Trial

Introduction - A Guilty Man

In 2006, Gary Bush was arrested, tried and convicted for three counts of bank robbery.

This was despite the fact that Mr. Bush maintained his innocence.

In fact, the sole fingerprint recovered on the note given to the teller did not have Bush’s fingerprints.

"I think they finger printed me five times trying to get my finger prints to match the fingerprints on the note," Bush said.

Despite this, no one expected the next turn in this story.

In 2016, 9 1/2 years later, Christian Amos turned himself in for the crime that Mr. Bush had been convicted of.

It seems that Mr. Amos was so proud of his grandson for telling the truth about a broken window that he said he had not choice but to confess.

His conscience wouldn’t let him continue.

We continue our look at the last part of Luke’s Gospel today as we look at the trial of Jesus Christ.

As we have Chronicled, Jesus was arrested in the middle of the night.

He was abandoned by most of his followers and the general crowds - less than a week after he rode victorious into Jerusalem.

And much like this story, a guilty man, although he eventually gave himself up, went free.

But unlike this story -

And now, the blameless lamb of God stands before a court as they seek to convict him and send him away to death.

As we do today, I want you to keep this in mind - that Jesus went to the cross so that prisoners might go free.

They Held An Illegal Trial to Try An Innocent Man

EX - The charges they levied against Jesus were false.

The charges they really levied against Jesus was blasphemy.

He claimed to be the Son of God, which meant he was God.

And yes, he is, but if you don’t believe that he is, then you’d consider it blasphemy. I mean, if I claimed to be God, you’d say, “Nope - our pastor is crazy and a blasphemy. Get the rocks ready for the stoning.”

They rejected his claims to be both God and Messiah. So, while on one hand he was guilty of being the Son of God and the Messiah, he wasn’t guilty of blasphemy as they charged.

They knew that the government could care less about the charge of blasphemy.

Pilate, as the official for Rome, would treat a claim of blasphemy like the Sheriff would today if we called them because someone here was blaspheming.

“Figure it out yourself” is what they would say.

So, they needed to come up with another charge against Jesus.

They accused him of crimes against Rome - crimes against Caesar. Crimes we know are false - just look at

Luke 20:25 ESV

He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

No, in their quest to convict Jesus, they rejected the holy one of God and instead swore their allegiance to Rome.

They cooked up false charges against Jesus because they just wanted to get rid of him.

IL - Arguments against Jesus

Avalos

Dr. Avalos is a professor of Religious Studies in Ames at Iowa State.

Even today, those who reject Jesus’ message aren’t always content with just ignoring him.

If this name sounds familiar, it’s because I mentioned him a few weeks ago.

I stumbled across a “quiz” this week where they take 50 things from the Bible in order to make the whole of it seem foolish and irrelevant.

The

I mean, if I took enough time, I could pluck my way through their website and do the same to them.

And he is an atheist who has studied Scripture but re

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, however, because people far too often reject Jesus when they don’t like what he has to say.

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They Tried Him Illegally

EX - But it wasn’t just the charges that were illegitimate, the entire trial was a sham.

We see in verse 66 that they held off on trying Jesus until day broke. This was because they could not conduct a trial at night.

Mark, however, records for us that there was an “Unofficial” trial during the night.

They simply confirmed their earlier decisions

But they also could not, according to Jewish law, hold a capital trial in one day. They needed two.

Nor could they condemn a man on a feast day.

Nor could they condemn a man to death without allowing him a formal defense.

This was a show trial if there ever was one.

But then they took him to Pilate who likewise questioned him.

And Pilate really didn’t want to get involved.

So, Pilate came to a reasonable conclusion - Jesus is innocent.

Rather than releasing him as he should have, Pilate passed the buck to Herod.

So, now Jesus would be tried a third time with Herod.

And when Jesus wouldn’t perform a sign or wonder for Herod, Herod excused himself and sent Jesus back to Pilate.

But not until he had mocked and treated Jesus with contempt, the Scriptures teach us.

Now, a fourth appearance in court for Jesus, back before Pilate.

And Pilate has had enough. He says, “Look, he’s innocent. I’ll beat him and send you all on your way.”

But Pilate gives in to the crowds who demand a man who is guilty of the very things they accuse Jesus of to be released. And Pilate, like so many politicians after him, caved to the mob rule.

IL

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They Tried An Innocent Man

EX

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This Trial Was a Picture of a Larger Reality

EX - teaches us this truth

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God uses things that we find illegitimate to accomplish his legitimate plan.

EX - Jesus Never fought against the machine

Conclusion - God uses things that we find illegitimate to accomplish his legitimate plan.

This isn’t the first time they tried to kill Jesus.

Remember Joseph? He was in jail for an illegitimate reason. He didn’t do anything to Potiphar’s wife. Yet, God used that time for Joseph to meet the right people to prepare him to be ready to stand before Pharaoh.

But now, Jesus stood there, taking their insults and their mocking.

Everyone in the room knew this trial was a joke and a sham. Yet, he stood there.

IL - Being Falsely Accused

He ensur

I don’t know about you, but it’s no fun to be falsely accused.

It is easy at this point to become frustrated and upset at the

I remember many years ago, right out of high school, I worked at Casey’s making pizza and running the register.

I was up early on a Wednesday which was truck day, when we’d get in the new merchandise and such.

I walk into the store and the manager was there and said, “I need your key. You are no longer employed here.”

I asked why and the manager said, “Your drawer was short over the weekend. Company policy is to fire people we suspect of theft.”

I threw my key down and walked home - all the while processing what had just happened.

I was accused of theft.

But I KNEW I didn’t steal anything!

So, with some help of some friends, we fought it.

I contacted the former assistant manager who was a manager at another store to serve as a character witness.

I contacted the corporate human resources department.

I contacted the district manager.

I said, “Look, you can fire me if you want. I don’t care about that. But I can’t have you ruining my reputation. I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a thief.”

In the end, we agreed that I would be terminated due to “Improper Audit Procedures” - which I could honestly tell people was because I wasn’t really trained on how to do that anyway.

And it turned out that store manager was fired a year later when she finally ran out of people to frame for theft. She was the one stealing all along.

The point is - I fought for my reputation. I fought for my name. I fought against what I knew were false charges against me. And yet, Jesus didn’t.

We’ve established it was an illegal trial with made up charges.

Why didn’t he fight back? Because he knew there was a bigger point at play.

EX - In the end, Jesus let this play out because of the bigger picture.

Let me say that again - the guilty go free and Jesus went to the cross.

Or, we might say that the guilty go free BECAUSE Jesus went to the cross. Let me explain.

He

Barabbas was the worst of the worst.

He was the worst of the worst.

One commentator I read said he was “A Bandit arrested for homicidal political terrorism.”

Another points out that he was well known according to Mark’s Gospel.

Another commentator points out that he was “A murderer and insurrectionist” that was imprisoned for his actions and sentenced to death.

Barabbas was the Osma Bin Laden of his day. “Ironically,” another commentator points out, “Barabbas did what Jesus is being convicted of.” In other words, what the leaders accuse Jesus of, Barabbas actually did.

A terrorist, a murderer, a rebel of the worst kind. And it was him that the crowds shouted to be released.

And yet, the guilty go free and an innocent man stands condemned.

IL - The Passover Lamb and the Atonement Scapegoat.

Certainly, it is not surprising when you actually know the story. But too often, we become dead to the story.

In many ways, Barabbas represented all of Israel and really all of mankind.

We know the facts.

He was a rebel who lived by his own rules.

However, we cannot forget that God doesn’t just pass over our sins. He atoned for them. Jesus is our sacrificial lamb who paid

So, it is ironic that Jesus, our true and perfect passover lamb would be condemned as part of this pattern of releasing a prisoner.

On the day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, one of the rituals was to have two goats.

Again, one source I read this past week mentioned that it was probably an oral tradition that was later recorded in the Mishnah (Pesahim 8.6) which reads, “

We seldom stop to ask what they actually mean?

He should have died for his crimes.

One goat would be sacrificed to make atonement for sin, it’s blood sprinkled over the mercy seat.

It looks like it was a tradition to make sure that even those in jail could participate in the passover feast

Just like we should have died as well.

Remember, just a few days prior, the crowds were shouting “Hosanna! Hosanna!”

The priest would then touch the other goat, confess the sins of the nation and then send the goat

But this incident illustrates for us the very hope of the cross and resurrection.

These were the songs that we sang today.

What we stand accused of, Jesus takes for us.

Jesus didn’t fight back, he didn’t demand his rights - instead for the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

For your sake and my sake, he endured the beatings, the mockery, the humiliation, the false accusations … he endured it all for you and for me and for all who would repent.

Songs declaring Jesus is King.

Just as Barabbas was guilty of all the things that Jesus is accused of in this passage, he went free.

It will be this Friday that the people will shout “Crucify, Crucify!”

Barabbas shows that the guilty can go free because of what Jesus endured.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

What changed?

Nothing, really. The crowds, spurred by their leaders, finally saw that Jesus was not the Messiah the

AP - Will you ask Jesus to go to the cross for you so that you may go free?

Now, I want to be clear that I’m not saying that Barabbas is suddenly born again and is in heaven.

Scripture is silent on the matter - in fact, Barabbas disappears from history at this point.

And while I would love to think that Barabbas went back and studied about Jesus and wanted to learn about him and did eventually repent and become a follower - we just don’t know.

No, what I want to say is that this is a picture of what happens.

Jesus becomes sin for those trust in Him in order that we might be forgiven our sins and become the righteousness of God.

The innocent stands condemned in order that the condemned might be declared innocent.

I want you to get that. When we confess our sins and turn to Jesus for forgiveness, we are not simply declared “not guilty”.

No, we are declared innocent. Just as Jesus was before Pilate.

Three times he was declared “innocent” in this passage.

And when we stand before our creator God, we too are declared “innocent” when we have trusted in Christ.

So I want to ask you - have you done that? Have you confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior, the atonement for sin past, present and future?

Have you asked to go free and accepted Christ’s accomplishments on the cross as atonement for sin and the resurrection as hope that the grave is not the end - that death and hell have been defeated once and for all?

Have you said to God, “I am a rebel who has rejected your ways and walked from your path. Will you forgive me and welcome me home because of what Christ has done?”

And if you have done that, let me challenge you to live every day in humble gratitude for what Jesus has done for you and for me.

May we daily confess our need for him and daily thank him for what He has done.

And may we say thank you in both word and deed by living differently in light of the fact we are new creations in Christ. That we have passed from death unto life, just as Jesus died and rose again victorious.

Conclusion - Let the Prisoner Go Free.

As we wrap up today, I am haunted by the interview I watched with Christian Amos - remember the guy who confessed to the bank robberies after almost 10 years.

In the interview, he was in tears with the guilt of what his crime did to the man who was convicted.

How he cost him nearly 10 years of his life.

10 years he cannot get back.

And as I watched the interview, I couldn’t help but want to tell him, “I can’t get you out of prison for bank robbery, but I can offer you a way to be free from the guilt and the shame and the demons that haunt you because of your silence.”

In fact, I emailed the reporter on the article and asked if he knew how I could share this message with Mr. Amos.

The reporter responded and I dropped a hand written letter in the mail to him. I ask that you pray for Mr. Amos - and all those in our lives who are trapped in a prison of guilt and shame.

Because that hope, for Christian Amos is right there in his name. His hope is Christ and for him to become a Christian.

Because Jesus died so prisoners like Christian Amos … and like you and like me could go free.

As we enter Holy Week, I want you to consider what Jesus has done for sinners like you and me to set us free. And if you’ve never accepted that gift, I pray you would do so today.

Let’s Pray.

Benediction

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ()

When God appeared on earth in the person of Jesus, most of the world did not recognize him and therefore did not worship him. Today we ask for faith that will open our eyes to see Jesus for who he is, that we might worship him in truth. People of God, behold your God!