Tried, Mocked, Condemned
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
63 The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. 64 They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” 65 And they said many other insulting things to him.
66 At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. 67 “If you are the Christ,” they said, “tell us.”
Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68 and if I asked you, you would not answer. 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”
70 They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?”
He replied, “You are right in saying I am.”
71 Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.”
1 Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. 2 And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.”
3 So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.
4 Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”
5 But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”
6 On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. 7 When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
8 When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. 9 He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. 11 Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. 12 That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.
13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. 15 Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. 16 Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.”
18 With one voice they cried out, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” 19 (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)
20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. 21 But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
22 For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”
23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. 24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.
Introduction
Introduction
Over the past number of weeks, we’ve been considering the events that were unfolding in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover Feast. This is the time where they were celebrating the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, where the Passover Lamb was sacrificed, and the blood used as a means of ensuring that they were able to escape death brought by God.
As Christ is in Jerusalem now in order to celebrate, He would not only celebrate the Passover meal with His disciples, but he would ultimately become the fulfillment of the ultimately Passover lamb to be sacrificed. His own blood would be shed as He would be sacrificed on the cross on our behalf. And that is what we have been building up towards.
This morning, we will be considering together the various trials of Jesus that took place as the religious leaders sought to bring a guilty verdict against Jesus in order to obtain the right to have Him put to death. By trials, I mean actual trials in the sense of a court trial! Jesus would be brought before various tribunals or judges. The goal of the religious leaders is that he be declared guilty, and sentenced to death.
As we work through these relatively quickly, we will find that there is no desire for an honest trial. There is no genuine concern about what Jesus had been doing. Rather, there was a deep motivation of hatred towards the Son of God from the religious leaders. Hatred in the heart of man would lead the perfect, spotless lamb to the slaughter.
Through these trials, we have before us a picture of the sufferings of Jesus prior to his actual crucifixion, where that ultimate suffering will take place.
On the one hand, the sufferings that he endures through these verses were agonizing and intense because they involved physical torture at various points along the way.
On the other hand, these sufferings involved the ill treatment of Jesus in the form of repeated false accusations, accusations from those opposed to Him, and words of condemnation being brought against him, despite his perfect innocence. Despite His perfect obedience even before the most Holy and Righteous Judge - God Himself!
Now, let us be sure that these sufferings of Christ were extensively predicted through the Old Testament writings. The Psalms speak of it. The prophets foretell of the sufferings. These sufferings include not only the crucifixion, but also the extensive sufferings that took place in the buildup to that crucifixion.
As Christ would endure these sufferings, He would do so out of great love and concern for people. He had a heart of love, and that love drove Him to continue despite the sufferings. He endured in the face of ill treatment, because He knew that there was an end goal - the building of a people for God under a New Covenant in His blood.
He even wept over Jerusalem - over the very leaders and people that would be driving Him to the cross - as He approached this time of suffering. He loved and cared for even the vilest of sinners.
And he endured and persevered through these sufferings for your sake and mine, in order that our lives might be shielded from the wrath of God, as He took upon Himself the punishment we deserve. Let us the keep these things in mind as we just walk briefly through the account of the trials of Jesus that would lead to His death, which we’ll then look at, at our service on Friday morning.
1 Mocked and Beaten (vv.63-65)
1 Mocked and Beaten (vv.63-65)
The first thing that is conveyed for us through this text is the fact that Jesus was mercilessly beaten and mocked by those who were guarding him.
You will recall that Jesus had been arrested in Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, and brought to the house of Caiaphas, the High Priest. And this is where the guards then mistreated Jesus. We read in verse 63…
63 The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him.
Keep in mind that by this time, there had been no official or formal trial of Jesus whatsoever. There were no charges that had been brought against him. There was in fact nothing that he had done wrong.
These men who were guarding him (and they were probably the Jewish temple guards) simply began to mock and to beat him. According to Mark 14:65, this beating included assaulting him with their fists.
Their mockery went to the heart of his identity…
64 They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?”
In Matthew 26:68, we find the soldiers shouting out to Jesus…
Matthew 26:68 (NIV84)
68 “Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?”
In other words, they acknowledged that there was this claim that he was the Christ, but they were calling upon him now as the Messiah to prophesy. Since he was the one that was allegedly sent by God to them, surely he should be able to tell who is assaulting him, even while blindfolded.
This was just a case of outright mockery of the King of kings. In verse 65 we read…
65 And they said many other insulting things to him.
This was a session of unbridled, unrestrained verbal assault on the person and character of Jesus.
This was not happening because the Temple Guards had taken upon themselves the liberty of mistreating Jesus. They would have had the full consent and backing of the religious leaders who were present there at the house of Caiaphas. This was a vile demonstration of the depths of the depravity of the hearts of men, even of the most religious in society of that day.
Even this initial beating was certainly a fulfillment (at least in part) of the prophecies in Isaiah 53, where we have that account of the suffering servant - a man despised and afflicted, along with various other passages that looked forward to the suffering of Jesus.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by men and despised by the people.
With this evil kangaroo court having begun the scourging of Jesus, we find that he is brought before the council of the Sanhedrin.
2 On Trial Before the Sanhedrin (vv.66-71)
2 On Trial Before the Sanhedrin (vv.66-71)
66 At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them.
We must keep in our minds that the gathering together of the Sanhedrin was merely an attempt by the religious leaders to legitimize their actions. But already so much wrong had been committed.
But already Jesus had been brought before Annas. Annas had no genuine authority, since he was not truly the High Priest. Already Jesus had been brought before Caiaphas. who was the High Priest. But he didn’t have authority to do anything on his own in any case. Already he has been beaten and mocked.
To now assemble the Sanhedrin was merely an effort to cover their tracks and legitimize their evil actions.
Further to this, we need to also keep in mind that they had no real charges to bring against him. They are simply going to seek to bring charges against him through the gathering of false witnesses.
Matthew 26:59–60 (NIV84)
59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 60 But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.
It was an utter sham!
As we continue, notice in verse 67 that they now confront Jesus with a question…
Luke 22:67 (NIV84)
67 “If you are the Christ,” they said, “tell us.”
Already, the soldiers (men in charge of Jesus) had beaten him on account of a claim that he was the Christ, the Messiah. Now the question arises from the mouths of the Sanhedrin. If you are the Christ, tell us!
Now, we need to note here that they’ve already made the decision in their minds as to who Jesus is. In their minds, he is an impostor into their religion. In their minds, they have already determined most definitively that He is not the Messiah.
Their question is not aimed at obtaining the truth, but rather it is aimed at finding fault, and finding a reason to do away with Jesus.
Isn’t it remarkable that this man, who truly was the Messiah, the One who embodied the true nature and character of God, was rejected by the religious leaders - by those who were best positioned to identify the Messiah - as an impostor?! They would mock, ridicule and scorn the very person of God.
Part of this must be the fact that God’s ways are simply not man’s ways. What God esteems, what God regards as important and significant, is so often contrary to the things that man believers are important and to be esteemed!
As these religious leaders question Jesus on being the Christ, we find the response of Jesus in verses 67-69…
Luke 22:67–69 (NIV84)
67 ...Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68 and if I asked you, you would not answer. 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”
Luke records three parts to the response of Jesus.
Firstly, “If I tell you, you will not believe me.”
We’ve already touched on this a moment ago. They were utterly convinced in their hearts that Jesus was not the Messiah, and they had no intention of changing their views! Their position was settled, and just because he told them the truth of the matter, that would certainly not be sufficient to change their views!
Secondly, Jesus responds, “…and if I asked you, you would not answer...”
The point of Jesus in this phrase is that if he were to begin asking them questions in order to lead and guide them to the truth of the matter, they simply would not respond, because they had no intention of actually arriving at the truth.
Once again, their position was already decided in their hearts and minds, and they were not at all open to being persuaded otherwise.
According to what Jesus had told the disciples of John when they came to Him and asked if he was the Messiah, or if they were to expect someone else, there was more than sufficient evidence in the works that Jesus was doing to confirm that He was indeed the Messiah.
If Jesus were to present this to the Sanhedrin, take them to the Scriptures that they had, compare what he was doing with how the OT Scriptures testified of Him, He could easily have demonstrated that He was indeed the Messiah.
However, their hearts were hardened. They didn’t really want to know the truth at all.
There was already a practical demonstration of this in that account of the religious leaders asking Jesus the question regarding his authority. They had asked him, “By what authority are you doing these things?” (Referring to Him driving out the traders in the temple courts. He responded by asking them a question of his own.
3 He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me, 4 John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men?”
5 They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”
7 So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”
That’s exactly the point that Jesus is making here. I can ask you a question, but you’re simply going to remain silent, because the answers will be inconvenient to you!
Thirdly, and this is the most profound of his statements, Jesus says, “… But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”
Christ was standing on the threshold of his crucifixion. He knew that His life was about to be ended. That’s the reason that he says, “from now on...”
What he goes on to do is to draw on two texts from the Old Testament. One of them is Psalm 110:1, which reads…
1 The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”
The second is from Daniel 7:13, where Daniel uses the name “The Son of Man” to refer to the days of the coming Messiah.
13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
These words clearly show that the “Son of Man” in Daniel is one that possesses great authority and power. The Messiah would possess this great authority and power.
As Jesus mouthed these words, taking the words of Psalm 110:1 together with the idea of the Son of Man that Daniel speaks of, He was essentially declaring before the Sanhedrin that these things were about to be fulfilled through what was now taking place. This was a bold statement by Jesus.
This leads naturally to a question from the Sanhedrin…
70 They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?”
He replied, “You are right in saying I am.”
They knew what they were attempting to do, and they now had the opportunity to do it - to catch Jesus saying something that would (at least in their minds) incriminate him.
What do I mean by this? They were looking for some kind of confession that Jesus was the Son of God, thus making himself equal with God, which in their minds was blasphemous, so that they could try and have him condemned to die.
18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
This is now what they are getting from him in terms of a confession - Jesus saying that he is indeed the Son of God, equal with God.
Their response is found in verse 71…
71 Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.”
In their minds, he’s ready to be condemned and convicted. He should be put to death immediately! By claiming to be the Son of God, they believed that he had usurped the honour God, Him being a mere man! He was blaspheming!! They wanted Him thus to be put to death!!
The trouble was that they did not have authority to put people to death. They did not have the political authority to have someone executed. That power rested in the Roman government. And this meant, obviously, that they needed to take Jesus to the Roman authorities in order to try and convince them that here was a man worthy of death!
3 On Trial Before Pilate
3 On Trial Before Pilate
1 Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate.
The Sanhedrin, consisting of 72 members, probably along with a crowd of other religious leaders, along with the onlookers, now goes off to bring Jesus before Pilate, with the hope of obtaining a guilty verdict from Pilate.
Luke Context
At this point Jesus, having been “rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law” (Luke 9:22), was “betrayed into the hands of men” (9:44) and “handed over to the Gentiles” (18:32). Soon he would be mocked and ridiculed (cf. 23:11; 18:32).
In other words, the religious leaders were bringing the prophecies to fulfillment, one step at a time!
Pontius Pilate was the person in Judea that had the authority to exercise capital punishment, hence their reason for bringing Jesus to Pilate.
31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
“But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected.
Very clearly, the agenda from the Jewish leadership was execution! This is what they were looking for!!
Usually, Pilate was located in Caesarea, but he was present in Jerusalem for the Passover festivities.
This was a political move to ensure that there was no nationalistic uprising by the Jewish people in Jerusalem during this time of the Passover Festivities.
So, they took Jesus and traveled with him to where Pilate was. And so they began to bring accusations against Jesus.
2 And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.”
The accusations are varied. They don’t really have any basis or ground in fact whatsoever. These are trumped up charges, but they need something that they can use to gain a conviction.
Notice also that they are political charges, rather than religious charges, which was really what the Sanhedrin had against Jesus. So, they need to find these political charges so that they will stick with the courts of the Roman Empire.
Charge 1: He’s subverting our nation. Now, we must keep in mind that the charge is brought before the Roman authorities. They were not so much speaking here about the Jewish nation being subverted, so much as that Jesus was leading the Jewish people to diminish their loyalty to the Roman Empire. The real issue that they wish to convey is that this man Jesus is a danger to Rome.
Charge 2: He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar. Once again, this charge is designed to make the Roman authorities believe that Jesus was some revolutionary, worthy of being put to death. Now, we know most certainly that this charge against Him was not true! This is exactly the point that the religious leaders had tried to catch Jesus out with in Luke 20:20-26. Jesus had clearly said, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.
Charge 3: He claims to be Christ, a king. This charge is again hoped to stir the emotions of the Roman authority by demonstrating that there is an opposing king that would challenge Caesar! The fact that they say “he claims to be Christ...” shows their contempt for the claim.
Well, they’ve brought these three charges against Jesus to Pilate, and they now hope and trust that He will be condemned to death!
According to the record of Luke, Pilate only decided to question Jesus on one of the charges - the claim of Him being a king.
Luke 23:3 (NIV84)
3 So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”...
We must keep in mind here that the importance of this question (and the response by Jesus) is recorded in the Gospel accounts by Luke and the other Gospel writers because it goes to the heart of who Jesus claimed to be. In other words, this is a central in critical point. The identity of Jesus as the Promised Messiah.
The response of Jesus comes at the end of verse 3…
Luke 23:3 (NIV84)
....“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.
The actual response of Jesus in the original language is quite simply, “You say...” or “you are saying it...” Certainly this must be seen as a reply in the affirmative by Jesus. He was clearly demonstrating that he was the king of the Jews.
However, this didn’t really lead to much of a stirring with Pilate. In fact, Pilate merely brushes it off as something neither here nor there. His response is recorded in verse 4…
4 Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”
Pilate was declaring the verdict of “Not guilty!” There was really nothing further that should have been done at this stage, other than to release Jesus.
Obviously, in God’s providential working, this wasn’t to be. If this had happened, Christ wouldn’t have died for our sins. But what we do find clearly conveyed here is the fact that, at least thus far, there truly was no basis in legal terms for Jesus to be sentenced to death.
Obviously the religious leaders (and by now even the crowd) were not in agreement.
5 But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”
The crowds, now being led by the religious leaders and stirred up by them, continued to insist on the guilt of Jesus. They were attempting to get Pilate to see Jesus as an insurrectionist. If they could do this, obviously they would be able to get him to be put to death, since insurrection was seen in a very serious light!
As they call out for him to be condemned, they made mention of Galilee, the place where Jesus had been based as He carried out / started His ministry. Nazareth was in Galilee. But more importantly, Galilee was an area that was known for attempted revolutions...
Luke 23:6–12 Jesus before Herod
Was not Galilee always the very hotbed of revolution? Think of Herod the Great’s battle against the guerrillas (N.T.C. on Matthew, p. 159), and of the “Zealots” and the “patriots” who since that time were always making trouble for the Roman government. Well, that was the region to which Jesus belonged, and he himself was one of the troublemakers!
So, they attempted to get Pilate to condemn Jesus on account of this, by trying to make Jesus out to be a revolutionary.
6 On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. 7 When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
Here was a way for Pilate to get the pressure off of himself. He didn’t want to have to deal with a crowd that was starting to become unruly. He thought to himself, if I can just get this Jesus to Herod who ruled in Galilee, I won’t have to deal with him.
And so, to Herod Jesus went!
4 On Trial Before Herod (vv.8-12)
4 On Trial Before Herod (vv.8-12)
The religious leaders thus took Jesus and went with him to Herod, who happened to also be in Jerusalem at that time of the Passover. This was obviously not because he was interested in the Passover, but rather because he was interested in ensuring political stability from his side as a leader.
But it’s also interesting to note that Herod had long wanted to see Jesus, to meet him. But the only reason was really to see some sign or miracle being performed by Jesus.
8 When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle.
Now, keep in mind that this is the Herod that had taken his half-brother’s wife for himself. After John the Baptist had repeatedly spoken out against this, Herod had arrested John and put him in prison. This eventually led to John being beheaded (we saw this in Luke 3).
But we also recall that Herod had heard about the deeds of Jesus, and he had thought that this was John the Baptist that had been raised from the dead (Matthew 14:1-2). Flowing out of that, we found in Luke 9:9 that he wanted to actually see Jesus.
Well, now he had the opportunity. He doesn’t really have a desire to do anything bad to Jesus. He simply wants to see miracles. He wants to be wowed, or perhaps just to see if all the hype of Jesus is actually true.
Part of that was to question Jesus…
9 He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer.
As Herod spent this time questioning Jesus, Jesus simply remained silent. There was not purpose to answering the questions. In fact, these questions probably had very little to do with the charges that were brought against Jesus, and more to do with Herod’s own intrigue of Jesus.
Pause for a moment, and consider the hideousness of this situation. How agonizing this would have been for Jesus. The very fact that he was in this position, enduring this. The fact that he was now facing Herod… being questioned without any basis. It was a terrible situation.
But as Jesus remained silent - quietly enduring the onslaught - His accusers were anything but silent.
10 The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him.
The accusations would most likely have been much the same as the initial accusations that were brought. But once again, there was absolutely no grounds or substance. It was simply every attempt, driven by pure hatred, to ensure condemnation for Jesus.
The response of Herod is in verse 11…
11 Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate.
The response of Herod and the soldiers is quite simply to ridicule and mock Jesus. It’s not said why he did this, but clearly Herod had very little regard for Jesus. One thing is sure, his curiosity concerning Jesus had not been satisfied!
They thus mock Jesus, scorn him, and even dress him in an elegant robe as a mockery against his claim to be a king. Having done this, Herod simply sends Jesus back to Pilate.
What’s important to note from this is that Jesus remains innocent. None of the charges have any basis whatsoever, or present any grounds for condemnation.
Notice verse 12 though…
12 That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.
It’s a striking thought that these men, once enemies of one another, become friends on the occasion of having Jesus tried and condemned to die. This would indeed be a fulfillment of the prophetic word in Psalm 2:2-3
2 The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.
3 “Let us break their chains,” they say,
“and throw off their fetters.”
In fact, this is exactly what was declared to be true by Peter and John to the other disciples in Acts 4:27-28, when they reported back to them their experiences in front of the council of religious leaders.
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
5 The Verdict of Pilate (vv.13-25)
5 The Verdict of Pilate (vv.13-25)
Having gone through all of this, Pilate calls the religious leaders together, and essentially hands down a verdict of “not guilty.”
13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. 15 Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. 16 Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.”
This is a very important concluding statement in terms of the trial that Jesus had gone through. What Pilate is saying here is that Jesus is innocent of all the charges that have been brought against Him.
Both he (Pilate) and Herod had examined Jesus, this in front of them as the religious leaders, and had found no guilt in him whatsoever. There was no personal guilt.
Now, it is interesting to note that Pilate doesn’t simply say that he will release Jesus. Rather, he says, “I will punish him and then release him.” Why punish him? This was in all likelihood simply to try and appease the crowd. He wanted to get Jesus off the hook in terms of the capital punishment, but also bring some measure of stability to the crowds, by saying that he’ll punish Jesus.
There were no grounds for the punishment of Jesus. He’d done absolutely nothing wrong!
What follows is the response of the crowds as they consider the words of Pilate.
Verse 17 contains a basic preparatory statement in order to provide the context of what follows. You will see that in some of the modern translations, the verse is actually excluded. It’s because the oldest manuscripts that have been found don’t include this particular verse. It was probably a later addition in order to help readers to understand the context of what was happening. The verse reads as follows:
17 Now he was obliged to release to them at the feast one prisoner.
We should keep in mind that the wording is found in the parallel account in Mark 15:6-8. Thus the added verse doesn’t actually add anything to Scripture itself. It was probably borrowed by a Scribe at some point, and inserted into Luke’s Gospel account in order to help the reader understand.
Clearly, what Pilate was attempting to do was to release Jesus to them, and to keep Barabbas in custody instead.
18 With one voice they cried out, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” 19 (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)
I would like to pause here briefly. By now, the crowds are crying out with one voice. They want Jesus done away with.
I think we should just consider the extent to which thinking becomes clouded in a group situation. Prior to this, the crowds had supported Jesus. While the religious leaders were opposed to Jesus, the crowds for the most part loved Him. They supported him throughout his ministry.
Suddenly they turned on Him! Certainly the religious leaders had incited them. But how fickle is the heart of man. Now they were crying out for Him to be crucified! In the words of a song along these lines…
And instead of releasing Jesus, which they ought to have done, they sought to have Barabbas released. Notice who this man was…
He had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder. Two serious offenses. I will come back to this in due course (next week Sunday evening). But again, we see the depravity of man in these circumstances as Jesus was approaching his crucifixion.
The innocent would be condemned. The guilty would be released. It’s a picture of you and I, by the way. But we’ll leave that there for now.
20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. 21 But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
22 For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”
23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. 24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.
Pilate was prepared to do good and right up to a point. But at the end of the day, he would not compromise his own political position. At the end of the day, Pilate did that which was convenient for the peace of the empire, and for the stability of his own political position. One commentator says it well…
Luke Comments
Numerous attempts have been made to absolve Pontius Pilate from the part he played in Jesus’ crucifixion. He is understood by some as a man caught in tragic circumstances and pressed into doing something he really did not want to do. No sympathy, however, should be lost over a man who willingly executed someone he knew to be innocent. The one human being who had the most to do with Jesus’ crucifixion was Pontius Pilate. He had the authority to release an innocent man or crucify him. He chose the latter to preserve his political career. As a result history and the church will always confess that Jesus “was crucified under Pontius Pilate.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
A couple of remarks as we close.
The first is this…
Jesus was innocent, and was found to be so through these various trials. Even before worldly rulers. He was without guilty.
More importantly, Jesus was innocent in the sight of God! Whatever man would think of Him, God declared Him to be righteous.
Nonetheless, the depravity of man led to the death of the innocent.
Think of the phrase at the end of verse 25… “Surrendered Jesus to their will...” The Son of God, the one by whom and through whom all things were created… surrendered to the will of sinful people.
Our own internal sense of justice must revolt against this act of extreme injustice. It was hideous! It must move us.
Remember… this was yet done in the wisdom and providence of God.
And remember, without this injustice at the hands of sinful men, true justice for us personally would never have been satisfied outside of ourselves. If this had not taken place, you and I would have had to face the wrath of God ourselves.
Oh, the perfect wisdom of our God!
The matchless wisdom of His ways,
That mark the path of righteousness;
His word a lamp unto my feet,
His Spirit teaching and guiding me.
And oh, the mystery of the cross,
That God should suffer for the lost
So that the fool might shame the wise,
And all the glory might go to Christ!
As we come to the table now, remember these things. May our hearts be moved to comprehend and appreciate the riches of God’s kindness to us through Christ Jesus.