Lent

[Suzi]

Thank you Flo and Paula, I'm loving having somewhere to talk, ask questions, debate, learn and understand.... Faith and religion can be so difficult and divisive, and so different from each other. I'll never forget my Rector saying that "sometimes there's too much religion in faith" and I think he's right...

[Paula]

Luke 22:66-71 NIV
[66] At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. [67] “If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us.” Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, [68] and if I asked you, you would not answer. [69] But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.” [70] They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?” He replied, “You say that I am.” [71] Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.”

The Messiah/Christ (Hebrew/Greek) translates as the ‘anointed one’ and harks back to the very beginning of Israel’s identity as a nation. Their first high priest, Aaron (brother of Moses) was anointed by Moses, on God’s instructions, to act as a conduit to God.

Exodus 29:4,7 NIV
[4] Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. [7] Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head.

So, the chief priests had a lot at stake if Jesus was to be known as the great High Priest, the anointed one. Jesus knew this, and knew they would try to trick him with their questions, as we’ve seen before. At no point in this conversation does he admit to being the messiah, or the Son of God but that didn’t matter to them - they still used their own questions as ‘evidence’ of his blasphemy to take to the Romans (the Jews were not authorised to give the death penalty)

[Suzi]

Jesus just didn't "confess" to anything, and didn't tend to give straight answers at all...

[Paula]

No, but would you in the circumstances? Especially when you knew their hearts, and that they weren’t going to listen?

[Suzi]

Oh absolutely agree.

[Paula]

Luke 23:1-16,18-25 NIV
[1] Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. [2] And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.” [3] So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “You have said so,” Jesus replied. [4] Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.” [5] But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.” [6] On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. [7] When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. [8] When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. [9] He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. [10] The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. [11] Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. [12] That day Herod and Pilate became friends---before this they had been enemies. [13] Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, [14] and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. [15] Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. [16] Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.” [18] But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” [19] (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.) [20] Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. [21] But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” [22] For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.” [23] But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. [24] So Pilate decided to grant their demand. [25] He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.


Do you see the change in the Chief Priests focus on what Jesus was ‘guilty’ of? They had tried him for blasphemy (not something the Roman Empire cared about), they went to Pilate and stated 3 things that the Roman Empire would care about:

1. Misleading our nation (rebellion - large crowds followed him but he never tried to mislead them or turn them against Rome)
2. Forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar (tax evasion - the conversation actually was, [22] Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” [23] He saw through their duplicity and said to them, [24] “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” “Caesar's,” they replied. [25] He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.”’)
3. Saying he is a king (Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, but not a political or military king, the kind Rome would be anxious to eliminate.)

Even Herod wouldn’t condemn him

And yet, a weak Pilate couldn’t stand up against the crowd - but if he had, God’s purpose would not have been fulfilled.....

[Suzi]

I've always struggled with this bit. I can see that Pilate wouldn't want to go against the crowds and lose popularity, but I don't know why the crowd were so against Jesus in the first place....

[Paula]

https://www.christianity.com/jesus/d...o-quickly.html

But, also, there is a theory that Barrabas was a freedom fighter, trying to overthrow the Roman conquerors. That would have made him very popular to the Jewish crowd, especially as that’s the sort of king they wanted Jesus to be

[Paula]

Luke 23:6-12
[6] On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. [7] When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. [8] When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. [9] He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. [10] The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. [11] Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. [12] That day Herod and Pilate became friends---before this they had been enemies.

This Herod was Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great who had ordered the massacre of Bethlehem’s baby boys just after Jesus’ birth in an attempt to get rid of a ‘rival king’. Antipas had beheaded John the Baptist ( Jesus’ cousin) after making a foolish promise to his wife’s daughter (his wife was actually his brother’s wife but he’d taken her from his brother - not exactly a moral family...). Antipas had previously been worried that Jesus was John back from the dead.

So, with no remorse for what he’d done to John, or compassion for the exhausted and demeaned man in front of him, he questioned the Lord Jesus. It’s no wonder that Jesus (who had earlier called Herod a fox) refused to answer his questions. So Antipas and his soldiers ‘ridiculed and mocked him’ verse 11. All of this fulfilled the prophecy in Isaiah:

Isaiah 53:3,7
[3] He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. [7] 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 its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

But Jesus bore man’s judgement because he knew it was God’s judgement on mankind, in whose place he stood - so that he could save us. It was all endured for us.

[Suzi]

Politicians never change huh? So many comparisons can be made with that behaviour and the behaviour we see now and recently how the less well off are treated - look at the dramatic rise in food bank use, the pitiful pay rise for NHS and other key workers, whilst the rich get richer and bankers get huge bonuses and government give themself a lovely pay rise too...