The Guilty Live, the Innocent Die Luke 23:1-25 It was an early morning encounter. The sun was just beginning to peep over the horizon casting a faint light on the cool morning. Out and about early in the morning was an innocent one. It had been a long night. There had been little, if any, sleep the night before for the innocent one as if preparing for the final of all exams. Then the innocent one was confronted by guilty ones. The guilty ones had the power of the sword, the power to kill or to release. It wasn t a legitimate power. It was cruel and arbitrary. Previous cruelty was already documented and known by others. But soon they would be known by a far worse cruelty. The innocent one was more than innocent. For the past 3 years this innocent one had become a leader, established a network of friends that would rave about the innocent one s charisma, intelligence, and pure goodness. No one could think of any moral defect in this innocent one. People followed this innocent one. Some say the innocent one was a natural born leader, destined for greatness. Early teachers from the innocent one s hometown marveled at the wisdom of this precocious leader. They knew great things would come in the future. The innocent one came face to face with the guilty one that morning. I wonder what that was like to be face to face with a murderer. The innocent one knew life was about to end in a violent way. The guilty one, the murderer, would walk away that morning free, set loose by the powers of distorted laws and easily manipulated people. The innocent one would die that day, a violent death, one that should have been prevented if this world was a just and moral place. But it s not. The blood of the innocent was spilled. The murderer was free. The one who had so much to offer the world, so much goodness, demonstrated in countless ways in reaching out to the poor and young. The guilty one had demonstrated nothing more than an ability to kill and incite others to kill. The guilty lived, the innocent one died.. That was Good Friday 2000 years ago, but it sounds as if it could come right off the front page of the newspaper, doesn t it. The guilty live, the innocent die. The
Gospel of Luke, like the other 3 biographers of Jesus life, record the last few hours of Jesus life in more detail than any other part of it. In Luke 23:1-25 we have the early morning trial of Jesus before Pilate. Already Jesus has been up the entire night being betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, and arrested by the Sanhedrin. As we come to the 23 rd chapter of Luke s Gospel we see Jesus, the innocent one, standing before Pilate the cruel governor of Judea, and later standing with Barabbas, the murderer, insurrectionist who would be set free in place of Jesus. There was no jury. As a non-roman citizen, Jesus would be completely at the mercy of Pilate. Today I d simply like to walk you through this trial so you might capture a glimpse of what Jesus experienced before he went to the cross a few hours later that same day. There are 5 distinct scenes in this trial. Scene One: Pilate Declares Jesus Innocent (Luke 23:1-5) In the first scene Jesus is brought to Pilate by the entire Sanhedrin. Evidently they wanted to demonstrate to Pilate the seriousness of their concerns with this large contingent. No sub-committee would do. All 70 members of the Sanhedrin would go to Pilate who was in Jerusalem to oversee the Passover festival. We know from the gospel writings these religious leaders had long been looking for a way to accuse him and kill him. When they arrested Jesus, their charges were religious in nature. Namely, they accused Jesus of claiming to be the messiah and the Son of God. They considered this religious blasphemy and they wanted to kill him for it. But they had no legal right to do so. They needed Pilate and the Roman government for that. So when they bring Jesus to Pilate they conveniently bring a political charge against Jesus. They cite 3 particular crimes of Jesus. 1. First, they say he is subverting our nation. They are accusing him of being a rabble-rouser, a trouble-maker, one who is upsetting the apple cart. They are hoping that Pilate s desire to maintain peace and stability will lead him to accept their accusations as true. Surely, if all 70 members of the Sanhedrin are making this claim, it must be true.
2. Second, they claim he is telling people not to pay taxes to Caesar. Of course, this is patently false for Jesus had explicitly told them to pay their taxes, to render to Caesar what is Caesar s and to God what is God s. Pilate s main responsibility is to collect taxes from this district. If Caesar were to hear there is an insurrectionist telling people not to pay taxes in the Judean district, and Pilate did nothing about it, let me tell you, there would be a price to pay. 3. Third the religious leaders tell Pilate Jesus is proclaiming himself king. This was a flimsy charge. Jesus was presenting himself as the Messiah, which had royal overtones. Unlike worldly kings however, Jesus didn t seek to lord it over the people, but rather to serve them. He demonstrated this the previous night as he stooped down before his disciples and washed their feet like a servant. Pilate didn t have the knowledge of Jewish theology to understand the role of the messiah. The Sanhedrin exploited this ignorance to win a conviction against Jesus. Upon hearing the charges from the Sanhedrin, he flat out asked Jesus, Are you king of the Jews? Jesus gave an equivocating answer, You say that I am. The NIV translates the words in the affirmative, Yes, it is as you say. But the original text leaves the ambiguity in place. If Pilate asked other questions of Jesus, they are not recorded in Luke s gospel. He declares Jesus innocent saying, I find no basis for a charge against this man. The Sanhedrin didn t like this verdict so they persisted, He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here (v 5). II. Scene Two: Jesus Before Herod Antipas (23:6-12) Galilee! The name caught Pilate s attention. Jesus started in Galilee. Pilate seizes the opportunity to pass the buck. He s not the Governor of Galilee. He s the Governor of Judea. So Pilate sends Jesus to Herod, the Tetrarch of Galilee, who happens to be in town at the time. Herod is a Jew, not a Gentile administrator like Pilate. He doesn t have the same authority as Pilate, but Pilate is simply trying to get
rid of the problem. If there s some kind of insurrection or problem with this Jesus fellow, he wants to be able to blame the problem on Herod the Jew. Luke informs us that when Herod saw Jesus he was very pleased because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. Why? Because he wanted Jesus to perform a miracle! He wanted a show. Herod didn t want a miracle to confirm the truth of his teachings. He simply wanted some entertainment. Today there are still countless people inside and outside churches who simply want Jesus to entertain them. They want a show, a titillation that will ease the monotony of their lives. They re not interested in following Jesus. They just want to watch Jesus from afar. Herod was like this. The son of Herod the Great, he was given the region of Galilee to rule by his father. He was a despicable man who stole his brother s wife in Rome, divorced his own wife, and married his brother s wife. For this adulterous affair he was publicly condemned by John the Baptist. But Herod and his stolen wife had the last word. They threw John the Baptist in prison, and later had his head cut off. Jesus, the cousin of John the Baptist, didn t like Herod one little smidgen. He called Herod a fox, correctly implying he was a ravenous and cruel leader. So it s no surprise that Jesus was less forthcoming with Herod than he was with Pilate. The text tells us Herod plied Jesus with many questions. But Jesus gave him no answer thus fulfilling the ancient prophecy of Isaiah, He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth (Is 53:7). Herod and the soldiers at his disposal ridiculed Jesus, dressed him mockingly in a royal robe, and sent him back to Pilate. It was all a big joke to them. Jesus wouldn t entertain them so they decided to entertain themselves at Jesus expense. And then we learn something very interesting in verse 12. We re told on that day Herod and Pilate became friends before this they had been enemies. Perhaps Herod didn t like the way Pilate had killed some of his soldiers without charge years earlier. Perhaps it was some kind of Jewish-Gentile ethnic prejudice they held against
each other. We don t know. All we know is Jesus is a problem common to them both. The irony is that Jesus helps them become reconciled to one another, but neither are reconciled to God. Despite their close access to Jesus, they are far, far away from God. III. Scene Three: Pilate s Second Declaration of Innocence (23:13-16) So Jesus is sent back to Pilate, this time dressed as a king simply to make sport of him. Pilate addresses both the Sanhedrin and the people this time. This is the first time the people have been brought into the trial. Pilate is probably aware that the people have been fairly supportive of Jesus. It s the Jewish leaders who have been after his scalp. The people have felt loved by this man who healed their family members, miraculously fed 1000s with bread and fish, protected their daughters from the cruelty of religious hypocrites, and given sight to the blind. By including the people in the trial process, Pilate is hoping the Sanhedrin will recognize he has the majority on the side. Pilate can gain favor with the people and collect more taxes from them. He ll be the populist, the People s Procurator. He tells the religious leaders and all the people that he has heard the charges against Jesus, but he finds no basis in the charges. He considers Jesus innocent of the charges. Further, he infers that Herod also considers Jesus innocent because he was sent back without as much as a scar on his back from a whipping. Nevertheless, Pilate, the consummate politician who stayed in office for an unusually long 10 year period, wants to appease the Jewish leadership. Although he now has declared Jesus innocent on two separate occasions, he tells them he will have Jesus whipped. Since Pilate has complete authority over the judicial system in the region, this will be the end of it. He will be whipped and released. IV. Scene Four: Pilate s Third Declaration of Jesus Innocence (23:18-22) It wasn t that simple. Something had changed. The crowd that Pilate assumed would be on the side of Jesus has turned on him. With one voice they cried out, Away with this man. Release Barabbas to us. Evidently there some sort of tradition that a prisoner would be released at the Passover as an act of goodwill by the Empire. The crowd knows this and they cry out for Barabbas to be released instead of Jesus.
Pilate didn t want to release Barabbas who was a convicted murderer and insurrectionist. Pilate could see this was a game. The Sanhedrin was accusing Jesus of insurrection and he was innocent. At the same time they were supporting the release of Barabbas, a convicted insurrectionist. Pilate could see it was envy and jealously driving their accusations. But Pilate also knew he didn t want the Jewish leadership too upset or they might draw the attention of Caesar and have an inquiry on his leadership. Pilate had too many skeletons in the closet for such an investigation. He was stuck. His previous sins had already tied his hands to administer justice. Pilate resisted. Luke makes a point to reveal that for the third time Pilate tried to reason with the people. He has found no grounds for him to receive the death penalty. In fact, he s found no grounds to give Jesus a whipping. He s only doing that to satisfy the lust for the punishment provoked by the religious elders. Again he asserts, I will have him punished and then released. These were the last words spoken by Pilate recorded in the gospels. I will have him punished and then released. The words are hollow and shallow promises by a politician more concerned with his status and security, than with truth and justice. V. Scene Five: Pilate s Capitulation (23:23-25) Upon hearing Pilate declare Jesus innocent for the 3 rd time and promising to release him, the crowd becomes a frenzied mob. It s as if an evil spirit has taken over. They shout louder and louder for his crucifixion. And then there s a small, insignificant phrase in Luke 23:23 that tells us the reason Jesus was killed. Luke tells us their shouts prevailed. Some of you will remember the shout of the woman in our church last week for a long time. But there s another shout that will be remembered by the world forever. It is the shout of the people calling for the crucifixion of Jesus. These shouts collected the sins from Adam to Don Gordon, revealing the hostility of the world in the face of the pure innocence of Jesus and the holiness of God. Do you see the irony here? The Sanhedrin s first charge against Jesus was that he was inciting the crowds, he was perverting the nation. Well, if he were doing that
indeed, don t you think they would ve come to his aid? If Jesus was perverting the nation, then the nation should ve been on his side. But that s not the case. It was the religious leaders who were inciting the crowds. They were the ones perverting the nation. Jesus wasn t perverting the nation, he was redeeming it. Jesus was trying to get Israel to live up to its high calling to be a light among the Gentiles. But the religious leaders didn t want that light to shine. They snuffed it out like a robber meeting the young and innocent on the streets of modern city. Pilate capitulated to their demand. He released the guilty one, the murderer and convicted insurrectionist, and he condemned the innocent one, death by crucifixion. The guilty one, Pilate, surrendered the innocent one, Jesus, to their will. Conclusion What does Luke want us to know about the trial of Jesus? More than anything, I believe, he wants us to know that Jesus was innocent. He was innocent of the charges brought against him, the charges of sedition, attempting to overthrow the government, the charges of insurrection, stirring up the people toward violence or revolution. Jesus was innocent. Three times Pilate declared he was innocent. According to Pilate, Herod also determined Jesus was innocent. Later, we learn the one who betrayed Jesus also knew him to be innocent. The entire testimony of the Bible declares the innocence of Jesus. The thief on the cross declared the innocence of Jesus. He said to his fellow convicted thief, We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong (Luke 23:41). The Roman Centurion gazing at Jesus as he died on the cross said, Surely he was the Son of God (Mt 27:54)! The Apostle Paul would later write of Jesus, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). And the writer of Hebrews would say of Jesus, We have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet was without sin.
That s what Luke wants us to understand. Jesus came as the spotless lamb, the sinless Son of Man to convert the world s cruelest injustice to the world s greatest hope for salvation. This was the voluntary work of our Lord, who willingly laid down his life as a substitute for our sins and the sins of the world. In the words of an ancient poet: He whom none may touch is seized; He who looses Adam from the curse is bound. He who tries the hearts and inner thoughts of man is unjustly brought to trial; He who closed the abyss is shut in prison. He, before whom the powers of heaven stand trembling, stands before Pilate; The Creator is struck by the hands of his creature. He who comes to judge the living and the dead is condemned to the cross. The destroyer of hell is enclosed in a tomb. O thou who dost endure all these things in thy tender love, Who has saved all men from the curse, O long-suffering Lord, glory to thee. (Unknown author) Glory to the Innocent One!!