Willful Blindness Pt 2

we’re in the midst of a very
almost scattered study or it seems so because a good portion
of this passage is encompassed in Luke’s gospel a major section
will be there again today we dipped in last week just briefly
will go back again to Luke’s gospel here in a moment but I
wanted to start in John’s gospel after all that’s that’s the gospel
through which were preaching and we are we are in the the
second major phase of the trial Jesus has been through the religious
phase now he is in the secular phase before civil authorities
specifically before pilot and there are three phases as we
have seen with this particular trial as well Just as in the
religious phase, there were three sub-phases, if you will. Jesus
went first before Annas, and then before Caiaphas, and then
before the Sanhedrin, in a very formal Jewish setting. But here in this secular trial,
in the civil court, he goes before Pilate, then he is sent to Herod,
and then he is returned to Pilate for his final sentencing. We’ll capture a portion of this
this morning and I want to start in verse 28 as we begin to delve
back into this passage. Chapter 18, verse 28. Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas
into the praetorium and it was early and they themselves did
not enter into the praetorium so that they would not be defiled
but might eat the Passover. Therefore Pilate went out to
them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man?
They answered and said to him, if this man were not an evildoer,
we would not have delivered him to you. So Pilate said to them,
take him yourselves. and judge him according to your
law. The Jews said to him, we are
not permitted to put anyone to death to fulfill the word which
Jesus spoke, signifying by what kind of death he was about to
die. Therefore, Pilate entered into the praetorium and summoned
Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered,
are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell
you about me? Pilate answered, I am not a Jew,
am I? Your own nation and the chief
priest delivered you to me, what have you done? Jesus answered,
my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed
over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not
of this realm. Therefore Pilate said to him,
so you are a king. Jesus answered, you say correctly
that I am a king. For this I have been born, and
for this I have come into the world. to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth
hears my voice.” Pilate said to him, what is truth? And when
he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to
them, I find no guilt in him, but you have a custom that I
release someone for you at the Passover. Do you wish then that
I release for you the king of the Jews? So they cried out again
saying, not this man but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. In the course of our consideration
of this passage last week, we began to look at the devices
that people use, the devices that are employed to obscure
the truth. Taking note of that passage in
Paul’s epistle to the Romans that talked about how those who
are godless suppress the truth. in unrighteousness they hold
it down they cover it over and seek to suppress the truth and
we were left to wonder by what means do they suppress the truth
and I suggested to you last week that here in these verses before
us we have a number of devices used by the world used by the
very men of these passages that are used to suppress the truth
And we began to get into this last week. We made it no further
than to consider two of them. But we called this willful blindness. These are just the means that
they use to keep from having to interact with the truth. The
first of which is gross hypocrisy. Gross hypocrisy. John 18.28 has
just this fascinating passage that we began to note last week. They led Jesus from Caiaphas
into the praetorium. They’re taking him before Pilate,
the ruler, and they’re doing so for a purpose. They’re doing
so to bring him to Pilate so that Pilate will sign off, as
it were, on their death penalty. They’ve already declared that
it’s a capital crime, and they want Pilate to rubber stamp their
plans. But note the hypocrisy. They led Jesus from Caiaphas
into the praetorium. It was early. They themselves
did not enter the praetorium. They did not enter this compound,
this heathen ruler’s compound that served not only as a guard
station, a barracks if you will, but it also served as a jail as well as the quarters for Pilate
himself. Their hypocrisy was so great
that they were more concerned in the course of planning this
murder they were more concerned about celebrating the Passover
than the very deed in which they were engaged. In the opening
verses of the book of Isaiah Isaiah addresses one of Israel’s
greatest sins, that of hypocrisy, where God says there, I cannot
endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. It’s the hypocrisy
that was so distasteful to God there in Isaiah chapter 1. And
that is literally what the Jews are doing. They want to hurry
this through. They want to dump Jesus off on
Pilate’s doorstep so that they can get to church. And so we saw just how plentiful
hypocrisy is in scripture. But there was a second means. There was a second device that
we began to consider last week. A device employed for obscuring
the truth. not only does hypocrisy serve
well to obscure the truth, but we look secondly at opportunistic
evasion, just taking every means possible to completely avoid
interacting with, dealing with, reconciling with the truth. And we saw that Primarily in
pilots life, but as I pointed out and briefly the first ones
that exercised an opportunistic evasion was the Jews in Matthew
rather in John 18 28 at the opening of this section They led Jesus
from Caiaphas to the praetorium. The Jews were the first ones
to seek to treat the Lord Jesus Christ like no more than a hot
potato, to get rid of him, to get him off their plate, to dump
him at Pilate’s doorstep, to let him deal with not only the
sentencing, but even the guilt that came with it. Matthew, Mark,
and Luke all make it perfectly clear that by bringing him to
the praetorium they were bringing him before Pilate and so they
wanted to try to avoid and evade responsibility for interacting
with who Jesus was in his person who Jesus claimed to be and what
he said and so they sought to shirk the courage of their convictions
I suppose we might have had more respect for the Jews had they
taken Jesus given the claim that he was blaspheming against God
had they taken him out to the square and stoned him to death
I think we might have more respect for the courage of their convictions
but instead of standing on the courage of their convictions
instead of doing what their convictions led them to do even by their
own law They want to push this off. They want to let someone
else take the blame, namely Pilate. Well, as we said,
Pilate takes the case only briefly, and it was his opportunistic
evasion that we spent the most time on last week. I’m not going
to review it much there, only to say that in Luke’s gospel,
we get into this opportunistic evasion by pilot where pilot
begins to Treat Christ like the hot potato as well If you would
for just a moment turn back to Luke’s gospel to chapter 23 In chapter 23 of Luke’s gospel,
we’ll be here for a few minutes and look at verse 5 they kept
on insisting this is after John 38 a John 1838 a where pilot
basically comes out and judges Jesus as innocent well this just
this just infuriates the crowd look at verse 4 of Luke’s gospel, Pilate said to
the chief priests and crowds, I find no guilt in this man.
That mirrors exactly what happens in John 18, 38a. But the rest of this, all the
way from verse five of Luke’s gospel, all the way down to verse
16, is unique only to Luke. We’ll spend a little bit of time
here this morning. Look at verse five though. They kept on insisting,
saying, He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting
from Galilee, even as far as this place. Now, I pointed out
to you last week that this was calculated on the part of the
Jews. They knew exactly what they were doing when they mentioned
Galilee. Look at verse 6. When Pilate
heard it, Eureka! What a great opportunity for
me. What an easy out this is. This is such a great thing for
me. When Pilate heard it, he asked
whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged
to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod. And so the trick
worked, but it backfired on the Jews. It was intended to prejudice
Pilate against Jesus and have him sentence Jesus on the spot. But it backfires. And so Pilate
says, if he’s in Herod’s jurisdiction and he’s making this grand claim,
if he really is seditious, as you claim, then really Herod
needs to see this man. Herod needs to take this case. And instead of working in their
favor, producing this immediately guilty verdict and a commensurate
sentence which would have been death. That would have gotten
Pilate out of this mess, wouldn’t it? Why, he decides I’ll just
send him to Herod. It’s hot potato with the Lord
Jesus Christ. We’ll come back here in a moment,
but skip down to verse 11 as you see just briefly Herod’s
opportunistic evasion. Herod doesn’t want this case
either. And in verse 11 it says, Herod with his soldiers after
treating him with contempt and mocking him, dressed him in a
gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate. Herod wants nothing
to do with this. Herod is frightened. He’s a superstitious,
evil man. He wants nothing to do with condemning
Christ and putting Christ to death. And in sending Pilate,
Jesus rather, back to Pilate, Herod effectively acquits Jesus
now a second time. Pilate has already acquitted
him. I find no guilt in this man. If Jesus was guilty of any
of the things of which he was accused, misleading the people,
failure to pay taxes, setting up an alternate kingdom, threatening
the throne of Caesar himself, Herod had an obligation, a moral,
civic obligation to deal with this insurrection. It was his
duty. And yet Herod, Herod takes one
look at it. He hears this case. We’ll come
back to how that plays out in a moment. But he hears one opportunity
to deal with this case and he shoves it off of his plate immediately. Opportunistic evasion. And that’s
the way the world operates. They don’t delve deeply into
the things of Christ. Not typically. They oftentimes
won’t even bear much with you as you begin to talk about Christ.
They’ll change the subject. They’ll say that it’s rude to
talk about religion and politics. They’ll bring up your own hypocrisy. They’ll change the subject to
various other things, even the mundane and simple things of
the world. It’s exactly what Pilate did,
when he heard the word Galilean, it was just like what people
do in our day and age. They’ll refer to Jesus as a Nazarene,
a carpenter’s son, just a prophet. But they won’t deal with him
as he really is. This is where we left off last
Lord’s Day. If you would, keep your finger
in Luke, because we’re only going to be in John for a moment. I
want you to turn back to John’s Gospel and I just want you to
review verse 38 with me briefly. I want you to see how this whole
thing unravels. We’re looking at devices that
are employed for obscuring the truth. The way that the world
uses, the ways that the world uses to suppress the truth. It’s
not just that they stick their fingers in their ears, cover
over their eyes, refuse to listen to anything that we have to say.
There are devices that they employ and this is the third. The third
device that they add to their arsenal, in addition to gross
hypocrisy and opportunistic evasion, is an abolition of reality. An abolition of reality. That’s
gonna take some explaining, I’ll get there. Pilate is having,
as you remember, this leader to leader conversation, a governor
to king dialogue, He’s talking to Jesus, man to man, but as
co-rulers. Look at verse 33. Pilate entered
into the praetorium, summoned Jesus, said to him, are you the
king of the Jews? And we saw that that you is emphatic. Are you the king of the Jews,
this disheveled man that is under arrest? Even by the people of
his own nation, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered,
are you saying this on your own initiative? This is not a smart
aleck reply. Jesus knows exactly, but he wants
Pilate to own it. Are you saying this on your own
initiative or did others tell you about me? He’s giving Pilate
an out. Pilate answered, I’m not a Jew,
am I? Your own nation and the chief
priest delivered you to me. What have you done? Verse 36,
Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom
were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would
not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not
of this realm. Jesus Christ is truly sovereign.
Jesus Christ is absolutely in control. He could have put an
end to this immediately and by his own design did not. Verse
37. Therefore Pilate said to him,
so you are a king. Jesus answered, you say correctly
that I am a king. For this I’ve been born. For
this I’ve come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone
who is of the truth hears my voice. A little bit of sovereignty woven
into those particular verses as well, isn’t there? And Pilate
there, standing with the king of kings, standing with the sovereign
of the universe, standing with the co-creator of all things,
standing with the savior of the world, standing there face to
face with truth himself, says, what is truth? There is a device that the world
uses to suppress the truth. And I would call it an abolition
of reality. They suppress the truth to the
point where facts don’t matter. Truth doesn’t matter. The testimony
of God’s word doesn’t matter. The testimony of all created
things doesn’t matter. Pilate here isn’t talking about
any particular truth. He’s talking about truth as a
concept. Anything being true. J.C. Ryle characterized it in
these terms. He said, this is the cold, sneering,
skeptical interjection of a mere man of the world. And we hear
it all the time, don’t we? There is no absolute truth right
we hear that one all the time the Bible after all is just the
opinions of men it is the cold sneering skeptical
interjection of a mere man of the world who has persuaded himself
that there is no such thing as truth that all religions are
equally false or the same argument all religions are equally true
And that this life is all we have to care for. Eat, drink,
and be merry for tomorrow we die, right? And that creeds and
modes of faith are only words and names and superstition. Religion,
remember, is just a crutch. That’s what they say. Which no
sensible person would attend to. It is precisely the state
of mind, Ryle says, in which thousands of great men in every
age live and die. And in seeking for just a title
for this particular device that they used, it took me some time. Because as I looked at it, this
isn’t a denial of the truth, because to deny the truth, you’ve
got to be able to interact with the truth and then decide against
it. This isn’t a disdain for the
truth because in this crowd truth doesn’t exist. There are no moral
absolutes. There is no right and wrong. It’s not just a denial of the
truth. It’s not just a disdain for the
truth. It’s not even a dispute and a disagreement. Let’s agree
to disagree. It’s not that. This is an absolute
eradication of the concept of truth. This is an abolition,
this is a complete obliteration of the idea of something being
true. Of there being a right and wrong.
Of there being a God. Of there being principles by
which to live lives. And some people wondered whether
Pilate was just having a bad day, maybe he was just being
cynical, maybe he’d had a bad week, things weren’t lining up
so well for him. It certainly isn’t the heart
of a man really truly seeking Christ, seeking truth itself,
seeking to wonder perhaps this man has some insight by which
I could be profited. There’s really nothing reverent
There’s nothing serious in His words. There’s no humility in
it. There’s emptiness. There’s hopelessness. And that’s what we get when we
interact with the world, isn’t it? Initially, we get doubt veiled
with questions. They ask questions, but what
they really mean is that they doubt truth itself. They doubt
that anything like truth even matters. It even exists. And
what that degenerates to is into a hopeless cynicism where really
nothing calculates out as we propose it to be. And we have
this in what we call secular humanism now where the emphasis
is on man almost to the exclusion of God, that if God exists, He’s
really irrelevant. This is Romans 1 all over again,
isn’t it? God doesn’t exist, or if He exists,
He’s so unimportant that He’s really just part of the universe
and not sovereign over the universe. And so man is left to grope about
and discover truth, discover principles, discover truisms
through scientific means and that’s it. And that’s what leads
us to the idea that we can either save ourselves or depending on
which side of the political spectrum you are, we can destroy ourselves. And then there is the sister
to this doctrine or idea, secular humanism. Postmodernism is essentially
the same thing, just on steroids. There is no absolute
truth in this idea of postmodernism. Things aren’t provable, things
aren’t verifiable. And really what one person says
is as equally valid as what the next person says. And this is
how you have really the dumbing down and the ultimate obliteration
of the idea of religion. At first they will throw you
the bone and say that, well, they’re all the same. There are
many roads lead to God. And that’s what you see right
now with regards to people dealing with Islam. the very people that
would be the most affected by Islam if Islam became predominant
in this country the very people that would be affected by Islam
are protecting the principle of Islam as being one of many
ways to heaven we have these situation ethics but where there
isn’t one Way there isn’t one principle by which to guide ourselves
through life every situation is different different rules
for different situations there are no absolutes And the most amazing the most
difficult to grasp the most shocking thing is here is pilot standing
face to face with truth himself Jesus said, I am the way and
the truth and the life. I am truth itself. And the truth
is that God is absolutely holy. The truth is that man is utterly
sinful and in desperate need of a savior. And the truth is
that God’s justice system is so precise, so perfect, so exact
that God saw fit to send his own son to fulfill that justice
system. Here’s truth standing face to
face with doubt himself. And that this sinless one had
come to pay for sinners sin. He had come to atone for their
sin. He had come to grant them righteousness. Here’s truth itself standing
face to face with Pilate and cynically and hopelessly he brushes
it off. But there’s another device employed
by the world. We’re looking at willful blindness,
devices that are employed by the world for obscuring the truth,
not only gross hypocrisy, opportunistic evasion, abolition of reality. Fourthly, coarse mockery. Coarse mockery. And at this juncture, I don’t
even know where I left you. John, if you would go back to Luke. Back to Luke 23. And since we’d already looked at
these verses last week, the shuffling of this innocent prisoner from
Pilate to Herod, Course down to verse 8, if you would. We
want to capture yet another device that is employed by willful unbelievers. They want to be blind. They want
to be ignorant. They don’t want to interact with
the truth at all. Look at verse 8. Now Herod was
very glad when he saw Jesus, for he wanted to see Him for
a long time. because he had been hearing about
him was hoping to see some sign performed by him. Let’s put it
in context. It’s not like Herod was sitting
there wistful and troubled by his own sin and believe me he
had cause to be troubled in his conscience. It’s not that he
was hopeful that God might send him a boon and that he might
bless him by sending someone that would bear the truth and
preach the gospel to him and tell him how to deal with his
sin. That’s not at all what’s taking place in this passage
when it says that he was glad to see Jesus. This is Herod. This is Herod the Great. who
killed innocent children, remember at Christ’s birth. His father, who had been guilty of that great
crime, later though, this Herod, visiting his half-brother Philip,
he became infatuated, he became stricken, smitten with his wife,
and so he just took her. And it was this that John the
Baptist brought up, called him to repentance, and that cost
John his life, as you may remember. Well, this Herod, when it says
that he was glad that he saw Jesus, Herod was a worldly man
in every sense of the world. He was powerful, he was a murderer,
He was greedy. He was a foul, vile, immoral
man. And so when it says that he was
glad to see Jesus, really what it was, what Jesus was to him
was a novelty. That it was a mere novelty to
have him come in and maybe he was going to work a trick. Maybe
he was going to do some kind of a miracle in his presence. But he wasn’t glad for the hope
of the gospel. He wasn’t glad for the means
of dealing with his sin, and it was great. He wasn’t glad
for the sake of his conscience. He was glad for the opportunity
to wield his power over this supposed prophet. He wanted Jesus
underneath him. He wanted him to know that he
was over him. Look at verse nine, and he questioned
him at some length, but he answered him nothing. If you think back to these trials,
at a certain juncture, Christ fell silent before Caiaphas.
On purpose, Jesus refused to reply. He did the same thing
to Pilate. In the case of Herod, it was
different. Jesus stands before Pilate and
I get the sense here that Jesus doesn’t in his heart believe
that he owes Herod a single syllable. He answered him nothing. And here’s this murderer of John
the Baptist who’s living in sin with his own brother’s wife.
And Jesus just remains perfectly silent. This is Isaiah 53-7,
isn’t it? He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
like a sheep that is silent before its shearer, so He did not open
His mouth. Well, in the course of standing
before Herod, the chief priests and the scribes were standing
there accusing him vehemently. They wanted what they wanted. They wanted their purpose fulfilled.
They wanted Herod to deal with this man. And maybe they saw
Herod already vacillating as he had done in so many other
occasions before the Jews. They saw him as weak and superstitious
and feeble. One that was just a political
opportunist. and so they begin to press Herod
verse 31 and Herod in verse 11 rather in verse 10 in verse 11
Herod with his soldiers after treating him with contempt and
mocking him dressed him in a gorgeous robe and sending back the pilot many people in this world That’s
the way they deal. That’s their device. That’s what
they employ to suppress the truth, is to make fun of it, to mock
Christianity, to mock the cross. Remember, that was the first
thing that fell out of the heathens’ mouths with regards to Christ,
that some Savior, that He died on a cross. But in For Herod, in treating
Jesus Christ with such indignities, dressing Him in this purple robe,
Herod presents Jesus not as a criminal, just as somebody that he personally
hated. He viewed Christ with contempt. He was too scared to sentence
Him, but he didn’t mind mocking Him. This whole idea is so prevalent
in our own society, but so prevalent in scripture. The mocking of
sacred things, the mimicking and catcalling that goes on with
regards to the sacred things. Isaiah 52, seeing that my people
have been taken away without cause, the Lord declares, those
who rule over them howl and take my name continually, is blasphemed
all day long. Psalm 35, Psalm 69, those who
sit at the gate talk about me, I am the song of the drunkards. Acts 2, the same thing that they
mocked the psalmist, now they say of those that are indwelled
by the Holy Spirit, they are full of sweet wine. That mocking
continues all through scripture from cover to cover. Mocking
of God, mocking of His law, mocking of God’s people, mocking of Christ. Even mocking His return, 2 Peter. We know that in the last days
mockers will come with their mocking following after their
own loss saying, where is the promise of His coming? Ever since
the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from
the beginning of creation. And you know this. If you’re
out there and you have dialogue with family members and friends,
you know that this is a device that is frequently employed to
just make fun of it. Just make fun of religion. Make
fun of what we do on Sunday. Make fun of the big book that
we carry. Make fun of this Savior. Make fun of our standards. Make
fun of our convictions. Just mock. It’s a joke. It’s a joke to them. Jesus is
a joke to them. But there are still more devices
that are used by the world for obscuring the truth Not just
an abolition of reality, number three. Number four, a coarse
mockery, but a fellowship of evil, number five. A fellowship
of evil. If you’re in Luke’s gospel, chapter
23, just look at one verse, verse 12. Now Herod and Pilate became
friends with one another that very day. For before they had
been enemies with each other. This is such a remarkable turn.
Here are these guys, bitter enemies, bitter political enemies. And you take any two people in
our own polarized political culture in this day and age, and you
imagine them walking through the park hand in hand together.
That’s about what you have here. These two men hated each other,
but Misery loves company. There’s an old saying and I looked
at it and saw that it has been around for a long time and it’s
stated by many different people in many different ways. Aristotle
said it this way, a common danger unites even the bitterest enemies. A common danger unites even the
bitterest enemies and perhaps both of these men knew that they
were in danger, but There just tends to be a common uniting
element in a common enemy Napoleon used it Napoleon Bonaparte’s
version goes like this. There are only two forces that
unite men fear and interest And these guys had both. They were
both afraid of Christ, and they were both self-interested men,
interested only what would advance or protect their careers. Another
said, nothing unites a nation like having a common enemy, which
led the one-time cabinet member, Condoleezza Rice, to say, we
need a common enemy. Our country right now needs a
common enemy. Well, this is a device that is
used plentifully by the world, used frequently by them. They
gang up, as it were, and if you’ve ever been in one of these discussions
where you have two or more all playing and feeding off of one
another, all mocking Christ, all criticizing Paul talked about this also in
Romans 1. The very passage that showed
us the world’s tendency to suppress the truth, it gives us one of
the most frequently used devices ever. Wherever your finger is
right now, Luke’s gospel, turn if you would to Romans 1. Just
briefly, Romans 1. And as we looked at the earlier
verses of that passage, course down to verse 28 if you would. Where Paul writes, and just as
they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, he’s still talking
about the same crowd, those who suppress the truth in their unrighteousness. They did not see fit to acknowledge
God any longer. God gave them over to a depraved
mind to do those things which are not proper, being filled
with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, malice, they are gossips, slanderers, haters
of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient
to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful,
and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice
such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but give hearty approval to those
who practice them. They have a fellowship that is
evil to the core. They want someone around them
like them. Misery loves company. They want
a common, they have a common enemy. They want companions in
that misery. We don’t have time to turn there,
but listen. Same thing, Peter talks about the same thing. In
1 Peter 3, check that, 1 Peter 4, the time has already passed
sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles,
having pursued a course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing,
drinking parties, abominable idolatries. Peter says enough
is enough. In all of this, they are surprised
that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation
and they malign you. In other words, they criticize
you because you won’t go get drunk with them. Misery loves
company. They have a common enemy. What
they really want is a companion with whom to walk in the pursuit
of suppressing the truth. Number six, number six. Not only gross hypocrisy, opportunistic
evasion, abolition of reality, coarse mockery, fellowship of
evil, but number six, unprincipled cowardice. And in order to introduce
this last point, I take you back just in your mind’s eye to John
18 verse 38. Remember in John 18, 38, where
he says, I find no sin in this man.” That
incensed the Jews something awful. In order to introduce this last
point, I want to go back into Luke’s gospel one more time and
we’ll land back exactly where we broke off in John’s gospel.
Luke 23, one more time, because he’s the only one that records
this particular context. Four very short verses. Luke 23, look at verse 13. Pilate
summoned the chief priests and the rulers and the people and
he’s trying to use this to his benefit. This is now Pilate’s
formal and final pronouncement on this matter. It should be
over and done with. Jesus is innocent. I found him innocent.
Herod found him innocent. He’s innocent. It’s over and
done with. But he calls together the people,
the crowds, And he’s hoping to gain a balance, if you will,
to the lopsided and out-of-control hatred of the religious elite. And this is Pilate’s last chance
to do the right thing, to exonerate and free this falsely accused
prisoner. But Pilate was in bondage to
his reputation. He was in bondage to his Jewish
reputation before the eyes of the Jewish people. He had pushed
the limits of bad behavior throughout the history of his reign. And
in his harsh and cruel treatment, his abject greediness, he had
steeled himself as an enemy of these people. He had no room
left to stir and to offend the Jews anymore. And so what unfolds
here is nothing more than political maneuvering. Verse 14, Pilate
summoned the chief priests and rulers and the people and he
said to them in verse 14, you brought this man to me as one
who incites the people to rebellion. And behold, I’ve examined him
before you. I have found no guilt in this
man regarding the charges which you make against him. Pilate
had already pronounced him innocent. Herod pronounced him innocent.
And now for a third time, he is declared innocent. And it’s interesting to note
here, the I is emphatic. What you accuse him of, I find
to be utterly without merit. Look at verse 15. No, nor has
Herod, for he sent him back to us, and behold, nothing deserving
death has been done by him. This is a bold statement for
Pilate to make. Pilate’s attempt to shuffle this
off of his plate and onto Herod’s plate had fizzled and failed
utterly. And although Pilate was not favorably
inclined to these people, the Jews, and although he certainly
owed them no favors, no kindnesses. He was stuck. He was stuck because
of his own reputation. He didn’t want and certainly
didn’t need a political upheaval. He didn’t need a campaign of
sorts against him and so the Jews certainly who had an ample
case against him have him right where they want him. And though
it was the wrong thing to do he feels like he has to grant
their bloodthirsty request according to the Jewish sentiment
prevailing at the time, it was the least that he could do. And
instead of true justice, Pilate instead protects his own interest
by caving in to the Jews’ demands. But not as they think. Pilate
decides, look, even though he’s not guilty, even though I found
him innocent, Herod found him innocent, I repeated that, I’ll
punish him and release him. I’ll punish him as if he’s guilty.
And it’s right here where Pilate falters. Because until now he
was only nominally guilty. Guilty of not knowing better
who this Jesus really was. What he taught. But he’s not
guilty of collaboration to murder. And from this point forward he
is complicitous. You just acquitted Jesus, pronounced
him innocent, and to subject a prisoner to any more mistreatment
was a crime in and of itself. And this would have been a severe
beating, really just to ingratiate his own reputation, to give in
to these zealots who wanted Jesus to be punished. So Pilate gives
an inch, but an inch won’t do. An inch will never do. They want
a mile. They want Jesus to be killed. And they refuse to give
in. They refuse to be placated by
this suggestion of a beating. They want Jesus Christ crucified
and nothing less. And at this point, Pilate has
tried multiple approaches, remember, to get this thing off of his
plate. The first he tried to do is to return Jesus to the
Sanhedrin. Go judge him according to your
own law. Then he tried to shovel the case off to Herod, and then
he tries to compromise. Let’s call him guilty and give
him a beating and let him go. And now he finds himself completely
and desperately between a rock and a hard place. If you would,
back to John’s gospel. to chapter 18 and to verse 39
as we close. In verse 39 we see this light bulb go off in Pilate’s brain that gives
him now another idea. If they won’t Go with him on
this guilty verdict and a beating that lets Christ go How about
another opportunity look at verse 39 you have a custom? That I
release someone for you at the Passover The custom was something
like this that at the time of a great feast this was true in
the Romans Community nothing in writing and the custom is
very vague as to what the rules were But there it’s not unlike
what happens in our own day and age when someone becomes a president
they walk into the office and they grant pardons to a whole
host of people right and Then there are the the really sticky
ones they wait until their last day in office to do those right
and This custom was a largely Jewish custom where they were
shown favor by the Roman rulers. And Pilate sees this as an opportunity. This is a way out. I’m going
to offer them Jesus. I’m going to offer to release
him. And then my job is done here. He’s guilty. He’s a guilty
prisoner. You have this custom where I
release to you one guilty prisoner at a feast day. This is Passover. Let me release to you Jesus and
let’s call this thing finished. Look at verse 39. You have a
custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you
wish then that I release to you the king of the Jews? And with that, it’s incendiary
to the Jews. And perhaps he knew it. Perhaps
he’s rubbing it in to make fun of their efforts
and even to mock Christ. And so they cry out all over
again. Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. Pilate had declared Jesus Christ
to be innocent on numerous occasions. Barabbas, on the other hand,
was a guilty man. Mark paints the picture that
Barabbas had been imprisoned because he was part of an insurrection
where a death took place, a murder. Matthew just refers to him as
a notorious prisoner. John here very simply calls him
a robber, not a thief. A thief is the one that breaks
in at night when nobody’s home, gets in through a window, and
takes what’s yours and leaves. A robber, a robber walks up to you, sticks
a gun in your ribs, tells you what he wants, and if you don’t
give it to him, he shoots. Or even sometimes, even if you
give him what he wants, he shoots. He’s a violent man. He’s a treacherous
man. He is a man of violence. And
he’s more dangerous to people than to things. Months later, when Peter was
interacting with the Jews, he brought up this very scene. He
said, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers
has glorified his servant, Jesus, the one whom you delivered and
disowned in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release
him. He’s talking about this very moment where they could
have had Jesus released to their custody, maybe to retrain him,
to school him, to dialogue with him, to find out what it was
he really believed. Peter concludes, but you disowned
the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted
to you. That’s what Barabbas was. And so the chief priests persuade
Pilate to find guilty on trumped up
charges the very thing that Barabbas was guilty for And to charge,
not only charge Jesus, but to sentence him on that guilt. The very thing that Barabbas
was already guilty of, sedition, insurrection, ultimately is what
sends Jesus Christ to the cross. There is an unprincipled cowardice. among the people of the world
that will not interact with the truth of the gospel. They will
not take Jesus at face value. They will not interact with the
truth of the gospel. And you will see them employ
all of these at various times, sometimes all at once. Gross
hypocrisy, opportunistic evasion, an abolition, a complete destruction
of reality, coarse mockery, a fellowship of evil, and an unprincipled
cowardice that does only what they want to do. If you are in Christ, you have
your hands full in talking to the world. Don’t take it personally. If they hated Christ, they will
hate you also. pray for them, love them, open
the gospel to them. They will try to suppress the
truth. But there is a Holy Spirit, there
is a Holy Spirit that takes His truth and turns on the light,
enlivens a dead man and brings him face to face with the truth. brings him to the point and you
know this because if you’re in Christ it happened to you whereas
at one point you hated Christ and hated the truth and hated
God’s Word and there was nothing there and then suddenly through
no effort of your own you stood face to face with the truth of
God’s Word you stood face to face with the truth and the reality
that you are a sinner That doesn’t take any proving,
does it? That you’re a sinner in desperate need of a Savior,
and that without a Savior, without Jesus Christ, who’s already done
the work, without His finished work on the cross, you are undone. Turn to Christ if you’re not
in Christ. Jesus Christ is the only means
for sinners. That’s the truth. Would you humble
yourselves before Him? O merciful King, we humble ourselves
before Your glorious throne, and we plead with You on behalf
of sinners, even those in our midst. Lord, we pray that You
would have Your way with them, and though various methods are
employed, sometimes quite effectively, Where to our human eyes, people
look hopeless at times. Father, we know that your word
prevails. Every sinner that has ever come
to Christ was dead in their trespasses
and sins. But your own Holy Spirit enlivened
them and showed them the truth. And once they saw the truth,
once we saw the truth, we could not but turn to Christ in faith. Do this same work, we pray. Find sinners, bring sinners across
our path, and grant us the courage to proclaim Christ regardless
of the response. We thank you, and we praise you
in Jesus’ name. Amen.