Luke 23:1-5 [ESV]
1Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate. 2And they began to accuse him, saying, "We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute [TAXES] to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king." 3And Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" And he answered him, "You have said so." 4Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, "I find no guilt in this man." 5But they were urgent, saying, "He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place."
This just stinks, doesn’t it? How can this be happening to Jesus? It is just NOT right! What did He do? Why would they lie? Why does it seem that bad guys get away with hurting the innocent all the time? Have you ever thought that… about how the bad guy seems to gets away with everything here in our world?
We all know that in the movies, bad guys do bad things to good people or to innocent people but we don’t fret much because we KNOW that in the end the good guy is going to stop the bad guy and the bad guy is going to get what is coming to him or her.
But in life, it doesn’t work that way does it? We see the bad doing what they want, and the good suffering because of it… and there is NOTHING done about it! Many of us want to cry out to God, “God! That’s not right! That’s NOT fair!”… don’t you? But is this something new? When we look at Scripture… we can see that this has been something believers have dealt with for a long, long time… look what the psalmist wrote thousands of years ago: Ps 73:2-17 [ESV] [read aloud…]
2But as for me, my feet almost slipped; my steps nearly went astray. 3For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4They have an easy time until they die, and their bodies are well-fed. 5They are not in trouble like others; they are not afflicted like most people. 6Therefore, pride is their necklace, and violence covers them like a garment. 7Their eyes bulge out from fatness; the imaginations of their hearts run wild. 8They mock, and they speak maliciously; they arrogantly threaten oppression. 9They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues strut across the earth. 10Therefore His people turn to them and drink in their overflowing waters. 11They say, "How can God know? Does the Most High know everything?" 12Look at them, the wicked! They are always at ease, and they increase their wealth. 13Did I purify my heart and wash my hands in innocence for nothing? 14For I am afflicted all day long, and punished every morning. 15If I had decided to say these things [aloud], I would have betrayed Your people. 16When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless 17until I entered God's sanctuary. Then I understood their destiny.
To be totally honest with you, I get so frustrated with seeing what I see in life and who gets away with what… but what I have found is that our problem with this particular situation is one of perspective! We cannot see the entire picture… we don’t know the backstory, and we certainly don’t know what eternity holds for these people…
From our perspective, we want what we want… we have to understand our limitations. You see, we tend to want everything wrapped up in a tidy little package where we can SEE everything and understand everything… but it just doesn’t work that way, does it?
We can know that everything is NOT going to be wrapped up in an hour or in a couple of hours…like the TV or the movies. In life, it seems to us a lot of the time that evil is winning, and NOTHING we do matters. So what’s the use? Well the psalmist felt that same way and until He entered the Sanctuary of God…and he realized the destination of the evil.
You know when we think about the EVIL in this world and how it SEEMS to us that EVIL is winning, and how many innocent and good people have been hurt and are continually being hurt by bad people…we get mad! Especially when one of those ‘good’ people is US… We want Jesus to ride in like the cavalry… like the good guys in white hats… we want Him to come in and just wipe EVIL out… we want God to obliterate EVIL and all the bad people who hurt innocent and good people…
But when we think like that, our perspective is off and we need to go BACK to this chapter in Luke… and we need to see what Jesus dealt with… and we need to realize that God is in control. We may not SEE God’s hand, we may not feel like God is in control, but we have to learn to trust that God is in control… we have to learn to trust the Father as Jesus trusted Him…
Meekness in the face of false accusation:
Can you imagine what the disciples felt at this time? Do you think they had ANY feelings like the psalmist we just read about? “This isn’t FAIR!” “How can God allow this to happen?”
After all when we take a short look BACK at the day Jesus entered Jerusalem for the final time… Jesus entered Jerusalem like a King… with great fanfare from the crowd, and Hosannas and praise… However, how did Jesus come into Jerusalem? Did He enter like a conquering king? NO, we know he rode in on a humble donkey… not a charging stallion.
Jesus entered Jerusalem with 12 disciples to reveal the love of God! He did NOT come into Jerusalem with an army to fight and defeat the Roman Empire! Jesus came in humble obedience to the Father’s plan. He came in a spirit of gentleness.
And today when we think about the evil in this world and how it seems as if it is winning and how we just want God to wipe EVIL out… we need to look back…
When Jesus comes to us today, He does not come into our lives on a stallion, He does not come in to conquer and OVERTAKE our heart, but Jesus waits until He is invited in… and only then does He enter in to abide with us… Jesus is still about salvation and deliverance… Judgment will come, but in His timing, not ours!
Last week we saw that He was arrested and dragged before the High Priest and the Sanhedrin and tonight we are going to look at when He was dragged before Pilate.
On each occasion, Jesus was falsely accused, lied about, mocked, beaten and humiliated, and thru all of this, He did absolutely nothing to stop what was happening… He offered NO protection for Himself. This was because He had surrendered to God’s plan and He trusted in the Father.
Some might look at this and say that Jesus was so weak after the beatings He had suffered that He simply had no will to fight… What do you think? Does this verse indicate that Jesus was not capable of resisting? Does it mean that He was cowardly or weak? Absolutely NOT!
After all isn’t this the same man who went into the Temple and drove out all those who were dishonoring the house of God? Isn’t this the same man who had spoken the word and the elements had obeyed and the storm had ceased?
No, Jesus was NOT a coward… NO it was NOT because Jesus did NOT have the power to stop these people…Jesus had the power, He was NOT weak… The reason this was allowed to continue was because Jesus submitted to the will of the Father.
Actually what Jesus is doing here is portray gentleness in the face of great persecution and under false accusation. This gentleness is a great picture of His heart and willing obedience to the Father, and we cannot mistake gentleness with weakness.
This sort of gentleness Jesus is exhibiting is willing to stand in bold obedience to the Father! Are you willing to stand in obedience, even when it seems as if EVIL is winning?
Another characteristic of this gentleness of Jesus was that He was fully willing to suffer in silence… Even when His obedience brought attacks from EVIL and EVIL seems to be winning… there was NO complaining about the cost of His obedience.
I believe this reveals how deep the love of Jesus is for this world… it reveals the type of love God has for His creation… an unconditional love that is more concerned with the welfare of His creation... Jesus revealed the love of God in His life…
In the first 5 verses of this chapter we can see this love being made manifest by the actions of Jesus and revealed to us by Luke’s pen…. Jesus loved us so much that He was willing to be boldly obedient and willfully silent during ALL of His persecution… He was willing to endure all of this for us!
We know that these religious leaders had been plotting and planning to kill Jesus for quite some time… we know that their traitor was Judas… we also know that they paid witnesses to bring false testimony against Jesus… When we look at this passage we find that…
There were three specific charges levied against Jesus when they take Him before Pilate:
Misleading the nation
Forbidding tribute to Caesar
Claiming to be Messiah… in Roman eyes it would be claiming to e King of the Jews, usurping the Emperor
Now as we look at these charges we can see that ALL of them are ultimately TRUE but not as they were portrayed! That is because it is all a matter of perspective…Let’s look at the individual charges levied against Jesus:
Charge #1 - Misleading the nation...
The Greek word here for misleading is dias-treph-onta which means to distort, make crooked, or pervert.
There is NO doubt that Jesus was seeking to change the hearts of the nation. Jesus was focused on leading them back into a love relationship with God, and out of the regulations and rules that dominated and enslaved the people…
Jesus DID want to take the nation in a different direction… the religious leaders saw His ‘other’ direction as a perversion of God’s plan, and did not recognize God’s hand in Jesus… Jesus sought to change the nation, but never did He seek to pervert the nation.
As much as they harped on this charge, Pilate was never able to fully substantiate any of the charges against Jesus, in fact, Pilate says in Scripture that he could find NO fault or guilt in Jesus.
So we can see that Jesus was trying to lead the nation in a different direction, and from the perspective of the religious leaders it was a perverting of what THEY had been teaching and what they believed. However, Jesus was NOT perverting the nation, but attempting to save it!
Charge #2 – Forbidding Tribute to Caesar...
Now this is the one charge that is blatantly false that is levied by the religious leaders. They themselves attempted to get Jesus to comment publicly on taxes to Caesar, and Jesus had foiled their attempt to trap Him in a statement either for or against giving taxes to Caesar. Do you remember that story? We find it in Luke 20:21-26 [have someone read]
The Greek word used that is translated as ‘tribute’ is the Greek word phorus which literally means taxes, more specifically the annual tax that Rome levied on its subject throughout its Empire. So the literal meaning here strictly applies to a taxation issue…
However, we CAN see where Jesus was taking ‘tribute’ away from Caesar in his teaching. He was pointing people to God as supreme, and away from anyone human. The Romans believed their Emperor to be a god, but Jesus was pointing the people toward the Creator… not toward any created being.
Jesus did NOT believe Caesar was worthy NOR should he be lifted up like the Roman culture did… but there is no record in Scripture where Jesus makes a public denunciation of Caesar… Jesus simply lifts God to His rightful and truthful place… a place in which all others fall woefully short!
So in a sense Jesus WAS refusing tribute to Caesar, but it was not in the manner these men were speaking about… and that is the area of taxes being paid. However, where Jesus WAS refusing tribute to Caesar but it was in the worship and adoration of the people… He taught that should be focused toward God alone.
Charge #3 – Saying He was Messiah [a king]...
Now here is a charge that had been floating around for quite some time, and for the longest time, Jesus did NOT wish for anyone to speak about it or proclaim it publicly.
When Peter proclaimed Jesus as Messiah… as God’s anointed… as the Son of God… Jesus had told Peter and His disciples to keep this information to themselves… because it was not His time yet!
However, when He entered Jerusalem to great fanfare and ceremony, Jesus accepted the public adoration of those who called Him the Christ… of those who had called Him the Son of God… He was no longer avoiding that question… he accepted the title pinned on him, but it was not a title given by man, but it was God appointed…
So when this charge is levied against Him, Pilate asks Jesus directly if He is the “King of the Jews…” I can almost hear the disdain and sarcasm in Pilate’s voice, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus does not argue, but simply answers in v.3, “You have said so…”
Now in spite of these three trumped up and false charges, we see Jesus reacting in a very unusual way… at least it is unusual from a human perspective:
First is the aspect of the phrase ‘they led Him’… The Greek word for ‘led’ here is the Greek term Hgagon which is defined as being led from point A to point B BUT the implication was more of an animal being controlled and FORCED to comply.
Another implication for this word is being dragged before the courts for judgment, which is exactly what the religious leaders were attempting to do… but they did not have to FORCE Jesus
Contrary to human reasoning, Jesus was actually a willing participant in this drama… NOT because He was helpless against them or felt He had not power over them, BUT because He was a willing participant in God’s plan. Jesus did not resist…
He did not WANT to endure this… Let’s go back to Luke 22:42 [have someone read] but because it was the will of the Father, He was willing to follow thru and be obedient.
Another area where Jesus’ actions are contrary to human reasoning is in His silence to the charges against Him. In v.3 we find Him telling Pilate, “You have said so…”
If we look at the Greek manuscript we see the Greek phrase, Su Legain which means, “YOU, say...” or it could be translated in a more contemporary way by saying, “That’s what YOU say…”
The point here is that Jesus uses a very complicit and passive tone in His answer to Pilate and offers no rebuttal in His defense. This is yet another indicator of Jesus’ willing spirit to submit in obedience to the plan of the Father.
Jesus knew the charges against Him were trumped up and yet He offered NO defense… He willingly submitted to be put to death on the cross…all because He loved us so much! All because He wanted us to know forgiveness and have the mercy that God wanted to provide AND the grace God desired to grant.
However, even with all the trumped up charges AND Jesus’ seeming lack of desire to defend Himself, Pilate still could not see how he could legally charge Jesus with anything.
All of the charges brought against Him were false and meaningless charges to Pilate, except for the tribute charge, but that He had probably heard the story about what Jesus had said back in chapter 20… this man was not guilty enough to put to death and Pilate would not ‘manufacture’ charges so He seeks to let Jesus go…
But the religious leaders insist Pilate act on their request and they repeat their desire to have Jesus charged… in v.5 they expound on the charge of Him claiming He was king, by adding the charge that Jesus stirred up the people and that he was doing so all throughout Judea…
Now this charge carried some weight with Pilate because keeping the peace was a constant and possibly THE MOST important job that a local governor had to accomplish. But while they were adding to the charges they mentioned that Jesus was from Galilee and Pilate, who did not want to deal with this… sends Jesus off to Herod to be judged.
The plan is set and God is orchestrating His plan by using human instruments to carry His plan out to its final and glorious conclusion. The religious leaders, so intent on killing Jesus and erasing Him from their minds and society… they do not know that they were instruments in God’s hands. Pilate, although he never gave God any credit or glory, was used by God to accomplish the most wondrous of God’s plans…and that is the plan of salvation!
We have to understand that God will use ANYTHING to accomplish His purpose and plan! So often we see EVIL ‘winning’ and we assume that God is losing… but we can only see with our finite eyes and minds… God sees and knows all, and we need to trust that He knows best.
God will use evil resources to accomplish godly results… What Satan means for evil and destruction… God can use for His glory and our good! What Satan THOUGHT was a victory in the death of Jesus… God used for the salvation of humanity and glorification of Himself!
Tonight we see a mob that is complicit with a plan to kill Jesus… a mob we could see as evil and a mob that seems to have won the day! But we also see God’s plan being fulfilled by Jesus as He was willing to submit in obedience to God’s plan, which led to His torture and eventual death… WHY? Because it was the plan of the Father… because it would bring mercy, grace and salvation to all who accepted Him!
In your life today there may be situations where it seems as if EVIL is winning… you may be suffering at the hands someone… you may think they are getting away with things and NOTHING is happening to them… and in our eyes… in this life that MAY be true!
But know this… you can trust the Father that regardless of what this world has heaped upon you… He is there to deliver you, and to stand by you, and to strengthen you during your difficulties! Trust in God as Jesus trusted in the Father’s plan… God is going to prevail!
