Do the ends justify the means?

Throughout history and in various stories, people have gone to great lengths, doing wrong things for the right reasons.

President Lincoln bent some laws in the least and may have broken some in order to end the scourge of slavery in our country - the wrong things for the right reason - in his case, the ends (to end slavery) justified the means (breaking some laws and even the civil war).

But is that always the case?

Today - some people use AI in order to get work done or get a passing grade - essentially cheating - does getting a good grade make cheating worth it? No-in that case the ends do not justify the means. While an end is a good grade, the true end is knowledge.

Throughout history and even today, Christians have broken laws of their countries by gathering in illegal assemblies, smuggling Bibles and other Christian materials into their countries, and even sharing the gospel. I do think the ends of reaching people for Christ and glorifying God in their context does justify the means - even at great risk.

What about the ends and means of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, trial, and crucifixion? Are they justified? Let’s find out.

If you have your Bibles, open them to Luke 22. We’ll be looking at verses 66-71.

Last week, we considered how Jesus was betrayed, arrested, denied, and beaten. He was arrested late at night and likely faced inquiries off and on until dawn. These inquiries were with the High Priest and his father in law.

Luke continues his narrative…

Luke 22:66–71 ESV

When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said, “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.” Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”

If you’d like to follow along in your outline, I think we see firstly in this passage that the religious leaders went to...

Great lengths to justify their actions.

One of the things that I think we often overlook is just how busy this week would have been for the religious leaders. There would have likely been upwards of 100,000 people visiting Jerusalem for the Passover. While there were a lot of priests and levites, they would have been needed to help the visitors with their sacrifices - approving the lambs and then on a couple of days, sacrificing these lambs for the Passover meals. Beyond that, there were the daily prayers that were offered and the regular sacrifices that would have happened throughout the day and the regular times of instruction. This week would have been busy on its own.

What’s more, when these leaders arrested and tried Jesus, they were actually breaking their traditions and likely the legal code. I mentioned this last week, but whenever someone was tried for a crime that could cost his/her life, it had to be done in the daytime and it had to be done in front of the whole assembly of the Sanhedrin - 71 people. So as the high priest and his father-in-law along with a few other leaders ask Jesus these various questions throughout the night, they are breaking their rules. It seems like they are using these questions to build their case in front of the whole Council. The other gospel writers note that they had enlisted some people to bring false testimony against Jesus during this night-time trial - and yet these testimonies didn’t agree with one another. Nonetheless, they finagled a way to make their case.

Then - the morning comes. I can imagine that some junior priests or other helpers would have been tasked to go and get all of the other people of the Sanhedrin. So in the early dawn hours, this Council convenes and essentially rubber stamps the decision of the high priest - convicting Jesus to death.

But there was another problem - there was supposed to be a day of break between the trial and the judgment - but here, they did both in a matter of minutes.

Finally, there is what seems like a thin justification. Luke notes that that ask Jesus to tell them if He is the Christ. Then when they ask if He is the Son of God, he replies - “you say that I am.” Essentially, He is actually putting the responsibility of this admission on them. It’s as though he’s saying “you said it, not me.” (McKinley) And yet their response is - “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.” (v. 71).

They had already decided to convict Jesus and wanted to put him to death - they just needed the way to get it done - to make it at least seem legal. So they went to great lengths to justify their actions.

Kangaroo Court

When I was in high school, my youth group went on a retreat. One of the activities that we did was a Kangaroo Court. The leaders had made the front of our meeting space look like a courtroom - with a judge’s seat, the chair for the witnesses and the “convicted” person. Then, the judge would call someone to sit in the chair. Someone else would read “charges” against that person - often funny things like taking food from the kitchen or cheating on a quiz at school, or dressing in a funny way. Sometimes they would even make up things. The accused may or may not have the chance to defend themselves. Then the judge would cast a verdict - guilty - and would dole out a judgment - often messy things like getting doused with whip cream or forced to eat a strange concoction of food. While that Kangaroo Court was all in good fun, this trial that Jesus faced, while it had all the makings of a Kangaroo Court, ultimately cost him his life.

In the face of these accusations, Jesus demonstrated…

Great humility to accomplish God’s mission.

Imagine how we might respond if we were wrongfully accused, convicted, and sentenced. We would verbally protest. If we had resources to do so, we would enlist the help of lawyers. We would mobilize friends and family to campaign on our behalf. But that’s not how Jesus worked. He simply humbled himself and submitted to the plan that the Father had ordained.

One preacher noted that in all of the chaos that surrounded Him, Jesus is the one person who remained in control - calm, collected, peaceful.

Here in the face of the Sanhedrin, He demonstrated this humility in a few different ways.

Identity

First of all, he knew who he was - in other words, identity. They asked him to tell them plainly, and yet he responded “Even if I tell you, you won’t believe” - He knew that nothing He said would convince them of His true identity. Over the previous couple of years, He let his actions prove his identity. He let his way of life and his teaching speak for Him. I think that they could see he was something special, but he was more of a threat than anything. They were looking for a way to get rid of Him. Speaking the truth about who He is would only add fuel to their fire - because they didn’t have or want all of the details.

I think this is a helpful reminder for us as well. We may be tempted to find our identity in our ethnicity or career or abilities or any number of other things. While those may mark us in some ways, they don’t identify us. My ethnicity or heritage may identify my past, but not where I’m going. My career may note what I’m doing now, but that can change. My abilities will shift over time - the things that I did well as a teenager I can’t do well now - but I am able to do other things much better.

While there is permanence to some of those things, there is a temporariness to many of them.

But when Jesus rose from the grave - when He fully paid for your sins and mine - when we responded to His call for salvation in Him, our identity changed. We became children of God.

Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Beloved, don’t let the things that this world will want to use to divide us. Let us be united in Christ. Let us find our identity in Him. He holds our present and future. He guides how we do our work, how we act at school, how we interact at home, how we affect our neighbors.

As the Apostle Paul wrote -

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Not only did Jesus humbly rest in His identity, but…

Destination

Secondly, He was confident of His ultimate destination. He knew that His path to a crown was through a cross. On the other side of the trouble was a triumph and a seat at the right hand of God the Father. I think Jesus knew that what would happen in a few hours would accomplish a great victory for God.

He did not by-pass the cross to get to the crown - He endured it - with joy.

Hebrews 12:2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Beloved, we too have an eternal destination with God through Jesus Christ. It is an eternal hope of eternal life with Him. Yet, just as Jesus had work to do here, we too have joyful work that we get to do, working His will in this world, for His glory. The pain that we may encounter here, is only temporary - but we must to through it with grace.

2 Corinthians 5:1–5 NLT

For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

Before we can put on those heavenly garments, we must complete the work that Jesus assigns for us. Generally, that work is marked by our love for God with all that we are and love for others as we love ourselves.

In all of this, as Jesus laid down his life and was resurrected- which is why we gather every Sunday, but especially today. In this, He secured a…

Great salvation for you and me.

They thought they were snuffing Him out, but in actuality, they were instruments in God’s hand. What’s more, Jesus was speaking the truth about His identity as the Son of Man or as they said, Son of God. Of all of the gospels, Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth is the longest and most detailed. Part of Luke’s whole purpose was to provide his audience assurance or certainty in what had be heard/believed. He is helping us to know Jesus is not simply a great man. He is God in flesh. His miraculous birth was both similar and very different from how every other child is born. Fully God, fully human. Even as we like to sing at Christmas time, “veiled in flesh the godhead see, hail the incarnate deity.”

Here at Jesus crucifixion, Luke is helping us to see that the religious accusations are flimsy, and as we’ll see next week that the political/criminal claims are non-existent - which means that there is something/someone else behind his mission. God was ultimately behind all of this - accomplishing a means for you and me to be in a right relationship with Him!

Why?

Because He is love and loves you and me.

John 3:16–17 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Because we need this great salvation

Ephesians 2:1–3 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Friend, we worship on Sundays because that is the day that Jesus’ conquering of sin and death was revealed fully! As He rose from the grave, He conquered the curse of sin. As He rose from the grave, He defeated that great enemy - death. When we come to faith in Him, we receive a new identity, a new destination, a new way of life for now and for eternity. Coming to Jesus changes everything - and it’s worth it. Oh, I pray that you would see just how much Jesus did for you! I pray that you would respond to His out-stretched, nail-pierced hands.

Conclusion

We asked at the beginning if the ends (the outcome) justifies the means (the way that things get done).

I think we have to answer - no and yes.

For the religious leaders - their actions were wrong.

For God - the ends (our justification and salvation through Jesus) were justified through the cross. God can redeem it all - the leaders were wrong to break their traditions in order to condemn Jesus, but it was all working for God’s glory and our good.

I pray that when we are faced with the choice between right and wrong, that we will choose to do the good that God calls us to. May we honor Him in everything we do, just as Jesus did!

Let’s pray.

Benediction:

Hebrews 13:20–21 ESV

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Questions for reflection and discussion:

Read: Luke 22:66-71

1. What constitutes a fair trial in our legal system today?

2. What are some common ways people try to bend the rules?

3. How did Jesus respond to the question about His identity? (22:67–70)  Why?

4. Why were the people, priests, and rulers so determined to put Jesus to death?

5. What can we learn from studying Jesus’ response to His accusers?

6. How should Christians respond to unfair treatment?

Sources:

Anyabwile, Thabiti. Exalting Jesus in Luke. Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary. Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2018.

Bock, Darrell L. Luke 9:51-24:53. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999.

Liefeld, Walter L. “Luke.” In The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, edited by Frank E. Gaebelein, Vol. 8. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984.

Marshall, I. Howard. The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1978.

Martin, John A. “Luke.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985.

McKinley, Mike. Luke 12-24 for You. Edited by Carl Laferton. God’s Word for You. The Good Book Company, 2016.

Stein, Robert H. Luke. Vol. 24. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992.

The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press, 2005. Print.

Wilcock, Michael. The Savior of the World: The Message of Luke’s Gospel. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979.

Shirley Lucass and Bethany Finch, Christ the King: The Messiah in the Jewish Festivals (Eugene, Oregon: Resource Publications, 2019). [See here, here, here, here.]

[2] Allan Moseley, Exalting Jesus in Leviticus, ed. David Platt, Daniel L. Akin, and Tony Merida (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2015), 207.

David S. Dockery, ed., Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992), 524.

[2] J. L. McKENZIE, “The Jewish World in New Testament Times,” in A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, ed. Bernard Orchard and Edmund F. Sutcliffe (Toronto; New York; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson, 1953), 732.

[3] W. J. Moulder, “Sanhedrin,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised, ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979–1988), 4:332.

[4] Douglas Mangum and Vasile Babota, “Sanhedrin,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016). [See here.]

Kieran Beville, How to Interpret the Bible: An Introduction to Hermeneutics (Cambridge, OH: Christian Publishing House, 2016). [See here, here, here, here, here, here, here.]

[2] Kieran Beville, Journey with Jesus through the Message of Mark: Experience the Ministry of Jesus in a Spiritually Captivating Way (Cambridge, OH: Christian Publishing House, 2015). [See here.]

[3] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 550.