Messiah - Gospel of Matthew - Week 33
Gareth Black · Messiah
24 March 2024
https://media.glenabbey.church/talks/messiah-gospel-of-matthew-week-33

[0:00] Morning everyone, thanks to Suzanne and the band for leading us.
[0:04] Just as people are still getting sorted with the kids, why don't we just take an opportunity just to welcome each other, say hello and good morning, particularly if there are folks here that you don't recognise.
[0:13] Let's just say hello for a minute.
[0:24] Thank you.
[0:51] Before we begin looking at Matthew 27, which is where we're going to be based this morning in scripture, I just want to do two things, if that's okay, before we get into the talk.
[1:02] The first is just to add my own welcome to those of you who are here supporting the families and the babies that we were giving thanks for.
[1:11] Really, really appreciative that you've come.
[1:14] We're so pleased you're here.
[1:16] We hope you'll feel at home.
[1:17] We hope you'll stick around for tea and coffee.
[1:19] Let us get to know you a little bit more in person.
[1:23] And just to say in that context, just thanks to Rebecca and to everyone actually involved in our children's ministry.
[1:33] I'm a dad of a toddler who's growing up in this church myself and the time and the investment that those involved in our children's ministry give is incredible.
[1:43] and please don't ever underestimate the value of the investment that you're making.
[1:49] I'm, and Amy is, dipping into all of the investment that was made into us in children's church and holiday Bible clubs and things like that as we spend time with our son in the evening, singing songs and doing Bible stories and things like that.
[2:04] So we're so grateful to children's ministry for what they do and the kids in this church are in great hands.
[2:11] The second thing I would just wanna mention, Very briefly, it'll be on the screen, is a new book resource that's being released at the start of April.
[2:20] So it's a book called Have You Ever Wondered?
[2:23] Finding Everyday Clues to Meaning, Purpose, and Spirituality.
[2:28] And it's essentially a book that's aimed at people who aren't Christians, or people who might not consider themselves religious in any particular way, but who are interested maybe in thinking through bigger questions of life and why we are the way we are as human beings.
[2:44] It's a book that really gets people thinking about the stuff that they really care about.
[2:49] So the book is made up of a lot of very short chapters that take maybe five, 10 minutes to read each, but it's really to get people thinking about the stuff that matters to them and why it actually matters to them.
[3:01] So if you're interested in questions, or you know people who might be interested in questions like, why does justice matter so much?
[3:08] Why are human beings so incurably curious?
[3:11] Is real change possible?
[3:13] Why do we long for happiness?
[3:14] Did Jesus really exist?
[3:16] Or what is love?
[3:19] The answer's not, baby, don't hurt me.
[3:21] But there are, this is a book that's tackling all those kinds of questions.
[3:26] And there are several different authors from all kinds of different backgrounds, law and history and academia and science and bioethics and civil service.
[3:35] And I've had the privilege of contributing a number of chapters to this book.
[3:39] It's out on the 2nd of April.
[3:41] I think you'll benefit from it yourself, but I do think you'll really benefit from sharing it with friends and colleagues who might be interested in just a simple opportunity to explore some of these questions that you can pick up over coffee or at home later on and begin to unpack a little bit more about what you agreed with, what you didn't.
[3:58] I think, and I know I have a vested interest, but I do think it's one of the most exciting resources for introducing people to Christianity and helping them to think through that that I've ever been a part of.
[4:10] So $7.99, available from all the usual places, and have a think about, have you ever wondered?
[4:19] Now, we are in Matthew 27 this morning as we come to our penultimate week in our series, Messiah, looking at Matthew's eyewitnesses account of the life and teaching of Jesus.
[4:33] And this morning, we're coming to the most significant moment of all in human history.
[4:40] We've discovered, if you've been following this series with us, we have been discovering the whole way through this gospel that Matthew is giving us an account of the life and the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth based on historical evidence.
[4:57] And through this historical evidence, through these facts, Matthew is also piece by piece building up a case, giving us evidence that convinced him and that has convinced million saints that Jesus is not just simply some figure in human history, even an influential figure, but he is in fact God's Messiah, the son of God, the savior king that God gave to rescue and rule the world.
[5:23] And as we've seen throughout this whole series, there are many people as they've listened to Jesus, as they followed him, as they've deduced the meaning of who he is and what he says, they've come to that conviction.
[5:34] He is the son of God.
[5:37] He is more than human.
[5:39] He is the king.
[5:41] But if there's one event above all others that threatens to completely destroy that conviction in the mind and in the hearts of Jesus' followers, it's what happens in Matthew 27.
[5:55] Because Matthew 27 accounts the historical reality of how Jesus was brutally and comprehensively rejected by his own people, and particularly by the religious rulers, and he was crucified by the Roman authorities in a public spectacle of weakness, shame, and eradication.
[6:17] We're coming to the cross this morning.
[6:20] So let's see what Matthew actually said about what happens.
[6:23] We're not going to have time to read the whole chapter.
[6:26] We'll pick it up in verse 11 where Matthew says this.
[6:29] Meanwhile, Jesus stood before the governor, that's Pilate, And the governor asked him, are you the king of the Jews?
[6:37] You have said so, Jesus replied.
[6:40] And when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer.
[6:44] And then Pilate asked him, don't you hear the testimony they're bringing against you?
[6:49] But Jesus made no reply.
[6:52] Not even to a single charge, to the amazement of the governor.
[6:57] Now it was the governor's custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd.
[7:03] And at that time, they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas.
[7:08] And so when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, which one do you want me to release to you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?
[7:17] For he knew that it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.
[7:22] While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message.
[7:27] Don't have anything to do with that innocent man.
[7:31] for I've suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.
[7:34] But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and have Jesus executed.
[7:41] Which of the two do you want me to release to you?
[7:44] asked the governor.
[7:44] Barabbas, they answered.
[7:47] What shall I do then with Jesus who is called the Messiah?
[7:50] Pilate asked.
[7:51] And they all answered, crucify him.
[7:54] Why?
[7:55] What crime has he committed?
[7:57] asked Pilate.
[7:59] But they shouted all the louder, crucify him.
[8:04] And then Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere and that an uproar was starting.
[8:08] He took water and he washed his hands in front of the crowd.
[8:11] And he said, I am innocent of this man's blood.
[8:15] It is your responsibility.
[8:17] And the people answered, his blood be on us and on our children.
[8:20] And then he released Barabbas to them.
[8:22] But he handed Jesus over to be flogged and then to be crucified.
[8:26] And then down to verse 32.
[8:28] As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.
[8:36] And when they came to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull, there they offered Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall.
[8:45] But after tasting it, Jesus refused to drink it.
[8:48] When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
[8:53] And sitting down, they kept watch over him there.
[8:55] And above his head, they placed the written charge against him.
[8:59] This is Jesus, the king of the Jews.
[9:04] Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.
[9:08] Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it again in three days.
[9:15] Save yourself.
[9:17] Come down off the cross if you really are the son of God.
[9:20] And in the same way, the chief priests and the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him.
[9:25] He saved others, they said, but he can't save himself.
[9:29] He's the king of Israel.
[9:31] Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe him.
[9:36] He trusts in God.
[9:39] Let God rescue him, for he said, I am the son of God.
[9:43] And in the same way, the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
[9:50] And from noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the land.
[9:55] And about three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[10:08] And when some of them standing there heard their cry, they said, he's calling Elijah.
[10:12] And immediately one of them ran and got a sponge and filled it with wine vinegar and put it on a staff and offered it to Jesus to drink.
[10:20] And the rest said, now leave him alone.
[10:22] Let's see if Elijah really does come to save him.
[10:25] and when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit and we'll stop there.
[10:34] Most of us will be very familiar with the concept of Jesus dying on the cross.
[10:41] There's hardly a church in the world this week that won't read or talk from the events that we've just read And Matthew tells us what happens in his own unique way.
[10:53] This is not the same as Luke's account.
[10:55] It's not the same as John's account.
[10:57] This is not Paul unpacking the theological significance of these events in Romans.
[11:03] Matthew's focus is very much on simply relaying the facts of what happened in the events surrounding Jesus' crucifixion.
[11:11] It gives us very, if not no, commentary about it.
[11:16] And the details that other gospel writers include Matthew leaves out.
[11:20] But through the relaying of the facts that he does give us, Matthew is simultaneously and implicitly asking us to answer a very simple but significant question.
[11:32] Is Jesus the Messiah?
[11:35] The Son of God?
[11:38] And if he is, what kind of king is he?
[11:43] That's the exam question for Matthew.
[11:45] we only have a time to read an abridged version of of Matthew 27 this morning but throughout the entire chapter even back into the latter part of chapter 26 this account is punctuated over and over again with references to Jesus the Messiah Jesus is the son of God Jesus the king of the Jews Jesus the son of God and yes many of those are attributed to Jesus purely ironically or purely for the purposes of mocking taunts.
[12:16] But Matthew is using them all the time to keep this question of identity continually in our minds.
[12:24] The biggest, the most important question that anyone can ever consider, is Jesus the son of God?
[12:30] Is he God's king?
[12:33] And it's important to remember that Matthew himself was one of the first disciples who followed Jesus.
[12:40] He was caught up in these events.
[12:41] He was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah.
[12:44] He'd given up a lucrative business in order to follow him.
[12:47] And yet he'd also abandoned Jesus when Jesus was arrested at the Garden of Gethsemane.
[12:54] He'd fled.
[12:56] And seeing Jesus so comprehensively rejected,
[13:03] put his faith on life support.
[13:08] What was it that drew Matthew back to the conviction that Jesus really was who said he was?
[13:15] And really was a king worthy of being subject to?
[13:19] Yes, the resurrection was a game changer.
[13:22] And we can't really separate the events of chapter 27 and 28.
[13:27] The chapter divisions weren't there when Matthew originally wrote it.
[13:30] But there are things that happened in this chapter that convinced Matthew a million since that Jesus is the Son of God and he's worth following.
[13:42] And we've got an incredible opportunity this week in the lead up to Easter to think about those things in a deeper and more meaningful way.
[13:49] But all I want to do this morning is highlight four historical facts that Matthew tells us concerning Jesus.
[13:56] Jesus was innocent.
[13:58] Jesus was silent.
[13:59] Jesus suffered horrifically.
[14:02] And Jesus was forsaken by God.
[14:03] Those are some of the facts that Matthew lays down.
[14:08] And I want to be faithful to Matthew's account this morning.
[14:10] So first, Jesus was innocent.
[14:14] On four different occasions in this passage, from four different people, Matthew declares the historical account that Jesus was declared to be innocent.
[14:25] And the people who declare that are not the usual suspects.
[14:30] Matthew doesn't say that the disciples proclaimed Jesus was innocent.
[14:34] He doesn't say it was Mary Magdalene.
[14:35] He doesn't even comment on it himself.
[14:38] In fact, the first person who claims that Jesus is innocent is Judas.
[14:43] Judas, who was willing to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
[14:47] And yet Matthew tells us at the beginning of chapter 27 in verse 3 and 4 that when Judas saw what the chief priests had done with Jesus, When he saw the kangaroo court, the false witnesses, the injustice, the fact that this wasn't so much a trial as a fait accompli.
[15:04] They were going to crucify Jesus no matter what.
[15:08] Verse 3 and 4 says that Judas was seized with remorse and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying, I have sinned and I have betrayed innocent blood.
[15:23] He knew Jesus was innocent.
[15:26] He knew the charges were false and he knew his actions, his selfishness had opened up the door to the greatest miscarriage of justice that the world has ever seen.
[15:37] And the guilt wrecks him.
[15:41] And he tries to trace his steps and confess his guilt and hand the money back.
[15:46] And the chief priests look at him and say, what is that to us?
[15:50] You see to it, it's your responsibility.
[15:52] And the irony is, it wasn't.
[15:55] It was their responsibility because helping people deal with their guilt and with their sin was precisely what the chief priest's responsibility was.
[16:04] And they dismiss it.
[16:05] So committed are they to getting rid of Jesus.
[16:09] And it leads Judas to suicide.
[16:14] Judas' remorse is different from Peter's.
[16:16] This is not repentance.
[16:18] We're not told that he suddenly believed that Jesus was the son of God.
[16:21] but even the betrayer, Matthew says, is utterly convinced that Jesus was innocent and he can't live with the fact that he's complicit in this injustice.
[16:32] The second person to declare Jesus innocent is Pilate, the Roman governor of that region.
[16:38] On the morning after the chief priests condemned Jesus to death in Caiaphas' court, they discuss how they're gonna put Jesus to death and they know it has to be public and they know that it has to happen in a form that will comprehensively discredit his messianic credentials.
[16:58] And so they decide to send him to Pilate in the hope that he'll be crucified.
[17:02] Pilate wasn't known for his leniency.
[17:06] The ancient philosopher Philo talks about a letter that King Agrippa I wrote to the emperor Caligula and he described Pilate this way, that he's a man of very inflexible disposition, very merciless, as well as very obstinate.
[17:23] Put that in your LinkedIn profile.
[17:27] And that's probably why they sent him to Jesus.
[17:31] And they sent him to Jesus with a very specific accusation.
[17:36] They had condemned him in the high priest court for blasphemy, but that wasn't going to wash with Pilate.
[17:42] They tell Pilate that instead he is guilty of making himself the king of the Jews because Pilate was renowned for crushing pretenders who claimed to be king and had the potential to lead an uprising against the Roman authorities.
[17:57] And that's why in verse 11 of chapter 27, the key offense that Pilate is interested in when he has Jesus on trial is the question, are you the king of the Jews?
[18:09] And though Jesus doesn't deny it, Pilate becomes convinced that Jesus is no threat.
[18:18] He's not guilty of what he's being accused of.
[18:21] And he has, he tries numerous times to have Jesus released that included getting them to choose between Jesus and a known psychopath called Barabbas, because he could see perfectly well that Jesus was innocent.
[18:36] Verse 18 says that he knew it was out of self-interest that they handed Jesus over to be crucified.
[18:42] This pagan, cynical, acrimonious Roman governor wasn't fooled.
[18:49] And even though Jesus didn't say anything in his defense, he looks at the crowd in verse 23 and says, What evil has he done?
[19:01] Pilate knew Jesus was innocent.
[19:03] Judas knew Jesus was innocent.
[19:05] Pilate's wife knew Jesus was innocent as well.
[19:08] Matthew's the only gospel writer to record this.
[19:11] But Pilate's wife had a dream.
[19:15] And she's so disturbed by this dream that she writes to Pilate while he's sitting in judgment in Jesus' trial.
[19:22] And she says to him in verse 19, don't have anything to do with this innocent man.
[19:27] Because I've suffered a great deal today because of him.
[19:31] Pagans took dreams very seriously.
[19:34] And they interpreted them as messages from the God.
[19:37] And yet somehow she has such a disturbing dream about Jesus that she intervenes in a legal case and says to Pilate, don't get involved.
[19:49] Don't be responsible.
[19:51] Don't do what they're asking you to do.
[19:53] He is innocent.
[19:55] Don't touch this with a barge pole.
[19:58] She knew Jesus was innocent.
[20:00] And the final person who knew Jesus was innocent was the Roman centurion at the cross.
[20:07] he watches the events of the scourging and the crucifixion unfold he experiences the darkness that covered the land and the earthquake that hit when Jesus died and this is a crucifixion like nothing he's ever experienced this battle hardened unsqueamish abrasive military man finds himself terrified and in verse 54 says surely he is the son of God.
[20:37] Now we'll think more about what that might mean in a moment, but one of the things it definitely means is that in terms of human justice, Jesus has absolutely no basis for being on that cross.
[20:51] He's innocent yet condemned.
[20:54] The second thing, the second fact that Matthew tells us is Jesus was silent.
[21:00] In all the social justice conversations that we're having in culture at the minute.
[21:05] One of the key mantras is that silence is complicity.
[21:10] In other words, if you're silent about injustice, if you don't speak up and fight back, you are inherently and morally a participant in that justice.
[21:20] Now, of course, that's often true, but it's not always true.
[21:25] Justice is more complex than that.
[21:27] and there are occasions where periods of silence may serve justice better.
[21:34] But on at least four occasions in this Passion narrative, Matthew tells us that Jesus responded to being falsely accused, mistreated, persecuted with the sound of silence.
[21:46] He does so in the high priest's court at the end of chapter 26, when they're punching him, they're spitting on him, they're mocking him, They're presenting false witnesses against him.
[21:59] Matthew 26, 63 says that Jesus remained silent.
[22:04] He's silent before Pilate when the chief priests and the elders accuse him of treason.
[22:09] Matthew 27, 12 and 14 says that Jesus gave no answer, not even to a single charge.
[22:17] And Pilate is amazed by this.
[22:20] He's never met anyone like this.
[22:22] This is not how criminals respond on trial.
[22:27] And Jesus' life is on the line here.
[22:30] He is expecting Jesus to do what Dylan Thomas said in his famous poem.
[22:37] Do not go gentle into that good night.
[22:39] Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
[22:43] And Jesus doesn't rage at all.
[22:45] He doesn't say anything.
[22:47] The third occasion where Jesus is silent is in Pilate's praetorium.
[22:52] When the soldiers treat him like a pinata, they mock him, they beat him, they perform a coronation parody to mock him.
[23:07] They say, Jesus, the King of the Jews, look at this.
[23:11] This is the best the Jews that come up with.
[23:13] to heal the king of the Jews as broken, naked, pathetic excuse for a human being bleeding from a crown of thorns on his head.
[23:23] And Jesus says nothing, makes no defense.
[23:27] And finally on the cross, when the taunts come and they hurl insults at him and they shake their heads and they say, you said you were gonna destroy the temple.
[23:39] Surely looks like it now.
[23:41] You were the one who could save others and yet you can't even save yourself.
[23:46] Come down and we'll believe you.
[23:49] And Jesus remains silent.
[23:53] He doesn't answer their taunts, at least not at this point.
[23:56] More of that next week.
[23:59] Jesus who we've seen throughout this book is so willing to engage with and to answer and to dialogue with those who have genuine questions and obstacles to taking him seriously.
[24:14] Matthew says he was silent the whole way through in the face of it all.
[24:19] And Matthew simply states it as a reality.
[24:21] He doesn't tell us why.
[24:24] Peter does.
[24:27] In 1 Peter he tells us that when they hurled insults at him, he didn't retaliate.
[24:32] When he suffered, he made no threats.
[24:34] Instead, he trusted himself to him who judges justly.
[24:40] In other words, Jesus' silence wasn't an indicator of complicity or saying that it didn't matter.
[24:47] It mattered more than they realized.
[24:50] And he had the power to stop it.
[24:51] He told Peter at the end of chapter 26, Don't you think I can ask my father and he can give me 12 legions of angels to be at my disposal?
[25:02] But how would the scriptures be fulfilled, Peter, if we did that?
[25:08] This is not a basis for saying that when any injustice happens, we should just keep silent and trust that God will work it all out.
[25:15] There are many injustices that shouldn't happen, and it is Christian to reveal them and deal with them.
[25:20] But this is an injustice that Jesus said had to happen.
[25:25] It had to be this way.
[25:28] And so settled in his mind that this was going to happen and willing to obey.
[25:34] And as we saw last week, coming to that point wasn't easy.
[25:38] Jesus faced against himself the greatest injustice and moral atrocity that the world will ever see and remain silent.
[25:49] He did not defend himself, not because he didn't believe in justice, but precisely because he did.
[25:56] He knew that it had to be this way and yet his trust was still resolute that God would bring justice and that God would vindicate him.
[26:10] Jesus was scandalized, yet silenced.
[26:12] Thirdly, and quickly, Jesus suffered horrifically.
[26:17] We mentioned a moment ago that one of the taunts that Jesus faced when he was on the cross was in verse 42.
[26:23] He saved others,
[26:27] but himself he cannot save.
[26:29] He's meant to be the king of Israel, and he cannot even save himself.
[26:37] Jesus suffered horrifically it was a piercing mockery because all expectation was that God's Messiah the King of the Jews would be a figure of power and resilience and strength the kind of figure that people would look to for courage and hope and faith that the Roman occupation could be overthrown and that a son of David would sit on the throne of Israel once again and now here's Jesus naked, vulnerable,
[27:07] weak a figure of scorn and scandal hanging helplessly on a cross the very symbol of Roman power and superiority and no one had a category for a crucified Messiah it was an oxymoron
[27:24] to end up like this is surely irrefutable evidence that he isn't the Messiah and yet Jesus not only remained silent but he entered in to that suffering and that rejection as a human being fully, even to the point of death.
[27:45] And fourthly,
[27:48] Jesus was forsaken by God.
[27:54] Matthew 27, 45 tells us that from noon there was a darkness that came over the land until three in the afternoon.
[28:04] And about three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[28:12] We've talked a lot about Jesus' silence, but this is where Jesus does choose to speak on the cross.
[28:21] This is the only thing that Matthew records Jesus saying on the cross.
[28:26] And Jesus didn't just say these words.
[28:29] Matthew says he screamed these words.
[28:33] That's literally what the word means.
[28:36] It's the only time it's used in the New Testament.
[28:39] Jesus screams, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
[28:46] And on an emotional level, it looks like Jesus is cracked.
[28:51] Even he's now saying that he's been rejected by God.
[28:55] Even he seems to be saying that God has failed him.
[28:59] Even he seems to be having a crisis of faith.
[29:02] How can he be the Messiah?
[29:04] And it's one of the reasons why serious thinkers and scholars think that this is historically accurate.
[29:10] Because if you're trying to make an account of the death of the founder of your faith, and you're trying to promote that faith, you would never put such an unheroic, disheartened, seemingly crisis of faith words in that founder's mouth.
[29:25] Unless it actually happened.
[29:28] Jesus doesn't cry out about his physical pain.
[29:31] He doesn't cry out about the relational or the psychological.
[29:35] His cry is about spiritual suffering.
[29:38] This is about what God has done, not what other people have done.
[29:43] And that comes to the heart of Matthew, giving us that little bit of insight of what exactly was going on on the cross.
[29:50] Because the darkness that covers the land at what should be the brightest part of the day is emblematic of what is going on with Jesus spiritually.
[30:00] We've already seen Matthew talk about separation from God as being cast into outer darkness.
[30:13] And in the same way that no life could exist on this planet if the sun was plunged into utter darkness, that's the way they describe the absence of God.
[30:22] And yet this is what Jesus is experiencing if that cry is accurate.
[30:27] He's experiencing the full, infinite weight of separation from God.
[30:33] And as many of us know, the pain of that separation is often relative to the strength of the relationship.
[30:39] If your friend rejects you, you might get over it.
[30:41] If your spouse rejects you, it's very different.
[30:43] And some people never get over that.
[30:47] But can you imagine that if what Christians say is true, that Jesus was the Son of God and one with the Father from all eternity and suddenly now that father has rejected him by his own admission.
[31:04] Four historical facts.
[31:07] Jesus was innocent, Jesus was silent, Jesus suffered horrifically and Jesus was forsaken by God.
[31:13] But remember the question that Matthew is reiterating is this, what does this mean for Jesus' identity as Messiah.
[31:26] Let's think about just in closing for a minute what the related question of what kind of king do these facts show that he might be?
[31:37] And I'm not gonna protract this out, but I don't think it's coincidental that so much of Matthew's account of Jesus' rejection and crucifixion involves Jesus standing in front of other authorities and other leaders, and other rulers of his day.
[31:55] And they say that contrast is the mother of clarity.
[31:58] So in standing before Pilate, and standing before the religious rulers, we don't only see Jesus' character, we see their character, we see the kind of rulers and authorities that they are.
[32:09] Jesus stands before the religious authorities of his day.
[32:14] And what we see is a group of leaders who are so committed to maintaining their status, and their platforms and their power that they are prepared to destroy anyone they consider a threat to.
[32:27] Has that ever happened?
[32:31] They're prepared to lie.
[32:33] They're prepared to commit injustice after injustice.
[32:36] They're prepared to excuse abuse and abuse themselves.
[32:39] They're prepared to sacrifice their principles and pander to people they don't respect or trust, like Pilate, to leverage those people's power in order that they might achieve their own outcomes.
[32:50] They are happy to serve others and fulfill the religious roles when it suits them.
[32:55] But when it doesn't, they throw people's spiritual needs back on themselves and it destroys people.
[33:05] They're not the only religious leaders who've done that.
[33:09] Jesus also stands before political power in the form of Pilate.
[33:15] And though Pilate is a leader who's intelligent and discerning enough to know what is going on and to know that Jesus is innocent, despite his best judgment, the advice of his wife, he is prepared to betray his conscience for political expediency.
[33:35] Pilate didn't hand Jesus over to be crucified on principle.
[33:39] He did it for pragmatic reasons.
[33:41] He could see that the people were determined to kill Jesus Tenses were rising to the point of civil unrest.
[33:48] And so rather than do the right thing and manage the political kickback, he made a Faustian pact under the guise of peace.
[33:57] And he chose what was more convenient for himself and his political career than what was right.
[34:05] And tried to wash his hands of any of the responsibility.
[34:10] Both of them, both Pilate and the religious rulers saying this text at one point, it's not our responsibility, it's yours.
[34:24] But what do these historical facts of Matthew 27 tell us about the kind of king Jesus is and the kind of power he exercises if he is God's messianic king?
[34:36] Well, let me just mention three quick things very, very briefly.
[34:41] It first means that Jesus is the kind of king committed to doing what is right, no matter what the cost.
[34:47] And no matter what the cost to himself, personally.
[34:53] Jesus is the kind of king, the kind of leader, who is committed to truth, committed to justice, even at the expense of himself.
[35:06] Even when it costs him, even when it misrepresents him, even when it turns people against him, even when it runs the risk of people misunderstanding him, Jesus is the kind of king who is committed to doing what is right, period.
[35:26] Secondly, Jesus is the kind of king who does not remain distant from human suffering and brokenness, but has become part of it.
[35:38] All of us know that isolation is the worst form of suffering.
[35:41] All of us know, as human beings, that one of the best ways to care for people and take their brokenness seriously is to enter into that suffering with them.
[35:51] That's why people who are going through chemotherapy and lose their hair, friends, family members will often shave their head even though they're not losing their hair.
[35:58] To enter into that experience as a way of saying, it matters to me.
[36:04] I'm gonna take this on with you.
[36:06] I'm not gonna stay distant, I'm gonna be involved.
[36:11] And we've seen that all throughout our culture lately.
[36:15] The Me Too movement that was so influential a number of years ago online and on social media.
[36:22] That was a movement that was about supporting people who'd been silenced and abused sexually by people coming along and saying, "Me Too," by people sharing their story and helping them realize that no matter what they'd been told and the authorities said it didn't matter that they didn't have a voice, here were people who were prepared to say, it does matter.
[36:45] And the way that they did that was by saying me too and entering into that.
[36:50] Dorothy L. Sayers said that whatever reason, for whatever reason God chose to make us as he did, limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death, God had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine.
[37:06] Whatever God might be doing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair.
[37:11] He can expect nothing from human beings that he has not exacted from himself.
[37:16] He's gone through the whole of human experience, from trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain, humiliation, defeat, despair, and death.
[37:31] Jesus is the kind of king who can demonstrate that God can be trusted when the chaos is all around.
[37:38] And that's not just an idea.
[37:41] It's not just a theology.
[37:42] It's something he lived and walked before us.
[37:46] He is the pioneer of our faith and what that faith looks like in the darkest and the most difficult moments.
[37:54] Because in response to the problem of evil and suffering, whatever else we can or should say about it, God didn't send us a theodicy.
[38:02] He didn't send us an explanation.
[38:05] He didn't send us a theory.
[38:07] He sent us himself hanging on a cross.
[38:12] Because whatever we can say in response to the problem of suffering, the one thing that Christianity does say is that we have a God who can say, me too.
[38:24] Finally, Jesus is the kind of king who will face God's forsaking so we don't have to.
[38:34] yes Jesus is crying my God my God why have you forsaken me but actually Jesus is quoting from Psalm 22 where it talks about rejection but the end of that Psalm says this that all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord and the families of nations will bow down before him after he's been forsaken for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules the nations and the writs of the earth will feast and worship.
[39:00] They'll go down to the dust.
[39:01] They'll kneel before him.
[39:02] Those who cannot keep themselves alive, posterity will serve him.
[39:07] Future generations will be told about the Lord.
[39:09] They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn, he has done it.
[39:18] And that's what we're told.
[39:21] Jesus said, Matthew doesn't tell us, but that's what we're told by the the other historians that Jesus said on the cross, his final cry was it's done, it's finished.
[39:34] And the temple veil is torn.
[39:37] The temple was a place full of barriers.
[39:39] If you were a woman, you could only get so far.
[39:42] If you were a Gentile, you could only get so far.
[39:44] If you were a normal priest, you could only get so far.
[39:46] And only once a year, one priest could get right into the presence of God.
[39:50] There were barriers everywhere.
[39:53] And Jesus, what happens as Jesus is forsaken is that all those barriers are taken away.
[39:59] So that there now has to be no separation and no barriers to God whatsoever.
[40:06] Because He has done it.
[40:08] You know, if you read the Buddhist scriptures, they tell you that one of Buddhists' last encouragements to his disciples was this, strive on.
[40:18] Keep striving, keep trying.
[40:20] And that's what religion for so many people is all about.
[40:22] Keep trying, keep trying, and hopefully I'll be good enough.
[40:25] Christianity is the opposite.
[40:26] It says you can't be good enough.
[40:27] You can't try enough.
[40:29] But Jesus has done it in your place.
[40:31] He's been forsaken by God, so you don't have to.
[40:34] The pilot says it's your responsibility.
[40:36] The priests say it's your responsibility.
[40:38] Jesus says it's my responsibility, and I've done it.
[40:42] So live in the light of it.
[40:46] That's the kind of king he is.
[40:48] But surely these events mean that he can't be the Messiah.
[40:52] I mean, he sounds great, but surely the cross means he can't be that Messiah.
[41:00] Well, unless this is precisely what was meant to happen to Messiah.
[41:04] What if it's not the circumstances that happened to Jesus that discredit his claim?
[41:10] What if the problem is that our expectations of what should happen to Messiah actually weren't quite right?
[41:16] Jesus told Peter, I am fulfilling scripture.
[41:22] and what if the scriptures that promised Messiah didn't just say that he would have glory but before that glory there would be suffering what if it was promised that Messiah would also be despised and rejected by mankind a man of suffering familiar with pain like one from whom people hide their faces.
[41:47] He was despised and would be held in low esteem.
[41:54] What if he was meant to be one who would take on our pain and carry our suffering, who would be considered punished by God?
[42:01] Let God save him.
[42:04] Clearly he's not.
[42:06] Stricken and afflicted, but what if in all of that he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought our peace was put on his responsibility and by those wounds we are healed.
[42:22] Then if that's true, then rather than the events of Matthew 27 discrediting Jesus being God's true king, they actually prove that he's the only one qualified to be it.
[42:34] If there's any possibility that that is true,
[42:43] it might change things was the experience of the centurion.
[42:47] He stood back, watched it all, thought about it, wondered, and said, "Surely this man is the son of God."
[42:54] He wasn't necessarily becoming a Christian, but what he was saying is there's something unique about this individual.
[43:02] There's something more than human about him.
[43:06] There's something that's worth considering.
[43:08] There is no human being like this human being.
[43:14] So what do you think?
[43:17] Because if he is that Messiah, God would need to demonstrate it in a way that's just as public and just as credible as the events in Matthew 27 seem to discredit it.
[43:35] God would need to do something to show the world
[43:40] that reverses all of the shame, all of the silence, all of the suffering and forsakenness of this chapter that demonstrates to the world that this Jesus who was crucified is truly Lord and Christ.
[43:57] Could that happen?
[44:00] We'll have to come back next week and find out.
[44:02] Let's pray.
[44:04] Father, thanks for an opportunity just to study your word.
[44:08] Thank you for these facts.
[44:13] I pray that as we go into Easter week that you would help us to consider them, reflect on them, weigh them up, and continually ask the question, is Jesus the Son of God?
[44:30] And what kind of king is he?
[44:34] Is he the kind of God, the kind of ruler, the kind of Lord that I can trust my life with all its experiences to.
[44:44] Lord, I pray that we would, at the very least, find ourselves like the centurion this morning, looking at you, looking at who you are, what you've done, and saying there's something more in this.
[44:59] One man who stands out in human history, one man who stands out in seven billion, is worth another look.
[45:10] I pray we'd do that this morning in Jesus' name.
[45:12] Amen.