The dark night of Jesus’ Passion,
the long night of suffering continues.
Jesus has been arrested and now He will be confronted by his
accusers. The overall picture we
get from the gospels is that Jesus had two trials, each one with different
informal and formal phases. In the span
of a few hours Jesus faced as many as six interrogations by the Jews and
Romans. The Jew’s charges against Jesus
were primarily religious, based on false charges of blasphemy. But Roman law prohibited the Jews from
administering capital punishment, and the charge of blasphemy mattered not to
the Romans. So when Jesus was taken
before the Roman authorities (Pilate and Herod) He was accused of being a
seditious rebel who threatened the peace of the empire. The Jews hoped the Romans would condemn Jesus
to death for political reasons.
As we walk with Christ to the cross
we see Him arrested, forsaken by his disciples and taken away to face His
accusers. “He is all alone to face the wrath of men and the wrath of God. He will receive what we deserve, that we
might receive all that He deserves. (D. Akin) In today’s passages Jesus faces
the accusations of the Jewish religious leaders who have long been planning and
plotting His death. They finally have
their man. He faces them alone. He does so for you and me.
The
challenge we face with the text this week is reconciling the four gospel
accounts of Jesus various interrogations and trials into one story line. As a part of our preparation for worship I
encourage you to read the four different gospel accounts of Jesus trial before
the Jews and the Romans.
The
outline we will follow is as follows:
The Jewish
Trial (two or three phases)
Phase One: Informal Interrogation by Annas
(John 18:12-14, 19-23)
Phase Two: Formal
trial before Caiaphas & Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:57-68, Mark 14:53-65)
Phase Three: Final Formal action by Sanhedrin & appeal to Romans for Jesus’
execution (Mark 15:1)
The Roman
Trial: (three phases)
Phase One: Initial interrogation by Pilate (Matt
27:11-14, John 18:28-38)
Phase Two: Interrogation by Herod
(Luke 23: 6-12)
Phase Three: Final Trial before Pilate
(Matthew 27:15-31, John 18:38-19:16)
As I read
these accounts of the trials Jesus endured I am drawn to the violent reaction
of the Jews and the violence that is carried out that dark night against Jesus
long before he faced the Roman scourging and the cruel cross. As you read these passages let this image
remain long on your mind’s eye: slaps
and spit on the face of God.
What we
see in the Gospels is just what the prophet said would happen: yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by
God, and afflicted (Is 53:4); upon him was the chastisement that brought
us peace (Is 53:5); He was oppressed,
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth (Is 53:7); By
oppression and judgment he was taken away (Is 53:8).
As we read
the Gospel accounts of Jesus suffering and, as so many have done for centuries,
be tempted to point an accusing finger at the Jews, let us consider carefully
these words of the prophet:
Surely he has borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him
stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced
for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the
chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid
on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah
53:4-6)
This
thought from DA Carson helps me rightly consider my own guilt - my own role in the slaps and spit that
found their way to the face of God that night:
"The
New Testament dividing line is theological, spiritual, historical, not
racial. And most important of all, we
who call ourselves Christians must constantly remember that our own theology
insists that each of us is as guilty of putting Jesus on the cross as
Caiaphas. It is our guilt that brought
Jesus to the cross as the Lamb of God (Jn 1:29, 36). Theologically this does not mitigate Jewish
guilt, or Roman guilt. It does not
excuse individuals like Caiaphas and Pilate.
It does place Jesus’ death against the backdrop of the more properly
basic guilt: the guilt of ordinary sinners who would not have known pardon and
forgiveness apart from the demonstration of the love of God in his Son Christ
Jesus, the guilt of the world, my guilt, that called forth the unmerited love
of God displayed in the mission of his Son.
That means that any Christian …is singularly ill-placed to point a
finger of condescending condemnation in the direction of other sinners.” (DA Carson, The Gospel According to
John, p375)
Like
last week, I am again praying that as we work through
John's account of Jesus’ arrest, abandonment, denial by his disciples, the mock
trial, the beatings and humiliation He endured, and finally His crucifixion,
that the reality of the Word will come alive to us. I am praying that as we walk with Jesus
through His final hours and we will be confronted again with the reality of our
sin that put him there, be amazed by God's grace that sent Him to save us, and
be filled with praise at the glory of the cross and resurrection.
One of the songs
that will be a part of our worship service this week is a beautiful adaptation
of William Cowper’s old Hymn O
For A Closer Walk With Thee, with new
words and music by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. You can hear the song and read the lyrics at
these links: https://www.gettymusic.com/hymns-ohforacloser.aspx and
I look forward to seeing and worshipping with
you this Sunday, and I am praying for you until then.
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