The Sovereign, Just, and Sacrificial King
Video: https://youtu.be/7N6uvpPraqU
Today, we are put on trial. Physically, it might look like Jesus is put on trial, but if you look at everything He is the only one that actually rises above it like a true, just and powerful king should.
We get the religious leaders who have gone to arrest him in the dead of night, when few were watching to keep them accountable and now they are putting on a sham of a trial. They are literally looking for a reason that they might kill him. We hear about all of the numerous people that are coming forward and giving false testimony. No one was pressuring them to do this, and yet so many come forward to lie about Jesus. Why? Because they didn’t like what he was saying, they didn’t like his popularity, they didn’t like being called to change, we don’t know, but those are just a few reasons we hear throughout the gospels. They reject Jesus to such a degree that they are willing to lie to themselves and others about who he is.
None of their testimonies agreed. A fair court would challenge the witnesses and show them to be the liars they are. Yet instead, they accuse Jesus. At this point, Jesus should have nothing to defend himself against, because there have been no real charges. Yet the witnesses and religious leaders would rather uphold lies than face God or even the truth.
Finally, the High Priest asks the digging question, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Jesus responds, “I am”. At least for us this is a translation of the name Yahweh or God. This is both Jesus’ response to their question and a redirection to look for their God. Yet, they will refuse to look, see and understand. Then Jesus quotes a passage from the book of Daniel, “You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven”. This passage in Daniel is the prophetic moment when God comes with a sovereign human and overthrows the tyrannical and destructive beasts of this world. Again, they refuse to even listen, hear and think about what this could mean. Instead, they just decide quoting Scripture and saying God’s name is enough to kill a man. They don’t really care about the truth, they only care about getting their outcome.
How often have we been like this court? We would rather create and believe lies to get our way, then to actually see and hear God and follow his way. We would rather push away and destroy than to see God, our weakness and change. He is calling us to be different that our personal hopes and cultures’.
Then we get Peter. He has been told exactly what would happen and unlike many prophecies he has been given a timeline. Before the cock crows twice you will betray me three times. At most that is probably 6 hours and yet he still can’t listen and resist. He rejects Jesus in three different situations, why? It would seem that he is scared to be associated with Jesus, maybe he thinks his life is on the line, maybe he doesn’t want to face public ridicule, maybe he doesn’t think it means anything. As much as we give these reasons for much of what we do, they are not good reasons to reject one another and especially our God. As much as we may feel like we are different from Peter, we have been given a prophecy as well, so had the religious leaders. We just heard the passage from Daniel that told of God coming to overthrow the beasts of this world and yet the religious leaders weren’t able to see that they were living into that. There have been countless prophecies that apply to us today, about the way we treat each other, the ways we turn to other gods or idols, the way we get wrapped up in pride and greed, our isolation and so much more and yet we refuse to listen. We are just like Peter. If we were left in this vision of our disobedient betrayal and didn’t know Jesus’ hope, what is left but to break down and cry like Peter.
Then we get Pilate, who in Rome’s power structure is literally not accountable to anyone present. But again, he puts on a sham of a trial. In vs. 3, he lets the chief priests say anything they want about Jesus, he doesn’t look for additional witnesses, he doesn’t even care to challenge them. Pilate releases a known rebel and murderer Barrabbas over someone that he knows is innocent. He sentences this innocent man to torture and death, why? Because he wanted to please the crowd. Wow, what an indictment that is. Yet, every person present is doing the same. They all know he is innocent, none of the witnesses have agreed, Pilate knows the self-interest of the priests, Jesus’ disciples have been with him the whole time and yet all of them either make way or push for an unjust condemnation of an innocent man. They end up making fun of, abusing, torturing and killing this Jesus.
At every moment Jesus has risen above it. He has shown himself to be wise, patient and willing to bear it. So as a result the opposing image we get is of a ravenous, unthoughtful, self-interested, self-protective humanity - jew and gentile alike. In our trial God has shown us to be more like wild animals than the image of God’s love and kingship.
Just from this, God would be just in anything he decided to do. Yet, we must also remember that in the gospel of Mark, God has already prepared the way by warning us through John. God has offered us a better world and kingdom, one that we long for. He has invited anyone and everyone into it. He has shown us the powerful and beautiful reality of that King and Kingdom. He has shown us where we have and will go wrong. He has forgiven us and healed us. He has warned us of the disastrous reality of our holding onto our own ways. Now, he shows us his immense love as he shows us who we really are. God has given us so much and so many chances to change and this is not even taking into account the rest of Scripture and history. As much as I want to believe in universal salvation, the reality of our stubborn rejection of God and what is good and true tells me that it can’t be. That is unless God were to force us and this trial and his death tell us that God is willing to do anything but that. If God were to force us that wouldn’t be trust, that wouldn’t be faith, that wouldn’t be us. Like a good parent, he can direct us, give for us, punish us, sacrifice for us, but he will not make us an automaton of Himself.
Yet as just as God is, He is also merciful. We have proved ourselves to be guilty and worthy of punishment and yet it is God who takes the ridicule, the torture and the condemnation, so that we might have yet another chance. So that finally we might actually see him. You remember Jesus struggling in the garden with prayer. He could have literally run away. Well here He could have justly poured out God’s wrath on everyone and yet instead He drinks that cup Himself.
He will transform this world to be the place it needs to be, eventually this will come with force, but he is so immensely patient, loving and merciful that he is exhausting every potential for saving us.
That brings me to one of the most amazing realities in all of Scripture. Even though God in Jesus continually allows others to take authority and do monstrous things, especially to him, He still shows us that He is sovereign and king. In ch 14, vs. 58, some of his accusers say that Jesus will destroy the temple and raise it in 3 days, Jesus turns their accusations into reality. In vs. 62, he points to God and then He points to how He, a human and God, will vanquish all the beasts as He sits on the throne beside God. People will look up at Jesus on the cross, he is lifted up into the clouds to sit on a throne of wood, as he overthrows the tyranny of evil, sin and death with his own life and blood. The prophecy with Peter tells us that Jesus knew everything that was going to happen. As Pilate questions Jesus and later puts the charge up on the cross in vs. 26, His only guilt was being the king of the jews. The soldiers just before that, mock Jesus and yet in their ignorance they are living into the very truth. They dress him in a purple robe, praise him, bow down to him, give him a crown of thorns and beat him, showing him to be our true sacrificial king. They force a man from another nation, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross for Christ, showing that God would gather the nations to him (Simon and his children likely became prominent Christians because of their being named). And lastly, as Jesus is hanging tortured on the cross they ridicule him, repeating the line about raising the temple in three days, yelling “come down from that cross and save yourself”, “He saved others, why can’t He save Himself”, “Come down now from the cross that we might see and believe”. Jesus would live into all of these impossible demands. He would rebuild the temple of His body in three days, He would come down from the cross, He would save himself and save others.
He would overcome it all and show Himself to many and yet as much as Jesus did everything, many would still not believe. For those that did believe, Jesus’ tragedy would become their greatest hope, the greatest transformation, the greatest kingship and so it would mean the overthrow of an old heart and world and the living in of a present and beautiful kingdom: one we see in Jesus through our readings for today. God is sovereign even over the hardest times, shaping them for good and showing us a better world. This life can and will mean the same for us if we can repent, believe, take up our cross and follow Christ.
