April 1, 2010

The Trial

Very early in the morning the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law—the entire high council—met to discuss their next step. They bound Jesus, led him away, and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor. 2 Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “You have said it.” 3 Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, 4 and Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?” 5 But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate’s surprise.

6 Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner—anyone the people requested. 7 One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising. 8 The crowd went to Pilate and asked him to release a prisoner as usual. 9 “Would you like me to release this ‘King of the Jews’?” Pilate asked. 10 (For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.) 11 But at this point the leading priests stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus.

12 Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?” 13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!” 14 “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?” But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!” 15 So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. 16 The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment. 17 They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. 18 Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” 19 And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. Mark 15:1-18 (NLT)

Of course Jesus’ trial was rigged with bias, false witnesses, hate and expediency. But what strikes me are the following things.

1. Jesus was either guilty of blasphemy or not. He did essentially claim to be God which is blasphemy against the God of the Jews and of the Romans . . . . . . .unless of course his claim was correct.
2. We human beings are such followers. Many of the crowd who cheered Jesus on Palm Sunday voted to crucify him on Friday. Most of us seem to follow the loudest voices. There are so many loud and convincing voices in the world shouting “ follow me”, that it is harder than ever, I think, for a Christian to know what he believes and to stand solidly on what he has come to know as true. What is the truth from which you cannot be swayed by powerful voices?
3. It is interest to read Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 and compare them to Jesus’ trial and crucifixion.
4. It is so easy for a Christian to really hear what has been heard so many times in the past yet not actually hear it. Familiarity breeds unfamiliarity and unfamiliarity breeds contempt. What was happening was that God was submitting himself to death at the hands of evil, sin and death, the very powers he had come to conquer. He defeated not through the conventional means of the use of power, rather he defeated them through submission, suffering, and finally rising above them through resurrection. What are the implications of this for the Christ follower?