July 13, 2025 • 30 mins
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When the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper, where is justice? Diving deep into the sham trial of Jesus in Mark 14, we confront one of faith's most troubling paradoxes – the apparent absence of justice in our world.
The trial itself reveals everything wrong with human attempts at justice. Meeting at night, during a feast day, with conflicting testimonies, the religious leaders broke their own regulations to condemn an innocent man. Why? Mark 15:10 gives us the uncomfortable answer: envy. Such a common emotion led to history's greatest injustice, revealing how easily our hearts can justify terrible actions.
Justice itself seems straightforward – getting what we deserve. For God, however, justice isn't something He does occasionally; it's who He is. As Tozer insightfully noted, "Justice is not something that God has. Justice is something that God is." This explains why injustice creates such a deep ache within us – we're made in God's image, carrying a divine sensitivity toward rightness.
Yet we're confronted with a humbling truth: we're all deserving of justice. Like David, who demanded death for a sheep-stealer while ignoring his own theft of Uriah's wife and life, we're hypocrites when it comes to justice. Our sin looks different when we see it in others.
The cross provides God's astonishing solution. Romans 3:24-26 reveals that God is "just and the justifier" – maintaining perfect justice while extending undeserved mercy. Sin isn't overlooked but paid for by Christ. Meanwhile, Jesus promises future justice: "You will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven." Until then, we live gratefully in the tension between God's patience and our longing for righteousness.
Have you considered how God's patience with injustice – the very thing that sometimes frustrates us – might be the same patience that gives us opportunity after opportunity to experience His mercy?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Mark, chapter 14, verse 53.
It's a big chapter, right, soit's taken us a little while,
and that's okay.
We're in no hurry.
No hurry, mark 14.
About verse there is no 53,.
Is there?
Wait, where am I?
I'm in 15.
Got it?
Fear and trembling.
(00:34):
Alright, 53.
Alright, so as you know by now,it is still Thursday night.
In the Jewish reckoning ofthings, it is the beginning of
Friday.
Friday began at sundown, soJesus enjoyed a Passover meal
with his disciples Thursdaynight, aka Friday morning.
(00:57):
In the Jewish reckoning it'sthe Passover.
It is officially the Passover.
It is the day of the cross inthat reckoning as well, and we
picture Jesus and his 11disciples.
Judas has left his 11 disciplesin the Garden of Gethsemane and
Jesus has spent time praying tothe Father.
(01:18):
He's prayed, we find in thebook of John.
He's prayed for his disciples.
He's even prayed for us, thosewho would come to know him.
And as he's there praying, hisdisciples are dozing.
Good intentions, the spirit iswilling, but the flesh is weak
and they're asleep.
Jesus lets them know.
(01:39):
Here comes my betrayal.
Judas enters the garden and youcan picture it, john tells us in
John 18, with a detachment oftroops About 600 is what we
might be looking at here, 600people armed with clubs and
swords.
The temple guard armed withclubs it's the best they could
(02:01):
do the Roman guard armed withswords.
They come to the garden withtorches held high and Judas
walks up to Jesus and he kisseshim, says Rabbi, rabbi, he
betrays Jesus with a kiss.
Now here they come and pictureit again 600 people to take
(02:25):
Jesus.
His 11 disciples are with him.
I'm going to say it's a littleoverkill, right, a little
overkill.
As they come to capture him.
John lets us know that theybound him when they found him.
But yeah, he willingly wentwith them, but yet he willingly
went with them.
(02:45):
And they take him from thegarden we see in verse 53 to the
house of Caiaphas the highpriest, about half a mile
average, about half a mile fromthe garden to what might be
Caiaphas' house.
It's perhaps maximum 20 minutewalk for this lumbering group.
(03:08):
And they arrive at the houseand we read in verse 53,.
And they led Jesus away to thehigh priest and with him were
assembled all the chief priests,the elders and the scribes.
But Peter followed him at adistance, right into the
courtyard of the high priest andsat with his servants, sat with
(03:30):
the servants and warmed himselfat the fire.
Now the chief priests and allthe council sought testimony
against Jesus to put him todeath, but found none, and many
bore false witness against him.
But their testimonies did notagree.
Then some arose and bore falsewitness against him, saying we
(03:51):
heard him say I will destroythis temple made with hands and
within three days I will buildanother made without hands.
But even then did their test.
But not even then did theirtestimony agree.
And the high priest stood up inthe midst and asked Jesus
saying do you answer nothing?
(04:11):
What is it?
These men testify against you.
But Jesus kept silent andanswered nothing.
Again the high priest asked himsaying are you the Christ, the
son of the Blessed?
Jesus said I am, and you willsee the Son of man sitting at
the right hand of power, comingwith the clouds of heaven.
(04:34):
Then the high priest tore hisclothes and said what further
need do we have of witness?
You have heard the blasphemy.
What do you think?
And they all condemned him tobe deserving of death.
And some began to spit on himand blindfold him and beat him
and say to him Prophesy, andofficers struck him with the
(04:55):
palms of their hands.
Well, we see this here, thistrial of sorts.
See this here, this trial ofsorts, and you can read the
other gospel accounts and piecetogether some other aspects of
this trial.
But looking at it, we can seeright off the bat that this is a
(05:19):
sham.
If we were to look back atDeuteronomy and how trials and
justice was supposed to go down,they weren't even obeying that
or their own regulations.
You were not to hold trial atnight.
You were not to hold trial on afeast day.
Passover would include that ifit was a capital offense, you
(05:44):
had to have at least two daysworth of trials.
And so even in just theirmeeting together to do this,
it's not right.
It's a sham.
If we peek over to chapter 15,verse 10, we know something
about why they're doing this.
Notice, in verse 10, chapter 15, pilate knew that the chief
(06:07):
priest had handed him overbecause of envy.
We know the motive on thiswhole thing.
Why did the priests do this inthe first place?
They were envious.
They didn't like Jesusquestioning their authority or
leading people to himself.
And there's a lot of things wecould look at in this, but the
thing that hits me the most isjust the injustice of it all.
(06:31):
Right, it's a trial.
Now it's easy and commonplacein our world to watch trials
just for entertainment, right?
Has anyone done it?
Trials on the news, trials onTV, judge Judy right, and we
watch it.
And we can see in our worldthat justice is rare.
(06:54):
Don't you ever feel that way inthe news?
And in Judge Judy is where isjustice?
We see powerful and corruptpeople abusing power, getting
(07:15):
away with injustice.
Where is justice and reallythat's the thing that really
struck me the most in thispassage is just the injustice of
it all.
Now, granted, in this case, inthe case of Jesus, we know it
was the will of the Father forhim to ultimately suffer for us
and go to the cross, but itdoesn't stop us from thinking
(07:39):
why do the righteous suffer?
Do the righteous suffer?
Why is justice so rare?
So I want to consider just thattopic.
We'll look at Mark 14 and otherplaces, but I want to consider
that idea of justice in theworld.
So follow with me if you can.
What is justice?
(07:59):
Oh my goodness, oh my goodness,justice.
The dictionary perhaps definesit as an impartial administering
of rewards and punishments.
That's sort of helpful.
Simply, justice is getting whatwe deserve.
Justice is getting what wedeserve.
(08:23):
Concerning God, now listen.
Concerning God, it's doing whatis right.
That's what he does in justice.
God does what is right.
Justice is an attribute of God.
God is just.
God is always just Now.
(08:45):
Listen.
Tozer said it like this Justiceis not something that God has.
Justice is something that Godis.
God is just.
The psalmist says this about GodPsalm 89, verse 14.
Says this about God Psalm 89,verse 14,.
(09:09):
Righteousness and justice arethe foundation of your throne.
Mercy and truth go before yourface.
Righteousness, justice,foundation of God's throne.
Paul said in 2 Timothy 4, thatGod is a righteous judge and
distributes to each oneaccording as they deserve.
So check it out.
As we look at justice, it'sgetting what we deserve.
(09:30):
But as we look at God'scharacter this is important,
god's character he is just.
He's always just.
Nehemiah proclaimed it inprayer Nehemiah 9.33.
However, you are just in allthat has befallen us.
You have dealt faithfully, butwe have done wickedly.
(09:50):
So when it comes to the end ofit all, we will find out.
God is just and he is purejustice.
But now, why is justice denied,as we see here in Mark 14?
Why is it that justice doesn'talways come about.
(10:12):
We look at ourselves and thisis a real question right, why is
there injustice in the world?
We see injustice and there'ssomething in us that kind of
aches a little bit.
Right, it aches for justice.
Maybe that's because to somedegree in Christ we're made in
(10:36):
the image of God.
Right, maybe that's that achein our heart when we look at the
world and we go.
It's just not right, it's justnot just.
Why do people get away withthings?
Why is there injustice?
We see this kind of thing, thistrial, this sham trial of Jesus
, and it angers us and itgrieves us.
(10:58):
We see the injustice of manaround us and it doesn't sit
well with us For those of you inlaw enforcement because there
are some, obviously perhaps youstruggle with this, maybe you do
, maybe you don't, but you seethe injustice of things and
people hurting and abusing,taking advantage of and many
(11:23):
times getting away with it, thestronger taking advantage of the
weaker.
There's something in us that welong for justice we all enjoy.
Scammer payback right, doesanyone else watch that?
Right?
Scammer payback, where the guygoes on and masquerades his
voice like a little old lady andcalls the scammers you know and
(11:45):
then just destroys theircomputer or something you know,
and you go yes, justice, youknow, and we love it.
Right, there's something justin us that can't handle it.
Now we wonder why?
(12:07):
Why is justice often denied?
We live in a fallen world.
That's number one.
That's the answer to a lot ofthings, right?
Why is there evil andwickedness in the world?
We live in a fallen world,filled with fallen people.
We see the chief priests hereand again, in chapter 15, verse
(12:31):
10, we understand that the basisfor what they're doing is envy.
They saw Jesus and they wereenvious.
The motive is something we canall understand, though Look at
that In our own fallen hearts,we all experience envy from time
to time, simple emotion, rightTo look at somebody and want
(12:56):
what they have or what they areTo question why did they get the
promotion?
And I didn't right Asaph inPsalm 73, he struggled with it.
He said why do the wickedprosper, right?
Why do they have it all perfect?
And you see, it's just anatural thing, but it's a danger
(13:19):
, right?
That should be a warning to us.
Something as simple as envy inour hearts can lead to this.
Right Can lead to something asunjust.
Unjust as that.
Solomon struggled with injusticein Ecclesiastes 3.16.
He said this Moreover, I sawunder the sun, in the place of
(13:41):
judgment, wickedness was there.
In the place of righteousness,iniquity was there, and he
stumbled with that.
So, number one, why is thereinjustice in the world?
We live in a fallen world.
(14:02):
We're fallen people.
I'm a fallen person and weexperience envy and hatred and
wrath and bitterness and allthese things, and they cause us
to do sinful.
And they cause us to do sinful,unjust type things.
But why does God allow it?
Well, we also see, god ispatient.
That's one of his attributes,along with his justice.
God is patient.
(14:23):
He patiently bears with us.
He doesn't judge sin right away.
In the book of Genesis didn'ttake long.
Chapter six, god sees the worldis filled with wickedness and
he tells Noah I'm going to judgeit, build an ark.
(14:43):
Now, that's God's justice andwe see it.
But something maybe we don'tsee is that we're told later on
in the New Testament that it wasa hundred and twenty years that
Noah built the ark.
It was a hundred and twentyyears that Noah was a preacher
of righteousness in hisgeneration.
A hundred and twenty years is along time, right to state the
(15:08):
obvious, a long, and God waspatient during that time to send
somebody to preachrighteousness to them through
Noah.
It didn't destroy him right out, he was patient.
In Genesis 15, verse 16, god istelling Abraham the land will be
your descendants' land.
(15:29):
And he says but it'll be 490years because the iniquity of
the Ammonites was not yetcomplete.
So check it out.
God was going to give them theland the book of Joshua, right.
But he gave the Ammonites, awicked people, 490 years to get
(15:51):
it all wrong, to get itcompletely wrong.
490 years is a long time.
Why does God allow it?
Because he's patient.
Right, peter tells us that Godis long-suffering, not desiring
that any would perish, but allwould come to repentance.
(16:12):
And so we look at this and wego God, why are you not judging
this stuff?
Why are you not bringingjustice?
And we find out, god is patientwith us.
And we stand, maybe, in ourstory, here, in our account,
here out in the courtyard, andwe look at this injustice and we
(16:35):
go.
But God, why?
Why do you allow things likethis to happen?
We forget this.
Now listen, we forget this.
We're all deserving of justice,we're all humans.
Romans 3.23, a basic Bible ideaAll have sinned and fall short
(16:57):
of the glory of God.
Even with our best shot atjustice, we're usually not fair
either.
Think about it.
We're usually not fair, right?
We're like David, right whenNathan the prophet is telling
him of the guy who took hisneighbor's sheep and offered it
as dinner to a friend from outof town, and David says that man
(17:20):
should surely die for stealinga sheep.
And yet David had Bathsheba'shusband, uriah, killed, stole
his wife, and we look at thatand we go.
You know what?
We're not right when it comesto justice.
We're just not right, we're notfair and a lot of times we're
(17:40):
just not honest.
We forget the failure in ourown life.
Right, our failure, our sin.
Think about it.
Our sin looks different onsomeone else.
It really does.
The disciples remember whenJames and John sent their mommy
(18:03):
to talk to Jesus about finding aplace in the kingdom?
Remember that one and the otherdisciples were so mad.
How dare they send their mom togo ask for a position in the
kingdom?
I should have thought of that.
You know what I mean.
And that's the thing.
We look at other people and go.
That's just wrong.
(18:25):
And yet it's our own sin thatsometimes we forget.
We despise the opportunistbecause they wanted a promotion.
We despise the gossiper andwant everyone to know that she
just can't be trusted.
Generally, no offense, butgenerally we're hypocrites.
(18:48):
We don't see it.
Right?
I was scrolling through Facebookbecause I do from time to time
Silly little thing.
Right, the optical illusion.
Right, you see that this facecomes up and it's this woman
smiling right, and you turn itupside down and it's like.
It's like not quite what youthought it was.
(19:08):
Your brain plays tricks on you.
Right, we're kind of like that,aren't we?
We look at our own smiling faceand we're like but I got good
intentions in my justice.
Then we turned it upside downand we see our hearts for what
they really are.
And so many times we understandwhat the Bible says.
We're just not just, we're notright, we're sinful in ourselves
(19:32):
ourselves.
That's something that the Biblelets us know.
And Yet we look at this and wewant justice.
And let's turn to Psalm 103,verse 6.
(19:53):
Psalm 103, verse 6.
And see how God deals withthese things.
Psalm 103, verse 6.
It's a psalm, it's beautiful.
It says this the Lord executesrighteousness and justice for
(20:16):
all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moseshis acts to the children of
Israel.
The Lord is merciful andgracious, slow to anger and
abounding in mercy.
He will not always strive withus, nor will he keep his anger
forever.
He has not dealt with usaccording to our sins, nor
punished us according to ouriniquities, whereas the heavens
(20:40):
are high above the earth.
So great is his mercy towardsthose who fear him.
As far as the east is from thewest, so far has he removed our
transgressions from us.
As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who
fear him.
He knows our frame.
He remembers that we are dust.
So God, thankfully, doesn'talways give us what we deserve.
(21:06):
We see his character in perfecttension.
That God is just, that's a fact.
He's righteous.
He can't do anything else butbe righteous.
But he's also merciful to us.
He doesn't give us what wedeserve.
He's gracious.
Every day he gives us thingsthat we don't deserve.
(21:29):
God in his character is just sogood.
Let's turn one more place.
What do we do about justice inour world?
Romans, chapter 3, verse 24.
(21:52):
We'll go here to Romans 3, 24,and then we'll go back to Mark.
If you still have that one.
If you don't, it's okay, we'llbe all right?
Romans 3, 24.
How does God deal with all thisinjustice?
Romans 3.24.
Beautiful passage beingjustified freely by his grace
(22:13):
through the redemption that isin Christ Jesus, whom God set
forth as a propitiation, oratoning sacrifice by his blood,
through faith, to demonstratehis righteousness, because in
his forbearance, his patience,god has passed over the sins
that were previously committed.
Now check this out verse 26.
To demonstrate, at the presenttime, his righteousness, that he
(22:39):
might be just and the justifierof the one who has faith in
Jesus.
So when we talk about justice,we go just forward a tiny bit in
our gospel account to the crossand we see the justice of the
cross just hours away God justlyjudging sin.
(23:03):
Now picture it.
Bible tells us we talked aboutit last week that all of our
unrighteousness, all the ways wefailed, were placed on Jesus on
the cross.
When he died on the cross, hepaid the penalty for all of our
sin, our selfishness, ourfailures, all those things.
(23:25):
Jesus justifies us.
He makes us just when we're notjust.
It's a gift right of what Jesusdoes for us on the cross.
He justifies us.
But notice what it says here inverse.
Was it 26?
(23:45):
26,?
Yeah, he demonstrates that heis just the sin of the world
judged, and the justifier of theone who has faith.
So check it out.
He does both.
He justly pays the price forsin and unrighteousness and then
he justifies us.
He gives it to us as a gift.
(24:07):
He's totally just, though, inthat we look at it and we just
go mind blown God, why would youdo that for us?
And really that is thepunchline of this thing.
It wasn't that much after thisthat Jesus became sin, even for
that high priest, even for thosethat were spitting on him and
(24:31):
punching him and crucifying him.
It's their sin as much as oursin.
So that really is the punchline.
But what about practicaljustice?
I think we want to find thatbefore we leave today.
What about practical justice?
Let's turn back to Mark, chapter14, something we don't want to
(24:51):
miss.
Mark, chapter 14, verse 61.
So this trial is going down andJesus, verse 61, kept silent
and answered nothing.
Right, isaiah?
Isaiah 53 tells us that, like asheep before her, the slaughter
(25:14):
is silent.
So he opened, not his mouth,and and that's Jesus right there
, he's silent, answered nothing.
The high priest asked him sayingare you the Christ, the Messiah
, the son of the blessed?
Jesus said I am oh man, youcould just pause right there for
(25:34):
a second as Jesus, in front ofthose priests, he uses the,
really the name of God, who Godwas.
I am, who God told him, toldMoses, this is who I am.
I am that I am.
And Jesus, here in front ofthese high priests, says I am,
(25:55):
and you will see the son of mansitting at the right hand of the
power and coming with theclouds of heaven.
This is still to come, thepower and coming with the clouds
of heaven.
This is still to come.
Right, jesus has not come inthe clouds of heaven.
He has not returned to earth toestablish justice, but he will,
and I think that's reallyimportant for us to see in this
(26:17):
world, as we're confronted withunrighteousness, we go God.
Why?
Why do you let people get awaywith it?
Well, he's patient, aren't youglad he's patient?
And he was patient with me.
He still is every single day.
What if God, like, just judgedmy sin right away?
Every time I stepped out ofline, he's like yeah, that's
enough, you know over, you knowhe doesn't.
(26:40):
He's patient and not willingthat any should perish.
But check it out.
One day God will establishrighteousness.
Read the book of Revelation andspells it out in pretty vivid
terms Right, he's going toestablish real righteousness on
earth.
He's going to judge the wicked,the unrepentant wicked that
(27:05):
have never come to Jesus.
He's going to judge them.
He's going to give people whatthey deserve.
And we look at that and we gothat's harsh, but it's good,
right.
When we look at all the abusethat goes down without any
question, without anyconsequences, you know, when we
look at the injustice of murderswithout any penalty, and you go
(27:27):
it's just not right and it justisn't right.
But one day God will make itright.
And Jesus gives a little sneakpeek and he says one day you're
going to see the son of mancoming there with power, you're
going to see it go down andjustice will be served.
And what did they say inRevelation 15, verse 3?
(27:49):
They sing a song of Moses, theservant of God, the song of the
Lamb, saying great and marvelousare your works, lord, god
Almighty, just and true are yourways, o King, I love that.
You know you kind of rest inthat, don't you?
(28:19):
When it comes to the very endof the story, everybody says
just and true.
Just and true are all your ways, everything you do is right and
God will establish real justice.
But thank God that he hasn'tgiven us what we deserve.
He offers us forgiveness.
(28:41):
We each need it rightForgiveness by what Jesus did on
the cross.
And you know, even for those ofus that are saved, check it out
.
This week, I predict.
I predict you will need God'sforgiveness and you will need
God's mercy in your life.
I will definitely need God'smercy and his grace in my life
(29:03):
and thank God that he gives itto us.
God, thank you so much for whoyou are, and we do ache a little
bit as we look at the injusticearound us.
From time to time.
It's all around us, it's on thenews and it's in our life.
God, we wonder why?
Why do you let things like thathappen?
But yet, god, thank you forbeing patient.
(29:26):
We don't always love it inother people, for other people,
but, god, we need it, yourpatience and your kindness, that
you don't just smash us andjudge us.
Now, god, you plead with us andyou want us to turn from our sin
and turn to you.
God, thank you for being betterthan we could ever imagine.
(29:47):
God, we just thank you thatthis week, although we'll try.
We won't be perfect, but, god,you'll be good and you'll be
merciful.
And because of what Jesus didon the cross for us, you make us
just and you make us clean.
God, I pray for my friends.
You would just encourage andkeep them.
(30:11):
I just ask that you'dstrengthen them in their inner
heart to know you and love youand walk with you.
God, watch over us as we gofrom this place.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
Mark, chapter 14, verse 53.
It's a big chapter, right, soit's taken us a little while,
and that's okay.
We're in no hurry.
No hurry, mark 14.
About verse there is no 53,.
Is there?
Wait, where am I?
I'm in 15.
Got it?
Fear and trembling.
(00:34):
Alright, 53.
Alright, so as you know by now,it is still Thursday night.
In the Jewish reckoning ofthings, it is the beginning of
Friday.
Friday began at sundown, soJesus enjoyed a Passover meal
with his disciples Thursdaynight, aka Friday morning.
(00:57):
In the Jewish reckoning it'sthe Passover.
It is officially the Passover.
It is the day of the cross inthat reckoning as well, and we
picture Jesus and his 11disciples.
Judas has left his 11 disciplesin the Garden of Gethsemane and
Jesus has spent time praying tothe Father.
(01:18):
He's prayed, we find in thebook of John.
He's prayed for his disciples.
He's even prayed for us, thosewho would come to know him.
And as he's there praying, hisdisciples are dozing.
Good intentions, the spirit iswilling, but the flesh is weak
and they're asleep.
Jesus lets them know.
(01:39):
Here comes my betrayal.
Judas enters the garden and youcan picture it, john tells us in
John 18, with a detachment oftroops About 600 is what we
might be looking at here, 600people armed with clubs and
swords.
The temple guard armed withclubs it's the best they could
(02:01):
do the Roman guard armed withswords.
They come to the garden withtorches held high and Judas
walks up to Jesus and he kisseshim, says Rabbi, rabbi, he
betrays Jesus with a kiss.
Now here they come and pictureit again 600 people to take
(02:25):
Jesus.
His 11 disciples are with him.
I'm going to say it's a littleoverkill, right, a little
overkill.
As they come to capture him.
John lets us know that theybound him when they found him.
But yeah, he willingly wentwith them, but yet he willingly
went with them.
(02:45):
And they take him from thegarden we see in verse 53 to the
house of Caiaphas the highpriest, about half a mile
average, about half a mile fromthe garden to what might be
Caiaphas' house.
It's perhaps maximum 20 minutewalk for this lumbering group.
(03:08):
And they arrive at the houseand we read in verse 53,.
And they led Jesus away to thehigh priest and with him were
assembled all the chief priests,the elders and the scribes.
But Peter followed him at adistance, right into the
courtyard of the high priest andsat with his servants, sat with
(03:30):
the servants and warmed himselfat the fire.
Now the chief priests and allthe council sought testimony
against Jesus to put him todeath, but found none, and many
bore false witness against him.
But their testimonies did notagree.
Then some arose and bore falsewitness against him, saying we
(03:51):
heard him say I will destroythis temple made with hands and
within three days I will buildanother made without hands.
But even then did their test.
But not even then did theirtestimony agree.
And the high priest stood up inthe midst and asked Jesus
saying do you answer nothing?
(04:11):
What is it?
These men testify against you.
But Jesus kept silent andanswered nothing.
Again the high priest asked himsaying are you the Christ, the
son of the Blessed?
Jesus said I am, and you willsee the Son of man sitting at
the right hand of power, comingwith the clouds of heaven.
(04:34):
Then the high priest tore hisclothes and said what further
need do we have of witness?
You have heard the blasphemy.
What do you think?
And they all condemned him tobe deserving of death.
And some began to spit on himand blindfold him and beat him
and say to him Prophesy, andofficers struck him with the
(04:55):
palms of their hands.
Well, we see this here, thistrial of sorts.
See this here, this trial ofsorts, and you can read the
other gospel accounts and piecetogether some other aspects of
this trial.
But looking at it, we can seeright off the bat that this is a
(05:19):
sham.
If we were to look back atDeuteronomy and how trials and
justice was supposed to go down,they weren't even obeying that
or their own regulations.
You were not to hold trial atnight.
You were not to hold trial on afeast day.
Passover would include that ifit was a capital offense, you
(05:44):
had to have at least two daysworth of trials.
And so even in just theirmeeting together to do this,
it's not right.
It's a sham.
If we peek over to chapter 15,verse 10, we know something
about why they're doing this.
Notice, in verse 10, chapter 15, pilate knew that the chief
(06:07):
priest had handed him overbecause of envy.
We know the motive on thiswhole thing.
Why did the priests do this inthe first place?
They were envious.
They didn't like Jesusquestioning their authority or
leading people to himself.
And there's a lot of things wecould look at in this, but the
thing that hits me the most isjust the injustice of it all.
(06:31):
Right, it's a trial.
Now it's easy and commonplacein our world to watch trials
just for entertainment, right?
Has anyone done it?
Trials on the news, trials onTV, judge Judy right, and we
watch it.
And we can see in our worldthat justice is rare.
(06:54):
Don't you ever feel that way inthe news?
And in Judge Judy is where isjustice?
We see powerful and corruptpeople abusing power, getting
(07:15):
away with injustice.
Where is justice and reallythat's the thing that really
struck me the most in thispassage is just the injustice of
it all.
Now, granted, in this case, inthe case of Jesus, we know it
was the will of the Father forhim to ultimately suffer for us
and go to the cross, but itdoesn't stop us from thinking
(07:39):
why do the righteous suffer?
Do the righteous suffer?
Why is justice so rare?
So I want to consider just thattopic.
We'll look at Mark 14 and otherplaces, but I want to consider
that idea of justice in theworld.
So follow with me if you can.
What is justice?
(07:59):
Oh my goodness, oh my goodness,justice.
The dictionary perhaps definesit as an impartial administering
of rewards and punishments.
That's sort of helpful.
Simply, justice is getting whatwe deserve.
Justice is getting what wedeserve.
(08:23):
Concerning God, now listen.
Concerning God, it's doing whatis right.
That's what he does in justice.
God does what is right.
Justice is an attribute of God.
God is just.
God is always just Now.
(08:45):
Listen.
Tozer said it like this Justiceis not something that God has.
Justice is something that Godis.
God is just.
The psalmist says this about GodPsalm 89, verse 14.
Says this about God Psalm 89,verse 14,.
(09:09):
Righteousness and justice arethe foundation of your throne.
Mercy and truth go before yourface.
Righteousness, justice,foundation of God's throne.
Paul said in 2 Timothy 4, thatGod is a righteous judge and
distributes to each oneaccording as they deserve.
So check it out.
As we look at justice, it'sgetting what we deserve.
(09:30):
But as we look at God'scharacter this is important,
god's character he is just.
He's always just.
Nehemiah proclaimed it inprayer Nehemiah 9.33.
However, you are just in allthat has befallen us.
You have dealt faithfully, butwe have done wickedly.
(09:50):
So when it comes to the end ofit all, we will find out.
God is just and he is purejustice.
But now, why is justice denied,as we see here in Mark 14?
Why is it that justice doesn'talways come about.
(10:12):
We look at ourselves and thisis a real question right, why is
there injustice in the world?
We see injustice and there'ssomething in us that kind of
aches a little bit.
Right, it aches for justice.
Maybe that's because to somedegree in Christ we're made in
(10:36):
the image of God.
Right, maybe that's that achein our heart when we look at the
world and we go.
It's just not right, it's justnot just.
Why do people get away withthings?
Why is there injustice?
We see this kind of thing, thistrial, this sham trial of Jesus
, and it angers us and itgrieves us.
(10:58):
We see the injustice of manaround us and it doesn't sit
well with us For those of you inlaw enforcement because there
are some, obviously perhaps youstruggle with this, maybe you do
, maybe you don't, but you seethe injustice of things and
people hurting and abusing,taking advantage of and many
(11:23):
times getting away with it, thestronger taking advantage of the
weaker.
There's something in us that welong for justice we all enjoy.
Scammer payback right, doesanyone else watch that?
Right?
Scammer payback, where the guygoes on and masquerades his
voice like a little old lady andcalls the scammers you know and
(11:45):
then just destroys theircomputer or something you know,
and you go yes, justice, youknow, and we love it.
Right, there's something justin us that can't handle it.
Now we wonder why?
(12:07):
Why is justice often denied?
We live in a fallen world.
That's number one.
That's the answer to a lot ofthings, right?
Why is there evil andwickedness in the world?
We live in a fallen world,filled with fallen people.
We see the chief priests hereand again, in chapter 15, verse
(12:31):
10, we understand that the basisfor what they're doing is envy.
They saw Jesus and they wereenvious.
The motive is something we canall understand, though Look at
that In our own fallen hearts,we all experience envy from time
to time, simple emotion, rightTo look at somebody and want
(12:56):
what they have or what they areTo question why did they get the
promotion?
And I didn't right Asaph inPsalm 73, he struggled with it.
He said why do the wickedprosper, right?
Why do they have it all perfect?
And you see, it's just anatural thing, but it's a danger
(13:19):
, right?
That should be a warning to us.
Something as simple as envy inour hearts can lead to this.
Right Can lead to something asunjust.
Unjust as that.
Solomon struggled with injusticein Ecclesiastes 3.16.
He said this Moreover, I sawunder the sun, in the place of
(13:41):
judgment, wickedness was there.
In the place of righteousness,iniquity was there, and he
stumbled with that.
So, number one, why is thereinjustice in the world?
We live in a fallen world.
(14:02):
We're fallen people.
I'm a fallen person and weexperience envy and hatred and
wrath and bitterness and allthese things, and they cause us
to do sinful.
And they cause us to do sinful,unjust type things.
But why does God allow it?
Well, we also see, god ispatient.
That's one of his attributes,along with his justice.
God is patient.
(14:23):
He patiently bears with us.
He doesn't judge sin right away.
In the book of Genesis didn'ttake long.
Chapter six, god sees the worldis filled with wickedness and
he tells Noah I'm going to judgeit, build an ark.
(14:43):
Now, that's God's justice andwe see it.
But something maybe we don'tsee is that we're told later on
in the New Testament that it wasa hundred and twenty years that
Noah built the ark.
It was a hundred and twentyyears that Noah was a preacher
of righteousness in hisgeneration.
A hundred and twenty years is along time, right to state the
(15:08):
obvious, a long, and God waspatient during that time to send
somebody to preachrighteousness to them through
Noah.
It didn't destroy him right out, he was patient.
In Genesis 15, verse 16, god istelling Abraham the land will be
your descendants' land.
(15:29):
And he says but it'll be 490years because the iniquity of
the Ammonites was not yetcomplete.
So check it out.
God was going to give them theland the book of Joshua, right.
But he gave the Ammonites, awicked people, 490 years to get
(15:51):
it all wrong, to get itcompletely wrong.
490 years is a long time.
Why does God allow it?
Because he's patient.
Right, peter tells us that Godis long-suffering, not desiring
that any would perish, but allwould come to repentance.
(16:12):
And so we look at this and wego God, why are you not judging
this stuff?
Why are you not bringingjustice?
And we find out, god is patientwith us.
And we stand, maybe, in ourstory, here, in our account,
here out in the courtyard, andwe look at this injustice and we
(16:35):
go.
But God, why?
Why do you allow things likethis to happen?
We forget this.
Now listen, we forget this.
We're all deserving of justice,we're all humans.
Romans 3.23, a basic Bible ideaAll have sinned and fall short
(16:57):
of the glory of God.
Even with our best shot atjustice, we're usually not fair
either.
Think about it.
We're usually not fair, right?
We're like David, right whenNathan the prophet is telling
him of the guy who took hisneighbor's sheep and offered it
as dinner to a friend from outof town, and David says that man
(17:20):
should surely die for stealinga sheep.
And yet David had Bathsheba'shusband, uriah, killed, stole
his wife, and we look at thatand we go.
You know what?
We're not right when it comesto justice.
We're just not right, we're notfair and a lot of times we're
(17:40):
just not honest.
We forget the failure in ourown life.
Right, our failure, our sin.
Think about it.
Our sin looks different onsomeone else.
It really does.
The disciples remember whenJames and John sent their mommy
(18:03):
to talk to Jesus about finding aplace in the kingdom?
Remember that one and the otherdisciples were so mad.
How dare they send their mom togo ask for a position in the
kingdom?
I should have thought of that.
You know what I mean.
And that's the thing.
We look at other people and go.
That's just wrong.
(18:25):
And yet it's our own sin thatsometimes we forget.
We despise the opportunistbecause they wanted a promotion.
We despise the gossiper andwant everyone to know that she
just can't be trusted.
Generally, no offense, butgenerally we're hypocrites.
(18:48):
We don't see it.
Right?
I was scrolling through Facebookbecause I do from time to time
Silly little thing.
Right, the optical illusion.
Right, you see that this facecomes up and it's this woman
smiling right, and you turn itupside down and it's like.
It's like not quite what youthought it was.
(19:08):
Your brain plays tricks on you.
Right, we're kind of like that,aren't we?
We look at our own smiling faceand we're like but I got good
intentions in my justice.
Then we turned it upside downand we see our hearts for what
they really are.
And so many times we understandwhat the Bible says.
We're just not just, we're notright, we're sinful in ourselves
(19:32):
ourselves.
That's something that the Biblelets us know.
And Yet we look at this and wewant justice.
And let's turn to Psalm 103,verse 6.
(19:53):
Psalm 103, verse 6.
And see how God deals withthese things.
Psalm 103, verse 6.
It's a psalm, it's beautiful.
It says this the Lord executesrighteousness and justice for
(20:16):
all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moseshis acts to the children of
Israel.
The Lord is merciful andgracious, slow to anger and
abounding in mercy.
He will not always strive withus, nor will he keep his anger
forever.
He has not dealt with usaccording to our sins, nor
punished us according to ouriniquities, whereas the heavens
(20:40):
are high above the earth.
So great is his mercy towardsthose who fear him.
As far as the east is from thewest, so far has he removed our
transgressions from us.
As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who
fear him.
He knows our frame.
He remembers that we are dust.
So God, thankfully, doesn'talways give us what we deserve.
(21:06):
We see his character in perfecttension.
That God is just, that's a fact.
He's righteous.
He can't do anything else butbe righteous.
But he's also merciful to us.
He doesn't give us what wedeserve.
He's gracious.
Every day he gives us thingsthat we don't deserve.
(21:29):
God in his character is just sogood.
Let's turn one more place.
What do we do about justice inour world?
Romans, chapter 3, verse 24.
(21:52):
We'll go here to Romans 3, 24,and then we'll go back to Mark.
If you still have that one.
If you don't, it's okay, we'llbe all right?
Romans 3, 24.
How does God deal with all thisinjustice?
Romans 3.24.
Beautiful passage beingjustified freely by his grace
(22:13):
through the redemption that isin Christ Jesus, whom God set
forth as a propitiation, oratoning sacrifice by his blood,
through faith, to demonstratehis righteousness, because in
his forbearance, his patience,god has passed over the sins
that were previously committed.
Now check this out verse 26.
To demonstrate, at the presenttime, his righteousness, that he
(22:39):
might be just and the justifierof the one who has faith in
Jesus.
So when we talk about justice,we go just forward a tiny bit in
our gospel account to the crossand we see the justice of the
cross just hours away God justlyjudging sin.
(23:03):
Now picture it.
Bible tells us we talked aboutit last week that all of our
unrighteousness, all the ways wefailed, were placed on Jesus on
the cross.
When he died on the cross, hepaid the penalty for all of our
sin, our selfishness, ourfailures, all those things.
(23:25):
Jesus justifies us.
He makes us just when we're notjust.
It's a gift right of what Jesusdoes for us on the cross.
He justifies us.
But notice what it says here inverse.
Was it 26?
(23:45):
26,?
Yeah, he demonstrates that heis just the sin of the world
judged, and the justifier of theone who has faith.
So check it out.
He does both.
He justly pays the price forsin and unrighteousness and then
he justifies us.
He gives it to us as a gift.
(24:07):
He's totally just, though, inthat we look at it and we just
go mind blown God, why would youdo that for us?
And really that is thepunchline of this thing.
It wasn't that much after thisthat Jesus became sin, even for
that high priest, even for thosethat were spitting on him and
(24:31):
punching him and crucifying him.
It's their sin as much as oursin.
So that really is the punchline.
But what about practicaljustice?
I think we want to find thatbefore we leave today.
What about practical justice?
Let's turn back to Mark, chapter14, something we don't want to
(24:51):
miss.
Mark, chapter 14, verse 61.
So this trial is going down andJesus, verse 61, kept silent
and answered nothing.
Right, isaiah?
Isaiah 53 tells us that, like asheep before her, the slaughter
(25:14):
is silent.
So he opened, not his mouth,and and that's Jesus right there
, he's silent, answered nothing.
The high priest asked him sayingare you the Christ, the Messiah
, the son of the blessed?
Jesus said I am oh man, youcould just pause right there for
(25:34):
a second as Jesus, in front ofthose priests, he uses the,
really the name of God, who Godwas.
I am, who God told him, toldMoses, this is who I am.
I am that I am.
And Jesus, here in front ofthese high priests, says I am,
(25:55):
and you will see the son of mansitting at the right hand of the
power and coming with theclouds of heaven.
This is still to come, thepower and coming with the clouds
of heaven.
This is still to come.
Right, jesus has not come inthe clouds of heaven.
He has not returned to earth toestablish justice, but he will,
and I think that's reallyimportant for us to see in this
(26:17):
world, as we're confronted withunrighteousness, we go God.
Why?
Why do you let people get awaywith it?
Well, he's patient, aren't youglad he's patient?
And he was patient with me.
He still is every single day.
What if God, like, just judgedmy sin right away?
Every time I stepped out ofline, he's like yeah, that's
enough, you know over, you knowhe doesn't.
(26:40):
He's patient and not willingthat any should perish.
But check it out.
One day God will establishrighteousness.
Read the book of Revelation andspells it out in pretty vivid
terms Right, he's going toestablish real righteousness on
earth.
He's going to judge the wicked,the unrepentant wicked that
(27:05):
have never come to Jesus.
He's going to judge them.
He's going to give people whatthey deserve.
And we look at that and we gothat's harsh, but it's good,
right.
When we look at all the abusethat goes down without any
question, without anyconsequences, you know, when we
look at the injustice of murderswithout any penalty, and you go
(27:27):
it's just not right and it justisn't right.
But one day God will make itright.
And Jesus gives a little sneakpeek and he says one day you're
going to see the son of mancoming there with power, you're
going to see it go down andjustice will be served.
And what did they say inRevelation 15, verse 3?
(27:49):
They sing a song of Moses, theservant of God, the song of the
Lamb, saying great and marvelousare your works, lord, god
Almighty, just and true are yourways, o King, I love that.
You know you kind of rest inthat, don't you?
(28:19):
When it comes to the very endof the story, everybody says
just and true.
Just and true are all your ways, everything you do is right and
God will establish real justice.
But thank God that he hasn'tgiven us what we deserve.
He offers us forgiveness.
(28:41):
We each need it rightForgiveness by what Jesus did on
the cross.
And you know, even for those ofus that are saved, check it out
.
This week, I predict.
I predict you will need God'sforgiveness and you will need
God's mercy in your life.
I will definitely need God'smercy and his grace in my life
(29:03):
and thank God that he gives itto us.
God, thank you so much for whoyou are, and we do ache a little
bit as we look at the injusticearound us.
From time to time.
It's all around us, it's on thenews and it's in our life.
God, we wonder why?
Why do you let things like thathappen?
But yet, god, thank you forbeing patient.
(29:26):
We don't always love it inother people, for other people,
but, god, we need it, yourpatience and your kindness, that
you don't just smash us andjudge us.
Now, god, you plead with us andyou want us to turn from our sin
and turn to you.
God, thank you for being betterthan we could ever imagine.
(29:47):
God, we just thank you thatthis week, although we'll try.
We won't be perfect, but, god,you'll be good and you'll be
merciful.
And because of what Jesus didon the cross for us, you make us
just and you make us clean.
God, I pray for my friends.
You would just encourage andkeep them.
(30:11):
I just ask that you'dstrengthen them in their inner
heart to know you and love youand walk with you.
God, watch over us as we gofrom this place.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
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