Lent Day 39: Sentenced for your crimes and mine

When the Pharisees and other national leaders take Jesus to the Roman governor, they are looking for the worst punishment they can inflict, a cruel and painful death. Here are the details, from John 18:28-19:16:

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, ‘What charges are you bringing against this man?’

‘If he were not a criminal,’ they replied, ‘we would not have handed him over to you.’

Pilate said, ‘Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.’

‘But we have no right to execute anyone,’ they objected. This took place to fulfil what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.

> This is hardly a trial that seeks justice. Rather, it is a conspiracy to execute someone who threatens the power base and status quo. The religious leaders have already decided to do away with Jesus - but they need permission from the governor.

> Yet Jesus doesn't defend himself. He lets his kingship and his authority over the universe speak for itself. He's not about to argue. He's not about to plea bargain. He is confident in who he is and in God's mission for him.

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’

‘Is that your own idea,’ Jesus asked, ‘or did others talk to you about me?’

‘Am I a Jew?’ Pilate replied. ‘Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?’

Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.’

You are a king, then!’ said Pilate.

Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’

> At the point where Pilate can explore who Jesus is, he turns to sarcasm and unbelief. That's a common response where people stumble, confronted with the kingship and unique Sonship of Jesus the Messiah.

‘What is truth?’ retorted Pilate. 

With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release “the king of the Jews”?’

They shouted back, ‘No, not him! Give us Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising. 

> You read this correctly. There's "no basis for a charge against him," according to the governor. Yet he doesn't release Jesus. He sends him for torture and mocking.

> The horrible punishment you and I deserve for our willful disobedience and lack of trust in God? Jesus takes the punishment of our sins upon himself. He endures the cross for you and for me.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ And they slapped him in the face.

Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.’ 

When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’

As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify! Crucify!’
But Pilate answered, ‘You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.’

The Jewish leaders insisted, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.’

> There is no doubt in the mind of the leaders about Jesus' claims. They understand that he considers himself the Messiah. Years later, the eyewitnesses will record the confrontation between established religion, political power, and Truth.

When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. ‘Where do you come from?’ he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. ‘Do you refuse to speak to me?’ Pilate said. ‘Don’t you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you?’

Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’

From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, ‘If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.’

> Pilate the governor tries to turn away the malice and harmful intentions. In the end, he values his position more than anything else. Pilate takes the coward's way out.

> How do you respond when your job, your reputation, and your connections are threatened?

When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.

‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews.

But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’

‘Shall I crucify your king?’ Pilate asked.

‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered.

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

> The Passover is done. But Sabbath starts at the end of this day. The priests are power brokers on a mission to kill Jesus before he gains any more influence. 

> There are so many ways this could have been resolved without killing an innocent man. None of them are chosen. Instead, all the sins, injustice, and failure are laid on the spotless "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." (John 1:29)

> Your sins. My sins. Our broken relationships. Our sicknesses and pain. It is laid on Jesus, the only human without blame. God will reconcile the world to himself through this terrible ransom.

> I do not understand God's ways. This is one of the hardest to grasp - that God would take on himself all the harm done since creation. He identifies with us. 

> God understands every injustice that has ever been committed. He has endured accusations of blasphemy (against himself!), mockery, and torture. He dies in an excruciating way for you and for me.

> If you ever doubt God's attention, his Presence, or his love, come to the cross. God himself hangs on a tree, bears our burdens and shame, and reconciles us through Jesus Christ.

> Now you get to choose - will you accept God's provision? Or will you stand with the mockers, those who hurl insults, and those who shout, "Away with him! Crucify him!"