Palm Sunday March 29, 2015 WHAT BROUGHT JESUS TO THE CROSS? (MARK 15:1-15) 1 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate. 2 "Are you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate. "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. 3 The chief priests accused him of many things. 4 So again Pilate asked him, "Aren't you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of." 5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed. 6 Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. 9 "Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. 12 "What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?" Pilate asked them. 13 "Crucify him!" they shouted. 14 "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" 15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
Introduction: Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem as Israel s promised Messiah. However, this seemingly glorious event was rather short-lived in nature. The great fanfare of Palm Sunday s Hosannas soon gave way people calling out Crucify Him! (Thus, this day is also known as the Sunday of the Passion.) Why the turnaround? How could this popular miracle worker, this admired teacher, be utterly humiliated with the ultimate in torture and disgrace the cross? Let s use today s Gospel reading as a springboard to other passages of Scripture that deal with this provocative issue. I. The Attack of the Religious Intelligencia Crucify Him! The first thing that stands out in today s Gospel reading is that the religious intelligencia of Jesus day were orchestrating His demise. The elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law were the three groups that made up the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court of law. Elders refer to Jewish leaders, chief priests included the current high priest of which there was only one, former high priests, and certain members from their families. The teachers of the law (grammateus, also known as scribes ) were a relatively small group of men who expounded the Law, developed a tradition through diligent and even tedious interpretation, as well as applying it in Jewish courts of justice. This was the most respected group of men within Judaism, and together they sought to kill Jesus. What an awful conspiracy! Pilate was the fifth Roman governor of Judea from A.D. 26-36. He was eventually removed from office, because he tended to react with too much force and violence. The decision reached by the Sanhedrin was to charge Jesus with political high treason rather than charging Him with religious blasphemy, since they handed Him over to Pilate. Roman law did not concern itself with the Jewish religion but would be quite interested in someone proclaiming to be a king. This way Jesus could be publicly humiliated and executed by the Roman government. The many things that Jesus was accused of were subverting our nation, opposing the payment of taxes to Caesar, and claiming to be Christ, a king according to Luke 23:2. These verses represent organized religion at its worst with political maneuvering, ruthless manipulation, and cold-hearted maltreatment of Jesus the Son of God. They definitely felt threatened by this so-called Messiah. These men had a form of religion but deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5). In essence, a religion without Jesus is utterly bankrupt of value and truth. This was a blatant verbal attack of Jesus Christ that eventually led to His death. If this happened in the first century, it should not surprise us that it continues to our
very own day. In my library I have a book entitled Jesus Under Fire, which discusses and twentieth and twenty-first century academic assault on the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here are some quotes from this very informative book: Robert Funk, cofounder of the Jesus Seminar states, We want to liberate Jesus. [p. 2] John Dominic Crossan, fellow cofounder, publicly heralds what he thinks. He denies the deity of Christ, declares that Jesus pedigree including His virgin birth in Bethlehem is myth-making by the writers of the Gospels, and concludes that the stories of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection were latter-day wishful thinking of the early church. [p, 2] In fact, a Time magazine articles quotes Crossan as saying that after the crucifixion Jesus corpse was probably laid in a shallow grave, barely covered with dirt, and subsequently eaten by wild dogs; the story of Jesus entombment and resurrection was the result of wishful thinking. [p.142] Another popular member of the Jesus Seminar and former professor at Oregon State University is Marcus Borg. Borg grew up with traditional beliefs about God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible. He says that he believed that Jesus is the divine savior in whom one is to believe for the sake of receiving eternal life. But that changed with an attitude of unbelief, which moved him, as he puts it, shifting from being a closet agnostic to a closet atheist. But a series of experiences changed his life and he asserts that these gave me a new understanding of the meaning of the word God. I realized that God does not refer to a supernatural being out there (which where I had put God ever since my childhood musings about God up in heaven ). Rather, I began to see that the word God refers to the sacred at the center of existence, the holy mystery that is all around us and within us. [p. 184] Notice how Borg came to this by means of his own experience rather than the objective Word of God. Borg blatantly denies the Biblical presentation of Jesus Christ. In popular Christian usage, the uniqueness of Jesus is most commonly tied to the notion that He is the uniquely and exclusively true revelation of God. It is that meaning of His uniqueness that I deny The notion that God s only Son came to this planet to offer His life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and that God could not forgive us without that having happened, and that we are saved by believing this story, is simply incredible taken literally, it is a profound obstacle to accepting the Christian message. To many people, it simply makes no sense. [pp. 186-187]
I could go on and on with ancient and contemporary attacks on the person and work of Christ, some blatantly hostile and others deceptively subtle. Praise God for so many dedicated Christian scholars who have dealt with these issues in a fair and forthright manner! But for now we need to ask this question Why were the religious leaders of Jesus day so intent on discrediting and killing Him? What did He do to get them so upset? II. Motivation for the Conspiracy Murder of a Righteous Man Justified! The religious leaders definitely had reasons for what they did. As I see it, there were basically three human motivating factors: [1] Jesus took issue with their status quo traditions, [2] they thought He was guilty of religious blasphemy, and [3] they were jealous of His popularity. First, Jesus challenged their traditional interpretations and applications of Scripture in daily life. In Matthew 12:1-13 Jesus gathered some grain from a field on the Sabbath day, and the Pharisees brought this complaint to their Master: Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath. Jesus answered them according to what Holy Scripture taught as opposed to their misguided traditions. Then He went on to heal a man with a shriveled hand at a synagogue on the Sabbath, which served to infuriate them all the more and led to this: The Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus (Matthew 12:14). Secondly, the religious leaders charged Jesus with committing blasphemy, which is a serious sin against the authority and majesty of God. How could they do this? They were offended at Jesus claims to be divine: The Jews tried all the harder to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was calling God His Father, making Himself equal with God. John 5:18 Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?" "We are not stoning You for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because You, a mere man, claim to be God." John 10:32-33 (see also John 8:58-59) You know what, they were right to charge Jesus with blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God, God the Son! That is, if Jesus really wasn t who He claimed to be. We believe, however, that the foundation of Christianity stands on Christ Himself, that He is fully man and fully God, what I call the only 200% Person in all the universe (100% Man; 100% God).
Thirdly, the religious leaders in Jesus day were jealous of His popularity and felt threatened by His ability to perform miracles: The chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. "What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him So from that day on they plotted to take His life. John 11:47-48, 53 Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of Him but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well. John 12:9-10 How could God have let mere mortals kill Jesus His Son? III. The Divine Plan He Was Born to Die! What these self-preserving religious leaders and this crowd-appeasing Roman governor did not realize was that this Jesus could have easily defeated them and set Himself free. He and God His Father had more than enough power to keep the Son of God from going to the cross. In fact, the Almighty could have leveled the entire planet with just one word from His mouth! True, even Jesus own followers at this point were utterly distressed, disillusioned, and disconcerted by their Master s predicament. What no one realized at the time (except for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) was that this was all part of the divine plan and purpose. Jesus has already clearly affirmed this in Mark 10:45: The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. Jesus was ready and willing to fulfill Isaiah 53:7-8 (see Acts 8:32-33): He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. The Bible declares that this dramatic and traumatic rescue operation was motivated by sheer love and grace: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son... (John 3:16). Yet remarkably Jesus own motivation is spelled out in Hebrews 12:2-3: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who
endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Regardless of what attacks may fall on the name of Christ, regardless of how our world may appear to be falling apart, regardless of what may be destroying our society due to unsubstantiated and ungodly propaganda in the media, regardless of how we may feel due to trying circumstances, let us take heart and take heed to this staggering promise: This was God s plan from all eternity, and it has now been carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of Christ and our faith in Him, we can now come fearlessly into God's presence with freedom and confidence. Ephesians 3:11-12 Astonished, amazed, and assured in the cross of Christ, Pastor Steve Waterman