years ago Christ was declared guilty. He
had fought the good fight but he had lost.
In the eyes of the world, in the eyes of His followers and in the eyes
of his enemies Jesus Christ the carpenter from Nazareth had been proven to be
guilty.
everything he had said about his Kingdom, everything He had said about His
power. Every statement He ever uttered,
every promise He ever made, everything had been shown to be a lie because Jesus
was guilty, guilty of claiming that he was God when apparently he wasn’t.
different, but he died and because he died everyone knew he was guilty, as
guilty as sin.
Jewish Leaders Testified to His Guilt. It was Jesus who was marching out of step,
not them. He was a liberal, trouble
making activist. I mean, think about it,
things had been happening the same way in Israel for thousands of years. What right did this young upstart preacher
have to come in and try to change things all around?
wasn’t a scribe or a Pharisee. He was
just a carpenter, he was a newcomer to Jerusalem,
he was only thirty three years old and he was wrong.
lawmakers, not Jesus. He just didn’t
understand how things were done. What
right did he have to tell them as he did in Matthew 22:29 Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that
you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.” Well they had shown
him, because they were right and he on the other hand was wrong.
call them fools, how dare he call them hypocrites. Who did he think he was anyway? And then he had the utter gall to claim to be
the equal to Jehovah God. In their Eyes he
was guilty as guilty as sin.
Testified to His Guilt And he was right because he was smart. Pilate knew what he was doing, he was every
inch a politician. He saw trouble coming
and he already had too much trouble in Jerusalem. There Jews were on the brink of revolt. Perhaps it had happened when he had put the
images of Caesar on the flag standards in direct defiance of the Jewish law. Maybe he was guilty that time, or perhaps it
was when he financed the municipal water supply with money he had seized from
the temple treasury, he may have been guilty that time too.
I mean Pilate had enough trouble; he didn’t need all the
problems that this young Nazarene carpenter represented. Pilate had the authority of the Roman Empire
behind him; at the snap of his fingers he could have levelled Jerusalem.
And this young peasant had the nerve to stand in front of him and
say John 19:11 Then Jesus
said, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from
above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” Oh
yeah, right, well Pilate proved him wrong.
Pilate feared the trouble that the Jews could raise with
his superiors but then again there were his superstitions about this one who
called himself God.
What should he do, please the Jews or set this harmless
preacher free? So he crucified him, but
hey it worked out for the best. In Pilates eyes Jesus was guilty, as guilty as
sin.
Barabbas Testified
to His Guilt According to custom each year at the Passover celebration the Roman
Governor would set one prisoner free.
And so Pilate asked the crowd, “Should I release Jesus the Christ or
Barabbas the murderer?” It would have
been so easy for Pilate to have released Christ if the Crowd had of asked him
to. But no, the crowd yelled, “Free
Barabbas, crucify Jesus, free Barabbas, crucify Jesus.” And he so he did.
So you see Barabbas was declared innocent and Jesus was
declared guilty.
But who was this Barabbas?
Well his name was probably Bar Rabbis which in the Greek means Son of
the Rabbi. I’m sure some people are thinking; typical preacher’s kid
right? Maybe his dad was one of the
leaders who called for the death of Jesus.
We do know that Barabbas was one of the Zealots, those who wanted to rid
Israel of Rome. And the Zealots didn’t
care what it took, murder, robbery, terrorism.
Now tradition tells us that Barabbas was not this man’s
first name. Remember our old buddy
Peter? Sometimes in the gospels he is
referred to Simon Bar Jonah, or Simon
the Son of Jonah. Tradition has it that Barabbas
had a very common first name, a name that he shared with many other Jews, one
that he even shared with a young carpenter from Nazareth. You see tradition tells us that the Zealot’s
complete name was Jesus Bar Rabbis.
Two Jesus’, one who preached love, and one who preached
hate, one who preached peace and one who preached war, one who preached
forgiveness and one who preached vengeance.
Two Jesus, as different as day and night. And one walked away a free man and one died
on a cross. And because Barabbas walked
free in his eyes Jesus was guilty, as guilty as sin.
The Roman Guards Testified
to His Guilt These men represented the
power of Rome; they were impartial and interested only in doing their job. They had probably been brought in from
Caesarea Philippi to help keep the peace in Jerusalem during the Passover celebration.
They didn’t know who Jesus was and if they had of known they wouldn’t have
cared.
If Pilate declared that he was a criminal and deserved to
be crucified, than as far as they were concerned he was a criminal and deserved
to be crucified. And so they split his
clothing amongst them and nailed Jesus to the cross. Because as far as they were concerned Jesus
was guilty, as guilty as sin.
His Disciples Testified
to His Guilt Was there any real reason for all of them to die? Self preservation is nothing to be trifled
with. God himself put that survival
instinct in each one of us. I mean think
about it, if Jesus was wrong now, then he must have been wrong all along. Maybe he really didn’t know what he was
talking about. Turn the other cheek indeed and look where it had gotten Jesus.
Perhaps Barabbas needed some followers, now there was a
winner. They’d have to talk to him on
Tuesday after everything had settled down over the holidays. The meek will inherit the earth. Sure, all it had gotten Jesus was a cross and
a borrowed grave.
The disciples were right when they choose to lay low for
awhile. What would they have
accomplished by taking a stand? Whey
should they all have to die. If Jesus
had of shown them he was innocent by calling down an army of angels, well that
would have been a horse of a different colour.
But it was all in vain, Jesus wasn’t God and they were just
fishermen. The disciples were right and
because they hadn’t stood up to defend the one they called Lord and friend they
were proclaiming for all to hear that they thought Jesus was guilty, as guilty
as sin.
Popular Opinion Testified
to His Guilt On Palm Sunday the crowd had sang hosanna and waved palm branches
and if a Roman or a Jew had of laid a hand on Jesus, there would have been a
riot. Oh they were right about Jesus on
Sunday, but then on Friday they shouted “Crucify Him, Crucify Jesus.”
Just like today, how many people praise his name and sing
Hosanna on Sunday but on Monday they live for themselves and take his name in
vain? Popular opinion had proclaimed
Christ a king and now it was proclaiming him a Criminal. And popular opinion was right and Jesus was wrong. He was crucified because popular opinion
decided that Jesus was guilty, as guilty as sin.
Good Friday ends on a very final note. Jesus was gone, dead, buried and silenced
forever. Everything that Jesus had said,
everything that Jesus had taught, everything that Jesus had done was gone and
would be forgotten, because Jesus was wrong.
For two days Jesus was wrong. By every measure that is used by the world
Jesus was wrong. Dead wrong because on Friday Jesus had died. Jesus clashed with all the selfish distorted
values and morals of a fallen society and he died because nobody can fight a
monster that big and win.
He took on the sins of the world, the collective evil from
creation onward and from all outward appearances he had failed.
And that was the plan.
On Palm Sunday we looked at how the day Jesus rode
triumphantly into Jerusalem had a dark side.
It was that day during the celebration that the Jewish leaders decided
that Jesus had to die. They were afraid
of what it would mean if the people were to embrace this radical young leader.
Afraid of what it would mean to their authority and afraid
of how the Romans would react. For them
there was only one solution. And they
were willing to do whatever had to be done to make it happen.
For Judas it was the day he decided that things with Jesus
weren’t going the way he wanted them to go.
And we’ll never know for sure if Judas was looking for Jesus’ death or
if he was just trying to give him a push to force his hand. But the results were the same. They led to the cross.
And on Good Friday a flawed arrest led to several flawed
trials. Trials where the rules and
regulations set in place to ensure justice were flaunted, ignored and broken
all for one end, so Jesus would be found guilty and to guarantee that Jesus
would die.
And while the verdict on Friday was guilty, was that the
reality?
If we go back to the story we read in Matthew 27:3-4 When
Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he
was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the
leading priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have
betrayed an innocent man.” “What do we care?” they retorted.
“That’s your problem.”
three years with Jesus, he had seen the miracles, he had eaten the fish and
loaves by shore of galilee. He had heard
Jesus preach on love and grace and forgiveness.
garden, Judas knew that Jesus was innocent.
religious leaders were the one who demanded that Jesus must die they didn’t
have the authority to have him executed, so they turned to Rome. Jesus was sent to the Roman governor, Pilate
for sentencing, and while the result was that Jesus was crucified, it was a
flawed verdict delivered under pressure because Pilate wasn’t really convinced
of Jesus’ guilt. We read in Luke 23:14 (Pilate) announced his verdict. “You brought this man
to me, accusing him of leading a revolt. I have examined him thoroughly on this
point in your presence and find him innocent.
Caiaphas and his cohorts but he knew in his heart that Jesus was innocent. And we read this little act of defiance in John 19:19-22 And
Pilate posted a sign over him that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the
Jews.” The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the
sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read
it. Then the leading priests objected and said to Pilate,
“Change it from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘He said, I am King of the Jews.’”
Pilate replied, “No, what I have written, I have written.”
from the story of Good Friday that Pilate had sent Jesus to the puppet king
Herod so that he wouldn’t have to deal with the religious leaders and their
demands. And Herod examined Jesus and
sent him back to Pilate with his findings.
We read in Luke 23:15 Pilate said “Herod
came to the same conclusion and sent him back to us. Nothing this man has done
calls for the death penalty.”
killed John the Baptist at the insistence of his wife, Herod who’s father had
had the infants of Bethlehem slaughtered in an attempt to kill the new born
Jesus. Even Herod knew that Jesus had
done nothing to deserve to die.
knew that Jesus was innocent of the charges, they allowed him to be mocked and
beaten and ultimately crucified. Pilate
may have declared himself innocent of Jesus death, but without Pilate’s consent
Jesus would not have been killed that day.
thieves we read this account. Luke 23:39-41 One of
the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you?
Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!” But
the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been
sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t
done anything wrong.”
heard Jesus preach, or maybe a loved one had been healed by Jesus. We’ll never know. We don’t know what brought Dimas to his
conclusion, but the one thing he was sure of was that Jesus was innocent and
Dismas wasn’t.
die, and his body was being removed from the cross, we see this closing scene
from Luke’s account: Luke 23:47 When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw
what had happened, he worshiped God and said, “Surely this man was innocent.”
or the innocence of loved ones. He had a
job to do and he had simply done his job, but at the end of the day he realized
that some of the blood that he had shed that day had been innocent blood.
death of Jesus was a travesty and a crime.
But that is the biggest failing of capital punishment, it is so hard to
undo.
didn’t matter if Jesus was a guilty man or an innocent man, at the end of the
day on Friday his enemies had won, because he was a dead man. They had been right and he had been
wrong.
But the story doesn’t end with the crucifixion, that was
Friday but this is Sunday. Stand with me for the reading from God’s word. Scripture
Reading
Matthew
28:1-10
Easter is that The Empty Tomb Testified to His Innocence
the other Mary went to the tomb to prepare their master with the spices donated
by Nicodemus instead of finding Jesus they found Angels.
how come he wasn’t still in the grave?
If Jesus was wrong if he wasn’t the messiah he claimed to be, then where
was he?
right. For two days they had declared
that Jesus was guilty of falsely claiming to be God, but on the third day and
for eternity Jesus Christ was proclaimed to be innocent, and proven to be
God. Jesus was right and the rest of
them were wrong.
would have been just as wrong as Mohammed, Confucius and Buddha. If Jesus had of remained dead he would have
remained dead wrong. Just another
misguided prophet who thought he was right.
Easter day, fifty days later on the day of Pentecost those first 120 Christians
were filled with the Holy Spirit and Christianity was proven right.
bells of Hell peal out the death toll of Jesus Christ and the movement he
founded. On Good Friday Simon Peter
cowered under the gaze of a little servant girl. On Good Friday the believers were of many
accord, each one interested only in their own welfare, each Christian concerned
only with their own salvation.
Christ didn’t lose. And because
Christianity didn’t lose good won’t lose.
There are times that it looks like Christianity is beaten but time and
time again we struggle back to the surface and emerge victorious. Oh our doctrine may fail us and our leaders
may disappoint us but Christianity will not be kept down. And as we look around at the evil in this old
world sometimes it appears that Satan has the upper hand, sometimes it would
appear that Satan is victorious. We see
abortion, hunger, war and deceitfulness.
We see illness, pain and suffering.
We see scandals from inside and outside the church.
was guilty, Jesus lost, Jesus was guilty and Jesus lost.”
it appeared that Jesus was guilty, to Sunday when Jesus Christ rose
triumphantly from the grave throwing off the shackles of death and proclaiming
himself right for eternity.
Sunday, he was innocent on Good Friday, He was innocent on Easter Sunday. Because he not only claimed to be God, he was
God. And because of that He will remain
right as will his church.
not lose. In winning the victory over
death on Calvary’s mount so many years ago
Jesus won the victory for us. When Jesus
won over death, he offered us the power to win over death.
could have the Easter Bunny, and Jesus did not win on the cross so we could
have chocolate eggs, and Jesus did not win on the cross so we could have a long
weekend in the spring.
for one reason and one reason only, and that was to give you and I the
opportunity to have eternal life. I
would suspect that if you gave Jesus a list of things he would like to have
been doing over the Easter weekend that dying on a cross would have been
somewhere near the bottom of the list.
wouldn’t have to and he rose again to demonstrate that he was even in control
of death.