Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Some people call this week, ‘Holy Week’. It’s the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. It’s the week which gave our world HOPE, for if Jesus had NOT experienced His suffering, death and resurrection, that Passover/Easter weekend about 2000 years ago, there would be absolutely NO hope for any person, of any generation, living anywhere in the world. Do you agree?
We would ALL be destined to live and die in our inescapable slavery to sin, (Rom. 3:23; 6:23) and spend all eternity justly condemned to ‘perish’, which is eternal separation from God. (2 Peter 3:9)
In the past few days, we’ve been carefully walking the journey with Jesus toward that Passover/Easter weekend, as described in the four Gospel accounts: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Yesterday I left you watching as Jesus, in the middle of that Thursday night, was inside the high priest’s house being interrogated by Jewish religious leaders who should have honored Him and called the people to recognize Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah.
Instead, they maligned Jesus, shouted at Him, accused Him of blasphemy. Matthew describes it with these words: “The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put Him to death.” (Matt. 26:59) As I showed you yesterday, this late-night trial was against every principle of Jewish justice and the fact that they were fabricating accusations against Jesus took this mockery to pitiful depths of darkness. It was during this trial Peter denied Jesus three times, as we saw yesterday.
Matthew tells us this midnight charade trial declared “He is worthy of death!” (Matt. 26:62-66)
Matthew is the only Gospel writer who tells us that when Judas Iscariot saw what was happening to Jesus, he was seized with remorse, and he went back to the chief priests saying, “I have sinned for I have betrayed innocent blood.’ They replied, “What is that to us, that is your responsibility!’ So, Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself!” (Matt. 27:3-10)
Oh, the sad reality of profound remorse and grief. But also, this is another clear indication of the hard and vindictive hearts of the Jewish leaders who were intent on eliminating Jesus.
John, who was an eyewitness to the trial at the high priest’s house, tells us “Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning…Pilate came out to them asking ‘what are the charges against this man?” (John 18:28,29) That was an important but problematic question, for Jesus had broken no Roman law and Jesus had lived a sinless life before God, faithfully bringing God’s truth and God’s hope-giving miracles to the people.
But these Jewish leaders were determined to be rid of Jesus before Passover was complete, so they said, “He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah king.” (Luke 23:2) Lies are terrible things, aren’t they? Jesus had once been asked about taxes and He told the people: “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s”. (Matt. 22:15-21)
Luke tells us that while Pilate was interrogating Jesus, he discovered Jesus was from the Galilee region and because Jewish King Herod was in Jerusalem for Passover, Pilate took the opportunity to send Jesus over to be dealt with by Herod! (Luke 23:6,7) This king Herod is “Herod Antipas”, son of Herod the Great, the same Herod Antipas who had John the Baptist beheaded! (Matt. 14:1-12) Despite Herod’s attempts to draw Jesus into a debate, Jesus remained silent. Herod ridiculed and mocked Jesus, had Him dressed in an elegant robe, and sent back to Pilate. (Luke 23:8-12)
Roman Governor Pilate then called together the Jewish religious leaders who had brought Jesus to him and Pilate made this powerful judicial statement: “You brought me this man…I have examined him and I find no basis for your charges against Him. Neither has Herod…He has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish Him and release Him.” (Luke 23:13-17) In that moment the eternal destiny of the human race hung in the balance, do you understand why my friends?
A crowd of people had gathered, and something stirred them into a frenzy. They shouted: “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!’ (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection and for murder.) Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to the crowd. But they kept shouting “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” (Luke 23:18-21)
In the tension of this moment an unusual thing happened. A messenger came to Pilate who was sitting on the judge’s seat. The messenger was from Pilate’s wife with an urgent message from her! “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of Him.” (Matt. 27:19)
Conflicted, Roman governor Pilate asked the religious leaders and the assembled crowd: “Which of these two do you want me to release to you?’ ‘Barabbas’ was the shouted reply. ‘And what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” (Matt. 27:20-23)
Matthew’s report gives us these very important words about what happened next: “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; it is your responsibility!” (Matt. 27:24) Pause. This is a critical moment in the trials of Jesus, do you agree? Pilate, representing Rome, had declared Jesus innocent. King Herod of the Jews had found nothing wrong in Jesus. Yet the Jews, both their leaders and the people, remain adamant in rejecting Jesus and demanding His execution!
The words next shouted by the religious leaders and the people in that public square before Pilate are historic: “His blood is on us and on our children!” (Matt. 27:25) And so Pilate released murderer Barabbas to the people, but he turned Jesus over to be flogged by the soldiers and crucified! (Matt. 27:26) The graphic description of the torture inflicted upon Jesus in the next hours is hard to read as recorded in Matthew 27:27-31.
But it’s an important part of human history and the theological reality of the price Jesus Christ paid to earn sin forgiveness for our world. The soldiers who beat and humiliated Jesus that Friday morning represented EVERY living human being of all time, who have rejected God and doubted God and ignored God’s offer of love. Those men represented you and me!
We need to pause here and reflect deeply on what transpired through that Thursday night and early Friday morning, as humanity rejected God’s offer of unconditional love, in the person of Jesus Christ!
Important lessons learned notes are just below to help us think more deeply, and then a song specifically about what we’ve witnessed today. And I’ll be here with you each day this week, as we walk with Jesus through His crucifixion.
Today’s Scripture: Luke 23:1-21; Matthew 27:15-31.
Choose below to read or listen.
Luke 23:1-21
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Matthew 27:15-31
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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