Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION | 10m

Corporate Reading

SERIES CONTEXT

As we move through the Lenten season towards Easter our goal will simply be looking at JESUS; HIS character, HIS works and HIS heart.

We have come out of an application heavy series (A Kingdom Ethic) and now it is time to sit at the SAVIOR’s feet and marvel at WHO HE is and what HE has done!

ROAD MAP:

WEEK 1: Luke 22:14-23 (The Lord’s Supper)

WEEK 2: Luke 22:1-6, 31-34, 47-62 (Two Betrayals)

WEEK 3: Luke 22:35-46 (Man of Sorrows)

WEEK 4: Luke 22:63-23:47 (Scandalous Injustice)

PASSAGE CONTEXT

Tonight we look at JESUS before the rulers and the most scandalous miscarriage of justice the world has ever seen.

SCANDALOUS INJUSTICE | 15m

JESUS BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN COUNCIL (22:63-71)

Who is the Sanhedrin council?

The highest judicial body in the land, which under Roman authority controlled all Jewish internal affairs.

It was simultaneously a judiciary, a legislative body, and, through the high priest, an executive; and all of this authority was perceived to rest on a theocratic basis.

Theocratic: a system of government in which priests rule in the name of GOD.

It was made up of mostly Sadducees with the Pharisees making up an influential minority.

Sadducees: conservative Judaism, no resurrection of the dead, no sovereignty of GOD.

Pharisees: progressive/liberal Judaism, resurrection of the dead, sovereignty of GOD.

Sadducees and Pharisees were quite hostile towards each other but excitedly came together in opposition to JESUS.

John 11:47-50 gives us insight into the motive of the council and exposes their fears that were rooted in politics and personal power.

The truth is they are prompted less by dispassionate concern for the well-being of the nation than for their own positions of power and prestige.

D.A. Carson writes:

“The execution of JESUS is indicated.

And so HE died—but the nation perished anyway, not because of JESUS’ activity but because of the constant mad search for political solutions where there was little spiritual renewal.

Justice is sacrificed to expediency.”

JESUS becomes an innocent victim.

The bullying begins…

Injustice is executed…

N.T. Write comments:

“It wasn’t just a theological transaction; it was real sin, real human folly and rebellion, the dehumanized humanity that has lost its way and spat in GOD’s face.”

JESUS, in quiet but active submission to the FATHER, endures the scandalous injustice.

JESUS BEFORE PILATE PT. 1 (23 VV. 1-5)

Who is Pilate?

The fifth magistrate of Judea, and who served in that capacity from a.d.

26–36.

He appears in a variety of extra-Biblical sources as a dispassionate leader who relentlessly pursued Roman authority in Judea.

He also had a very contentious relationship with the Jewish people.

The Jews in the time of JESUS had no power to carry out the death sentence.

Such sentence had to be passed by the Roman governor and carried out by the Roman authorities.

It was for that reason that the Jews brought JESUS before Pilate.

Nothing better shows their evil intention than the crime with which they charged HIM.

In the Sanhedrin the charge had been one of blasphemy, that HE had dared to call HIMSELF the SON of GOD.

Before Pilate that charge was never even mentioned.

They knew well that it would have carried no weight with him, and that he would never have proceeded on a charge which would have seemed to him a matter of Jewish religion and superstition.

Their charge before Pilate was really threefold.

They charged Jesus…

with rebellious agitation;

with encouraging the people not to pay tribute to Caesar;

with assuming the title of king.

Every single item of the charge was a lie, and they knew it.

They resorted to the most calculated and malicious lies in their overwhelming desire to eliminate JESUS.

Pilate asks JESUS if HE is indeed the King of the Jews to which JESUS replies in similar fashion as he did before the Sanhedrin, “You have said so.”

Pilate pronounces JESUS innocent for the first of four times in this narrative and the crowd is sent into a frenzy.

Pilate, fearful of the hostile Jewish crowd, sees a way out on a technicality of jurisdiction.

JESUS, again in quiet but active submission to the FATHER, endures the scandalous injustice.

JESUS BEFORE HEROD (23 VV. 6-12)

Who is Herod?

Officially his name was Herod Antipas and he was the political representative for Judaism.

Any Jewish person that was Galilean or Perean fell under his jurisdiction.

It was this Herod that executed John the Baptist.

It was his father, Herod the Great, who just before his own death attempted to execute JESUS as a child by the execution of all the Jewish males two years of age and under after a visit from the wise men looking for the “newborn King of the Jews”.

Herod (Antipas) has been in the background of JESUS’ story throughout the Gospels.

He is much like the looming villain we see in so many stories.

Only Luke gives us this scene where they meet at last, the present and precarious ‘KING of the Jews’ face to face with the real and coming King.

Herod had longed for this moment.

He saw JESUS as a combination of John the Baptist, who had fascinated him with his talk but frightened him with his warnings, and a kind of circus artist who can do magic tricks on command.

JESUS disappoints him.

HE says nothing, and does no miracles.

Quite the opposite of Moses before Pharaoh.

Why did Herod noticeably not agree to the chief priests’ accusations?

Partly, it seems, because it was obvious that JESUS was not leading the sort of revolution normally spearheaded by would-be ‘kings of the Jews’.

HIS few close followers were only lightly armed, and had in any case run away.

JESUS made no threats, offered no resistance, and said hardly anything.

Herod could see that the main reason JESUS was before them was because the chief priests and their associates wanted to get rid of HIM—and both Herod and Pilate disliked them and tried to run them down, as part of the power struggles that carried on throughout this period.

Once again, JESUS was caught at the point where competing interests and agendas met.

Not only the sins, but also the petty aspirations, of the world conspired to put HIM on the cross.

Then we see a wonderful irony in the newfound friendship of the Jewish king and the Gentile ruler.

Luke’s whole book has spoken of the Gospel reaching out into the lands beyond, beyond official Judaism, beyond the racial and geographical boundaries of Israel, beyond prejudice and blindness, bringing together Jew and Gentile, young and old, the hated Samaritan, the tax-collector.

Now, even without believing in JESUS, Herod and Pilate are reconciled.

It is as though, with JESUS on the way to the cross, reconciliation cannot help breaking out all over the place.

Luke is alert, and wants us to be too, for every sign that the world is becoming a new place through JESUS and HIS crucifixion.

Herod rules JESUS innocent for the second of four times in this narrative.

JESUS, now in silent but active submission to the FATHER, endures the scandalous injustice.

JESUS BEFORE PILATE PT. 2 (23 VV. 13-25)

JESUS is then brought back before Pilate where HE is declared innocent for the third time in this narrative and the frenzied crowd boils over into violent mob.

While Pilate offers to punish and release JESUS the mob screams out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas!”.

Pilate pleads a case for JESUS once more to which the mob shouts all the louder, “Crucify, crucify HIM!”.

One last time Pilate pleads with them that this JESUS has done nothing deserving of death only for the cries to continue, “Crucify, crucify HIM!”.

Luke intentionally draws our attention to Barabbas at this point.

As if there were not enough injustice being thrown at JESUS already, the man (Barabbas) they want pardoned in JESUS’ place has already been convicted of a crime that JESUS has been falsely accused of.

Barabbas was a violent (murdering) revolutionist.

Here, or after verse 19, some manuscripts add verse 17: “Now he was obliged to release one man to them at the festival.”

(not originally in Luke)

JESUS is given the death sentence meant for the violent rebel.

Again we see a foreshadowing of the mighty work of the cross as a man’s sin is substituted for the righteousness of JESUS!

JESUS, again in silent but active submission to the FATHER, endures the scandalous injustice.

JESUS BEFORE THE PEOPLE, RULERS AND SOLDIERS (23 VV. 32-38)

Now we see JESUS nailed and lifted up on a cross, horrifically displayed to a mixed crowd.