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Let us pray. May the words in my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
To brothers and sisters in Christ, we have all seen those trials in the setting of a classroom where the defendant is fighting for his life, be it from spending time in prison or even from the punishment of death. He is surrounded by a team of attorneys. He has compiled all the evidence that he can discover to prove that he is innocent from all of the charges against him. No matter how well he and his team have prepared for this day, he is still on the defense. In the courtroom, there is the prosecutor who has all the authority and all the resources to turn over every stone with the goal of gathering all the incriminating evidence that makes the case for a guilty verdict. Sitting behind that elevated bench, front and center in the courtroom, is the judge who has the authority to decide how much chaos to allow, which evidence can be presented, and which words the witnesses are permitted to speak.
And then there are those who are selected. Selected to make up a jury who has the authority to declare the defendant innocent or guilty based on their understanding and value of the evidence presented for the defendant to once again experience freedom. He will have to navigate the uncharted waters of all those authorities that will be before him.
In our gospel lesson this evening, I contend that this was not the case as Jesus was taken into custody and bound under the watchful eye of the mobs with their clubs and their swords as they witnessed the kiss of betrayal. From the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was led back into Jerusalem in the darkness of the night. Within the walls of where he had walked freely during the daytime, proclaiming God’s word in the presence of all those who would gather to hear him and see his miracles, he was now being led through the same streets as a criminal.
In the next several hours, Jesus would stand trial not once, but five times. In each trial, there were prosecutors and judges and juries and observer galleries in one form or fashion or another, which had the authority to play a part in declaring Jesus’ innocence or guilty of the crimes that would be put forth against him. But as you study these scenes closer, something was different from all the other court cases that have ever existed. The defendant was the one who had the greatest authority in each trial. Standing before the accusers, the prosecutors, the witnesses, and those who were declaring verdicts and deciding his fate, there was Jesus of Nazareth.
God in the flesh, the creator of all things visible and invisible in six days, who is eternal with no beginning and no ending, has now stepped into time, born of the Virgin, and lived in the sinful world among sinful people as one who knew no sin. The brightness of his divine glory concealed, all power in heaven and earth were at his disposal. Jesus was not on the defense; Jesus was on the offense. But the guarantee that he would reach his goal. The Jewish leaders thought that they were in control with the ultimate authority as they manipulated people like a conductor leads a symphony flawlessly through the sheets of music. It is easy for you, and it’s easy for me to see Jesus as a powerless victim.
Remember what he just told the disciples in the garden? “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send more than 12 legions of angels? But how then should the scripture be fulfilled? That it must be so.” So because of his presence in their lives, Jesus was the one disrupting their world, and he was confronting them. He is the word in the first chapter of the gospel of John. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made.”
And the Word became flesh. For three years, Jesus traveled around Israel, preaching, teaching, performing all kinds of miracles over nature, disease, and death as a confirmation of his words that he was proclaiming. The central focus of his message was that he is the fulfillment. He is the fulfillment of all the prophecies that were foretold in the law, the Psalms, and the prophets that referred to the coming of the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world. He made it clear that he was more than a man. But his Father was God who has revealed himself in the Holy Scriptures. Jesus was providing them with the evidence.
Early in his ministry, he told a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Jesus and his words and works were before the religious leaders of Israel, and they did not like him. They didn’t like his message because he did not conform to the rules and regulations of works righteousness, but he stood in contradiction to them, proclaiming that a man cannot make himself right before God. But God would do it for them.
And this gift of salvation would be distributed to the world through his means of grace to convert and to sustain him. But Jesus continued to come into their presence through his teaching and through his preaching, for he desired for them to come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. Before the Sanhedrin in his second trial, the assembly of the elders, Jesus was asked, “Are you the Son of God?” His reply to them was, “You say that I am.” He spoke the same words that God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, “I am who I am.” This is all they needed to hear, for Jesus was calling himself God, and they did not believe him. They were like the first case in Jesus’ parable of the sower. When the seed fell along the path, where the seed lay on top of the packed soil without penetrating it, this is the imagery that most people envisioned.
But Jesus explained it to his disciples in these words, “The words that these individuals hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.” The word was not resting on the outward side of the body on their derma, but it was in the heart. And due to the hardness of unbelief, it was easily removed from them by Satan. Before Pilate, the religious leaders had three charges against Jesus. Number one: he perverts our nation. Number two: he is preventing the giving of tribute of taxes to Caesar. And number three: he is saying that he himself is Christ a king. You notice that they left out the God part because they knew that Pilate could care less about their religious squabbles.
But they knew that Pilate was a ruthless man and would not allow any disorder in his territory of governance. He had no problem slaughtering the Galileans in the temple area as they were offering sacrifices to the Lord, mingling their blood with the blood of animals. In other words, they were trying to convince Pilate that Jesus was leading an insurrection, where he was telling the people that he is their future king who will sit on King David’s throne in Jerusalem and that he would defeat Caesar and drive out the Roman Empire from Israel. Pondering this and thinking about it, Pilate was not a stupid man. He probably had spies in place every time large crowds gathered around Jesus, and they reported back to him his words, his works, his actions.
Now Jesus was standing in Pilate’s presence, and three times the religious leaders stated that they found Jesus guilty, and three times Pilate declared him innocent. The religious leaders realized that they were losing this case, so they went to their plan B and began to stir up the people in the gallery who were probably their friends and acquaintances. When Pilate started softening up in the final trial, they asked for the freedom of Barabbas, the worst of all criminals. And when asked about Jesus, they cried out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate was between a rock and a hard place, for he heard the religious leaders say, “He ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.”
When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. Jesus was standing before him. Pilate said to Jesus, “Will you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” And Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above.” As the voices cried out louder, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate accepted the voices of this world and rejected the word of God in his presence. Not to mention that they are not mentioned in this text is Jesus’ disciples. They believed him. They loved him. They followed him. But they just didn’t understand what was happening, and they were afraid.
In the presence of the crowd gathered to witness the trial, Peter did not deny knowing Jesus once, but three times, as Jesus had told him that he would do. Then Jesus turned and looked at Peter. During his three years with them, Jesus constantly confronted them, for it was his goal to bring comfort to them. Before his arrest, Jesus told them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter. But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.'” This was the last of the three times that Jesus told them about his upcoming arrest, his trial, his crucifixion, and his resurrection.
What about you? The same Jesus is before you in your presence. His same words penetrate your ears. It is your head as knowledge and in your heart as faith. As you live in this corrupted, sin-filled world, Jesus and His Word continue to confront you. In the law of His Word, he confronts you of your sin. But where there is a contrite heart in faith, there is the forgiveness of sins. And in the gospel, he comforts you and gives you peace.
Because of the gift of Jesus won for you through his perfect life in your stead and his sacrificial death upon the cross, where he defeated your enemies of sin, death, and the devil, you have the forgiveness of your sins, salvation, and life. Now and into eternity, you have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. You have been covered with the white robe of righteousness. You are a baptized child of God. Today, Jesus and His word dwell in you in his church. For he tells his disciples, “Behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
As Jesus stood before his accusers on trial, as both the almighty God and as the sacrificial lamb, you are constantly reminded of the Lord’s Supper, where your Lord Jesus is both the host and the meal, where he gives you his true body and blood, in, with, and under the bread and the wine for the forgiveness of your sins and the strengthening of your faith.
When you go outside the walls of the sanctuary, the Lord Jesus goes with you as he lives in you and through you. As the Holy Spirit works through your words and actions in your life, you will stand in the presence of other people and confront them either intentionally or accidentally because of God’s word in you. And with the help of the Holy Spirit, there is evidence of the law and the gospel in your life. Time and degree may vary, but they will accept or reject these truths as God uses you as his instrument to impact the lives of others as he brings them into himself through Christ and strengthens them in the one true faith.
Last week, I was sitting in a coffee shop in my collar, preparing for this message. Unbeknownst to me, I was confronting a woman at the table next to me in front of her computer, wearing sunglasses. As I gathered my books to leave, she stood up, walked over, and sat in the chair at my table across from me. Looking at me through her sunglasses, she said, “I can’t let you leave. Will you pray for me? I’m asking God to grant me peace and comfort.”
Without giving me any of the details of her request, we talked about her Christian faith in life. We prayed together, and after parting words, she returned to her table. As Jesus stood among his accusers, even though he was in control with all authority, he knew the only way to win salvation for you was to allow himself to be led to the Mount of Calvary and for his body to be nailed to a cross, where he would die for you so that you can live with him forever.
For on the third day, he rose from the dead to give evidence that you too will rise on the last day. For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. By God’s grace through faith in Jesus, you are counted among them. Amen. The peace which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord.