Thanks very much, Rachel. Good morning, everyone. Can I repeat, Alistair's welcome, whether you're here in the church or watching on YouTube or listening to the audio recording, you're very welcome with us this morning.
One of the most compelling TV series that I've watched recently was BBC Scotland's Murder Trial.
Maybe that makes me one of the true crime addicts that Archie talked about last week.
But what was particularly interesting about that series were two things.
One was that the cameras unusually in Scotland were allowed into the courtroom to film the trial.
So you saw that alongside commentary from the advocates and witnesses and so on.
And the second thing was that all the murders involved were historical.
Two of them went back to the 1970s. So the court was doing what I think is called a code case in the legal jargon.
And really interesting to look at how the evidence from long ago was pieced together using modern standards.
And two of the cases, indeed, there wasn't even a body that had been discovered.
So they were only suspected murders.
I'm not going to spoil it for you in case you want to watch the series yourselves.
But two things particularly struck me about them.
And there's nothing else flattering in these.
You'd probably notice the same things in almost any trial that you saw.
The first of these was the centrality of the defendant in the trial.
Now, the nature of the thing was that we were talking about elderly people here.
I think there were three men, I think, all in their 80s, plus a woman.
And they were all quite old.
And as you looked at them, sometimes they looked nervous.
Sometimes they looked maybe a bit confused.
Sometimes a bit defiant.
But you thought they really look in many ways quite pathetic and powerless in the court.
Things are happening round about them.
They're being talked about.
Things from their lives long ago are being dissected.
And apart from one opportunity, if they wish to, and not everyone did, to give evidence,
they are absolutely powerless.
They're in the hands of the witnesses, the advocates, the judge, and ultimately the jury.
And yet they're still central to the case.
It is their guilt, their future, that is being discussed.
And you looked at them and thought, could this person 40-odd years ago really have done the crime that they're accused of?
Is there anything that you can see would give you any indication of that?
What is their demeanor like?
Is it possible that they are guilty or that perhaps they are innocent and they are then very cruelly in their old age being brought to court?
As we come today to the trial of Jesus, then very much I want us to see that Jesus is central in it.
We will look in some detail because we need to understand what's happening at the chief priests and at Pilate
and what their actions and motivations were.
But ultimately it's about Jesus.
It's about what is going to happen to him.
It is about what he is here for.
And it is about whether he really is the Son of God, the King that is being talked about in the trial.
In verse 4 of our passage, Pilate brings Jesus in front of the crowd and he says,
Here is the man.
I've heard the older rendition, Behold the man.
Now what Pilate is doing there, he's trying to win the sympathy of the crowd by presenting someone who is totally powerless.
Jesus has been flogged.
He suffered the scorn and the mockery of the soldiers.
And Pilate is bringing him out and saying,
You don't really think that this man here would be capable of leading a rebellion against Rome.
He's pathetic and powerless.
Why do you think he might be a rebel?
Now, of course, Jesus wasn't pathetic and powerless in any sense at all.
And we'll come back to that a bit later on.
But Pilate was presenting,
Here's the man who is in the centre of this court, at the centre of his case.
I can't say anything wrong that he's done.
Will you release?
Of course, the crowd then said, No.
So that's the first thing, that the defendant is the central person in a trial.
The second thing, and again, there's nothing air shattering here,
is in a trial in a Scottish court or UK court generally and in civilised countries around the world,
there are efforts made to be fair to the dependent.
In almost every trial, I suspect you'll hear someone saying something along the lines,
It is for the prosecution to prove guilt.
The defendant doesn't have to prove anything.
Remember, one of the advocates in one of the cases said how burdened he felt,
because if he didn't do his job well,
and if the defendant really was innocent,
then he might be responsible for what he called a death sentence,
that the man was ill and old and wouldn't survive a prison term.
And there was a real thought,
We need to make sure that justice is done.
Don't assume just because someone's in court that they're guilty.
How different that was from Jesus' trial.
Because there is no justice here.
You have Pilate.
Pilate is in charge.
Pilate is responsible for dispensing Roman justice,
and Roman justice generally aimed to be fair.
Pilate knows he is convinced that Jesus is innocent,
and yet he can't bring himself to release Jesus
in the face of all the shouting that's coming
and the pressure that's being applied on him.
Ultimately, he buckles,
and he gives the crowd their way in allowing Jesus to be crucified.
He looks like the person who's in charge.
Actually, he's one of the ones who's pathetic and powerless in this situation.
Then you have the chief priests, the leaders of the Jews.
They know in their hearts to ensure that Jesus has not done anything
that's worthy of death.
And yet they're determined to see him crucified.
But their problem is they're not able to do it.
But they need Pilate to condemn him before he can be executed.
And they try all sorts of ways to achieve that.
They start by accusing Jesus of planning rebellion,
of claiming to be a king, of going against Caesar.
When Pilate ultimately pours scorn on that,
they change their accusation to it becomes a religious one,
saying he's broken their law by blaspheming
and claiming to be the son of God.
Ultimately, they put pressure on Pilate through a thinly veiled threat
to his job, maybe even to his life.
And they're even willing to say they have no king but Caesar,
which in itself is a blasphemy because their king is God.
They too are pathetic and powerless.
And standing above all this is Jesus.
They're meekly submitting to everything that's given to him,
but doing it with dignity, doing it knowing that what he is doing is God's will.
So as I say, we're going to come at the end and think particularly about Jesus.
We'll also think a bit about the motives of the high priests
and of Pilate and how they might apply to us.
But I want to just take a few minutes to walk through the story,
walk through the narrative,
because I think it's quite important that we understand it.
If you were here last Sunday,
you may remember that Archie took us through the first parts of Jesus' trials.
There was one before the high priests,
and then he was brought into Pilate and stood trial there.
And Archie described it as having a number of scenes in it.
Because it was Passover time,
the Jews didn't want to go into Pilate's palace,
where the trial was taking place,
and become richly unclean.
So they stood outside,
and Pilate shuttled backwards and forwards
between his court inside
and the courtyard outside,
where the people were.
There were three scenes last week.
The first of them were Pilate was trying to establish the charge.
The second where he was interrogating Jesus,
and they had the discussion about kingship and about truth.
And then the third one,
where Pilate made an attempt to persuade the crowd to release Jesus
in the traditional way that someone was released at Passover time,
and they chose Barabbas.
Today we have four more scenes,
two outside the palace,
and two inside it.
And the first of them,
if you've got your Bible,
is in verses 1 to 3.
And we're inside the palace,
and Pilate is having Jesus flawed.
I've given this one the heading,
inhumanity,
because that's what it is, isn't it?
Pilate believes that Jesus is innocent.
He's tried him,
he's talked with him,
he's heard the accusations against him,
and he can find nothing that Jesus has done wrong.
And yet,
he has him flogged,
and he releases him to the soldiers to mock him.
There are two floggings of Jesus recorded
in the Gospel narratives of the crucifixion.
This one in John,
which is in the middle of the trial,
and then in Mark's Gospel,
there's a flogging after the trial,
before Jesus is taken away to be crucified.
Now, that second flogging was terribly severe.
In fact, many people apparently didn't survive it.
It was normal before a crucifixion,
I think probably to make sure
that the person being crucified
wasn't too long on the cross,
that they died relatively quickly.
Probably this flogging wasn't quite as severe,
but nevertheless very brutal.
Maybe more akin to what we sometimes read about
in the Middle East
when people endure punishment floggings,
that kind of thing,
really brutal,
really painful,
blood flowing everywhere,
but not life-threatening at that point.
But Pilate has the innocent Jesus flogged.
And then the soldiers have their fun.
They twist together the thorns
to make a crown more agony for Jesus.
They put a purple robe in mockery,
mocking his kingship,
and they come up and say,
Hail, King of the Jews,
and they slap him in the face,
I suppose,
just to demonstrate how powerless this king is.
Utterly no justice here.
Nothing that is justified
in terms of what happens to Jesus.
And we might ask,
well, why does Pilate do it?
If Pilate really believes that Jesus is innocent,
why does he allow this to happen to him
instead of just releasing him?
Well, the most likely explanation
is that Pilate is hoping to win the sympathy
of the Jewish crowd for Jesus.
To be able to say to them,
hasn't he suffered enough?
I've made an example of him.
He clearly isn't a threat to the power of Rome.
There's no reason for me to get him crucified.
Have I not done enough to him?
And I think that's probably why he did it
and why he then brought Jesus out
to show the crowd.
So he brings Jesus out
and he shows him to the crown,
says,
Here is the man.
Behold the man.
And immediately the crowd,
the chief priests and the officials,
shout, crucify.
Pilate's plan has not worked.
He brought Jesus out,
his back streaming with blood,
blood flowing from his head
and his cheeks bruised from the slapping,
that silly robe on him in mockery.
And he thinks that will win the sympathy
of the crowd.
And it almost does the opposite.
They're even more determined
to crucify him.
And they come up with, as I said,
with an alternative accusation.
So they seem to have realised
this accusation that Jesus is a revolutionary,
is dangerous to Rome.
That's not going to wash.
Here's something that Pilate can't argue with.
Let's hit him with our own laws,
with the Jewish laws,
with our religious laws.
Now the Romans,
anywhere they occupied,
were very aware of the sensitivities
of the religious views
of the occupied lands.
And they tried, where possible,
to accommodate them.
So the Jews thought,
well, here's a plan
that we can put into effect.
And what Pilate should have done
was to say,
well, these are your laws.
They're not the laws of Rome.
I still find Jesus innocent.
He maybe tried to do that
a bit obliquely
by saying to him,
well, you take him
and crucify him then
if he's broken your law.
Knowing full well
that the Jews couldn't do that
because they didn't have
the authority.
But what's happened here,
ultimately,
is that the Jews,
their plan has backfired too.
Because it says,
Pilate was even more afraid
when he heard this.
Why was that?
Pilate was a Roman, of course,
or a Roman citizen.
And Romans believed
in many different gods.
They believed also
that on occasion,
gods might come down
as humans.
And I think in this situation,
Pilate is really worried
that maybe Jesus is
who he says he is
and who the Jews
are accusing him of.
Is he a son of the gods
because they believed
in plural gods?
Is he a son of the gods
come to earth?
And what will happen
to Pilate
if he kills someone
who's one of the gods?
What dreadful fate
is going to befall him
as a result of that?
So we have the next scene then
where Pilate goes back in
and he talks again
with Jesus.
And he asks him first,
where do you come from?
Now I'm sure Pilate
wasn't expecting
the answer in Nazareth to that.
He was asking
a spiritual question.
He was asking Jesus effectively,
are you really a god?
And Jesus doesn't reply,
maybe because he's already
given the answer.
Back in chapter 18
that we looked at last week,
Jesus says,
my kingdom
is not from this world.
So he was admitting
the claim that he was a king,
but saying he was a spiritual,
a heavenly kingdom
rather than an earthly one.
So Jesus doesn't answer Pilate.
And Pilate then pushes and says,
don't you realize
I have power
either to free you
or to crucify you?
And Jesus gives him a reply.
That gives him two replies to that.
One is to say,
you would have no power
unless it was given to you
from above.
Now again,
from above,
I don't think means Rome.
Pilate would have no power
if it wasn't given to him by Rome.
But Jesus means
it's come from heaven.
And then he says,
the one who handed me over to you
is guilty of a greater sin.
Who was it who handed Jesus over to Pilate?
I don't think he's talking about Judas here.
He's talking particularly about Caiaphas,
the high priest,
and the chief priests of the Jews generally.
They are the ones
who bear the greatest guilt for this.
And as Pilate hears that,
Pilate appears to be convinced by it.
Because as he goes out again,
John says that he made
continuing efforts
to get Jesus freed.
He wanted to be able to release Jesus.
He just never could quite bring himself
to do it.
And as he goes out again and says,
here is your king,
and the Jews shall take him away
and crucify him.
They also say,
if you let this man go,
you are no friend of Caesar.
That's in verse 12,
if you're following.
Anyone who claims to be a king
opposes Caesar.
Now, to understand this,
we need to know a little bit
about Pilate's situation.
Pilate was the governor of Judea.
In many ways,
he wasn't a very good governor.
There was quite a lot of rebellion
during his time,
which Pilate crushed quite brutally.
But even with that,
he wouldn't be well regarded in Rome
if his province was seen
as being a bit unruly.
On top of that,
his neighbor Herod,
who was in charge in Galilee,
was highly regarded.
He was quite in
with the people in power in Rome.
So, on that point,
if two things were a bit shaky
for Pilate,
and the third thing was
the house of Annas,
the high priestly house of Israel,
was very wealthy and influential.
And they were quite capable
of going to Rome
and saying,
look, this man Pilate,
he's not doing a good job.
He's even letting someone
who stands against Rome
go free.
And Pilate would have been worried
not just for his job,
but probably also for his life,
because Caesar Tiberius,
who was the emperor at this time,
was notorious,
as many despots are,
was notorious for his jealousy
and for putting to death
anyone who showed
even the slightest sign
of not being behind him.
So, Pilate is feeling here
that his life,
certainly his job,
is at stake.
And ultimately,
that is more important to him
than doing justice.
He believed firmly
that Jesus is innocent.
But at the end of the day,
what he's most interested in
is his own welfare,
his own safety,
his own job.
He really is,
in that sense,
pretty pathetic and powerless
as he gives in
to the chief priests
and the rulers.
And so,
he's a final effort
to talk about Jesus
as the king,
and then he releases him
to be crucified.
We'll follow that
over the next couple of weeks.
Let's go back, though,
as we come towards the end,
and let's just think about,
again,
a bit about the characters
in the story.
And we'll take them
in the reverse order
from what we looked at them
previously.
So, first of all,
we have the chief priests,
the leaders of the Israelites.
What do we make of them?
Well, their minds
were totally closed
to the truth,
weren't they?
They had managed
to convince themselves,
or at least to try
and convince others,
that Jesus was a threat
to Rome,
but also to them.
He was a threat to them
because he exposed
their hypocrisy.
And whatever happened,
they were not willing
to yield one inch
in their determination
to see him crucified.
Jesus made them
uncomfortable.
He exposed their hypocrisy.
And they wanted rid of him,
whatever happened.
I think we can put
a modern context
on that too.
There are a lot of people
around today
who Jesus makes
feel very uncomfortable
and would really not
want anything
to do with him.
They would rather
he wasn't there.
They would rather
forget about him.
I'm not talking,
by and large,
about religious people.
Certainly secularists,
many of them,
would be like that.
Let's just get rid of Jesus.
We don't want anything
to do with him.
Perhaps someone here
is a bit like that.
Jesus makes you feel
uncomfortable.
You don't know
what to make of him,
but you just want
to blank him out,
not have anything
to do with him.
If you're like that,
can I urge you
not to close your mind
the way that
the chief priests
and the Jewish leaders did.
Read one of the books
we've got in the foyer,
perhaps particularly
read the John's Gospels
that are there.
Come to them
with an open mind
and read sincerely
looking for the truth.
Who is this man,
Jesus?
What happened to him?
What did he do?
What relevance
does he have today?
See whether it rings true
as it has for so many
others here.
Perhaps I could also say
to those of you
who are Christians,
who are followers of Jesus,
you may have friends
you think are like that.
They are never going
to accept Jesus.
They're so opposed
to everything
that you stand for,
to any kind of faith,
they are never going
to become Christians.
Well, can I encourage you
keep praying for them
and keep your witness
to them active.
We don't know
whose heart God
is going to soften
and it is often
those who appear
most opposed
to Christian faith
and to the Lord Jesus
actually who come
to be broken
and moved by the Spirit
and come to trust
in him.
Keep praying
for your friends
or your family
that God will
draw them
to himself.
Secondly,
in this we have
Pilate.
Pilate,
the one who seemed
to be in power
but actually wasn't.
Pilate,
the man who wanted
to do what was right
but actually
at the end of the day
because of his own
self-interest
he just couldn't
bring himself
to do that.
Perhaps people like here,
perhaps someone here
is in that position too.
You've looked at Jesus.
You see someone
who's attractive.
Perhaps you believe
even that he's
a son of God
that he died
on the cross
for our sins.
And yet you've not
taken that final step
of trusting in him
and committing
your life to him.
Perhaps it would mean
too many changes
to your lifestyle.
Or perhaps you're
worried about
what others,
your family,
your friends
or whoever
might say about it
and it's just
you feel
too much
for you to do.
Again today
can I urge you
look at Jesus,
look at all
that he has done
for you.
If he has done
so much for you
then you must be
willing to trust him
and to commit
your life
to him.
Yes,
there may be difficulties,
it's not easy
always being a Christian
but ultimately
it's worthwhile
as our sins
are forgiven,
as we have
a relationship
with God
as we know
our future
is secure.
And again
if you're a Christian
you've got family
or friends
who you think
are in that kind
of position
again keep praying
for them,
keep your witness
consistent to them,
help them to see
in you
that it is worthwhile
following Jesus
in spite of any
sacrifices
you might need
to make.
And let's end
with,
as I said,
we would
with Jesus.
Fix your eyes
on him,
behold the man
says Pilate,
behold your king.
Don't you notice
in last week's reading
and this week's
how often
the kingship
of Jesus
is referred to?
I think 11 times
it talks about
the king
or the kingdom
or whatever.
11 times
often
an accusation,
sometimes
said in mockery,
perhaps said
in sarcasm
by Pilate
as he says,
behold your king.
And yet
John is wanting
very much
to direct
our thoughts
to the fact
that Jesus
is a true
king.
He is the king
of the universe.
He might not
have looked like it
but his kingdom
is not
of this world.
And it's actually
in Jesus'
suffering
we read in
John's gospel
that we really
see his glory.
he says,
if I be lifted
up,
that's on the cross,
I will draw
all men
to me.
He talks about
being glorified.
And in this
scene of weakness,
which we'll see
continued over
the next week
or so,
in this scene
of apparent
weakness,
we see actually
Jesus the king
being glorified.
And one day,
one day,
and it may not
be very long,
Jesus will return
and everyone
will see
that he is
the true king.
He will return
to reign
in his
rightful place.
We need today
to fix our eyes
on Jesus
the king
and to own him
as our king.
As Graham Kendrick
said,
meekness and majesty,
manhood and deity
in perfect harmony,
the man
who is
God.
But there's more
than that.
If you look at
the end of the
passage today,
towards the end
of the passage
and towards the
beginning of last
week's passage,
Archie took us
through on the
trial before
Pilate,
there are references
to the Passover
feast.
It was Passover
time.
And John again
is wanting to
present to us
Jesus as our
Passover lamb.
The one who
bled.
We see the
bleeding today
in the flogging
in the crown
of thorns
and the one
who ultimately
would bleed
and die
on the cross.
He was the
one who
willingly gave
himself as
God's sacrifice
for us.
Enduring the
pain,
enduring the
scorn,
ultimately taking
God's penalty
for sin as he
was separated
from his
father on the
cross.
We need to
look at him
and see the
king,
the king of
kings,
but we also
need to see the
perfect lamb
of God,
the sacrifice
given for us.
And as we do,
as we see these
two things in
Jesus,
we should trust
in him and
we should fall
down and
worship him.
This Easter
lets all of us
make sure that
we understand
who Jesus is,
what he's done,
that our trust is
in him and that
we truly worship
him as our
king,
as our
God.
I want to
finish by
reading some
words that
Peter wrote
in his first
letter in
chapter 2.
We'll then have
a short pause
for reflection
and then I'll
pray and I'll
hand back to
Simon to
lead us in
our closing
worship.
Verses from
1 Peter chapter
2 from
verse 22.
He's writing
about Jesus
and it says,
he committed
no sin
and no deceit
was found
in his mouth.
When they
harrowed their
insults at him,
he did not
retaliate.
When he
suffered,
he made
no threats.
Instead,
he entrusted
himself to
him who
judges
justly.
He himself
bore our
sins in
his body
on the
cross.
So that we
might die to
sins and
live for
righteousness,
by his
wounds you
have been
healed.
For you
were like
sheep going
astray,
but now you
have returned
to the
shepherd and
overseer of
your souls.
Let's just
think on
these words
and on the
Lord Jesus
for a few
seconds and
then I'll
lead in
prayer.
Lord Jesus,
we thank you
for your
sacrifice for
us.
We thank you
that you were
willing to go
all through
what you
suffered before
Pilate,
the indignity,
the mocking
and scorn,
the agony of
the flogging,
the crown of
thorns placed
on your
head.
And ultimately
you were
willing to
go all
the way to
the cross
and to
take our
place there.
And we
recognise that
you did it
knowing everything
that was going
to happen to
you and
determined to
do God's
will.
That what
happened was
not some
kind of
accident,
it was the
will of God
being fulfilled,
albeit through
sinful men.
We thank you
Lord Jesus for
all that you
have done
for us.
Help us to
trust in you.
Help us to
love you.
Help us to
worship you.
Help us to
live our lives
for you.
We thank you
for our time
together this
morning.
We commit
ourselves to
you.
In Jesus'
name.
Amen.