The Judgment of Jesus
by Gene Easley
“And
straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the
elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him
away, and delivered him to
Pilate”
(Mark 15:1).
The chief priests held a
consultation. Religious
consultations can be dangerous. Their
results can be deadly. Religious
meetings that are not directed and moved upon by God will usually only
serve to bring harm to the true work of God. But
the evil intended at this consultation only served to bring about the
greatest moment of time for the souls of men and their eternal salvation
ever known.
The elders, the scribes and
the whole Jewish council attended this special meeting called by the chief
priests. They all had one thing in common--their hatred for
Jesus. His destruction was the desire of their hearts. There
was no room for compassion in this religious meeting. Mercy was not
to be considered. Only one thing needed to be decided, "How can we
best destroy this man?"
Step one of their plan to eliminate Jesus from troubling their unrepentant lives was fulfilled in three simple parts: they bound Him; they carried Him away; they delivered Him to Pilate (Mark 15:1).
They Bound Him
Truly Jesus could never be
bound. It required total submission on His part--not to the will of
man but to the will of God. As it was impossible to bind Samson when
the Spirit of God was upon him, so much more was it impossible to bind
Jesus. The workers of evil really did not realize the power of their
Captive. He submitted to their bondage that He might in turn set
them free. He died for His enemies.
His captors were His own
creation; the chains that made Him a prisoner were the works of His own
hands. But all of it was just one more step in bringing to pass His
purpose for coming to this world. What great submission is witnessed
here! Jesus had already expressed His ability to call the legions of
angels. It was bondage chosen that He might set men free. He
set us free through His submission to
Jesus’ bondage, so undeserved, bought our freedom, also so undeserved. The great power that day rested not in the hands of the conquerors but in the great submission of the Conquered.
They Carried Him Away
They were organized men,
bound together to work together to accomplish the desires of the great
hatred in their hearts. Jesus was alone. He had been deserted
by His close friends. But He was determined and driven by His great
love to perform a goal totally different than His opposers. It was
the Devil working through ungodly, hate-filled men that took Christ to His
day of crucifixion. At the same time it was God, filled with divine
love, working through the submission of His Son, who was leading Jesus to
They Delivered Him to Pilate
Pilate was not a willing
participant of this ordeal. Because of his position, he
automatically became involved, and because he was weak in character he
could not say, "No".
Pilate began his
confrontation with Jesus with a question, "Art thou the king of the
Jews?" This obviously was an accusation that the Jews presented
to Pilate to prove that Jesus was rising up against Caesar.
Therefore, it would have been Pilate's responsibility to bring action
against Christ.
The gospel of John cast a
little more light upon Pilate's dealings with the Jews at that time.
It confirms that Pilate really did not desire to be involved. He
wanted the Jews to handle the matter themselves. Their refusal was
made on the grounds that they could not legally put Jesus to death.
His death was, of course, their main desire. Nothing they
said was reasonable or honest. They simply wanted Jesus dead.
Jesus responded to
Pilate’s question with, "Thou sayest it." In
John's gospel Jesus affirms that He is a king but that His kingdom is not
of this world. He was born for this purpose and came into the world
for this cause. Of course, He alone understood that first He must be
the sacrifice for sins before He would fill that kingly position.
The Jews brought many
accusations against Christ. But He gave no answers, that is, He did
not try to defend Himself. "Who when He was reviled, reviled
not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to
him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23). God is the
righteous Judge. We do not need to make our own defense. Jesus
set for us a great example.
One of the Ten Commandments given to Moses deals with the bearing
of false witness. It is a sin
listed along with "Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit
adultery. Thou shalt not steal." From this I believe that
we can conclude that bearing false witness is a sin very grievous before
God. What a hideous sin it is when someone misrepresents the truth
regarding someone else's life or character. But Jesus displayed
divine wisdom by simply refusing to come to His own defense. God is
our Defender. He will look out for His own.
Isaiah stated it so
beautifully when he said, "No weapon that is formed against thee
shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment
thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the
Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord" (Isaiah
54:17). We have a heritage as God's servants. God will take
care of those who rise against us. "His eyes are upon the
righteous." "If God be for us, who can be against
us?" "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's
elect?" Let the enemy rage, but we can rest in the assurance;
the victory is ours!
Pilate's attitude toward
Jesus seemed to be one of amazement at this Man of Galilee. How
could anyone refrain from entering into such strife as this when His own
life was at stake? Jesus had won the victory at
Pilate marveled at
Jesus. He had never seen anyone like Him before. Jesus had
changed fishermen into preachers, a tax collector into an honest disciple,
a leper from
