If you would turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 22, we’re at the end of chapter 22 tonight going into the first part of chapter 23. You can find that on page 883. Luke chapter 22.
You know, most of the lists of the greatest speeches in American history are going to include a lot of the same speeches. Like Patrick Henry, “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.” Or Abraham Lincoln, “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Martin Luther King, “I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream.” And then maybe Ronald Reagan at the Berlin Wall in 1987, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
You can hear that there’s a thread that has woven its way through so many of those speeches and it’s the thread of life and liberty and equality. It’s a longing for justice. And yet justice is elusive. And we’ve seen it just this past week with charges of bribery, tragedy at the border, in the murder of the innocent – it makes us mad; it makes us weep; it makes us afraid because there’s so much injustice. And then we come to the passage like the one we have tonight in Luke 22 and 23 and it’s to what has been called “the most unjust trial in human history.” What can we learn from it? What can we learn about hope from the innocence of Jesus and the injustice of His verdict? And that will loosely be our outline for tonight. The innocence of Jesus and the injustice of His verdict. And we’ll see that our hope is just this – that Jesus was judged by God for our sin so that we might receive His mercy and grace. And one day, because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, the just suffering for the unjust, all things will be made right. That’s our hope.
And so with that in mind, let’s turn to God’s Word. Before we do, let’s pray and ask His blessing on our reading.
Our Father, we look to You for help. There’s much that’s being recorded for us here in this passage, and we are not those who would understand it and know what You would have us to do in response to it unless You help us. Open our hearts, our minds, our ears. Help us to see Jesus, to see our need for Him, and to see the great hope that is provided for us in Him and in Him alone. Speak Lord, for Your servants listen. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Luke chapter 22, starting in verse 66:
“When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said, ‘If you are the Christ, tell us.’ But he said to them, ‘If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.’ So they all said, ‘Are you the Son of God, then?’ And he said to them, ‘You say that I am.’ Then they said, ‘What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.’
Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, ‘We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.’ And Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ And he answered him, ‘You have said so.’ Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, ‘I find no guilt in this man.’ But they were urgent, saying, ‘He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.’
When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.
Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, ‘You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.’
But they all cried out together, ‘Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas’ – a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, ‘Crucify, crucify him!’ A third time he said to them, ‘Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.’ But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.
The Innocence of Jesus
What do the people want? They want peace. They really want things to stay like they are, but Jesus was a threat to all that. And they say in chapter 23 verse 2, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” And verse 5, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea from Galilee and even to this place.” Jesus was trouble, you see. And let’s be fair, Jesus had said some things that could raise concerns. He had pointed out the hypocrisy of the leaders, the religious leaders of the day. He had talked about the destruction of the temple. He had talked about the destruction of even the whole city of Jerusalem. And He had talked about the upheaval of the entire creation that was to come. He was trouble.
And you’ve probably heard of the Pax Romana or the “Roman Peace.” It was pretty nice, actually. Bill Bryson, in his book on the history of domestic life, he talks about how there were certain advancements and refinements that came to life in Britain that were introduced by the Romans. Things like paved roads and running water and garbage collection – things that sound pretty nice, don’t they! Things that we’re not even guaranteed to have tomorrow morning. Those things had spread all the way to England, but they were lost during the Middle Ages. They didn’t reappear again for 1400 years. I was reading a book about The Beatles and it was talking about when The Beatles first went to Germany to perform there that they left on a Roman road from Liverpool and they ended up at the end of their journey on the Autobahn in Germany. And there was this contrast between the conditions of the road in Liverpool versus the condition of the road in Germany. Now the point I take from it is that the Roman road was still there in Liverpool at the time of The Beatles. That’s impressive!
And that’s what the Roman Empire was like. And it was known for lots of things. It was known for political stability, economic prosperity, and to some extent religious toleration, at least so much so that it was to the point that the Jewish chief priests and scribes, they could hold positions of prominence and influence in the Roman territory of Judea, so much so that there was room for Herod to hold some authority there. And the Sadducees and the Pharisees, they had a level of authority, and the Sanhedrin, that council, that governing body that ruled on matters of law and religion. Now by no means were things perfect, there were problems during the Roman occupation, but as always, there were those who could take advantage of a bad situation and turn it into their good with the right effort. And that was the chief priests and the scribes. The chief priests and the scribes had a somewhat vested interest in things staying like they were. They had a vested interest in the status quo. They didn’t want a revolution, but Jesus posed a risk to all that. Jesus posed a risk to the status quo. And now was their time to do away with Him.
And you can see their strategy here in these verses. It was if they could show that Jesus was a threat to Rome or at least that He had made claims to be a threat to Rome, then they could bring charges against Him to the Roman authorities. And there had been others who had done those very things. They had tried to start revolts before. There’s a place in the book of Acts where Gamaliel stands up and he is speaking to the people and he says that before these days there was a man name Theudas who rose up and he claimed to be somebody and a number of men, about 400, joined him and he was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and his movement came to nothing. Gamaliel talked about that after that was Judas the Galilean who rose up in the days of the census and he drew away some of the people after him, but he too perished and all who followed him were scattered. There was a history of these things happening throughout this territory of Judea in the time prior to Jesus. The writer, I may have quoted him before, the writer Rich Cohen, he says that “messiahs are the great export of the Hebrew nation.” There had been a long list of men who acted like messiahs. They acted like revolutionaries. They acted like kings.
And that’s why Jesus was on trial. That’s why He’s brought up on these charges. We often think of His trial as being one that is scattered, it’s chaotic, it’s kind of thrown together on the fly. But there was actually a process. And the Roman provinces in territories like Pontus, Galicia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia as we read about in 1 Peter. The Romans allowed those provinces to maintain some of their own laws in courts and legal customs. And Judea was one of those provinces. That’s why the elders of the people, that’s why the chief priests and the scribes had a certain degree of authority during the time of the Roman Empire. And that’s why they had their council, as we read in chapter 22 verse 66. The Greek word for “council” there is “synedrion.” You may recognize it as Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the highest court for making decisions by the Jewish political and legal authorities in the New Testament times. The Sanhedrin could draw up charges to be presented to the governor for a hearing.
Now some believe this may not have been the Sanhedrin in this council that we hear about in verse 66, but they’re operating and they’re functioning in that way. They have that sort of authority in which they can take charges to the Roman governor. And it was in their best interest to frame those charges in a way that would be most agreeable to him, in a way that would be most likely to gain a sympathetic hearing from him. And so, what they say in verse 67 to Jesus, “If you are the Christ, tell us.” This is the part of the process in which they are building their case against Jesus. They are forming up their accusations and they say, “Are you the Christ?” That’s the question that they pose to Jesus. And you see, the Christ, the Messiah, you may very well know He is the anointed deliverer that was promised in the Old Testament times. Think about Psalm 2. Psalm 2 says, “The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers of the earth take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed,” or His Messiah, His Christ. And Psalm 2 ends by saying, “Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him” and who take refuge in the Anointed Messiah or Christ.
One scholar says that, “The expectation for the Messiah developed and seems to have taken on a fresh vigor and variety in the Greek and Roman periods.” And so we can go to places like the Dead Sea Scrolls and some of the writings that took place during this time and find out what the people were hoping for in a Messiah, in a Christ. And what they were looking for was a strong Messiah, one who would defeat the enemies and restore the fortunes to Israel. In other words, they were looking for a King. So that’s behind their question here at this council. “Are you the Christ?” Clearly, they didn’t really care. That’s why Jesus says in verse 68, “If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask you, you will not answer.” Their question is insincere.
And Jesus follows that with a somewhat enigmatic statement. He says, “But from now on, the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” And what Jesus is doing there is He is making this connection. He’s making this connection between an earthly, messianic figure and a divine, eschatological one. He’s raising the stakes of the question about the Christ. And then they follow that up by saying in verse 70, “Are you the Son of God then?” And again, Jesus is somewhat enigmatic in the way that He answers them. He says in verse 70, “You say that I am.” And most translations are going to have something like that – “You say that I am.” But the word that’s translated as “that” in verse 70 can also be translated as “because.” And so some literal translations of that verse say this. It says, “You say it because I am.” And that’s a much clearer and bolder affirmation on the part of Jesus, isn’t it? And that’s actually the way that the council takes it when they hear His answer. The elders take it that way, don’t they? What do they say in verse 71? “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from His own lips.” They have what they need. They have enough to bring an accusation to Pontius Pilate.
Pilate was the governor of Judea. Pilate had what is called “the power of the imperium.” He had the authority to decide on cases that had a bearing on the stability of his province. He didn’t have to go through all the nuisance of a conventional trial process. No, he had a lot of leeway, a lot of leeway when it came to responding to threats under his watch. And the chief priests and the scribes, they thought that they had enough of an accusation to do away with Jesus as they brought Him before Pilate. And they say in chapter 23 verse 2, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar saying He Himself is Christ, a king.” Never mind that their accusation was vague. Never mind that it was mostly false and made up. They thought that if they called Jesus a king, a king that was opposed to Caesar, that would be enough to condemn Him. The only problem is, it didn’t work. Now Luke doesn’t give us everything in the interaction between Jesus and Pilate, but even if he had, there was probably not very much about Jesus that looked threatening to Pilate. Here was a man standing before him; there was nothing impressive about Him. He didn’t have a network of supporters behind Him. There was no history of trouble. It says in verse 3, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And then verse 4, “I find no guilt in this man.”
And that’s the turning point of this passage. Jesus doesn’t say anything else for the rest of these verses. If you have a red-letter version of the Bible, you notice that the red letters stop at this point. Jesus doesn’t say anything else. He’s silent throughout the rest of His trial. And what had been a simple questioning of Jesus, and they were following the proper order of operations, it now becomes an aggressive and outspoken attempt to get what the leaders wanted. As Jesus grows silent, His accusers grow louder.
You know it’s one of the funny quirks of communicating cross-culturally. It’s something that can be called “translation by volume.” I don’t think this is something that Ricky is doing at all. Translation by volume, you understand, is when you are speaking with someone who speaks a different language, they don’t understand you, and so you repeat your question but you raise your volume a little bit louder. So, “Where are you from?” “No habla inglés?” “WHERE ARE YOU FROM?” It doesn’t work that way! That’s kind of what’s happening here. Pilate doesn’t understand what they’re saying to him. He’s not responding to their accusations and so they get louder. They get more vehement in what they say against Jesus. And you can see it there in verse 5. It’s just one thing after the other. They were urgent. Verse 10, “The chief priests and the scribes vehemently accused Him.” Verse 18, “They all cried out together.” Verse 21, “They kept shouting.” Verse 23, “They were urgent, demanding with loud cries.” You’ve heard the saying that “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” or “gets the oil.” In other words, the loud problem gets the attention. Of course we see it often times, don’t we, in our so-called “cancel culture.” There can be tremendous social pressure placed on people and institutions just by the volume of social media messaging. But it also works in classrooms and sports fields, doesn’t it? And how often do we see playing time and grades, or whatever, being impacted by the talk of urgent and persistent and loud moms and dads. And it works. A lot of times, it works.
And you know what, it worked for the chief priests and the crowds because three times Pilate affirmed the innocence of Jesus. In verse 4 he said, “I find no guilt in this man.” Verse 14, he says that, “After examining Him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against Him.” In verse 22, “A third time he said to Him, ‘Why? What evil has he done? I have found in Him no guilt deserving of death.’” And you know what else he tried to do, he tried to abdicate his responsibility for making a judgment by sending Jesus to Herod. He found out that “Jesus was from Galilee, and if He is from Galilee, He is under Herod’s jurisdiction, and maybe Herod will make the call against Jesus and I won’t have to do it.” But that didn’t work either. Herod didn’t find any guilt in Jesus, and after mocking and abusing Jesus, he sent Him back to Pilate. Jesus was innocent. He was absolved of all the charges that were put before Him.
The Injustice of His Verdict
And that’s the point of this whole passage. He had done nothing deserving of death. And the authorities, they wanted to just punish Him and let Him go. But that didn’t matter because the crowd, they kept shouting, “Crucify! Crucify Him!” and they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that He should be crucified. You see, they would not stop until they had gotten their own way. And what happened? They got their way and their voices prevailed. Verse 21 says that Pilate decided their demand should be granted, that Jesus should be crucified. They did it. They did it. They wanted to get rid of this man who misled the nation and He stirred up the people. He was a threat to their stability, He was a threat to their positions of influence and prestige, and they saw Him as nothing but trouble and a problem that needed to be eliminated. And that’s exactly what would happen to Him.
And in return, what did they get? They got a man who misled the nation and stirred up the people. They got a man who was an insurrectionist and a murderer. They got a man named Barabbas. Barabbas was guilty and he would go free. Jesus, on the other hand, was innocent, and He would be put to death. This is not justice. And doesn’t it give us a glimpse into that great Pax Romana, the peace of the Roman Empire, about how it came about and how it was maintained? It came about by keeping the peace at all costs. It came about by political maneuvering and through injustice and by wielding that cruel and inhumane practice of execution by crucifixion. The saying is that “Rome was not built in a day,” but we know what Rome was built by. It was built by pride and power and pragmatism. And yet isn’t that a glimpse into our own world as well? And maybe it seems like too trivial of a comment to make about a passage like this, but life is not fair. And it’s always bothered God’s people when the wicked prevail and when the worldly seem to have all of the advantages and the enjoyments of the good life. It bothers us when a culture of death and an epic of sin and expressive individualism seems to dominate everything around us; when what is good is called evil, and what is evil is called good. We hate those things. It should bother us when we see racism and abuse and corruption and fraud and injustice. And we see those things all too often, don’t we?
A number of years ago, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book and in it he talked about the tendency to find on the Canadian Junior National Hockey Team, there was a tendency to find on that team players who had birthdays in the first three months of the year. And what they found was that the eligibility cutoff was January 1, and so a player who was born on January 1 was basically a year older than someone who was born in December. Older, bigger, stronger, faster – all of that – and picked for the early travel teams to get more playing time and better coaches and so on. And they were more likely to end up on the national team. And Gladwell said that he had parents that had come up to him over the years and said they read his book, they held their children back, and it made all the difference in their lives. That was not his point and that’s not my point either! He calls it “the relative age effect arms race.”
He went back, but recently he revisited what he had written those years ago and he applied it to seventy-five seniors at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. And in that sample of seventy-five seniors, he found that there were no young seniors. That all of them were old for their grade. All of them had been in gifted and talented programs, they had been accepted into this prestigious, Ivy League university. Again, don’t take the story and start holding children back! That’s not the point! The point is this – Gladwell, he proposed an idea to them about adjusting test scores based on the maturity and the age of the students at the time they were taking the test, in other words, to make it more fair in a way. He proposed that to these seventy-five students at the Wharton School of Business. And how do you think they responded? They hated it. They hated that idea. Why? Because if it was more fair, then it would have hurt their own chances of being where they were. Gladwell made this comment. He said, “This is what happens when we give up on fairness as an essential principle. All that remains is cynicism.”
Life’s not fair. And that can lead to cynicism. It can lead to hopelessness. Except for this – Jesus, in His innocence, Jesus, as the only, truly innocent one, He submitted Himself to the greatest act of injustice in the history of the world. He submitted Himself to the condemnation of the cross and He submitted Himself to take the justice of God that our sins deserve so that we might receive the grace and mercy of God instead. And Peter writes this in 1 Peter 3:18, “Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God.” You see, Jesus knows injustice. And just as Jesus was vindicated by His resurrection and His ascension as verse 69 of chapter 22 says, “to the right hand of the power of God,” so also will all those who suffer injustice as God’s people be vindicated at the last day in the reign of Jesus Christ.
So Peter asks this question. In considering all of those things in 2 Peter, he says, “What sort of people ought you to be? How are you to live in light of injustice, in light of the hope of eternal life in Christ? What sort of people ought you to be?” He says you are to be people who live lives of holiness and godliness, that we are to be those who are waiting for and hastening, expecting the coming of the day of God. We are to be people who do what Micah says in Micah 6:8, who “do justice,” and who do justice as we wait for the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells, where justice reigns. That’s who we are to be. That’s how we are to live. Where might we find hope in a world of injustice? Let’s let Jesus have the last word from Luke chapter 18 verse 7, “Will not God give justice to His elect who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily.” Let’s pray.
Our Father, our hearts long for justice, and yet we also realize that if we were to receive the justice we deserve, it would be condemnation. So we come before you with Jesus in our place, in our stead, taking the punishment that we deserve so that we might receive Your blessing, Your glory forever. In that hope, help us to be those who weep and mourn and grieve over injustice and who seek to live lives of righteousness and justice and love and mercy – those things that You delight – that we would bring glory to Your name, the name of our Savior, Jesus. And it is in His name that we pray, amen.