Sermon Tone Analysis
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SERMON 4: LENTEN MIDWEEK 3
"When You See Such Blind Ignorance, What Do You Think?"
Luke 22:63-23:1
This evening we're going to look carefully at how St. Luke described the trial or hearing
of the Lord Jesus before the Sanhedrin.
Luke's account is very focused, much more than
Matthew's or Mark's.
(John doesn't include this event at all in his Gospel).
After we ponder
the reading closely, I want to mention one way you and I might react.
I'll mention this
reaction because it's not a good one; it's spiritually dangerous.
I'll briefly describe it, and
then suggest a different attitude of the heart as a response to what St. Luke has written for
us tonight.
So, that's what's coming in a few minutes-a warning, and an encouragement.
But first things first-let's look carefully at Luke 22:63 to 23:1.
The first thing to say it this.
Many Christians remember the events of the night Jesus was
betrayed-and we remember them from all the Gospels.
That includes Jesus's trial before
the Sanhedrin.
But to help us ponder what Luke offers this evening, I want to first show you
how different Luke is from the others.
That will help us focus not on what we remember from
Matthew and Mark (which is true and right, of course!), but on what the Spirit inspired Luke
to write and to put before us this evening.
When Luke describes the Lord Jesus before the high council of his own people, he says less about it.
In fact, Luke's account is a lot shorter than Matthew's or Mark's; Matthew's account is about half again longer than Luke's, and Mark is almost two-thirds longer than Luke.
Luke is shorter, and focused.
And we could also say that Luke is not only shorter, but it is simplified, stripped down.
Really important people, for example, aren't even mentioned.
Luke doesn't refer to Caiaphas the high priest at all!
Of course, we know that Caiaphas was there and I'm sure Luke knew it,
too.
But he decided and the Spirit guided Luke to leave that out-it's focused, streamlined.
Here's another thing.
Luke doesn't tell us anything about witnesses against Jesus, or about
false testimony, or about the council trying but failing to get the witnesses to agree.
No
referring to the high priest tearing his robes, or anything at all like that that is so familiar
to us from reading Matthew and Mark.
Again, all those things happened-but Luke does
not focus our attention on them at all.
What does Luke give us?
Well, first he tells us what the men who had arrested Jesus were already doing to him, and from that it comes clear where this is all going.
A lot of people
mistreated and abused the Lord as he moved toward the cross.
But only Luke tells us that
even before Jesus stands in front of the council, even before the council has a chance to
reject him, the people who arrested Jesus were beating and mocking and blaspheming
against him, over and over and over.
As far as they're concerned, this is going in a certain
direction and it's almost a done deal.
It's clear, it's simple.
Jesus will be condemned.
Now, notice this.
Luke invites us to see that the council, the Sanhedrin, is speaking with
one voice.
As I mentioned, the high priest has faded into the background; Luke never even
mentions him.
There are, of course, many people there.
But it's focused.
And so, not once or
twice, but three times, "they" speak to Jesus, with one voice: "And they said" (v.
66), "So they
all said" (v.
70), and "Then they said" (v.
71).
And at the last, "The whole company of them
arose and brought him before Pilate" (23:1).
Evil is speaking with one, unified voice.
And the Lord Jesus himself also speaks, but he speaks more than once.
But when the Lord replies to what "they" say to him, he's doesn't really answer in a way that gives "them" any traction; he's not going to help them get where they want to go.
As Jesus said in the garden, "This is your hour."
It's almost as if the Lord is letting go, letting evil have its way.
And so, when they first say to Jesus, "If you are the Christ, tell us!" Jesus says, "If I tell you, you won't believe.
And if I ask you, you won't answer."
"It's like this," Jesus says, "You don't really care what I say.
You're blindly against me.
Your mind is made up, and nothing can
change it.
All you know is where you want to go with this."
The Lord then adds what could
be taken as a warning or as an invitation; he says, "From now on the Son of Man, I, Jesus,
shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God." It's coming soon, very soon, Jesus
says.
My victory, my exaltation to God's right hand.
It is coming.
Beware and repent.
Believe.
But Jesus's words go right past them.
They just want to get enough against Jesus so they
can hand him over to the Roman governor, to Pontius Pilate-because only Pilate has the
authority to execute Jesus.
So, for the second time, "they" speak: "So, you are the Son of God,
then?"
And Jesus answers again in a sort of an indirect way: "You say that I am." "Do you
hear yourselves?
You don't even hear what you are saying about me, and you don't believe
what's coming out of your own mouths."
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