Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Last week we talked about three trials.

We talked about the mock trial of Jesus before Annas and the Jewish leaders.

The second trial was that of the Jewish nation before Jesus.

The third was the trial of Peter and John in the courtyard before the people.

All parties were found guilty as charged, the first wrongly, and the others rightly.

I am sure that every time that either Peter or John heard the crowing of a rooster in the future, that is would be a call to remembrance, as much as the broken bread and cup.

Like the Lord's Supper, it is a call to humility and repentance before God.

It was also a reminder to them, that this bitter failure was not the end, thanks to the grace of God.

It is a reminder to us all that God will forgive us if we only truly repent.

Exposition of the Text

v. 28 It is interesting that John uses the present tense when describing the procession from Caiaphas' house to Pilate.

Either one of two things can be meant here, or both.

The first is that it is so vivid in John's mind that he is seeing it all over again.

John, too like Peter, had failed to stand up for Jesus.

Peter had run out with bitter tears, but John had remained undetected.

He continued to observe from a distance, but his heart must have burned within him.

The other use of the present tense emphasizes the journey itself.

The literal translation into English is "They are leading Him from Caiaphas' house to the Praetorium".

One can only imagine the sorrowful journey, the shame, the beating, the mocking, and the spitting.

We are reminded of the words of Isaiah "He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from Him" (Is 53:3).

The verse continues that the Jewish leaders stopped at the entrance to the Praetorium.

They did not want to defile themselves so as not to be able to eat the Passover.

Gentile houses were unclean, and rumors were that the Gentiles killed their unwanted children there.

They were the leaders of the people.

Even though they had no faith in God, they still bound themselves to the Laws regulations for appearance's sake.

It gave them their sense of importance.

These same leaders who so hypocritically wanted to remain ceremoniously clean were the same people Jesus had accused of crossing to the other side of the road to avoid the man who fell to thieves on the Jericho road (Luke 10:29-37).

This road was so narrow with a steep drop off a cliff face, that crossing to that side put them in considerable danger of life and limb.

Yet they were willing to risk all rather than defile themselves!

They wanted to remain clean so they could eat the Passover lamb.

How little did they understand that the true Passover Lamb was in their midst!

How ignorant were they of exactly how unclean they really were!

The very Passover Lamb who could make them clean was the victim of their abuse.

v. 29 Pilate must have been expecting them.

He would have given the order for the Roman Cohort to join the soldiers of the High Priest to arrest Jesus.

Pilate usually resided on the coast at Caesarea which was a more modern and Greek style city.

But Passover was always a time of unrest in Israel.

Passover was our version of the 4th of July, a

celebration of freedom from the domination of a foreign power, the Egyptians.

It is easy to see the similarities between the Jews situation under Roman domination and their slavery in Egypt.

There had been several popular revolts already which were met with Rome's cruel use of force.

I would suppose that the Jewish leaders when they had asked for the soldiers had exaggerated the case that Jesus was about to lead an armed revolt against Rome.

How ironic it was that Jesus' "army" consisted at that point of eleven scared men and only two small swords, hardly the means to carry out a violent revolt and

overthrow of Rome.

However, this did not mean that Jesus could not have overthrown the Romans, as we are reminded later in the trial before Pilate that he could have called down a legion of angels for that purpose.

Rome would fall to the followers of Jesus, all right, but not for three hundred years, and without the resort to violence.

And we also know that Jesus will return and slay the followers of the beast with the sword of His mouth, which is by simply speaking the word.

Pilate goes out to them, an unusual concession, and perhaps a sign of weakness.

Rome was not in the habit of condescension to any foreign subjects.

The Roman view would have been that if they really wanted to condemn Jesus that they would have to bring Jesus into the hall of judgment with them.

This dealing from a position of weakness would cost Pilate dearly when he later on tried to have Jesus released.

But Pilate's weakness and the rage of the Jewish leaders would only serve to unwittingly fulfill God's plan.

So Jesus was brought before the military tribunal of that day, conducted by the Roman governor, Pilate.

So Pilate asks the Jews what charge they had against Jesus.

I can only imagine that Pilate had the expectation of seeing some husky man with the look of a warrior and leader.

But the same 53rd chapter of Isaiah we quoted before says that his appearance was only average at best (Isaiah 53:2).

So the appearance of Jesus must have come as some surprise.

v. 30 The response of the Jewish leaders is again somewhat strange.

They were walking a political tightrope.

They were in the position that they could not afford to lose respect of the people by judging someone on the Passover and becoming unclean.

Man of the common Jews had thought their leadership had sold out to the Romans.

And they dared not offend Rome either.

Pilate had the reputation of being ruthless.

His cruelty to the Jewish people would get him removed as governor.

So they spoke in political babble, saying that they would not have bothered to bring Jesus to Pilate before the crack of dawn if He wasn't an evildoer.

But as we have already seen, Pilate had at least a pretty good idea of what the Jews accused Jesus of being.

v. 31 Pilate's answer was emphatic.

You take Him and judge Him according to your Law.

Pilate was not about to lower himself to the level of the Jews in conducting a trial without a specific charge.

And that charge would have to be that He was guilty of breaking Roman law.

The Jews had already been given the authority to conduct their own trials in cases of non-capital offenses.

He was not about to act as a judge in a dispute over the interpretation of the Jewish law.

Pilate was shrewd enough to see the mischief that would result if he, a Roman, interfered in this affair.

He was trying to prevent a riot, not create one.

The Jews responded that their authority did not allow them to execute anyone.

Still they have not specified the charge against Jesus.

Still Pilate was not about to try Jesus on the basis that he had committed a capital offense against Jewish law.

v. 32 John explains to us here that all of this was happening to fulfill the prophecy in Scripture.

There are several Scriptures which can be cited besides Isaiah 53.

Psalm 22 also talks about it, Deuteronomy says that anyone hung on a tree is cursed.

Several other Scriptures could be cited as well.

All of the actors in this drama, the Jewish Leaders, the people who would shout "Crucify Him!", Pilate, the Lord Jesus, and the disciples were acting to fulfill Scripture.

This does not mean that they were robots.

They acted out of their own free will, for good or ill, to fulfill God's purpose.

For Jesus, fulfillment was in a positive way by submitting to the will of the Father.

For the others, it was in a negative way, but still God's will is done.

The form of capital punishment used by the Romans against subject people and slaves for treason was crucifixion.

Jesus had to die that death of hanging on the tree, to become a curse for us.

Crucifixion was especially gruesome.

It was done very publicly as a deterrent to others committing the same crime.

The Romans had once crucified 6,000 rebels on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho as a warning that they would not tolerate anyone rebelling against their authority.

Crucifixion was meant to shame the individual.

The victim was hung naked just above eye level.

There is something horrible in the psychology of the crowd which witnesses an execution.

Public hangings were stooped because this amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

People, including those who knew nothing about what the victim allegedly had done would start mocking and degrading the individual.

They would spit in the faces of the victim.

The victim lost his/her status as a human being and became a mere animal.

Crucifixion also caused intense suffering which would cause many of the victim to curse and swear violently, which would only incite the crowd to torment the poor victim more.