Andy Stanley - Ninety Part 10 The Pilate Chronicles

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
So today we conclude our journey with Jesus, from his
introduction to the world on the banks of the Jordan
River to his.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Sacrifice for the world.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
So today in some ways is an end, and today
in many ways is just a beginning. Previously, last time
we were here together, we found Jesus in the city
of Jerusalem. He'd come there to celebrate Passover with his apostles.
He came into a parade, a parade along the roads
outside the city and inside the city. The city was
filled with Jews who were expecting not just Passover that

(00:33):
but perhaps this person Jesus that many had heard speak,
many had seen perform miracles. Perhaps this was the time
that he would declare himself as Messiah and as heart
as the church lead, the temple leaders and the religious leaders.
As hard as they had tried to separate the crowds
from Jesus, they'd been unsuccessful. In fact, even his enemies,
even his enemies, accepted the fact that there was no

(00:55):
way they would ever win the crowd. That Jesus had
the crowd, And at some point one of them blurted
out into meeting, See.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
This is getting us nowhere.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Look how the whole world has gone after him is
They stared out into the streets of Jerusalem, and Jewish
people were shouting Hosanna, Hosanna. As they were shouting you
are the king, Here comes the King, they realized they
had lost the battle and their only opportunity would be
to separate Jesus from the crowd, to have him rested
and ultimately have him executed. Jesus comes to the city,

(01:26):
he secures the secure location for he and his guys
to celebrate Passover. They gather that night, and so much
went on in that conversation. He had hinted throughout that
he was here to establish something new that Jesus did
not come to be an end, Jesus came to be
and instead of and that night he inaugurated what he
called his new Covenant, his new relational arrangement between God

(01:50):
and mankind, a covenant that would be the fulfillment of
Abraham's covenant with God and would be the replacement for
God's covenant with the Nation of Israel established at Mount
Sign through Moses. And just like contracts have terms and conditions,
so covenants in ancient times had terms and conditions. And
that very night, as they celebrated Passover. He gave them

(02:10):
the terms and conditions of his new covenant. There wouldn't
be six hundred plus laws. There wouldn't be ten commandments.
There wouldn't even be two. There would just be one,
the new Covenant commandment. And it was this, as I've
loved you, so you must love one another, that this
would be This would be the overarching ethic. This would
establish the overarching morality for his brand new movement, the Church.

(02:36):
This was the mark of the covenant that Jesus came
to establish with you and with all mankind. What a
night it started over started off with Jesus saying, from
now on, when you celebrate Passover, you're not going to
celebrate Israel's migration out of Egypt. From now on, when
you celebrate Passover, you're going to do this in remembrance
of me. That the bread is my body, that the

(02:56):
wine is my blood. And they have no category for
any of this. It was all so confusing, And as
the night wore on, they could tell that Jesus became
more and more disturbed. Something was up, but Jesus wasn't up.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
He seemed troubled.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
If Jesus could be worried Jesus seemed worried, and where
did Judas run off to?

Speaker 2 (03:19):
They all expected him to be back by now.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
After the supper. Jesus gets up and he says, let's leave.
Let's go to the garden, and they make their way
to the garden of Gathsemone, an urban garden in the
middle of the city.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
They'd been there many times.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
They went at night so they wouldn't be recognized, so
no one would disturb them.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
They go into the garden.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Jesus says, I want you to stay here and pray,
and I'm going to go further into the garden to
pray alone. He prays for a while, and he prays
that agonizing prayer where he essentially says to his heavenly father, Father,
you and I know what's about to happen, and if
I had a choice, I would choose another option. I
would choose another route. But as always, not my will,

(03:57):
but your will be done. It goes back to check
on the ball and they are sound asleep, and he
wakes them up and he says, could you not even
pray with me?

Speaker 2 (04:05):
For an hour?

Speaker 1 (04:07):
And then Judas shows up, but he's not alone. He
brings with him a small army temple henchman, and they
come to get Jesus into the shock, to the dismay,
to the horror of the whole contingency, Jesus surrenders himself

(04:28):
to the temple leaders. In fact, the text says this,
then everyone deserted him and fled. The story continues, they
took Jesus to see the High Priest. They took Jesus
to the High Priest, and all the chief priests were there,
and the elders and the teachers of the law, they

(04:50):
all came together.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
They'd never been.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Able to get this close to Jesus. They'd never been
able to isolate him from the crowd. They'd never been
able to look into those eyes. They've never been into
place where they could reach out and touch him.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
And they were curious.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
And now because there was more of them than there
was him, they were emboldened. And what follows next is
so interesting, and there's so much detail. And if you
ever find yourself reading a part of a narrative in
the New Testament and you think to yourself, how did
they get this information?

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Where? Who told them these things happen?

Speaker 1 (05:18):
It's so fascinating because we find out in the Book
of Acts. You know, there's Matthew Martin, Luke John the
Four Counts of jesus Life, and Luke wrote the history
of the Church. It's called Acts. And in the Book
of Acts we discover that many, many Pharisees became Jesus followers,
not because of what Jesus taught. They became followers of
Jesus after the resurrection. And no doubt it was some

(05:40):
of those men who were in these meetings that gave
the gospel writers this detail.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Here's what happened.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
The chief Priest, the Chief Priest, and the whole Sanhedrin,
this is the entire Jewish Supreme Court. We're looking for
evidence against Jesus so they could put him to death.
But they could not find any They couldn't find any,
many many against Jesus. But they testified falsely. Their statements
didn't even line up. Their statements didn't even agree. And
then when they would ask Jesus a direct question, he

(06:09):
refused to answer. Finally, the High Priest, the most powerful
person in the room, begins to lose his temper, and
he stood up and he said to the whole group,
to Jesus, are you not going to answer but Jesus
remained silent and gave no answer. And finally the Chief
Priest goes to the heart of the matter, the one
question they want Jesus to answer out loud, because if

(06:31):
he answers incorrectly, it's all the evidence they need to
crucify him. And they ask, okay, are you or are
you not? Are you the Messiah? Are you the son
of the blessed One? And in this moment Jesus held
his future in your future in his hands, and he

(06:59):
looked at the chief Priest and the men in the room,
whose motives were anything but pure, and he said, I am.
At that moment, the Chief Priest and the High Priest
tore their robes as a sign of lament and anguish.
Why do we need any more witnesses? We don't need
any more witnesses, he asked.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
You have heard, We have all heard.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
We are all now witnesses to his blasphemy. And they
all condemned Jesus. They condemned him as worthy of death.
And then the temple guards stepped in, and some began
to spit on him, while others blindfolded.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Him and struck him with their fists.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
And they said prophesy prophesy, and the guards took him
and they beat him. The men in the room who
were in charge, who now had what they needed from
Jesus in order to condemn him to death, conspired together
throughout the night to figure out what the next step
was to enact their plan.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
And we don't know if they were up all night.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
We're sure that Jesus probably got no sleep that night,
but the text tells.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Us that very early in the morning, very early in
the morning.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
The chief Priest, with the elders, the teachers of the law,
and again the whole Sanhedrin, the entire Supreme court, they
came up with a plan because having determined jesus guilt,
they still needed Rome in order to carry out their sentence.
And their plan was simple. Their plan was to figure
out a way to convince Pilot to execute Jesus that

(08:23):
very day before passover, so they could all get back
to business, so the city would settle down, so that
people would give up on their messianic aspirations and things
would be as they always had been. And they wanted
this done before sunset, before passover, So they came up
with what they thought would be the best way to
get Pilot to do their bidding. So the text says,

(08:45):
they bound Jesus and they led him away, and they
handed him over to Pilot.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Now, Pilot had.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Been the governor of Judea, where the city of Jerusalem
is and the province of Samaria. He'd been the governor
there for about seven years. And we know from history
that Pilot he could not stand the Jews. In fact,
he didn't even like going to the city of Jerusalem.
He lived in a palace on the coast, and he
only came to Jerusalem during festival days in order to
keep the peace. And his favorite pastime was antagonizing the

(09:13):
Jewish leaders and reminding them that they were subjects of Rome,
and he reveled in their groveling. Now, by now, the
text says, by now it was early morning, the sun
begins to come up. And to avoid ceremonial uncleanliness, uncleanness,
they did not the teachers of the law of the Pharisees,
the elders the Sanhedrin, they did not want to go

(09:35):
into Pilot's palace, otherwise they would not be able to
celebrate Passover. So they had gone through this series of
elaborate cleansings so that they could lead passover, so they
could take part in passover. And they knew if they
stepped across the threshold of Pilot's palace, if they entered
the home of a gentile, they would have to start
that cleaning process all over again. So imagine the hypocrisy.

(09:57):
They wouldn't cross a threshold, but they're abouts to insist
that an innocent man be put on a cross. So Pilot,
because he had no choice. Pilot comes out to them
and he asks, okay, it's.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Early in the morning.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
What charges are you bringing against this man? And they
had a prepared statement, and here was their prepared statement, Pilot.
If he were not a criminal, we would not have
handed him over to you translated. Let's not get bogged
down into details. We just need a favor. We have

(10:32):
been through this before. You know, we wouldn't bring him
here if this wasn't important. You know, we really would
not bring him here on the eve of Passover if
this was not really important. So let's not get into
the details. We need a favor. And Pilot loved it
when the Jewish leaders needed a favor, so he eggs
him on. He says, well, then go ahead, take him yourselves,

(10:54):
judge him by your own law. He wanted them to
beg He wanted them to acknowledge Rome's sovereigns over this
Jewish rebel or this Jewish rebel state, to acknowledge that
Rome was ultimately sovereign. So they sighed and they looked
at Pilot because everybody knew the answer to this. Everybody
knew this story. Everybody understood this scenario.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
But Pilot, as you know, we have no right to
execute anyone. Ah. This was music to his Roman ears.
Oh that's right.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
You don't have the power to impose your own laws.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
What a pity.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
And then Pilot did something else to irritate them. He
went back into his palace, knowing they wouldn't follow because
they were too good for that, but he insisted they
bring Jesus in. The text says that Pilot went back
into the palace inside and he summoned Jesus and they
asked him.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
He said, are you the king of the Jews?

Speaker 1 (11:49):
And outside, the religious leaders are going crazy because they're
so afraid that if Pilot is one on one with Jesus,
Jesus will do his magic.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
He swayed the crowd.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
He'd won the nation, there's no telling what he would
say to Pilot. So as they're scared to death outside
wondering why their plan hadn't worked out, and they didn't
anticipate the fact that since they refused to go in,
that perhaps Pilot would invite Jesus in, and Jesus seemed
to have no reservation about spending time with gentiles and sinners.
In fact, that was part of the problem with Jesus,
was who he hang out with. And so Pilot goes

(12:23):
to the heart of the matter because this.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Was the rumor.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Pilot had heard the rumors that the Rabbi from Galilee
was coming to Jerusalem. He'd heard about the parade, he'd
seen the crowds. His soldiers had reported back that we're
on the verge of a riot because of the Rabbi
from Galilee. He's coming to the city for Passover. And
now Pilot has his opportunity to ask his questions, are.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
You the king?

Speaker 1 (12:46):
And Jesus responds, is that your idea? Or did others
talk to you about me? And then Pilot, he's on edge.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Am I a Jew?

Speaker 1 (12:55):
He says, your own people in chief priest handed you
over to me.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Now tell me what have you done? Why are we here?
Why are we here so early in the morning.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Don't you understand the stir that you've created and the
chaos you've created in this city.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
So Jesus goes back to the original.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Question, because this is the question, and Jesus acknowledges, Yes,
I'm a king, but understand, my kingdom is not of,
not from, not like, not designed around the kingdoms of
this world.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
My kingdom is not of this world. If it were pilot, if.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
It were pilot, if it were we know how this
scenario would play out, because this happens all the time,
the same thing that happens anytime somebody claims to be
a Jewish king, the same time anybody claims to be
a messiah.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
We know how this plays out.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
My servants would show up and they would have kept
me from being arrested by the Jewish leaders. We know
how this plays out. If my kingdom were of this world,
I would out roam Rome. I would play by your rules.
I would use force, because pilot, that's.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
The way of things.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
But pilot, my kingdom is nothing like your kingdom. It's
nothing like the kingdoms you're familiar with. My kingdom is
not anything like any kingdom on this planet.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Ah, Pilot says, so at least we've gotten somewhere, so.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
You are a king then, So Pilot goes back out
to the crowd and he announces. He says to the
chief priests and the crowd, look, I find no basis
for a charge against this man.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
But they insisted.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
He stirs up the people all over Judea. This is
where Pilot is the governor by his teaching. And then
one of them in the crowd says something I'm sure
they agreed upon beforehand not to mention, and that was Galilee.
He stirs up at the people all over Judea. And
he started in Galilee and has come all the way here.
And the Pilot thinks to himself, ah, Galilee, so he

(14:46):
is a Galilean. That's not even my jurisdiction. You've come
to the wrong person. You're wasting your time. You need
to take him to Herod. Herod is the governor of Galilee.
And they turned to whoever said that in the crowd
and said, we decide not to mention Galilee. This has
taken too much time. Well, as it turns out Herod.
Now Herod is the son of Herod the Great who

(15:08):
built the temple, Herod the Great, who sent his henchman
into Bethlehem many years earlier to murder all the two
year olds because then to boys two years old and younger,
because he was afraid that someone else would take his place,
and of course, like everybody else, he'd have eventually died anyway.
His sons controlled the area at the time, were parts
of the area, and at this point his son Herod
was the governor of Galilee, and he happened to be

(15:31):
in town, of course, for passover. He just happened to
be on the other side of town. So Pilot says, well, look,
Herod's in town. This is none of my business. Take
him to Herod. Well, this is not going as they plan.
So sure enough, Pilot hands them back Jesus back to them,
their henchmen, their soldiers take them over to take them
to find where Herod's living. He goes into Herod's house
and Herod is thrilled. You can read this for yourself.

(15:53):
Herod is thrilled to see Jesus because, like Pilot, like
so many others, he's never been able to get close.
He's never been able to have a converse and he
has heard the rumors, and he brings Jesus in and
he asks Jesus questions, and Jesus won't answer his questions,
and then he says, Jesus, do some tricks. I've heard
about your tricks. Do some tricks. Bring him something here,
do some of your tricks. And of course Jesus refuses
to play along. And here it is fed up, doesn't

(16:15):
see what he wants to see, doesn't hear what he
wants to hear, and he sends Jesus back to Pilot.
When Jesus gets back, Pilot gathers the group that had
come accusing Jesus to begin with, and he brought this man.
And he says to them, you brought me this man.
You brought me this man who was inciting the people
to rebellion.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Do any of you hear rebellion?

Speaker 3 (16:36):
Know me?

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Neither who to decide people to rebellion. I've examined him
in your presence and have found no basis for your
charges against him. And by the way, neither has Herod,
for he sent him back to us. As you can see,
he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, just to
appease you, to get you off of my front porch
so we can get on with passover. I'll punish him,

(17:01):
but then I'll release him.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
And the crowd went crazy.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
They said, no, away with this man, Away with this man,
Away with this man. And then Pilot had his soldiers
take him to where his guards spent their time, and
he had Jesus flogged. For first century readers, there was
no need for an explanation. They all understood this word.

(17:28):
Two Roman soldiers, each with a cat of nine tails
with pieces of bone and metal fragments tied into the leather,
would stand behind a man, and the man's hands would
be bound and placed way over his head as far
as they could stretch him out, and they would take
turns and they would count. Because even the Romans had
rules about flogging. The pieces of metal and the pieces

(17:48):
of bone would not only rip layer after layer after
layer of skin off a man's back, it would rip
layer after layer after layer of skin off a man's gut,
as those pieces of leather would rap around and rip
away skin. Time after time after time, people died from flogging.
They bled to death, they died from infection. Now here's

(18:12):
the thing that we have to stop and talk about.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
For a minute.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
As twenty first century people, it is virtually impossible for us,
I mean and for me too, It is virtually impossible
for us not to sanitize and then romanticize what happens
next in these next few hours in the life of Jesus.
And the reason is almost impossible for us not to
sanitize it and romanticize it is because most of us,

(18:34):
or many of us, heard this story as children.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
And when you tell children a.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Story like this, you have to remove the blood and
the guts. You have to remove the part that it's
just not appropriate for children, but for many of us,
for most of us, perhaps for again, for maybe you,
the last time you heard this story was as a child.
The last time you've heard anyone read these passages was
as a teenager, and so again you sort of got

(18:59):
the PG version, or the PG thirteen version of the story.
But as an adult, it's so important that we not
sanitize it or somehow have soft music playing in the
back and make this some kind of spiritual inspirational moment,
because it is anything but that. And to maintain our

(19:20):
childlike view of this story is to miss the story.
Because the truth is, we would all look away. The
soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns, and they put
it on his head, and then they put a purple

(19:44):
robe on his beaten, bloody, raw back. And they went
up to him again and again and again, and they
said Hail, King of the Jews, and they slapped him
in a face that had already been bruised the night
before by the temple guard. And once more, Pilot came

(20:08):
out to the waiting crowd, and he said to the
Jews gathered there, look, look in hopes that Jesus state,
and hope that seeing Jesus in this beaten state, and
hopes that perhaps they would have a little bit of pity,
perhaps they would say, Okay, enough is enough, Okay, we're done.
He's ruined. He'll probably die anyway. Surely this was enough

(20:30):
to get them to leave him alone, to not have
to do something he didn't want to do, and to
get past another passover so he could.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Go back to the coast where he wanted to be.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
Anyway, Look, he said, I am bringing him out to
you to let you know I find no basis for.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
A charge against him.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Even when he was being beat to death, he did
not break even when he was being flogged. He did
not shout out and confess things that he knew weren't
true in order to get my men to stop. This
man is absolutely innocent. But as soon as the chief
priest saw him, they shouted, crucify, crucify. And Pilot can't

(21:11):
believe this. He's never seen anything like this. He says, I'm.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Done with this.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
Look you take him, you take him and crucify him.
As for me, I find no basis for a charge
against him. And then the Jewish leaders went into part
two of their plans, since part one was taking too long.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
They said, okay, we have a law. We didn't mention
this earlier.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
We have a law, and according to that law, he
must die. And here's why we never told you why
this was a capital offense, because he claimed to be
the son of God. Now, when Pilot heard this, the
text says, when Pilot heard this, he was even more afraid,
and he went back inside the palace. He was more
afraid because son of God intersected with Roman myth, Roman legend.

(21:51):
Suddenly this had crossed over from just simply a Jewish
thing to a Roman thing. For someone to claim to
be the son of God was threatening to the empire.
This was a big deal, This was a code word,
and now he knew he needed to do something else.
He goes back inside. The text says that the guards
took him back inside, and Pilot decides to question Jesus
even further, but this time Jesus won't answer.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
And I love this.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
In fact, if you're not a Christian, or you left faith,
or somebody's making you watch this or listen to this,
or you stumbled into church because somebody promised you launch,
or you stayed up late and you're watching this, please
don't miss this next line. For whatever reason when you
left church or quit believing. I get that if I
were you, I bet I would have to. So there's
no guilt, there's no judgment. But I just don't want
you to miss this. A first century Roman soldier who

(22:41):
had seen everything the text says, was amazed. You see,
this is when men groveled and begged not for their life.
This is when men fell to their knees and begged
for a quick death.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
And Jesus won't answer.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
He finally is so exasperated he says to Jesus, do
you refuse to speak to me? Do you not realize
I have power either to free you or to crucify you,
to which Jesus could have said, then, Pilot, why are
you the one that is so.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Afraid? But here's what he said.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Jesus answered him, and he said, you, Pilot, would have
no power over me if it were not given to
you from above. Pilot had seen a lot. He'd seen
men die in battle. He'd seen men die immediately in battle.
He had seen men die slowly in battle.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
He'd seen men lead.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
To death on the surgeon's table. He'd heard screams. He
had seen it all. But he'd never seen anything, and
he'd never seen anyone like this, because when he stared
into Jesus's eyes, those were not crazy eyes. Those were
eyes that were fully aware. Those were eyes that were sincere,

(24:03):
maybe most importantly to a man like Pilot, those were
eyes that were fearless. So much so, the text tells
us that from that point on, Pilot did everything he
could to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders wouldn't
have it. The text says that they kept shouting, if
you let this man go, part three of their plan.

(24:24):
If you let this man go, you are no friend
of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar. Checkmate.
They had him. Pilot was out maneuvered, his hands were bound.
They'd called him out publicly, and Pilot knew that Emperor
Tiberius had eyes and spies everywhere in the empire. In fact,

(24:48):
the text says that when Pilot heard this, when they
finally got to this part of their plan, when they
finally got to this level of argument, the text says
that when Pilot heard this, he brought Jesus out and
sat down at the judges, a place known as the
stone Pavement. There's so much detail in this part of
the story. And it was about noon, and he said
to the Jews, here is your king. He continues to

(25:10):
twist the knife, Here is your king. You want me
to crucify your king? Here's your king, Pilot said to
the Jews. But they shouted, take him away, take him away,
crucify and crucify, And Pilot, he says, shall I crucify
your king? Do you really want me to crucify your king?
And before they can stop themselves, someone in the crowd
shouts out something that in any other moment, at any

(25:30):
other time, would would have been considered blasphemous. Somebody shouts out, no,
we have no king. But Caesar, the chief priest, answered,
and finally, finally, Pilot handed him over to be crucified.
So the soldiers, Pilot soldiers took charge of Jesus, and

(25:52):
they brought him to the place called Gaugatha, and they
offered him wine mixed with mrr, just a gesture of mercy,
but he did not take it. And as you read
this part of the story in all four Gospels, it's
like time slows down. There's so much detail. It's almost

(26:12):
moment by moment. It's hour by hour, it's conversation by conversation,
it's line by line.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
It's so much detail.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
But suddenly, when we get to this part of the story,
all of that stops because what came next required.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
No explanation. And then crucified him.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Invented by the Greeks, perfected by the Romans. It could
take a man days to die from crucifixion, depending on
how healthy the person was and how well the Romans
did their job, because the goal was not a quick death,
the goal was a prolonged death. In fact, crucifixion was
so gruesome. Crucifixion was so gruesome that church leaders later

(27:21):
on baned it. They banned it from any depiction in art.
In fact, crucifixion was banned from any depiction in art
until the fourth century, when Constantine became emperor and banned
it as a method of execution. C. S.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Lewis wrote this.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
He said, the crucifixion did not become a frequent motive
or motif of Christian art until the generations which had
actually seen real crucifixions were all dead.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
It was nothing glamorous. It was.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
You could not sanitize it. There was no way to
make it a romantic gesture. It was horrible, and crucifixion
was a death inflicted upon many. But my friends, it
was chosen, my only one, our Savior, displayed on a

(28:15):
criminal's cross, and darkness rejoiced as though Heaven had lost.
Here's something you should know. Here's something that you may
have never heard before. Here's something that makes the rest
of the story extraordinary. When Jesus died, there were no Christians.
When Jesus died, there were no believers. When Jesus died,

(28:38):
there were no more followers. Sympathizers, yes, but no believers.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
And here's why.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Because throughout his ministry, Jesus claimed too much about himself.
The central part of jesus ministry was not his stories.
It wasn't even his teaching. It's what he claimed about himself.
He claimed to be the resurrection in the life. You
cannot crucify the resurrection in the life. He claimed to
be the son of Man or the son of God.
The Son of God isn't going to be arrested by Romans.

(29:07):
He gave every indication that he was God's Messiah that
they'd waited on for hundreds of years. God's Messiah. Isn't
going to be put to death by a foreign power.
If Jesus was dead, if Jesus was crucified, clearly he
was not who he claimed to be, and he was
not who they believed he was. There was no dream

(29:27):
to keep alive, and there was certainly no movement to
keep moving.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
It was over.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Joseph of Arimathea, a sanhedron part of that Supreme Court,
a friend of Nicodemus, who we met earlier in our
journey together. They hugged their kids, they kissed their wives.
Then they risked their lives, and I asked Pilot for
Jesus' body. In the first century, a crucified person cannot
be buried. They were put on a trash heap to
be left to the.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Dogs and the wolves, and.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
They went to Pilot, and I'm sure they exchanged for
a few pieces of silver. They got permission to actually
take Jesus's body and to bury him. He was not
who they hoped he was, but he certainly deserved better
than this. He was not who they hoped he was,
but he certainly deserved to be buried.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
Sabbath would be there soon, they had to hurry.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
The religious leaders asked if the other two criminals crucified
have their legs broken so they couldn't push up and breathe,
and they suffocated when they came to Jesus because of
all the prior beatings, because he had been scourged, he
had bled to death.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
So they took his body.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
And the text tells us that Nicodem has brought a
mixture of mirr and aloes about seventy five pounds.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
And they took Jesus's.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Body, and as was the custom, the two of them
wrapped it with spices in strips, not one large cloth,
but in strips of cloth. This was how they embalmed
a body. Why did they embalm his body? Because they
expected Jesus to stay dead. They embalmed his body in
such a way that if he were alive, he would
have surely suffocated. Now they embalmed his body in a
court with the Jewish burial customs, and as the sunset,

(31:03):
as Passover began, they made their way home, confused, dismayed,
with no answers to a million questions. The next day,
Pilot is disturbed once again. The text says. The next day,
the one after preparation day, the chief priest and the
pharisees they go back to Pilot and he's like, what

(31:24):
is it this time? And they say, Sir, they said,
we remember, and we've been told that while he was
still alive, that deceiver said that after three days I
will rise again. So, sir, one last favor, this will
serve both of us, both parties.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Well, would you please give an.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Order for the tomb to be made secure until that
third day? Otherwise his disciples may come and steal the
body and tell the people that he has been raised
from the dead.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
This last deception will be far.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
Worse than the first, and Pilot said, take a guard.
Make the tombs secure, as you know how. So they went,
and they made the tomb secure by putting a seal
on the stone and posting a guard.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
And that night everyone slept well.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
Caiaphas slept well, knowing that once again he had out
maneuvered Pilot, that once again he had leveraged his power
to get Rome.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
To do his bidding.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
Pilot slept well, knowing that passover was almost behind him,
the city would empty of all these guests, all these foreigners,
that he would be able to go back home to
the coast, where he enjoyed his life and his family.
Up north, somewhere, Saul of Tarsus was preparing another mind
bending message to follow passover in.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
His region of the world.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
In Rome, Emperor Tiberius had no idea any of these
events ever transpired. All was as it always had been,
All was as it always would be, because everybody, everybody
expected g to do what dead people usually do, stay dead.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Little did they know.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Little did they know that in the next few hours
they would secure their place in history, that their names
would be spoken for generations and languages they didn't know about,
in places they didn't even know exist that for generations,
men and women would speak their names around the world,

(33:29):
but not as they would have wished, because they would
each become a footnote in the story of the Rabbi
from Galilee, for what they intended as the end was
actually just the beginning, the beginning of something brand new,

(33:51):
the beginning of something brand new for the world and
for you.