Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Is this a little feedback?
[00:00:03] What a joy to be together today. I am so excited that we get to celebrate the Gospel and explore his word this morning as we are continuing out our series. I don't know if you've thought about this bit, but, like, we are on the home stretch of the Gospel of Matthew. We've been in the Gospel of Matthew since almost when this church plant ends, like pretty quick into this church coming into existence. And we are on the home stretch, which is pretty exciting.
[00:00:30] Today though, we're inching closer and closer and closer to the narrative of the cross. We're talking about Pilate's condemnation of Jesus. And before we get too further or too far into our specific text, I want to take a moment and just kind of reset the stage of this part of the story for us. We're in a part of the Gospel of Matthew that's in all four gospels called the Passion Narrative. And we call it the Passion Narrative. It's a phrase we use to describe Jesus's final moments, his last hours, quite literally, like the last few hours he spends on earth. The Passion Narrative. And this narrative really does, if you read through the Gospels and especially the way Matthew has set it up for us, it really does start before these last 48 hours, right? Multiple times.
[00:01:20] Jesus very specifically and precisely predicts this moment. We're going to go to Jerusalem, I'm going to be betrayed, I'll be arrested, and then I'll be killed. In three days I will rise, right? He says that to his followers multiple times. And even the confrontation with the religious leaders in Jerusalem, that kind of makes this whole thing happen. It doesn't come to into existence in a vacuum. It's been building for years.
[00:01:47] And Jesus has been growing as a preacher and a rabbi and really bringing some critique and challenge to the religious establishment. But it comes to a head in this Passion Week, the week leading up to his death, when Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover and he walks into the very temple courts and he begins directly challenging the religious leaders. He gives this parable where he basically calls them apostate, like without saying their names. He's like, you know, the guys, the guys who lead, the guys who lead spiritually, the guys who lead spiritually in the temple. Those kind of guys, you know them, they're terrible.
[00:02:26] And they just kind of. You can just imagine the moment of like the back and forth. He never says their name, but everyone knows who he's talking about. And the text tells us at that moment, the religious leaders say, we're Done with this guy, we're going to kill him. Like that's what it's coming down to. And when Jesus knows this is coming, when this scene is set up, he celebrates one last supper, one last dinner with his followers and friends. And he inaugurates what we call the Lord's Supper or communion, and charges all of his followers to remember his sacrifice. But he ends this dinner by kind of putting things into motion that will result in his own death. He kind of gets the ball rolling. He. He. He calls out Judas for his coming betrayal and sends him to go do the work.
[00:03:19] And then as him and his followers are leaving the dinner, he even tells them, like, hey, listen, in just a few hours, you're all going to abandon me.
[00:03:27] And when Peter says, there's no way I would die before I had abandoned you, he goes, no, no, you'll actually deny me three times tonight.
[00:03:36] Tonight, before the sun comes up, you'll deny me and abandon me.
[00:03:41] And then Jesus goes into the garden, and there's the scene where he really works through the Passion with the Father.
[00:03:50] He prays in sorrow and sincerity. He actually tells his followers he is sorrowful to the point of death, that his sorrow is killing.
[00:04:01] As he comes to the Lord in prayer and says, I don't want to do this.
[00:04:06] I don't want to be tortured and betrayed and abandoned and suffer and die. I don't want that.
[00:04:12] But I want what you want, Father your will, not mine.
[00:04:16] And Christ chooses the path to the gospel. He resolves his heart to the work set before him.
[00:04:23] I think it's important to remember this. I think it's easy for us 2,000 years later to kind of get in our mind like, well, Jesus was God, so he can kind of do whatever. Yeah. But Jesus was a guy who knew full well what he was about to experience.
[00:04:36] And like any sane person, he didn't want to.
[00:04:40] And yet, as the author of Hebrews says, for the joy set before him, he endured it. He knew what was coming. He knew what was at stake. And he chooses the cross. And even in the midst of that resolution and that prayer with the Father, his betrayer does show up. And Judas arrives with the temple guards, and they're armed. It's the middle of the night. They arrest Jesus. And in the panic and the fear, all of his apostles desert him.
[00:05:09] And last week we looked at how Jesus was drugged by the temple guards to the house of Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, the, the ruling council or, or, or court of the Jewish people convenes Middle of the night, and they already have their conviction in mind. They're just looking to check the right boxes to justify it. And they meet throughout the night, accusing Jesus over and over and over. And there's this kind of interesting scene. Matthew sets up where Jesus endures this trial before Caiaphas, the high priest, while Peter, the, the only apostle who's kind of stuck it out, sits outside watching the trial, going through his own trial as he is tempted to abandon Jesus but wants to stick with him. And he does end up exactly as Jesus says. He denies Jesus three times. And the rooster crows and Peter remembers the prophecy. And Jesus and Peter lock eyes. And finally Peter runs away in sorrow, bitterly weeping, abandoning Jesus to his fate.
[00:06:08] And that's where we left the text. Good morning, by the way.
[00:06:13] We left the text in this heavy, dark place as Jesus, the only truly innocent one, the one who loves us, is being mistreated and abused and falsely accused and going through all of this horror, Right?
[00:06:31] That's where we leave the text. And that's where we pick up today.
[00:06:36] Today we're going to talk about how the Sanhedrin hands him off to the Roman governor, Pilate. And I won't lie to you guys, if you've been here the last couple weeks, it will not magically get easier to go through this week or next week, right? Like, these are just heavy texts.
[00:06:54] It's just what they are.
[00:06:56] But it's important for us to give them the time, the space, the thought they deserve. And so today I have a simple point for us. You're going to see a theme if you've been here the last couple weeks. My main point is really simple. Today I want us to consider the truth that we are all Barabbas.
[00:07:13] We're all Barabbas.
[00:07:15] This kind of interesting aspect to this idea because as you're going to see, if you're not familiar with the text, as you're going to see today, Barabbas plays, I think, one of the most important roles and one of the most important scenes in not just this story, but in all of scripture. And yet, at the same time, Barabbas is probably the most boring character in the story.
[00:07:34] We're given the least amount of information about him. He's very one note, but he actually still proves our point in a really powerful way. And I think what I'd like for you to do. This is a little weird. What I'd like for you to do is I think if we're attentive, what we're going to see is that we'll actually see a little bit of kind of this archetype of Barabbas in every main character of this chunk of the story.
[00:07:57] And so as we read through this text, what I'd really like for you to do is just kind of digitize, give a little bit of mental attention to these characters. Pay attention to Judas. We're going to see Judas in. Pay attention to Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, pay attention to Pilate, pay attention to the riotous crowd and pay attention to the executioners and see if you can see a little bit of Barabbas and a little bit of ourselves in each of them. Does that make sense? Okay, let's. Let's pray that we're going to jump into our text. Jesus, we need you this morning.
[00:08:30] We need you to be our discipler. We need you to be our teacher. Holy Spirit, you wrote and preserved this text for your glory and our good.
[00:08:40] And so we pray that today you would be our teacher. Illuminate it to us. Teach us. Lord, every one of us in this room needs to be challenged in the truth of your gospel. And so, Lord, wherever our heart is at whatever brought us into this space today, whether we are firmly established in the gospel and, and rooted in youn truth or whether we are still on the outside exploring, deciding whether or not we want to step in spirit, I pray that you would wreck us afresh with the gospel today.
[00:09:09] Pick at those parts of our hearts that we have grown calluses over and decided we don't want to deal with.
[00:09:15] Let us experience your conviction, your challenge, your encouragement afresh. Let us leave here today having heard from you what our hearts mean.
[00:09:24] We love you, Jesus. We pray these things in your name. Amen.
[00:09:28] Okay, Matthew, chapter 27. If you want to go ahead and turn there, if you don't have a Bible with you, we have house Bibles around the room. Just look under the chairs in front of you. We really believe in the importance of access to God's word here at Emmanuel. So if you're here today and you don't own a Bible, I'd strongly encourage you to just take one of the pew Bibles or even talk to other pastors and we'll get you a nicer 1. Matthew 27 is where we're going to be today.
[00:09:53] Matthew has 28 chapters, by the way, we're really close to.
[00:09:57] I promise we will, in fact get there.
[00:10:00] Matthew 27. We're going to start in the first verse and we read this.
[00:10:06] When daybreak came, all the chief priests and Elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put him to death.
[00:10:14] After tying him up, they led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
[00:10:18] Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, was full of remorse and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. He said, what is that to us? They said, see to it yourself.
[00:10:36] So he threw the silver into the temple and departed. Then he went and hanged himself.
[00:10:42] The chief priests took the silver and said, is not permitted to put it into the temple treasury since it's blood money. They conferred together and bought a potter's field with it as a burial place for foreigners. Therefore, the field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled. They took 30 pieces of silver, the price of him whose price was set by the Israelites, and they gave for them the potter's field as the Lord directed me. Okay, okay.
[00:11:09] This section of the text, it really. It's kind of transitional. It moves us forward to the next scene we pick up with Matthew moving us from this scene in Caiaphas House with the Sanhedrin, with the trial, over to the governor's palace and to Pilate. Last week, when we saw Jesus arrested and faced the Sanhedrin, it ended with them condemning Jesus as a blasphemer and abusing him.
[00:11:38] Our text picks up by letting us know that scene that we read last week that took all night, right? Like Jesus was arrested late at night. It's now the next morning, as the sun rose, the Sanhedrin plotted out how to enact their death sentence. What you have to know here, historically, you have to remember the Jewish people are not Roman citizens. They are Roman subjects.
[00:12:03] They've been conquered by Rome. And so under Roman rule, the Sanhedrin didn't actually have the authority to execute someone, but they had to. So they had to think through how to make this happen. Now, here's the thing that's important to note.
[00:12:16] That does not stop the Sanhedrin from executing people when they feel like it. You can read about that in Acts. The Sanhedrin executes Stephen, the first martyr. But the political situation in Jerusalem is tenuous.
[00:12:29] And it's the middle of Passover, and they don't want to rock the boat. And so they, okay, we need to take this through official channels. How can we convince Pilate, the Roman governor, to give us what they want? And so they decide on their most efficient course of action, and they haul Jesus off to Pilate.
[00:12:47] And then Matthew gives us what is almost an aside, right? We're brought back to Judas.
[00:12:55] We've already seen kind of his role in the story in this part of the story. It's so dark and sorrowful, we don't know why, we don't even know the details. But for whatever reason, something clicks at this point when Jesus is hauled away from the Sanhedrin to Pilate, it clicks with Judas, oh, I've done something terrible.
[00:13:19] Oh, I should not have done this.
[00:13:22] And he's filled with remorse now. Was it that he had hoped to force Jesus to kind of take on the messianic mantle? And when the death sentence finally came down, he realized, like, my plan didn't work.
[00:13:35] Was it just knowing that he betrayed Jesus to a. For a relatively paltry sum of money? And now he realizes, like, I've helped kill this man. And that is weighing on his conscience. The text doesn't tell us.
[00:13:47] What it tells us is that Judas is overcome with guilt and sorrow.
[00:13:52] And so he returns to these same religious leaders and brings his sorrow to them. Now, we're going to come back to the Sanhedrin in a second, but I want you to see this. Look how coldly they received Judas in his hurt.
[00:14:08] He says, I shouldn't have done this. I've made a terrible mistake. And they basically say, yeah, we don't care. Deal with your own problems. We don't care. We have stuff going on. Judas has given no comfort, he's given no call to repentance. He's given no hope, and he succumbs to his sorrow.
[00:14:25] We're told that he gives the money back to the temple and he go off and he. He goes off and he ends his own life.
[00:14:32] And guys, that's. I know in a space like this, many of us have been affected by someone else's sorrow and self harm. And so I apologize if that's difficult for you to hear that part of the story.
[00:14:44] But I think Judas is worth our pause here.
[00:14:48] I said this a few weeks ago, but on some spiritual level, we are all Judas, right?
[00:14:56] It's been kind of the big theme of us going through this story is how we can see ourselves in the Passion narrative. And when you look for yourself in the Passion narrative, it doesn't usually go well. It's usually pretty rough, right?
[00:15:07] But on some level, we're all betrayers, turn our back on Christ and choose ourselves and choose selfishness and choose the world.
[00:15:16] But the beauty is the gospel is for betrayers that Jesus's love, his Forgiveness, his redemption is for that kind of person.
[00:15:27] If only Judas had known that, right?
[00:15:31] If only something had turned his sorrow to repentance. In his second letter to the Corinthian Church, Paul addresses this concept beautifully. And he's talking about the way he had to call out this church's sin patterns. He had to call them out for some bad stuff they were doing. You can read it in Second Corinthians 7. It says this.
[00:15:49] I now rejoice, not because you were grieved, this is when he called him out, but because your grief led to repentance.
[00:15:58] For you were grieved, as God willed, so that you didn't experience any loss from us. For Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.
[00:16:13] Judas was sorrowful, was grieved. He saw the weight of his sin. But rather than repent and turn to God, he turns inward and he is consumed by the weight of his own failure.
[00:16:28] Beloved, you must know you are not immune to this.
[00:16:33] None of us are immune to this. We can sink into sorrow. We can turn our sorrow inward. We can experience what. What Paul calls this worldly sorrow or worldly grief, where we feel bad for our sin, but we don't do the work of bringing that sin to Jesus.
[00:16:53] Beloved, Christ went to the cross for your sin.
[00:16:57] You're not sufficient to handle it on your own. You can't carry the weight of it yourself. And if you sit in it by yourself, it will consume you.
[00:17:09] There's no other outcome to that.
[00:17:12] If you sit holding on to the weight of your own failure, going, I've got to fix this. This is all on me. Look what I've done. How can I fix this? I just got to tell you, you are not capable to the task.
[00:17:23] You're not strong enough and you're not holy enough to absolve yourself of your own sin.
[00:17:29] And if you experience a real conviction of it and don't bring it to Jesus, that sorrow, that grief, will actually begin to consume.
[00:17:39] The only solution is to bring it to Christ.
[00:17:42] I think the Sanhedrin, in this part of the story, they kind of played the flip side to the Judas coin. The other piece to this, while Judas was consumed by his sin, the Sanhedrin are completely blind to it. Their hearts are so hardened, they don't even see how destructive and evil they are.
[00:18:00] Because remember, they led Judas into this situation.
[00:18:05] They're the ones who said, we'll pay you this much, just let us know how and when to betray him. They were the ones who said, this is, this is for the good of the country, it's better that one man die for the whole nation.
[00:18:17] They led him into this.
[00:18:19] And when he comes to them seeking help, remember, these are the spiritual fathers of Israel.
[00:18:25] Every good Jewish man should have had a right to come to the Sanhedrin for hope and challenge and grow.
[00:18:31] But when Judas comes to them seeking help, they leave him in it.
[00:18:36] They leave him in it.
[00:18:38] He comes to them distraught and they say, fix your own problem.
[00:18:43] And to compound the issue, they then show their hypocrisy by spending time and effort deciding how to lawfully handle Judas's money.
[00:18:53] Did you catch this piece?
[00:18:55] When Judas ends his life, he takes the money and gives it back to the religious leaders. They deem it blood money since Judas received it to betray Jesus. And so they go, well, we can't just put it back in the temple coffers. That's blood money. That's unholy. So we got to find a lawful way to use this money. And they come up with a solution of going, well, we'll make, we'll put it into a charity product project. We'll, we'll buy a field and that'll be, you know, the unmarked grave area, the potter's field. That sounds good, that, that feels good for us. Ignoring the fact that this is blood money because they paid it to Judas, they didn't have any scruples about how unlawful it was when they pulled the money from the treasury to pay him.
[00:19:40] But now that he brings it back, now it's blood money, now it can't go in the treasury. It's such rotten hypocrisy.
[00:19:49] It's wild, wild for the outside looking in.
[00:19:54] How completely and totally spiritually blind these men were.
[00:19:59] Paul could have written Romans 2 directly to these men when he warned of how hard heartedness leads to hypocritical judgment of others while ignoring your own sin. This is how he said it to the Romans. Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of Wrath, when God's righteous judgment is revealed.
[00:20:22] Now here's the thing.
[00:20:24] It's really easy to sit here and talk about how much the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas are the bad guys in the story because they're pretty bad.
[00:20:33] But when we take a step back and think about what's actually going on, their self deception, their hard heartedness, the way they're ignoring their own sin and judging the sin of others, I do think, beloved, that we can take a step of sobriety and go, well, oh shoot, actually we are Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, right?
[00:20:54] Especially if you're a religious person.
[00:20:56] If you grew up in church or spend a lot of time at church, it can be easy to look down your nose at others while ignoring your own need for the gospel.
[00:21:08] It can be easy to get real judgy about the way other people choose to interact the spiritual and ethical convictions while ignoring your own spiritual need.
[00:21:22] The good news is the gospel of Jesus is for hard hearted religious hypocrites. Amen.
[00:21:28] But we must come to a place of a kind of honesty where we can acknowledge our sin for what it is.
[00:21:36] Guys, you have to understand the problem of the world we live in right now isn't just the criminals or the liberals or the conservatives, depending on your persuasion in that area.
[00:21:50] It isn't just the woke mob or the maga people.
[00:21:54] You beloved, you beloved are as much a part of the curse of this world as anyone else.
[00:22:03] As anyone else.
[00:22:06] But in fact you were just as much a part of the curse as all the people who you are convinced are a worse sinner than you. Can we stop and sit there for a minute like the people in your mind that right now you're like, no, I get it, we're all equal before the cross. But also this person is a worse sinner than me because they do this, this and this. Like you don't have to lie about that. We all naturally do that.
[00:22:27] You are just as much a part of the curse as they are. I promise you, you are just as much in need of the gospel. Because we are all Caiathas, we're all Sanhedrin, we're all given over to hard hearted religious hypocrisy.
[00:22:45] So hopefully as we walk through this, you can be honest enough to say, I've been Judas, I've been consumed by worldly sorrow.
[00:22:54] I've been Caiaphas, I've been hard, hearty and hypocritical.
[00:22:58] Let's read on verse 11.
[00:23:03] Now Jesus stood before the governor.
[00:23:05] Are you the King of the Jews? The governor asked him. Jesus answered, you say so.
[00:23:11] While he was being accused by the chief priests and elders. He didn't answer. And so then Pilate said to him, don't you hear how much they are testifying against you?
[00:23:20] But he didn't answer him on even one charge. So the governor was quite amazed.
[00:23:25] Now at the festival, the governor's custom was to release to the crowd a prisoner they wanted.
[00:23:29] At that time they had a notorious prisoner named Barabbas. So when they gathered together, Pilate said to them, who is it you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called to Christ?
[00:23:41] For he knew it was because of envy that they had handed him over. And while he was sitting on the judge's bench, his wife said a word to him. Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for today I've suffered terribly in a dream because of him.
[00:23:54] The chief priests and the elders, however, persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to execute Jesus.
[00:24:01] So the governor asked them, which of the two do you want me to release to you, Barabbas? They answer.
[00:24:07] Pilate asked them, what should I do then with Jesus who is called to Christ? And they all answered, crucify him.
[00:24:14] Then he said, why?
[00:24:17] What has he done?
[00:24:18] But they kept shouting all the more, crucify him.
[00:24:24] And Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that a riot was, was starting. Instead, he took some water, washed his hands in front of the crowd and said, I am innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourselves.
[00:24:36] And all the people answered, his blood be on us and on our children.
[00:24:41] And they released Barabbas to them, and after having Jesus flogged, handed him over to be crucified.
[00:24:49] Now we step into one of the more famous scenes of the Passion narrative.
[00:24:54] It's actually kind of interesting how Matthew blazes through this scene. If you, if you put this next to the way Luke or John especially talk about it. Matthew goes really quickly through this. Luke lets us know about an extra scene where Herod Antipas is involved. John gives a lot more specific detail about Pilate's conversation with Jesus. But Matthew leaves us with this bare bones telling of the story.
[00:25:19] And I think it helps us zone in because of the details he chooses to include.
[00:25:24] Now, I think it's worth noting Pilate as a governor, he sizes up this situation pretty quickly, but he doesn't really know what to do with it.
[00:25:33] Jesus's behavior amazes Pilate as the trial goes on, right? Like Jesus is still not defending himself. He's silent before the accusations of the Sanhedrin. But when Pilate asked him directly, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus does give an answer. And interestingly, Jesus gives Pilate the same answer he gave Caiaphas in the same answer he gave Judas.
[00:25:56] You say so you said it. We talked about this a couple times over the course of this series, but this is a very rabbi type way of responding. It's a way of saying, I wouldn't have said it that way, but it's close enough. And I'm not going to correct you, which, again, it's just a very rabbi thing to do, especially in a moment like this. And it makes sense when you think about Pilate's question, are you the king of the Jews?
[00:26:21] Well, Pilate's a Roman governor.
[00:26:23] He's asking very clearly, are you leading an insurrection against Rome?
[00:26:28] Are you a political leader like I am?
[00:26:32] And Jesus definitely isn't that.
[00:26:35] Right.
[00:26:36] But he also definitely is the king of the Jews.
[00:26:40] And Jesus knows explaining it's not really going to change anything. And so he just kind of goes, you said it close enough. Close enough. Right.
[00:26:49] Which is enough for Pilate to figure out this whole thing is a sham.
[00:26:55] So you have to understand a little bit about Pilate. Historically, he's a Roman prefect, which means he's not a civilian governor. He's a military man. He worked his way up in the Roman military. Roman military men would be assigned to work in the role of governor in specific areas where the people were unruly and needed a firmer hand and needed more strict rule. Palestine was one of the most rebellious of all the Roman provinces. This is why it had a military prefect instead of a civilian governor. But Pilate, the military prefects were in a really difficult position because basically, if they let their area of rule go wild, if they let insurrections and riots happen, they died.
[00:27:40] Like, Rome did not have a lot of mercy for weak leaders. Right. But the flip side to that is that Caesar actually took a ton of public pride in how much Roman occupation and Roman rule elevated a culture. And so if your people felt too oppressed or were too angry and were too unhappy, and then you weren't doing a good job and you died. Right? So the Roman prefects lived in this tension. The Roman governors in places like, oh, I don't know, Philippi, where everyone loved Rome and it was like a patriotic city, they had it high on the hog. The Roman prefects, who were military leaders put in charge of controlling an area, but still had the same expectation of making that area love Roman Caesar. Right? Those guys lived a hard life.
[00:28:24] They lived in a constant tension of going, Rome controls dissent by brute, pure brutality.
[00:28:31] That's how Rome controls dissent. You talk back, we murder you and your entire family. We end your bloodline.
[00:28:38] You don't talk back anymore after that. Right.
[00:28:41] But the flip side of that is, but you also all have to be happy, wealthy and happy. Happy, wealthy and fat. Right. We got to figure both those things out. That's hard to do.
[00:28:50] And so Pilate, he's stuck in this situation where a lot of his political life is just lived in tension with the Sanhedrin. They really are the social, religious, political leaders of the Jewish people in Jerusalem, but he's the Roman leader. And so they kind of just have this uneasy relationship. And what I think is interesting is we actually know this bit from history.
[00:29:12] Pilate is basically predisposed to just think whatever's good for the Sanhedrin is probably bad for me. So whatever it is they want me to do, I should probably just do the opposite.
[00:29:23] And the text tells us he figures out real quick, okay, this guy did nothing wrong. These guys just don't like him. All right, okay, I get the score. And you understand kind of how Pilate looks at it. He probably knew a bit about Jesus at this point because of the. Just the uproar that he created in Jerusalem. But you have to remember Jesus is not a political leader. He's not well known in Jerusalem. He's a common man, a grassroots mooc. And so Pilate's kind of sizing this up, going, okay, you guys are jealous of him. He's got a lot of following, he's got a lot of authority, but he's not playing by your rules. I get this. You just want him out of the way. I know. I'll help him out.
[00:30:02] That's kind of what the route Pilate takes here. I'm going to help him out just to, you know, stick the knife in on the Sanhedrin. And so he comes up with this plan where what they tell us is he had a custom of essentially allowing the people to pick a prisoner to be released. And he goes, we're going to do it different this time around.
[00:30:23] I'm going to pick two different prisoners, and you're going to pick which one you want.
[00:30:28] And he puts up Barabbas and Jesus.
[00:30:32] And this is where things get interesting.
[00:30:35] Because most likely what's happening here is Pilate just assumes, well, Jesus is the everyman's person. And so since there's this big crowd here, they're all going to choose Jesus. They've been calling him Messiah for the last week. So all I got to do is put them both out there and they'll pick him, and the Sanhedrin won't be able to do anything about it. And I'll get my little political. Political victory and I'll go on with my day, right?
[00:30:55] So he brings out Barabbas. We don't know hardly anything about Barabbas. We know about Barabbas from all of historical narrative and all of scripture is this. He was an evil criminal who killed some people.
[00:31:05] That's all we know. No one really liked this guy. He was infamous. He was well known as a violent murderer, was not well liked. Okay? That's all we have for him.
[00:31:15] And yet what we get in this text is that as Pilate sets up this situation, thinking he's going to go a little political victory and move on with his day, the religious leaders somehow turn the crowd in favor of Barabbas.
[00:31:34] And we have to take a minute and consider the crowd here. It's kind of a weird way to think about this, but all four gospel writers use this phrase of the crowd to sort of represent a single character in Jesus's life and story. Now, obviously, the various crowds Jesus faced over the course of his ministry are made up a lot of different people.
[00:31:53] But the crowd kind of represents the common people who surrounded Jesus over the course of his life. It's the way the gospel writers write. And what we learned about the crowd, if you look at the Gospels, is the crowd is fickle.
[00:32:05] The crowd loves Jesus when he's winning.
[00:32:08] They love Jesus when he's giving them loaves and fishes. They love Jesus when he's standing up to authority and putting people, like putting the guys in their place, looking good. But now, when Jesus has nothing to give them, now when Jesus is in need, now when the Sanhedrin are winning, when they have him tied and beaten just like that, the crowd turns and they shout for Barabbas.
[00:32:38] They shout for the infamous criminal. They shout for the violent murderer. They choose him.
[00:32:46] Somehow, just like that, they're given over to a mob's lust for violence.
[00:32:52] Now, here's the thing. I want you to take that scene. Jesus and Barabbas, they're both up there. And you know, Pilate's up there in his regalia. Who do you want in the crowd? Like, I want you to take that scene. Hold on to that in your back pocket for a second.
[00:33:05] We're going to come back to that.
[00:33:07] But first, I want to take a moment and contrast Pilate and the crowd.
[00:33:13] Because even though the crowd is fickle, even though the crowd has no scruples, the crowd is bold. And what we see here is that for all his authority and all his power, Pilate here plays the coward.
[00:33:25] He knows he's wrong.
[00:33:27] He knows Jesus is innocent. But when he realizes the Sanhedrin have flipped the script on him and they're stirring up a riot, he capitulates he wimps out.
[00:33:39] He hands over Jesus to an unjust, undeserved death. To avoid political problems, Pilate can pull out as many bowls as he wants. He can wash his hands as much as he wants. But at the end of the day, he's the responsible one in the room.
[00:33:57] He's the one who makes the choice. He's the one who signs the death warrant. Jesus Death was Pilate's choice.
[00:34:05] And Pilate's cowardice chose the easy way out.
[00:34:10] And in Pilate's cowardice, an innocent man was tortured to death.
[00:34:16] Right? Contrast this with the crowd that turns on Jesus and is stirred up to violence and evil with ease.
[00:34:25] They would gladly have gone with Jesus and stuck with Jesus if he was the one in power, if he was giving them what he wanted, what they wanted. But now that he's hurting, now that he's needed, they feed him to the dogs.
[00:34:36] They choose the murderer and abandon Jesus. Their cries of crucify him are haunting to read.
[00:34:44] This crowd is so thoroughly turned on Jesus, they're so thoroughly convinced his death is justified that they say, put the blame on us and our families. We don't care. This guy deserves what he's getting.
[00:34:56] And beloved.
[00:34:58] So we think about these two characters.
[00:35:01] Can we not be honest enough to admit for a moment that we can easily become the crowd, right?
[00:35:08] Do we love Jesus when we receive from him?
[00:35:13] When you go to church on just the right Sunday and Audrey and Abby hit the harmony and the Holy Spirit enters into you right in that moment, and you remember the goodness of the gospel, or you go to summer camp or you go to that retreat, or you're sitting at coffee with that friend and you dig into the Word and there's that moment where the Gospel doesn't. You just go, oh, wow, the Lord fills me up so, isn't it? It's so easy to love Jesus, to be on his team when you're receiving from him, when he's filling you up, when he's giving tea with the minute life is hard, the minute you're not just getting, getting, getting.
[00:35:48] How easy is it to flip a switch and turn on him and go, why'd you do this to me?
[00:35:54] How dare you? Why do you. Why don't you love me? Why do you treat me like this?
[00:35:58] Why is my life so hard? How easy is it to be the fickle crowd who loves to take from Jesus the fights that have him to give back and stick with him when life is hard?
[00:36:11] Come on.
[00:36:12] We can all be humble enough to admit we've been there. Amen.
[00:36:17] In Romans 3, Paul summarizes the wisdom literature. Teaching on our sinfulness, our internal flesh. He stitches together several psalms and proverbs and gives us this beautiful piece of text. Romans 3.
[00:36:30] There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. There's no one who seeks God. All have turned away. All alike have become worthless. There's no one who does what is good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They deceive with their tongues. Vipers venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and wretchedness are their paths. The path of peace is not known to them. And there is no fear of God in their eyes.
[00:37:02] Beloved, it is easy to stand in judgment of Pilate and of the crowd.
[00:37:07] Because this scene is so evil.
[00:37:09] They hang Jesus out to dry for no reason.
[00:37:13] But, beloved, this is what the curse does to us.
[00:37:17] A curse whips us up into the crowd. And we go along with what's easy and we get mad when faith costs us something. We become the crowd. Or we flip the script.
[00:37:27] We become cowards.
[00:37:30] We don't stand up to the crowd.
[00:37:32] We bow down and choose the easy but sinful path.
[00:37:36] Because we're all pilot.
[00:37:40] We're all the proud, and we take what Jesus gives and turn on him at the drop of the hat. And we're all pilot when we wimp out and refuse to stand up for the Gospel.
[00:37:49] Just like that, Barabbas walks free as Jesus, the lover of our soul, the maker of our world, our Lord our Savior, is tied to a Roman whipping post and stripped down to his bones.
[00:38:07] Read on with me so we can see the real fruit of life in this cursed world. Verse 27 says this.
[00:38:15] Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the governor's residence and gathered the whole company around him. They stripped him and dressed him in a scarlet robe. They twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and placed the staff in his right hand. And they knelt down before him and mocked him. Hail, King of the Jews. And then they spat on him, took the staff and kept hitting him on the head. And after they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, put put his clothes back on him and led him away to crucify him.
[00:38:47] I won't linger too long at Jesus's suffering at the hands of the Romans. But guys, this is important. It's important to see this peace.
[00:38:55] You have to understand this. Roman executioners were professionals in every sense of the Word.
[00:39:01] Roman executioners played a vital role in the role in the life of the Roman Empire.
[00:39:07] What Roman executioners did is they killed in such horrific and public ways that entire nations were cowed into submission.
[00:39:16] That's what Roman executioners did.
[00:39:19] When Jesus was handed to the Roman executioners, it was not just to die, it was to be despised.
[00:39:27] It was to die as a humiliated piece of trash.
[00:39:32] The death of Jesus is not a death of kings. It's not a death of gentlemen. It is not a dignified death. It is the death of a slave, a death of the heated, a death of the inhuman.
[00:39:45] And the Romans did this very specifically and very on purpose.
[00:39:49] I don't want to be overly graphic, but I don't want to spare us the importance of what's being talked about here.
[00:39:55] Jesus was tied to a stone post and whipped 40 times, 40 lashes from a Roman cat of nine tails.
[00:40:01] This is different from the more common 40 minus one done with a bare leather whip.
[00:40:06] That was a common form of public punishment, not meant to kill. You can read about that in the Bible.
[00:40:12] The executioner's whip is a different kind of whip. I have a picture of one similar.
[00:40:17] The strands were woven together with pieces of lead and bone chipped off pieces of sword blades so that it could both whip and cut.
[00:40:28] Roman executioners flogging victims almost always died. Regardless of what happened after the flogging. The result of the thorny Roman lashes would almost always leave the victim with bare bones exposed across their spine and ribs.
[00:40:46] But the soldier's job isn't just to torture and kill.
[00:40:51] It's subjugation.
[00:40:53] And that subjugation happens through crushing humiliation.
[00:40:58] So Jesus death here is meant to show everyone watching that he is a king of nothing and that Rome rules.
[00:41:06] So they take this beaten Jesus after his flogging, after that experience bleeding and suffering, and they lay across his bleeding and stripped back a royal robe and they fashion a crown of thorns they can slam onto his head.
[00:41:22] And again, not to be too graphic here, but I think this is an important note.
[00:41:27] We like to envision this as like a circlet, but Roman crowns were actually more like helmets and Roman. The brambles in this area had thorns that were 3 to 6 inches long.
[00:41:39] So probably looks like this shoved onto his head.
[00:41:44] And it says they took the staff and slammed it down on his head repeatedly to push the helmet onto his scalp.
[00:41:53] And they bow down and hail him as king as he bleeds and suffers.
[00:41:58] As a way of showing everyone watching, this is what happens when Rome finds a king in a conquered land and our poor Jesus, who is the true king, who is the creator and sustainer and Lord endures it all. And I've made this point before, but it's worth considering.
[00:42:17] Colossians tells us that Jesus is the sustainer of reality, that he made all things, that he keeps all things by an act of his will.
[00:42:27] Christ is not the victim in this moment.
[00:42:30] Yes, he's being treated horrifically.
[00:42:32] But you have to remember it is in the will of Christ to tell the hearts to keep beating within his executioners so that they can torture Him.
[00:42:42] He keeps and holds their lives even as they work to end his.
[00:42:47] That is the self control. That is the authority that Christ brings into his own suffering.
[00:42:54] Isaiah saw forward to this exact moment and he wrote a poem about it. We read parts of it around Christmas. But I want us to take a second and take in part of this prophecy from Isaiah 53. It says this.
[00:43:08] He was despised and rejected by men.
[00:43:12] A man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from. He was despised and we didn't value him. Yet he bought. He himself bore our sicknesses and he carried our pains. But we in turn regarded him as stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities. Punishment for our peace was on him.
[00:43:39] We are healed by his wounds.
[00:43:42] We all went astray like sheep. We all have turned our own way. And the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us.
[00:43:52] He was oppressed and afflicted. He did not open his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter. Like a sheep is silent before her shearers. He did not open his mouth.
[00:44:03] He was taken away because of oppression and judgment. And who considered his fate?
[00:44:08] He was cut off in the land of the living. He was struck down because of my people's rebellion. Beloved, Jesus is the suffering servant.
[00:44:17] He is.
[00:44:19] He chose to fully face the depths of the curse. For you and for me, there's a part of the story that we don't often take a moment to consider. And this is why I told us to think of ourselves as Barabbas.
[00:44:35] Have you ever noticed or ever wondered why all the aspects of Jesus's execution were already set up and ready to use on a holy day in the middle of the Passover festival? Have you ever thought about that?
[00:44:47] There was no delay. They did it immediately.
[00:44:49] You know why?
[00:44:51] Because they already had an execution scheduled that morning.
[00:44:55] They already had everything set up. The executioners were there with their tools.
[00:45:01] These guys don't just sit around and be like, oh, I can't wait to kill someone today.
[00:45:05] They were prepped and ready. Why?
[00:45:08] To kill Barabbas and the two criminals who were with him.
[00:45:13] That plan was already in place. When the Roman soldiers walked down to the dungeon and grabbed Barabbas to drag him out to the crowd. He was walking out fully expecting to face that scourging and that cross himself because it was his when he already earned it.
[00:45:30] And when he walked out, what he found instead was unexpected mercy.
[00:45:36] He walked out to a crowd shouting his name and he had his bonds unlocked and he walked away a free man.
[00:45:44] And Christ took Barabbas whipping and took Barabbas cross.
[00:45:52] That's why I think it's so good that we don't get much more of Barabbas story.
[00:45:56] Because we need to sit with that truth.
[00:46:01] Jesus showed up that day and took someone else's execution. And beloved, we understand as we see ourselves in Judas and Peter and Caiaphas, Pilate and the crowd and even the executioners, as we consider our own cowardice, our own sorrow, our own hard heartedness, our own hypocrisy, our own weakness, our own violence, our own sin, we realized that was in fact our cross. Amen.
[00:46:33] That each and every one of us, because we are broken and weary sinners, that we are the ones who deserve this fate.
[00:46:44] Romans 6 says the wages of sin is death.
[00:46:48] Rebellion against God's design can only lead to death. It separates us from our creator. It disconnects us from the very source of our life.
[00:46:56] But our God is not content to allow us to be simply destroyed by our own sin.
[00:47:02] He loves us too much.
[00:47:04] Think of what we just read in Isaiah. We all turn away. We're all like sheep gone astray. We're all sinners, we're all Barabbas. And the only outcome of being Barabbas, death.
[00:47:16] Unless someone steps in for you and beloved, that is exactly what Jesus did.
[00:47:25] Jesus steps into our place.
[00:47:29] Jesus volunteers to take our Roman whipping post and our cross.
[00:47:38] The beloved Jesus is our life.
[00:47:41] Jesus in my place.
[00:47:44] That is the story of the gospel in your life if you're a believer today.
[00:47:48] Jesus in my place.
[00:47:51] So what do we do with a text like this?
[00:47:54] Man, if you want to come back up, I want to give you two thoughts.
[00:48:00] They're the same thought but for two different people.
[00:48:04] The thought is this.
[00:48:06] What do you do with a text like this?
[00:48:09] Fall on your knees before the cross of Jesus today.
[00:48:12] That's what you do when you consider that you are Barabbas.
[00:48:18] And I would encourage you think through those characters.
[00:48:23] Judas, Peter, Caiaphas, the Sanhedri, Pilate, the crowd, the executioners.
[00:48:30] Look for your own heart, your own sin, your own weakness in those different characters.
[00:48:38] Consider yourself in the chains of Barabbas awaiting your execution, only to be let loose.
[00:48:45] I want you to consider that genuinely in your heart. Consider that because it is the only proper response to this text.
[00:48:53] Fall on your knees before the cross of Christ Jesus in your place, Jesus taking on your sin, Jesus taking on your punishment, Jesus taking on your unrighteousness, putting it on himself, taking his righteousness and putting it on you as a cloak, making you new, making you whole.
[00:49:18] If you're in this place today and you've never given your life to Christ, consider that invitation today.
[00:49:26] If we are all Barabbas, and Barabbas only has one end, friend, you only have one end unless Christ intercedes on your behal.
[00:49:36] Come to him today. Consider his invitation afresh today. There is life and forgiveness to be had for you.
[00:49:44] You need not walk another minute of your life for the uncertainty about what will happen to you because of your own brokenness and sin. Christ will stand in your place because you matter to him.
[00:49:57] But if you're in this room and you've been following Jesus for years, and great news for you, the application is the same.
[00:50:06] Fall on your knees before the cross of Christ today.
[00:50:10] It doesn't matter what brought you into this place today.
[00:50:13] It doesn't matter if you are at the top of your game, if your spirit is on Mount Sinai, meeting with the Lord, getting the new Ten Commandments for all of us, like, doesn't matter.
[00:50:23] Doesn't matter if you're in this place today, you're on a whole lot more like a prodigal thinking through the sin patterns that you run to again and again and again in the ways you have forsaken the Lord.
[00:50:35] Doesn't matter if you're in this room and apathy has rotted your heart out and you've fallen into the pattern of just attending church and going to things and maybe even engaging in spiritual disciplines. But you have hardened your heart. You're not actually meeting with Christ.
[00:50:50] It doesn't matter what your spiritual life looks like today.
[00:50:53] You could be in a great place. You can be in a terrible place. You could be anywhere in between.
[00:50:57] The truth is the same.
[00:50:59] Jesus took your place.
[00:51:02] Jesus took your cross, beloved.
[00:51:06] He looked at you beginning to end. Hear this.
[00:51:10] Beginning to end.
[00:51:11] The whole of your life, every sin, every rebellion, every evil, every wrong, every Injustice, every weakness, all the parts of you, from beginning to end, that you hate. He saw all of it and still took your cross, still took your cross.
[00:51:30] And so if you're here today going, I don't know, Jesus, I'm a lot worse person than I was in middle school when I went forward on Thursday at camp.
[00:51:40] Jesus is not surprised.
[00:51:42] He saw all of you.
[00:51:44] He still took your place.
[00:51:46] Come to him afresh today.
[00:51:50] Bring your real self to the cross.
[00:51:53] See what Jesus might say to you in response.
[00:51:56] So here's what I'm gonna invite us to do.
[00:51:59] I'm gonna invite us to take a few minutes to get ourselves into a posture of reflection. If you can do that, sitting in a chair, praise the Lord, you want to get up and get on your knees somewhere. If you want to come forward and pray at the altar, if you want to grab one of the pastors, whatever that looks like, find some space to get into a posture of connection with the Lord.
[00:52:20] And I invite you to consider this text.
[00:52:24] Consider your own heart.
[00:52:26] Consider the ways you fall short, the ways that your pilot, the ways you're Judas, the ways you're the crowd, the ways you are like all of us, Barabbas.
[00:52:37] And then come talk to Jesus of the cross and see what he says to you.
[00:52:42] I promise you, beloved, what he'll say to you is that he has life and forgiveness and grace for you.
[00:52:50] When you feel like you've taken the time to connect with the Lord, I want to invite us to, as we're ready, those of us who are in Christ, to come up and take communion.
[00:53:00] Communion is this thing Christ gave us, is this tangible parable to connect with the truth of his sacrifice on our behalf. He. He shared this meal with, we just talked about a couple weeks ago when he broke the bread and passed the cup and said, this is my body broken for you. This is my blood poured out for you. When you take this, you're remembering me.
[00:53:18] You're proclaiming my work, my debt, the sufficiency of.
[00:53:24] So when you're in a place where you've done some work with the Lord, if you want to respond in that way, if you're in the room and you are a believer and you want to respond by remembering the sufficiency of the cross. Cross your cross. If he took, then I invite you, when you're ready to come up and take communion, there's hand sanitizer, there's prepackaged ones that you can grab a piece and dip it and go find some space to connect with the Lord. And take communion when you're ready, beloved. Do the work you need to do with the Lord, and then we'll continue on.
