Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

September 30, 2021

9/30/2021

The Trial of Pilate, Phase 2

        When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this Man's blood; see to that yourselves." And all the people said, "His blood shall be on us and our children!" Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified. Matt. 27:24-26, NASB.

    The Jewish leaders have Pilate on the spot, forcing his hand toward crucifixion even though he realized Jesus is innocent. The turning point comes when some of the Jews cry out, "If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend; every one who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar" (John 19:12, RSV). The last thing the Roman governor could afford was to be accused before the emperor Tiberius of harboring a man who claimed to be king. With that threat the Jewish leaders hit Pilate at his weakest point. After all, one cannot expect the emperor to be merciful to an official who condones treason in the face of many witnesses.

    With their accusations the Jewish leaders had bridged the gap between Jewish law and Roman law. They had transposed blasphemy in claiming Messiahship into revolutionary treason. Pilate now had a pretext for issuing the order for the death penalty, which he does, even though he sees through the thinly veiled Jewish plot.

    John tells us that "he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement....He said to the Jews, 'Behold your King!' " They responded with further cries of crucifixion. And the outmaneuvered governor handed Him over to his soldiers to be crucified. (verses 13-16, RSV).

    At the same time Pilate sought to signify that he was not guilty by the symbolic act of washing his hands of the matter before the crowd. He had been warned by a sense of justice working on his conscience and through his wife's dream, but Pilate couldn't withstand the accusations of the Jewish leaders and the mob. So he issues the crucifixion order and washes his hands.

    Pilate forgot only one thing: that responsibility is one thing we can never escape. Neither Pilate nor I can make a wrong choice and wash our hands of all responsibility. Accountability for my choices is something that is mine forever.

    Father in heaven, help me to have the courage of my convictions and to make honest choices as I journey through life.

September 29, 2021

9/29/2021

The Trial of Pilate, Phase 1

        Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one prisoner whom they wanted. At that time they were holding a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas....The governor said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release for you?" And they said, "Barabbas." Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said, "Crucify Him!" And he said, "Why, what evil has He done?" But they kept on shouting all the more, saying "Crucify Him!" Matt. 27: 15-23, NASB.

    Pilate had seen from the first that Jesus was innocent of being the kind of revolutionary that the Jewish leaders had accused Him of, and that they themselves were a crafty lot who obviously had cooked up the charges.

    Even essentially evil men such as Pilate are not all bad. Even he had a spark of decency. That is evidenced by the fact that he didn't want to crucify an innocent man just to please the leaders. On the other hand, given his past, he needed to pacify the Jewish population in some way. Fortunately, he saw a way through the problem. He could appeal to his custom at Passover of releasing one prisoner to the population.

    Quite aware that Jesus was extremely popular with the people, Pilate set the situation up in such a manner that the choice would be obvious and clear-cut. Crowds had a few days earlier thronged Him as He made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, throwing their cloaks before the feet of His donkey as they made the air ring with their songs of praises.

    The other option Pilate offered them was the disgusting Barabbas, an insurrectionist "who had committed murder" (Mark 15:7, NIV). But in that he had underestimated the Jewish leaders. After all, a person repellent to Pilate could have a special appeal to a Jewish populace desiring freedom from Rome. Such a crowd could be led to clamor for Barabbas without too much difficulty. Then again, the mob may not have consisted of those who thought highly of Jesus, but one assembled for the occasion by the Jewish leaders.

    So the crowd faces a choice. And what a choice it is. After all, Barabbas is an Aramaic name, Bar-'Abba', which means "son of the father." Thus the crowd had to decide which son of the father it wanted.

    Its choice isn't altogether different from the ones you and I make every day. The question for me today is "What son do I desire?"

September 28, 2021

9/28/2021

The Trial of Jesus, Phase 2

        When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death; and they bound him and led him away and delivered him to Pilate....The governor asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You have said so." But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he made no answer. Then Pilate said to him, "Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?" But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge; so that the governor wondered greatly. Matt. 27:1-14, RSV.

    The religious leaders had no time to waste. Roman legal proceedings began early so that by midmorning the ruling class could embark on pursuits of leisure. The Jews had decided for the death penalty, but a charge of blasphemy would hardly be sufficient to bring such a penalty from a Roman governor. He would see the whole problem as an internal Jewish squabble and throw the case out of court.

    But the good news for the Jews is that blasphemy had a political interpretation. After all, wasn't the Messiah to be a warrior-king like David?

    Matthew and Mark don't tell us the fancy footwork of the religious leaders in framing their official charge But Luke does: "Then the whole company of them arose, and brought him before Pilate. And they began to accuse him saying, 'We found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ a king' " (Luke 23:1, 2, RSV).

    The last thing Pilate (governor of Palestine from A.D. 26-36) needed was another run-in with the Jewish leaders, especially during the inflammatory Passover season when the minds of the people were already thinking of Exodus, liberation, and the overthrow of oppressors.

    Pilate immediately sized up both the religious leaders and Jesus, easily concluding that He was no political threat. But he had to interrogate Him anyway. Jesus' reply to Pilate's question of kingship was guarded for good reason: "You have said so." Jesus didn't deny or admit it, partly because the charge was both true and false. It was true in that He was a King and had demonstrated that fact a few days before by riding into Jerusalem in princely fashion to the Hosannas of the crowd. But He wasn't a king in the political sense.

    Jesus mounts no defense that could have won His freedom. Having surrendered to the Father's will in Gethsemane, He is now living out that decision.

    Pilate, meanwhile, is left wondering what is taking place. Fortunately, he sees a way out of the predicament.

September 27, 2021

9/27/2021

The Trial of Judas

        When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself!" And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. Matt. 27:3-5, NASB.

    The most unique thing about Judas' trial is that he passed judgment on himself. It is impossible for us to understand all that had gone through his twisted thinking prior to this time, but one thing is at last clear to him. He now understood the horror of what he had done. When he tried to return the money, the priests merely mocked him. Such are the friends of sin. They had used him for their purposes and then scorned him in his hour of need.

    At that point Judas "threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary". There are two important words in that sentence whose full meaning most translations, which state that he "threw down the money in the temple," fail to reflect.

    The first is the word for Temple. It is not the general word for Temple (hieron), but the one for the actual Temple sanctuary. To get to it Judas had to pass through the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of the Women, and the Court of Israel. Beyond that he could not enter. He had come to the barrier that shut him out of the Court of the Priests. As a result, he had to yell his conversation with the priests.

    That brings us to the second word of significance, usually translated as "threw down." The word also means "threw," "hurled," and "flung," a rendering demanded here by the Temple geography. He "hurled" the money at the mocking priests and went out to hang himself.

    Such was the end of a man whose maneuverings had gone wrong. He had meant to force the reticent Jesus into displaying His power as the Messiah/King, but all he had accomplished was driving Christ to the cross. Judas' life was shattered.

    Two lessons stand out from this experience. A first lesson is that we often come to hate those things that we have gained from sin. The object of sinning in some cases becomes disgusting and revolting. So it was with Judas and with Amnon's conquest of his sister Tamar (2 Sam. 13:1-19).

    A second lesson is that we cannot turn back the clock. All of us have times that we wish we could live over so that we could do things differently. But such is an impossibility. We and others must deal with the results of our actions. With that hard fact in mind, we need to be careful how we live each day.

September 26, 2021

9/26/2021

The Trial of Peter, Phase 2

            And a little later those who stood by came up and said to Peter, "Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you." Then he began to curse and swear, saying. "I do not know the Man!" Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." So he went out and wept bitterly. Matt. 26:73-75, NKJV.

    Peter's hour has come. And he fails, not only once but three times, with each episode becoming more damning.

    Then, if possible, it worsens when a relative of Malcus of the healed ear identifies Peter because of his Galilean accent (John 18:26, 10; Mark 14:70). With this third accusation Peter totally unravels and begins "to curse and swear" that he doesn't "know the Man" (Mark 14:71, NKJV).

    Peter had gone about as far as he could go in denial. There are at least three possibilities regarding the nature of his cursing and swearing. The first is that he used profanity. That would have been bad enough, but the meaning is probably deeper than that.

    A second interpretation is that he swore by God's name that he didn't know Jesus, thereby couching his denial in the form of an oath that called God to witness as to its truthfulness.

    The third possibility is even more damning than the first two. R. T. France suggests that Peter may even have uttered a curse upon Jesus to make it clear that he could not be a follower.

    Whatever the nature of the swearing and cursing, it was a significant betrayal of Jesus by His chief disciple. At that point, at least three things happened. First, the cock crowed.

    Second, as the cock crowed Jesus "turned and looked at Peter" (Luke 22:61, RSV). And what a searching gaze that must have been. Far from an "I told you so" kind of expression. Ellen White tells us that it was one of "deep pity and sorrow, but there was no anger there" (The Desire of Ages, p. 713). At that point Jesus' prophecy of his denial flashed upon Peter's mind.

    Christ's look was more than he could bear. "He went out and wept bitterly." At that point Peter's faith took a giant step forward. And Jesus knew the meaning of those repentant tears.

    All of us can learn from Peter's experience. His core problem was not fear, but overconfidence. After all, no coward would have followed Jesus to that fateful courtyard. A second lesson is that while none of us are above reproach, none of us are yet beyond God's grace.

September 25, 2021

9/25/2021

The Trial of Peter, Phase 1

        Peter followed him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end....And a maid came up to him, and said, "You also were with Jesus the Galilean." But he denied it before them all, saying, "I do not know what you mean." And when he went out to the porch, another maid saw him, and she said to the bystanders, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth." And again he denied it with an oath, "I do not know the man." Matt. 26:58-72, RSV.

    Two trials were taking place that evening, one of Jesus and a second of His chief apostle.

    Their responses under pressure would be very different, with Jesus standing firm and Peter caving in. But neither was the work of a moment. They reflect two paths that converged at the house of Caiaphas. We see them becoming evident in Gethsemane, where one Man prayed while the other slept, where one Man surrenders Himself totally to death on the cross while the other failed to face the events that would soon inundate both of them. In short, the differences in the two trials were not the decision of a moment, but reflect the differing habits of Jesus and Peter up to that time.

    Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the incident is that Peter is there at all. Usually we fault him for his cowardice, but the fact that he followed Jesus, even if at a distance, says something about the man who had earlier in the evening pulled his sword in the face of a mob accompanied by a cohort of fully armed soldiers. Scripture tells us that all the disciples fled after Jesus' arrest. But at least two of them--Peter and John--had second thoughts and had gone to Caiaphas' home. That took courage.

    So far so good for Peter. Then that pesky servant girl shows up, claiming that he was a follower of Jesus. And how did she make that deduction? It wasn't all that difficult. John tells us that he and Peter both followed the procession to the high priest's house, but that John had been allowed into the courtyard because he was known to the high priest, while Peter remained outside the gate. So John went to the maid who kept the door and asked her to let Peter in. And, according to John, it was that very maid who first put the question to Peter (John 18:15-17).

    The "fearless Peter" had come to his hour of trial. And he will fail miserably, not because of a momentary weakness, but as a result of habitual confidence in himself.

    We can learn from Peter that our daily actions and attitudes are building characters that we must face in our hour of trial.

September 24, 2021

9/24/2021

The Trial of Jesus, Phase 1

    Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered....The chief priests and the whole Council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward and said, "This man said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.' " And the high priest stood up and said, "Have you no answer you make?"...But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has uttered blasphemy." Matt. 26:57-65, ESV.

    The Jewish leaders have Jesus in their hands at last. Now they have a new problem--what to do with Him. The issue is not their goal, but rather how to get there.

    The Sanhedrin's task is complex because although they are seeking the death penalty, they have no authority to mete it out. The Romans, while using local administration in conquered provinces whenever possible, kept the ultimate penalty in their own hands.

    Thus the Jewish leaders face a crucial problem. They want to have Jesus put to death for His Messianic claims, but the Romans did not accept blasphemy as a capital offense. As a result, the leaders of the Sanhedrin have a twofold task before them. First, they must develop among their own members the need to have Jesus executed for blasphemy--a matter of Jewish law. Second, they must devise an appropriate strategy to induce the Roman governor to issue the death penalty on the basis of Roman law.

    After some less-than-successful maneuvering, the leadership finally fastens a charge on Jesus, but it is not enough. At that point Caiaphas plainly asks Jesus if He is the Christ.

    The question was forthright. And so would be the answer. Jesus not only replies in the affirmative, but goes on to say that in the future the members of the Sanhedrin would see Him sitting at God's right hand and coming in the clouds of heaven.

    That answer is all that Caiaphas needs. Blasphemy is punishable in the Old Testament by stoning. The high priest has reached goal one. Now the task is to transpose the Jewish accusation into a breach of Roman law serious enough to require the death penalty.

    Help us, Father, as we watch the kingdoms of this world face off with Your kingdom, to see Your hand at work in the complexities of life.

September 23, 2021

9/23/2021

Jesus: Peaceful in Crisis

        "Put your sword back into its place....Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?" At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." Than all the disciples forsook him and fled. Matt. 26:52-56, RSV).

    As the scene in the garden comes to a close the Jewish leaders finally have the troublesome Jesus in their hands.

    But before exploring the trials of Jesus, we need to take one more look at the Gethsemane scene. We have already discussed the kissing Judas and Peter of the bloody sword. But there are others.

    First, we see the Jews delegated to arrest Jesus. One would think that they would have woken up at the events that had taken place. After all, a supernatural force had knocked them to the ground. And then there is the case of the ear. It is easy to slice ears off, but quite a different thing to put them back on. They had witnessed a first-class miracle. Having always asked for a sign, now that had two of them. But they were not pleased. Acting like the blind, they completed the arrest. Only Malcus, the man of the ear, had apparently begun to think about the meaning of the events of that night.

    Second, there were the disciples. Events had shattered their world. They had apparently believed that Jesus would summon legions of angels to rescue Him and set up His kingdom. Now, terrified and completely disorganized, all they can think of is saving their skins; and now they desert their Lord in His hour of need.

    And then there is Jesus, who is calmly in control of the situation. How can that be when just a short time before He was in fierce agony in his Gethsemane prayers? The answer is that He had finally come to a full surrender. He had struggled mightily with His will in the face of the Father's and had chosen God's. And with that surrender came a peace that allowed Him to become "like a lamb that is led to the slaughter" (Isa. 53:7, RSV) so that Scripture might be fulfilled.

    Surrender to God's will was the key in Jesus' life. It is only through surrender that we can obtain the peace that Christ had as He passed through life's crisis.

September 22, 2021

9/22/2021

Judas Didn't Stand Alone

        And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Matt. 26:51, 52.

    Apparently Judas wasn't the only disciple seeking to get Jesus to provide a show of force.

    John's Gospel fills in much of the information left out in Matthew's two short verses. After Judas' kiss, Jesus identified Himself as the one they had come to arrest. At that point the crowd "drew back and fell to the ground" (John 18:6, NKJV), apparently a sign of supernatural power given to wake them up to what they were doing.

    But it didn't seem to wake anybody up except the disciples, who misinterpreted it. They "had thought that their Master would not suffer Himself to be taken. For the same power that had caused the mob to fall as dead men could keep them helpless, until Jesus and His companions could escape. They were disappointed and indignant as they saw the cords brought forward to bind the hands of him whom they loved" (The Desire of Ages, p. 696).

    At that point Peter came to life and decided to help out. Drawing his sword, he missed the head of the servant of the high priest but did manage to lop off one of his ears.

    But it was all to no avail. Luke tells us that Jesus touched Malchus' ear and healed him (Luke 22:51). That turned out to be an eternal blessing to him. He had experienced the power of Jesus and had apparently accepted Him as his Savior by the time John wrote the gospel story. That is the reason he knew the servant's name. But all Peter got out of the experience was a mild rebuke from Jesus: "Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?" (John 18:11, RSV).

    So much for a flash of power that would initiate the Messianic kingdom, or at least an escape from the arresting officials. Judas and Peter had each failed in their quite different attempts. Jesus knew God's will and had accepted it. That kind of dedication was still future for Peter and his colleagues.

    Help me, Father, not only to accept Your will but to give myself over to it. I have a Peter-person deep in my skin, and I would like right now to substitute it for a Jesus-person.

September 21, 2021

9/21/2021

The Twisted Kiss

        And while He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now His betrayer had given them a sign, saying, "Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him." Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, "Greetings, Rabbi!" and kissed Him. Matt. 26:47-49, NKJV.

    Why the kiss? Did the Jewish leaders and the Temple police really need to have Jesus pointed out to them?

    It would be incredible if the Temple police and the others in the crowd couldn't identify the man who only days before had cleansed the Temple and driven out the money changers. And how could they not know by sight a person who had taught daily in the Temple courts?

    The last thing they needed was an identification of Jesus. They were all too well aware of who He was and what He looked like.

    What they required was not identification, but a convenient and safe place, given the crowds in Jerusalem for Passover and Jesus' popularity, to arrest Him. And that is what Judas had already provided them with.

    Then why the kiss? The text itself may hint at the reason through the Greek words rendered into English as "kiss." In verse 48, Judas employs phileo, the normal word for kiss, as a sign that he will use to identify Jesus. But when it comes to the actual kiss in verse 49 the Greek is kataphileo, which, notes William Barclay, "is the word for a lover's kiss, and which means to kiss repeatedly, passionately, fervently."

    Why the change of words? Because the sign of the kiss was not primarily for identity. If that had been the only reason, the kiss would have merely been an indication of hypocrisy.

    But there appears to be something deeper in the twisted heart of Judas. His kiss was like that of a disciple who truly loved his master. Apparently Judas expected the occasion to stimulate Jesus to demonstrate His Messianic power and authority.

    But it didn't work out that way. And the disillusioned Judas vanishes from the story until his suicide. He apparently can't even be located as a witness against Jesus during the trial. Judas had tried to force Jesus to use his approach. But all he ended up with was utter disillusionment.

    How important that each of us seek to carry out God's work His way rather than our own. No matter how dedicated we are, if we are on our own path to success it is the wrong road.