“You Have No Authority”
[John
19:1-16a]
June 11, 2017, Second Reformed Church
We continue with the trials of
Jesus: Pilate interviews Jesus, and
Jesus tells Pilate that He is king of a kingdom that is not of this fallen
world. Jesus’ purpose – as He explains
it to Pilate – is to reveal truth – the Gospel – to the world. But Pilate doesn’t understand.
Pilate also does not believe that
Jesus is guilty of anything, so he offers to free the terrorist, Barabbas, or
Jesus, in respect of the holiday of Passover – and to Pilate’s dismay, the
crowd calls for Barabbas to be released.
What is Pilate to do? He knows Jesus is innocent, but the Jews want
Him punished – even killed. Pilate
decides to try to satisfy their blood-lust by having Jesus tortured.
And so we see, first, Jesus is
tortured.
“Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged
him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head
and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of
the Jews!’ and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to
them, ‘See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt
in him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’”
Pilate is afraid of the Jews and how
they might take action against him, so he has an innocent man tortured with the
flog. Hear what this means:
“The Romans first stripped the
victim and tied his hands to a post above his head. The whip (flagellum) was
made of several pieces of leather with pieces of bone and lead embedded near
the ends. Two men, one on each side of the victim, usually did the flogging.
The Jews mercifully limited flogging to a maximum of forty stripes; the Romans
had no such limitation. …
“The heavy whip is brought down with full
force again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and legs. At first the
heavy thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut
deeper in the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the
capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from
vessels in the underlying muscles. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in
long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding
tissue. … It is not surprising that victims of Roman floggings seldom survived”
(http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread83973/pg1).
After this, the guards take it upon
themselves to continue to torture and mock Jesus – Pilate goes back to his
office until they finish.
They wind together some stiff,
thorny branches into a mock crown, and then they beat it into His scalp so it
stays put, and they lay a purple robe – the color of royalty – around Jesus’ shoulders,
and they take turns, bowing down, crying out, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and
punching Jesus in the face.
What kind of people would know
someone is innocent and still torture him?
What kind of people would go beyond their instruction to torment and
mock and beat someone they know is innocent?
Would any of us take a rod and beat
a child for no reason? Would we delight
in making a child bleed? Wouldn’t we
call a person who delights in these things a psychopath?
Jesus – much more than a child – is
sinless, innocent, righteous – and He is taken and tortured because the chief
priests don’t want to give up their sinful and corrupt lifestyle and Pilate
doesn’t want to give up his sinful and corrupt lifestyle – so, in the hopes of
satisfying their blood-lust – short of killing Jesus – He is tortured –
horrifically – almost to death.
How can we understand these actions?
The prophet, Isaiah writes, “Surely
he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten
by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was
crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us
peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we
have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity
of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6, ESV).
What is Isaiah prophesying about
Jesus?
You and I cause Him to bear grief
and sorrow. You and I cause Him to be
stricken, smitten, and afflicted. You
and I cause Him to be pierced for our sin.
You and I cause Him to be crushed for our sin. You and I cause Him to be flogged and tortured
and mocked. All of us. All of our sin is placed on Him, and He
suffers as if the sin was His. He took
the torture that we deserve.
Every time we choose to sin, we lay
claim to a strand of the whip digging into Jesus. We lay claim to punching Jesus in the face
and mocking Him as King. We ought to
remember that as the world and the flesh and the devil tell us it doesn’t
matter – it’s only a little thing – everybody does it – it’s easy – it feels
good.
Yet, as Isaiah prophesies, because
Jesus endures this torture for our sin – He has no sin – through Jesus –
through believing in Him and His Gospel – the work that He did – we have peace,
we are healed, we are made right with God, we are forgiven.
One of the problems we have in our
world today is – as God says in the book of Judges – everyone does what is
right in his own eyes. We talked about
this two weeks ago – the idea that everything is right and nothing is wrong –
or everything is wrong, but it doesn’t matter – that’s just the way it is.
The character, Gregory House, on the
T.V. show, “House,” repeatedly exclaims, “Everybody lies.” And it’s true – everybody lies – and that is
a problem, but more than that, there is a problem in that we don’t think it is
a problem!
Jesus was tortured horrifically so
all we who believe would be forgiven, but that is not a license to sin or to
take sin lightly. We ought to be
horrified at our sin and repent quickly, and through Jesus, we have abundant
forgiveness.
As Paul writes:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for
adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of
his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in
the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon
us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will,
according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the
fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on
earth. (Ephesians 1:3-10, ESV).
Thanks to Jesus’ willing sacrifice, in
life and torture and death – resurrection and ascension, He has lavished – and
continues to lavish – us with redemption and forgiveness and grace.
Pilate brings Jesus out, soaked with
blood, wearing the mocked garments of a king, and Pilate cries out that Jesus
is innocent. “Behold the Man! Have I assuaged your blood-lust? Is this enough that I can just let Him go?”
Second, Jesus causes Pilate to fear.
“When the chief priests and the
officers saw him, they cried out, ‘Crucify him, crucify him!’ Pilate said to
them, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.’ The
Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die
because he has made himself the Son of God.’ When Pilate heard this statement,
he was even more afraid.”
Pilate despises the chief priests
and what he has done to try to appease them.
So, he tells them again to crucify Jesus themselves. Pilate doesn’t want to put an innocent man to
death. So he tries to at least put the
Jews in their place by emphasizing to them that crucifying Jesus can only
happen if Pilate goes along with it.
They are occupied. They don’t
have the authority to put Jesus to death.
Sometime during this back and forth
between Pilate and the Jews, Pilate’s wife sends a message to him, and we read
in the Gospel of Matthew:
“Besides, while he was sitting on the
judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, ‘Have nothing to do with that
righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream’”
(Matthew 27:19, ESV).
And then the Jews ask Pilate to
respect their traditions and their laws – because they have a law that states
that if someone claims to be God, he is to be put to death – and Jesus claims
to be the Son of God – God the Son.
Jesus has told Pilate that He is not
of this world, but He is a king.
Pilate’s wife is having nightmares about Jesus. The Jews say that Jesus claims to be God.
And that’s something important to
notice for our day, because there are people who say, “Oh, well, Jesus never
claimed to be God – that’s something His followers attributed to Him after He
died.”
No.
Jesus says He is God over and over again in the Gospels. The only real charge that the Jews bring
against Jesus is that He claims to be God.
And, if He isn’t God, then they would be right to put Him to death – it
would be blasphemy. But, if Jesus really
is God. What if Jesus really is God?
Now, we have no reason to believe
that Pilate understood the Incarnation.
But Roman religion had gods appear in human form and even gods having
children with human wives. So, Pilate is
wondering – is it true? He has been
skeptical about the gods, but what if it is true – what if Jesus really is one
of the gods in human form – what if Jesus really is the son of a god?
Pilate is trembling – for the first
time through all of this, he is scared.
And, if you’re not a believer,
that’s a good thing to be. If you don’t
believe savingly in Jesus, God is mightily angry with you, so, if you find
yourself in His presence, you do right to be afraid.
But Pilate doesn’t make the
necessary connection. Instead of
responding in faith and repentance, he tries to shake Jesus by explaining the
amount of trouble He is in:
And we see, third, all authority
comes from and belongs to God.
“He entered his headquarters again and
said to Jesus, ‘Where are you from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate
said to him, ‘You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority
to release you and authority to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would
have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.
Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.’”
Pilate asks Jesus where He is from:
“Are You a human being, or are You one of the gods from Olympus?” And Jesus refuses to answer, which makes
Pilate angry.
“Don’t You understand that I am the
authority here? I hold all the
cards. Whether You live or are crucified
is in my hands – it’s my decision – I hold all the power.”
And
Jesus corrects him: “No. The only
authority – the only power – you have is authority that My Father has delegated
to you to use in a way that glorifies Him.
You will be held liable for the way you use the authority that My Father
has delegated to you. You will do
whatever you decide to do and you will answer to God for what you have done
with the authority and power He has given you.”
Paul writes, “Let every person be subject
to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and
those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1, ESV).
Everyone who has any authority of
any kind has been given their authority by God.
We may not be presidents or kings, but we all have some degree of
authority, and God will hold us accountable for what we have done with the
authority God has given us.
It also means that everyone who is
in power had been put there by God and God can and will take a person out of
power or keep him in power as it suits His Will.
We are to pray for each other and
the authority we each have – that we will use it for good and to the Glory of
God. We ought to pray for all of our
leaders, because they have been given authority by God. We ought to ask God that He would cause them
to do good and be pleasing in His sight.
We ought to pray for our ministers – our pastors:
James writes, “Not many of you
should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be
judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1, ESV). Those who are given the authority to be
ministers will be judged more strictly than others. That’s one reason that great preacher, Charles
Spurgeon, said, “If you can do anything else do it. If you can stay out of the
ministry, stay out of the ministry” (http://amicalled.com/2014/11/is-the-holy-spirit-pushing-you-toward-preaching/).
Having authority is a dangerous
thing. Being a minister is a very
dangerous thing. All authority comes
from God and God will judge our use of authority.
Pilate understands enough of what
Jesus says to be very afraid, and he tries everything he can think of to
release Jesus and stay out of trouble, himself.
Finally, the chief priests deny that
God is their king.
“From then on Pilate sought to release
him, but the Jews cried out, ‘If you release this man, you are not Caesar's
friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.’ So when Pilate heard
these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place
called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of
Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, ‘Behold
your King!’ They cried out, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him!’ Pilate
said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have
no king but Caesar.’ So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.”
Pilate keeps telling the Jews that Jesus
is innocent – there is no reason to put Him to death. (There was no reason to torture Him.) And the Jews say that they will send word to Caesar
that Pilate is not stopping Jesus from trying to overthrow the Roman government
– these are the same people who just asked for Barabbas, the terrorist, to be
set free. And Pilate sits down on his
judgment seat.
If he lets Jesus go, the people will tell
Caesar that he is a traitor. He doesn’t
want to put an innocent man to death – especially just because the chief priests
are jealous of Him. But what other
option does he have? If they accuse him of
treason, Pilate will lose his position, his wealth, maybe even his life. Pilate has lost; the chief priests will get
their way. Jesus will be crucified.
But Pilate can at least rub their noses it
in one more time: Behold you king! Shall I crucify your king?
Crucify Him! Crucify Him!
Crucify Him!
We have no king but Caesar!
What about YHWH? What about Adonai? What about the Almighty God?
We may remember when the people of Israel
asked God for a king, Samuel, the prophet was outraged, but when he went to
God, “And the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that
they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from
being king over them’” (I Samuel 8:7, ESV).
They were supposed to be the chief priest
of the Almighty God, their king!
“No, no, we have no king, but Caesar.”
And so Pilate is beaten, and he tells the
guards to crucify Jesus.
What are we to think of these horrible
things?
Paul writes, “And walk in love, as Christ
loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”
(Ephesians 5:2, ESV).
Jesus was tortured and killed for our sins
– to make us right with God.
Non-believers do well to fear God.
All power and authority belong to God, and
God gives power and authority to whoever He wills.
And God is the Sovereign King over
all. Everything is happening according
to His plan. We have nothing to
fear. But we have much to do in going
forth to tell others the Gospel – who Jesus is and what He has done to make us
right with God. Who do you need to tell?
Let us pray:
Almighty God and Father, we thank You for
sending Your Son to live, suffer, die, rise, and ascend that we might be made
right with You. We rejoice in knowing
that You are God, the Sovereign King, and we ask that we would trust You and
acknowledge You before all. Help us to
use the authority and power that You have given each of us in a way that is
pleasing to You. For it is in Jesus’
Name we pray, Amen.
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