It is amazing how far people will go to achieve their aims,
however illegitimate or even illegal. It might be considered expedient to cut
corners or even making blatantly criminal actions.
The actions on the first Good Friday were no different,
after all the religious and civil authorities consisted of people like you and
me.
The religious authorities
The religious authorities brought Jesus before Pilate, the
Governor of Judea, to have someone else kill the prisoner rather than do the
deed themselves. Pilate told them to take Jesus and judge Him by the Jewish laws,
which was not sufficient for the religious authorities as they told the
Governor that they did not have the right to execute anyone (John 18: 31).
However, in reading the gospels, it is clear that they
would find an excuse to do away with people if they wanted. The first example is
found in Luke 4: 16 – 30 at the commencement of Jesus’ earthly ministry. As was
His custom, Jesus went to the synagogue at Nazareth on the Sabbath where he was
invited to read Isaiah chapter 61: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he
has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the
oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ When Jesus had finished
the reading, He made the explosive statement: “Today this scripture is
fulfilled in your hearing.” The result was disbelief and anger among the
listeners, who wanted to take Jesus to the brow of the hill on which the town
was built and throw Him off the cliff. The attempt was foiled by Jesus walking
through them and going on His way.
The second example is found in John 7: 53 – 8: 11, where
the woman was caught in the act of adultery. Although they meant it as a trap
for the Jesus, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees were prepared to stone
this woman according to the Mosaic law, not appealing to the Roman civil jurisdiction.
(Incidentally, as no man is mentioned, it has been assumed that he was a member
of the Jewish religious authority.) In the end, Jesus resolved the situation by
challenging the man who had not sinned to cast the first stone, which resulted
in the older men leaving first as they realised their lives were not perfect
and ending with the exit of the youngest. The only person who had not sinned,
Jesus, did not condemn her and told her to leave her life of sin.
The third example happened after Jesus rose from the dead
and had ascended into heaven. One of the leading Christians in the early Church
was Stephen, was seized by the elders and teachers of the law (Acts 6: 8 – 15)
and was tried before the Sanhedrin. The Bible records the entire speech of
Stephen’s response to the accusations (Acts 7: 1 – 53). At the conclusion of
the speech, the religious authorities did not look to Rome for the deed of execution
but dragged him outside Jerusalem’s city limits to stone him to death.
There was also hypocrisy in that the religious authorities
did not want to enter Pilate’s palace as they did not want to become
ceremonially unclean and so be unable to eat the Passover (John 18: 28). It
does seem ironic that they wanted to kill the Lamb of God and, at the same
time, want to participate in the festival that pointed to the redemption of
God’s people by the sacrifice of the perfect lamb. Although they were reluctant
to be in attendance at the scene of the crucifixion (Mark 15: 31) whose purpose
was to torture people until they died and was near the rubbish dump where the
bodies of people who had be crucified before – despite the strict Mosaic laws
that prohibited being near bodies that were dead (see Numbers 9: 6 – 13, where
a person who has been near a dead body has to celebrate the Passover meal one
month later than everyone else). It was a matter for these religious rulers to
pick and choose which regulations they wanted to follow at any particular time,
at their own whim despite the situations looking contradictory.
Even after the resurrection, they wanted the evidence for
the even to be hushed away (Matthew 29: 11 – 15). The chief priests and the
elders produced a plan which involved bribing the soldiers guarding the tomb.
The tale was that the disciples came during the night and stole the body whilst
the soldiers were asleep. The hush money came with the assurance that if the
Governor got to hear of this explanation, the Jewish religious authorities
would deal with the situation and keep the soldiers: out of trouble. The reason
for sidling up to Pilate was that to be asleep on duty would have resulted in
severe punishment for the guard.
Matthew’s postscript was that this story had been
circulated among the Jewish people in his day, which was telling because he
himself came from that race and he was writing to a Jewish audience.
Interestingly, Messianic passages, such as Isaiah chapter
53, that clearly referred to Jesus in His suffering, death and resurrection
were changed in their interpretation among rabbinic teachings from referring to
a specific person to the people of Israel in general.
Pilate
Pilate wanted to sidestep the situation into which he had
been cornered, by passing the responsibility back to the Jewish religious
authorities. This scenario was only intensified when his wife sent him a
message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered
a great deal today in a dream because of him.” (Matthew 27: 19)
When the crowd was incessant in their clamouring for
Barabbas to be released and Christ to be crucified, Pilate undertook a symbolic
act. A bowl filled with water was brought to the Governor so that he could wash
his hands, literally, of the whole situation. I wonder if, when he looked down
at the ripples that his washing had caused, he saw his own face in reflection –
was the expression one of relief, anguish, or regret that he had done the wrong
thing.
He was not immoral, but amoral for he did not have any
moral compass within him. It is noticeable that, during his questioning of
Jesus, he was not sure of the right thing to do. The question “What is truth?”
received no reply as he flipflopped between the braying of the crowd and the
innocent Man before him. The One who had declared, “I am the way and the truth
and the life” (John 14: 8) stood silently, in front of the Governor.
Pilate was not like the Jewish religious authorities who
decided to circumnavigate God’s written laws as they saw fit for themselves;
his situation was that he chose to ignore the conscience that God had placed
within him and blow like the grass in to prevailing direction of public
opinion.
Implications
It is easy to point
the finger to blame other people for any wrongdoing - forgetting that for every
one finger pointing at other people, there are three pointing back at
ourselves.
The duplicity that we can observe in the Passion narrative
can be evident in ourselves. There may be laws of God that we find expedient to
ignore or to excuse ourselves (such as making food our idol, coveting the
belongings of others, or stealing time from our employers). Alternatively, we
might quieten our consciences because we want to be siding with public opinion,
however wrong that might be.
Whatever our situations, there are the reminders in
Scripture that nothing is hidden from God: ‘…would not God have discovered it,
since he knows the secrets of the heart?’ (Psalm 44: 21; and ‘This [i.e. disobeying
the natural laws of God] will take place on the day when God will judge men’s
secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares’ (Romans 2: 16).
The important thing to remember is that it was not the
action of any one person that resulted in the Son of God being hung on the
cross - it was the collective action of the Jewish religious authorities and the Roman
State in the actual deed almost two thousand years; ago but, ultimately, it was
the participation of us all. The point is made by the artist Rembrandt, in his
portrayal of the crucifixion, painted himself into the scene as one of those
who were hammering the nails into the body of Christ.
It is because we were destined for condemnation before God
as Adam, our forefather, sinned, and that includes all the duplicity in our
lives. The good news is the crucifixion was preplanned and not accident so that
Jesus took our punishment on the cross and if we trust His redeeming work, we will
be alive forever (1 Corinthians 15: 22) - to be with God for all eternity.
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