus was a curiosity. He had heard about Jesus doing miracles, and wanted to see one. He asked lots of questions, asked to see some wondrous signs that would prove Jesus really is who he claims to be. But Jesus did no miracles, and answered no questions. Herod probably decided that if Jesus couldn't do a miracle to save his own life, then he must not be the messiah. So Herod mocked and ridiculed him, and so did his soldiers, and sent him back to Pilate.
So many of us want Jesus to answer our questions, we want him to sate our curiosity, we want him to entertain us with miracles. If he can't do that, then we assume he must not be God, he must not be the messiah, and so we send him away. After all, if God is all-powerful, why not just prove who he is? What would it cost Jesus to do a miracle or two? If Jesus can't do a miracle to convince us that he is God, to save our lives from eternal punishment, if he can't answer the questions we have, then he mustn't be the messiah, and so we send him away. I know I've felt that way before. It's such a common attitude towards Jesus in the modern western world.
I want you to think about which of those groups of people at Jesus's trials you are like. Where would you have been? Does Jesus challenge your power over your own spiritual life, so you reject him like the religious leaders? Does Jesus not do what you want, do you feel like you've been let down by Jesus, so you are upset with him, like the crowds? Does the pressure of non-Christian family or friends, or just the non-stop shouting of our non-Christian culture to be selfish, put yourself first, and value material things, make you just give in for the sake of your own comfort, like Pontius Pilate? Or do you simply think that you don't need to take Jesus seriously, because he doesn't appear at your beck and call, doesn't answer the questions you want answered, or do miracles that would convince you of his being the Son of God, so you send him away like Herod and his soldiers?
Jesus' trials are the culmination of humanity's response to God on earth: both Jews (God's people) and Romans (not God's people) give Jesus over to be crucified. People who had seen his miracles, and people who had not. People who want him to be the messiah, and people who don't want him to be. All kinds of people ended up wanting Jesus dead because he was not what they wanted.
We all have it in us to be an enemy of God. We are guilty of insurrection and murder, just like Barabbas. But where Barabbas was guilty of insurrection and murder against the Romans, we are guilty of insurrection and murder against God. And as God's enemies, we deserve to be punished.
Well I want to tell you, wherever you are with God, whatever your attitude, the action that Jesus takes is his answer to you. What is that action, you might ask. Jesus doesn't seem to do anything. Jesus, as God, is surely all powerful. He could just call down legions of angels, or pillars of fire, or do whatever he wanted to miraculously break his bonds and free himself. But he doesn't.
Why is that? Why doesn't Jesus fight back? Because God's plan is that innocent Jesus should be punished and die in the place of every sinful human being. His death takes away the sin of the world - the punishment of God's enemies. Of those who wanted him dead. Of those who shouted angrily for him to be crucified. Of those who just wanted him out of the way so they could be comfortable, and of those who were convinced he could not be the Messiah. The action Jesus takes answers every question that is raised against him.
This is how much God is king over everything. He is able to turn the death of his son on earth at the hands of his enemies into that moment which saves us from eternal death, saves us from the punishment for being the enemies of God that we are. And in doing this, God transforms his enemies into his children, brings them into his loving family.
God does not act at our beck and call. God's plan is perfect, and it is the best plan for every single person on earth. Jesus' death does not give us the power to decide what is right and what is wrong for ourselves. Jesus' death does not stop climate change, or ISIS, or cancer. Jesus' death does not make us comfortable, or help us fit in with the world around us. Jesus' death does not answer all our questions, or take place to meet the level of proof we want.
No, Jesus' death perfectly repairs a relationship with God we didn't even know we had, that we didn't even realise was broken. It means we can be with God forever - free from sin and death and pain and suffering forever. His resurrection proves with perfect sufficiency that God loves us, and wants us to be with him. And it glorifies God, showing that he has the power over sin and death, the power to set us free from those things when we can't free ourselves.
We need to recognise that our attitudes can be against God. And we need to realise that God's plan is perfect. We can trust God to do everything exactly as it should be done. We can see that he has done everything that was needed to bring us to him. And we should repent of being his enemies, and be thankful that he has made us his children. Every time you think one of those enemy thoughts, remember God's answer was Christ's death, and change your attitude.
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22:63-71 guards beat Jesus and mock him, Jewish religious leaders accuse him of blasphemy
23:1-7 Taken before Pilate, accused of being seditious. Pilate finds no basis for charge. Sends him to Herod because he is from Galilee.
23:8-12 Herod wanted to see miraculous signs, but Jesus said and did nothing. Accused by Jews some more, mocked some more, sent back to Pilate, the two become friends.
23:13-17 Pilate announces there is no basis for a charge either from him or Herod. Offers to punish him (even though innocent) and let him go.
23:18-25 The people are adamant that they want Jesus crucified. Pilate doesn't want to, but in the end he relents, and releases Barabbas instead - a real guilty man.
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Why doesn't Jesus answer? Because he cannot lie, and the truth will damn him.
Why doesn't Jesus fight back? Because this is God's plan - to take our place, as Jesus took Barabbas's place.
#Why do the people chant for him to be crucified? Because he is a loser, and has dashed their hopes of a Messiah the way they wanted
#The religious leaders began to oppose Jesus in ch 11 when he spoke woes against them
#They were looking for reasons to accuse him back in chapter 6
Jesus is a threat to the jewish leaders because he usurps their spiritual sovereignty - he claims to be in charge, rather than them. They paint him as being a threat to secular political power, but really he isn't - and yet in the end the secular powers relent because they are human institutions. Herod is king of the jews, but knows he's not the messiah. When Jesus doesn't show him a miracle, he mocks him and sends him away - and Jew and Gentile here shake hands and grow a friendship based on mutual rejection of Christ.
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"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can be used against you in court." Maybe you've heard this on TV before. In the Australian legal system, we had something called the right to silence. This means that when the police arrest you for a crime, and they interview you to ask you questions about the crime, you don't have to answer any of their questions if you don't want to. But more than that, it means when you go to court and you're sitting in front of a jury, the judge and the jury are not allowed to hold your silence against you. You don't need to prove you weren't there - the government needs to prove you were there. You don't need to prove you didn't have motive, the government needs to prove you did have motive.
Some people find this right to silence confusing or confronting. Why should a criminal be able to just sit there and say nothing? Why can't they be forced to confess to their crime? If there is good evidence that tends to imply they did it, why shouldn't they have to speak up and explain how they didn't do it? But this ignores a fundamental tenet of our law - you are innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt. You don't have to prove your innocence - the government prosecutor has to prove that you are guilty. And if they can't prove that, if they can't prove to twelve of your peers that you are guilty beyond any reasonable doubt, then even though you said nothing at all in your defence, you are legally innocent - you are free to go.
This right to silence, this presumption of innocence, exists for several reasons. It restrains government tyranny - they can't just go around imprisoning whoever speaks out against them. It helps cure the imbalance between a government that has millions of dollars and thousands of police investigators at its disposal, whereas you have just your own modest means. Put simply, the right to silence and presumption of innocence exist to ensure that, so far as is possible, justice is done. It is better that a guilty man goes free, than an innocent man is punished.
But when we look at the trial of Jesus reported in Luke's gospel, we do not see justice being done. There are a few questions people regularly ask about this part of Jesus's life, about his trial. I want to answer them, because for one, it's always good to have your questions answered, but secondly, it really helps us get to the truth of why this whole thing occurred.
First of all, you might ask why is it that the Jewish religious leaders are so eager to see Jesus charged with a crime. Isn't Jesus the Jewish messiah? Shouldn't the temple priests have been looking for him, waiting for him, wanting him to come? Absolutely they should have been. Another question that often gets asked which is related to this is why do all the crowds of people chant for Jesus to get crucified? Didn't he heal their sick? Didn't he preach with authority? Didn't they greet him at the gate as if he were a king? They sure did. So why the sudden change of heart?
Well, for the religious leaders, it wasn't a change of heart at all. All the way back in chapter 6 of Luke they were looking for reasons to accuse Jesus. Then several times throughout his life, they are reported as trying to find ways to get him into trouble. Why? Because Jesus spoke out against them. Here is a man, born in accordance with Old Tetament scripture; pointed to by John the Baptist, a prophet; performing miracles, healing the sick, feeding thousands; preaching God's word with authority, interpreting scripture; making himself out to be not just God's messiah, but God's Son, equal with God. But he didn't agree with the temple leaders. He spoke out against them, and so they wanted him dead. The message he preached from God was not favourable to them, so they didn't want people to hear it.
What about the crowds? Why were they chanting at the governor's palace, shouting for Jesus to be crucified? It's the same reason: because Jesus did not agree with them. They wanted a powerful saviour, a military messiah, a leader who would raise an army and defeat their enemies, the Romans, who held their land and their people captive. God instead said, "I know better what you need: you need your sins forgiven," and they were angry that they weren't getting what they wanted. This was proved to them by Jesus being arrested. If Jesus really was the messiah they wanted, the mighty, powerful military leader, he would have struck down his enemies, and been victorious. Instead, here was he was arrested, paraded before the Roman governor. He had failed to give them what they wanted. So they shouted for him to be crucified.
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When Jesus is arrested, there is a lot of injustice. He isn't arrested by the lawful authorities. It isn't centurions that detain him, but temple guards. An he isn't taken before a judge, but before temple leaders. This is the equivalent of church security arresting you. It's the equivalent of John or Gordon grabbing you for you crimes, an dragging you in front of Roger and Colin to hear your case. And you might think that if you're a Christian, perhaps you should agree to appear before your church elders if you are thought to be guilty of some sinful misdeed. You might have read recently about the leader of a huge church in America, Mark Driscoll, who recently resigned from his position after being found to be antagonistic, angry and acting improperly and without love towards people. Fair enough. But what if Gordon or John came and kicked down your door, pointed a gun at you, amnd marched you off? What if they mocked you, and beat you? Slapped you, laughed at you and insulted you? These are your brothers in Christ doing this to you. Imagine that.
They drag him off in front of the governor, Pontius Pilate. He's the representative of the entire Roman empire. He's not religious, he doesn't care about blasphemy and religious rules. So they change the charges. Now it's about sedition, rebellion, tax evasion. And I can tell you, the government will forgive a lot of things, but they will always pursue a tax evader! But even on these trumped up false charges, the governor isn't interested. There's no basis for the charges. And anyway, the man doesn't come under his jurisdiction. He's a local from Galilee, and there's a Jewish political leader from that region called Herod, and he's in the city at that time. So Pilate sends Jesus over there. One less problem for him.
Now Herod, he's keen to see Jesus, because he's heard Jesus is a miracle worker. He wants to see a miracle. But he's disappointed.
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Now imagine that you were innocent. You were innocent, not because you hadn't done what you were accused of, but because what you were being accused of was not a sin. Maybe you are being accused of telling lies, where what you were saying is really the truth, but they just don't want to believe it. Where is the justice in that? You might feel that no matter what you say, they will only believe what they want to believe. So you keep silent.
That's what Jesus does. After all, what is the crime that Jesus faces here? It is the crime of being the messiah, the Christ, the promised king of God. His crime is being the Son of God, and the religious leaders simply don't believe him. They think he is lying. They think it's blasphemy. And so they beat him, and they mock him, and they insult him.
Now imagine that you are taken before a court by these people, these brothers of yours, Colin and Roger, who don't believe you are telling the truth. They take you to the International Court of Justice in the Hague. And they accuse you of lying. More than that though, they say that your lies are stirring people up, making them rebellious. They accuse you of being a terrorist. You are now on trial in the same court where war criminals face justice. And so in front of a foreign European jury, the foreign European judge puts you in the witness box and asks you: are you a terrorist? Are you lying? Are you inciting rebellion? You might think that if you tell the truth, the jury might think less of you. Your own church elders didn't believe you - why would these people who don't know you? And so you decide to say nothing. You just repeat what the others have said - "You say that I am".
This is what happened to Jesus. When he was before the temple leaders, he was charged with blasphemy. They are convinced by their own biases that he is guilty. But they can't pass a sentence on him. So they take him to the Roman government, to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. He's the representative of the emperor, of the whole Roman empire, there in Jerusalem. He's not religious. He doesn't care about blasphemy, so the religious leaders need to make the charges sound more important. So they accuse Jesus of sedition, of inciting rebellion, of telling people not to pay their taxes. Now I can tell you this - the government will forgive a lot of things, but they will always, always, always prosecute a tax offender! Pilate asks Jesus if he's this master criminal, this seditious rabble rouser, and Jesus says basically nothing - he just repeats the charge back. So Pilate, the governor, can't find any basis for the charges against Jesus.
