April 14 - John 18, 19 - "Judging Jesus"

MPC 14th April 2017.

Phil Campbell

Our world is in the process of judging Jesus as a failed experiment.

The verdict has been coming in slowly. But gaining momentum. And you've gotta sympathise. When outwardly at least, in the name of Jesus Christ, institutions have grown and formed with the express purpose of abusing kids.

Ignoring of course the famous words of Jesus himself about the incredible peril of anyone who causes a little one to stumble.

But you'd be excused these days. For judging Jesus at the very least as a founder ignored by his own institution... because of the terrible things you've heard from the Royal Commission.

Although you'll hear other slightly more positive verdicts on Jesus from time to time as well. In The Australian last week Peter Craven calls the cross and resurrection of Jesus a...

post Jewish myth of salvation; a revamp of the Passover conflated with the coming of the northern hemisphere spring.

He says Jesus is a myth. But a good myth.

Whereas authors like Robert Eisenman say Jesus was just a Jewish revolutionary. In the fight against Rome.

And Bart Ehrman calls him an apocalyptic prophet.

And Richard Dawkins says he probably didn't exist at all.

Your own judgment on Jesus might be one of those.

It might even be more negative. Or it might be just polite indifference.

Here at MPC through the last ten weeks we've been working our way through the first half of John's gospel; and we've seen the way John's been setting the whole story up as a trial of Jesus even before his trial. With witnesses called to give testimony. They testified about who he is. They testify about where he's come from.

If you want to listen, you can visit our website or get the podcasts through iTunes. It's been fascinating. To see the people around him gradually coming to conclusions about him. Either one way or the other.

By the time we get here to John 18 and 19, the trial of Jesus is more than a metaphor. Thanks to the Jewish religious leaders, it's a concrete reality.

And you can see, they've made up their mind from the start what they want the outcome to be.

It's a politically complex. Israel's under Roman rule; with a Roman legal system. And so while Jesus has been arrested by the Jewish temple guard, and he's first cross questioned by the high priests Annas and Caiaphis the real trial takes place under Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. At his palace. The Fifth Prefect of the Province of Judea for the decade from 26 to 36 AD. Who served under Emperor Tiberius in Rome.

When it comes to legal powers; the Jewish high priests Annas and Caiaphas have got definite limits. So once they've arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in darkness, first thing in the morning they're on the doorstep of Pilate's palace.

When Pilate asks them what the charges are, verse 29, there are none. Except that he's obviously a criminal. Or else they wouldn't be there. A circular argument.

And when Pilate says to them, verse 31,

Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.

They won't do it, you see. Because only Pilate can give the death penalty. And that's what they want. nothing less. This isn't a trial at all. They've made up their minds already. We don't want to take him and judge him by our own law, they say to him; Because we have no right to execute anyone. We're here. Because we want him dead.

I think it's fair to say this is one of the most infamous trail scenes in history. Because it's one of the all time most glaring miscarriages of justice.

Sam Hallam was convicted in 2005 and served seven years for murder before his mobile phone records proved without doubt that he wasn't at the crime scene. The judge said, "I've got no idea why the police didn't check that in the first place." Neither has Sam. Sadly, Sam's dad suicided the day Sam was sent to prison. Which means Sam and his family still live with the consequences every day.

Through history there have been countless miscarriages of justice. All of them tragic. Some of them sinister. But none like quite this. As Jesus is brought to trail before Pontius Pilate specifically so he can be sentenced to death.

You've heard it unfold in the readings. And you can see as Pilate tries to come to his verdict, he seems torn by indecision.

Did you notice the little grey arrows alongside the reading show every time Pilate goes inside and outside and inside and outside as he's going backwards and forwards between Jesus in the palace and the Jewish leaders outside the palace trying to make up his mind about Jesus on the one hand and placate the Jews on the other.

Seven movements. Seven scenes.

As he comes out to them in verse 29,

and goes back inside with Jesus in verse 33,

and goes back out to them in verse 38,

and then takes Jesus to be flogged in verse 1 of chapter 19, and then...

comes out to the Jews again in verse 4;

and brings Jesus out to them in verse 5;

and they go back inside again in verse 9; until he finally makes up his mind

and brings Jesus out to them to the judges seat. In verse 13.

And hands down his verdict.

Backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards. Trying to make up his mind about Jesus.

Maybe you know the feeling...

And all the way along, Pilate is cross questioning him. He says, "Who are you. Where are you from? What is it you've done?"

And of course if you've been here through the series you'll know. He's come from the father. That's his claim. And he's done things like healing people. Like giving sight to the blind. Except he's done it on the Jewish rest day; which means the moral police aren't happy about it.

And then he's raised a guy from the dead. Which raised the stakes.

And he's been making astonishing claims. That call on people to believe in him. And to follow him. And to find life in him.

And people have been following him, and people have been listening to him. Which is why the Jewish leaders don't like it. Because if he's right... it changes everything.

Pilate says what is it you've done. Well... he's done that.

Which ultimately Pilate has no problem with at all. And so he goes out to the Jewish leaders and says it the first time in verse 38. "I find no basis for a charge against him."

They push back. He comes back in. Cross questions Jesus some more. Same conclusion. So he goes out to them again chapter 19 verse 4 with the same words in bold from reading 3, John 19:1-16:

Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.

One more try. Verse 6. He says it a third time. "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him."

But they just accuse him all the louder. Crucify him.

They're offered a prisoner exchange, they choose Barabbas instead. Convicted for leading an uprising.

I mean that's exactly what they're accusing Jesus of. But not really. It's just window dressing.

The real issue's there in chapter 19 verse 7. The third reading.

The Jewish leaders insist, "we have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God."

That's the real problem, isn't it? That's the real outrage.

Even today.

You can have the trumped up charges with trumped up excuses to put him to death. But the Jews aren't worried about an uprising. They're not worried Jesus is competing with Caesar. That's just the way they bully Pilate for a verdict.

The real issue is, he's claiming to be the son of God. And he's demonstrated it with power. Over and over again.

They should have been taking notice. But instead, they've seen him as a competitor. And so they want to be rid of him. And so now the power has tilted back their way. And they've got him where they want him. And they want him dead.

And so Pilate, verse 16, hands him over to them be crucified. Knowing all along that the verdict should read innocent.

And the Roman soldiers nail him up between two criminals. And they mock him and they spear him. And by the end of the day, he's dead.

Pilate. Backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards; a gut feeling that Jesus is telling the truth; with all his instincts judging Jesus innocent. And yet sending him to die. For claiming to be... the son of God. To pacify the Religious power-brokers.

Now sorry about this if you're just here for the ride this morning. If you saw our Facebook ads and decided to cruise along; or your here with family and they've kind of dragged you along to this outrageously early church service. Maybe you're one of those regular Christmas and Easter people; hi again, great to see you. Or maybe you've been part of MPC for a while.

But I actually wouldn't be doing my job today if I didn't ask you, whoever you are, to think through at this point your own judgement on Jesus.

I'm not asking are you religious. It's the religious people who want him dead. I'm asking, what's your judgement on Jesus?

Not your polite veneer verdict. But really. Maybe for years you've been kind of going in, going out, going in, going out, backwards and forwards like Pilate through his palace door as he tries to make up his mind.

I mean, maybe you haven't really got anything against him. You wouldn't crucify him; you wouldn't bring a charge against him. But you'd rather just sit comfortably on the fence. And you might even do that week after week and year after year sitting in church.

We're coming to a time as a culture, we're coming to a time as a community... where you're going to have to make the call. Where being Christian is going to have to be a conscious choice rather than just a comfortable non-choice. But I want to put it to you that every life has that point in it as well.

So which way are you going to jump? Because if Jesus really is who the Jewish leaders feared he was, it's worth getting it right. And so as Pilate reaches his verdict on Jesus, you and I as readers are meant to be crystallising our own conclusions.

What's yours?

Look, there's one more angle to explore this Good Friday morning. That passing comment from Caiaphas in the midst of this terrible miscarriage of justice; the words at the end of reading 1, John 18:1-14... did you notice?

that the High Priest Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people...

He's just making the point they're better off killing Jesus than having him stir up trouble for everyone. But John's keen for us to see a second meaning. We saw it last week back in John 10. There's an irony in what he's saying, because the reality is there is potentially something good going on here.

That if a man who's more than a man. That if a man who's the son of God; were to give himself willingly as a sacrifice for the sins of everyone. That there's a win involved. For all of us.

It's what the rest of the bible calls atonement. A way sins can be paid for. And put right.

It's not a word we use much any more is it? It's disappeared from our culture and our lips because the concept of sin's gone so we don't think we need it.

Lou and I were in Japan a few weeks back, and I noticed it's a word and an idea they're still using.

So in a news story about a remorseful killer. The headline is mum calls for child killer's atonement.

The killer was 14 when he did the crime. Now he's done the time. But he's still burning up with remorse. And so every year he sends a heartfelt apology letter to the victim's mum. And every year... in full publicity... she refuses the apology.

And now in the article she's calling on the killer to make real atonement for the rest of his life. She says, "I want him to seek and find the atonement himself."

Now how's he going to do that? Atonement. How's he possibly going to put right a wrong like that?

Maybe in your life there are all sorts of broken fences. Eggs that can't be unscrambled. Past regrets. How do you atone?

This guy's written the apology letters. Year after year. What's she want him to do? How's he ever going to pay for... for a crime like that?

I mean, when we're guilty of something, are we sentenced to carry the guilt for ever. Sometimes it might feel like it.

So we do our best to turn off the warning lights on the dashboard. We don't talk about atonement any more in our culture because we don't believe in sin any more. But God does.

And the good news is... He, in the death of Jesus, has made atonement for us. That's the reality when you pull back the curtains and see what's going on behind the scenes; as Jesus is judged. And found guilty though innocent. So that we can be found innocent though guilty.

Which is why John as he writes has a wry smile as he remembers the words of Caiaphis. "It would be good if one man died for the people... "

Too right it would. Good Friday.

Amazingly Good. That in the greatest ever miscarriage of justice, as the powers of religion and politics judged Jesus and found him innocent yet gave him the death penalty... God completely turns the tables, for our good.

It's an astonishing turnaround. And it's at the heart of our faith. This is Christianity 101. This is the essence. This is the crux. Our crucified saviour. And for anyone of us here today who have come to the point of putting our faith in him, not a failed experiment at all.