Tried and Crucified - 240312

SPEAKER A Hello, I'm Clive Nash. Welcome to let God speak. The arrest, trial and execution of Jesus of Nazareth was a shameful example of injustice upon an innocent person. Everyone involved knew he was innocent. As prophesied, Jesus allowed it to happen without retaliation. Join us as we discuss the events outlined in Mark, chapter 15 of the last hours of Jesus life as he endured the humiliation and brutal treatment of the Romans. On our panel today we have Daniel Vokurka and Robyne Butler. Welcome, Daniel and Robyne. Good to have you with us today. I'm looking forward to our discussion, but before we begin, let's take time to invite the Holy Spirit to be with us, our wonderful God in heaven. We thank you that you've given us the Bible and in particular this series of studies on the book of Mark. And as we further dig into it today, we just pray that you will be here by your spirit and you will guide us and be a blessing to us here on the panel, but also to our viewers and our listeners. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A Well, Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane in the middle of the night. It had already been decided by the high priest and the council that he was to be found guilty of a crime and put to death between the hours of midnight and early morning. He was given two hearings before the scribes and Pharisees, one before the former high priest Annas and the other before the high priest Caiaphas. False witnesses tried to get all kinds of crimes to apply. He was eventually falsely found guilty of blasphemy by the high priest Caiaphas. During this time, he was physically beaten and once convicted, early in the morning, he was taken to the roman governor for permission to have him executed without delay. So, Robyne, what do we know about this roman governor, Pontius Pilate? SPEAKER B Well, we know that Pontius Pilate was the governor of Judea, which was a subdivision of the roman province of Syria. He was appointed by Tiberius Caesar and was answering directly to him. His official residence was in the town of Caesar, or probably the city, I don't know, but in Caesarea. And he'd come down to Jerusalem and stayed there just to make sure that there was no trouble from all the thousands of visitors coming because it was Passover. SPEAKER A Yeah. There were actually two caesareas and he was the one by the sea. Caesarea Maritima, I think they called it. SPEAKER B Okay. SPEAKER A Yes. So, Daniel, what charge did the Jews present to the governor to show that he was worthy of death? SPEAKER C Well, in the secret night trials, the jewish leaders found Jesus guilty of blasphemy. But you see, blasphemy wasn't something that the Romans were particularly interested in. And so what? So the Jews had to twist the conviction so that it was so that he could be punished by a roman. SPEAKER A Death decree and make it political. SPEAKER C Yeah, that's right. SPEAKER A Rather than religious. SPEAKER C Yeah. And so we can actually find what. What they did. We read that in mark 15 two, and it says, then Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? He answered and said to him, it is as you say. So by Pilate's question, it appears that Jesus was presented as being a rival kingdom to Caesar, and this was sedition to the Romans and punishable by death. SPEAKER A Yeah. And Jesus was very careful about not directly answering this question, wasn't he? So when Jesus responded by saying, it's as you say, why did Jesus not just say yes, Robyne, good question, really. SPEAKER B Because if you think about it, in Jesus mind, he actually had no intention of being a rival earthly king. So, hence his response to Pilate was quite non committal. He did not deny the title of king or affirmat, suggesting that he was a king, but a different kind of king. SPEAKER A Yeah. He said, my kingdom is not of this world, didn't he? SPEAKER B Yes. So Jesus was a spiritual king of both the Jews and the Romans. A spiritual king was not what they had in mind. So how could he say yes? In my mind, his answer was brilliant. SPEAKER A So, Daniel, does the record actually suggests that Pilate thought Jesus was innocent? SPEAKER C Yes, and we can read that in mark 15 and verse five. But Jesus still answered nothing. So that Pilate marvelled. So it says here that Pilate marvelled, he marvelled that Jesus stood before him calmly and silently. And he did not respond to the accusations of the priests and scribes as any other man would do. Only a completely innocent person would say nothing. SPEAKER A Okay, so, Robyne, Pilate seems to be in a bit of a tricky situation here, doesn't he? He thinks Jesus is innocent, but he's got this rowdy crowd, you know, calling for his blood and for his death and so on. It's the Passover. There are thousands of Jews from around the world in town. He doesn't want any trouble. So how does he deal with the situation before him? SPEAKER B Okay, so if we read from chapter 15, verse starting at verse six, down to verse ten, it says, now, at that feast, he released unto them one prisoner whomsoever they desired. And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. And the multitude, crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them. But Pilate answered them, saying, will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. So you see, Pilate was thinking that despite their envy of Jesus, if given a choice between a convicted murderer, Barabbas, and Jesus, whom he knew and they knew was innocent, he thought they would choose Jesus. SPEAKER A Yeah, it's ironic, isn't it? You know, you've got Jesus, the son of God, and then you've got Jesus, bar Abba, bar Abbas, the son of the father. It's a real irony there. So we know what happened. Let's read Mark, chapter 15 and verse eleven. But the chief priest stirred up the crowd so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. Daniel, there was this mob rule happening here, wasn't it, against Jesus and cited by the chief priests. And how's Pilate going to handle this situation? SPEAKER C Yes, well, we can read that in 1512 to 15. But before we do that, you see, it was Pilate's plan by. Yeah, it was Pilate's plan to release Jesus. But unfortunately, this plan backfired. And so he was trying to. Now, he had a mob that he had to deal with. And so now this is how he. How he deals with them. So it says in 1215, Pilate answered and said to them again, what then do you want me to do with him who you call the king of the Jews? So they cried out again, crucify him. Then Pilate said to them, why? What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, crucify him. So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them. And he delivered Jesus after he had scourged him to be crucified. SPEAKER A So this mention of the word scourging here, Robyne, what does that mean? Jesus was scourged. SPEAKER B Okay. So the jewish courts administered scourging or flogging. Under the law of Moses, 40 lashes was the maximum. Five times Paul was scourged, 39 lashes by jewish courts. The Romans, however, took scourging to a new level. They stripped the victim, tied them to a pole, lashed them with leather whips, to which they tied pieces of bone or glass or stones and even nails. Right. And then, of course, this having. Being whipped this way resulted in shocking injuries. And some people even died from being whipped. Scourged by the Romans? SPEAKER A Yes. Daniel, did he get treated any better by the roman soldiers? SPEAKER C No, not in a very good way. At all. And after he was scourged, he was mocked, spat upon as the king of the Jews. And he was also physically beaten. And we can read this account in mark 15, 1620. And it says, then the soldiers led him away into the hall called praetorium. And they called together the whole garrison. And they clothed him with purple. And they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on his head and began to salute him. Hail, king of the Jews. Then they struck him on the head with a reed and spat on him and bowing the knee, they worshipped him. And when they had mocked him, they took the purple off him, put his own clothes on him and led him out to crucify him. SPEAKER A Yeah, it's not a pretty picture. Robyne, how did Jesus respond to this mockery and abuse? SPEAKER B Well, the Bible has no record of him saying actually anything at all. In fact, Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 53 seven that he would be silent. It says in Isaiah 53 seven, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. So Jesus said nothing and voluntarily endured all the agony without any anger or malice against the perpetrators. Even while these roman soldiers mocked our precious saviour and ironically crowned him as king with a crown of thorns and a purple robe, and abused and humiliated him. We are given this beautiful picture that he was still the sinless lamb of God. SPEAKER A Yes, Robyne mentioned about the scourging of him, Daniel. So why did the soldiers actually beat his head with a reed and other physical things like that? SPEAKER C Well, the Roman's aim was to inflict the most horrible kind of pain, both mental and physical, to the prisoner before they were killed. And there's also something else that is behind this. And we can actually see this in John eight and verse 44. So in John 844, this is Jesus talking to the scribes and the Pharisees. He says, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. So we can see that it wasn't just the soldiers, it wasn't just the Jews who were mocking him. Satan was controlling these people and he, no doubt, was trying to provoke Jesus to sin and to save himself, just like he afflicted job and tried to get him to curse God and die. SPEAKER A Yeah. In verse 21 of Mark 15, Robyne, it says here that they compelled a certain man, Simon, a cyreniande, to bear his cross. Why did they do that? SPEAKER B Well, from Mark's account, there were multiple reasons. It was now Friday morning, so Jesus had not slept for over 24 hours and was likely he hadn't eaten either. During that time, he had been falsely accused, interrogated. He was whacked on the head, spat on, mocked. He was brutally beaten and scourged. So at this point he was not only tired, he was bruised and bleeding and in intense physical pain. He was totally physically exhausted and just too weak to carry his cross. The Romans would not carry the cross, so they just grabbed someone from the crowd of people who were passing by. And it just happened to be Simon of Cyrene. Cyrene, by the way, was a coastal town over on the coast of Libya. And Simon was on his way to Jerusalem. And they just ordered him to carry the cross. SPEAKER A Yeah, it was an agonising experience for Jesus. I remember seeing a piece of bone with a nail through it in the Jerusalem museum. And the thought of severing the hands and the feet of Jesus is not an appealing one. And so it was painful. In verse 23, it says, they offered him wine mixed with myrrh to drink. Why did they do that, Daniel? SPEAKER C Well, this was probably the only merciful act that was shown to Jesus. The wine, the alcohol in the wine with the myrrh would have helped to deaden the pain that he was about to endure until he died. But Jesus refused it. Even in dying, he refused to have. SPEAKER A Alcohol in his system, but not to deaden his senses. SPEAKER C Exactly. That's it. SPEAKER A Okay, let's have a look at a passage here in Mark. And we're going to read just a few more verses than I normally readdevelop. And so Jesus is now nailed to the cross. He's hanging vertically there. And mark 1522 28 has this to say. They brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull. Then they gave him wine, mingled with myrrh to drink, but he did not take it. And when they crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take. Now, it was the third hour and they crucified him. And the inscription of his accusation was written above the king of the Jews, verse 27. With him they also crucified two robbers, one on his right and the other on his left. And so the scripture was fulfilled which says, and he was numbered with the transgressors. So this is not the only scripture that was fulfilled, was it, Robyne? This one here that's quoted here, there's a reference or an allusion to another scripture passage too, actually. SPEAKER B So in verse 24, where they spoke about them casting lots for his clothing, that was prophesied in psalms 20 218, and then in verse 28 where it says, and he was numbered with the transgressors, that was actually from Isaiah 50, 312. So you know, Jesus was crucified with two thieves. That's where the connection is there. SPEAKER A Okay. It's interesting that if we go back to psalm 22, verses seven and eight, there's another prophecy. All those who see me ridicule me, they shoot out the lipid, they shake the head, saying, he trusted in the Lord. Let him rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him. It's interesting. This is actually quoted in Handel's messiah, too. There's an awareness that this was prophetic about Jesus, the way he was treated. So looking at these verses, Daniel, who else mocked Jesus? SPEAKER C It was, unfortunately, the religious leaders as well. And we can find that in mark 1529 to 32. And it says, and those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying, aha, you who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross. Likewise, the chief priests, also mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, he saved others himself. He cannot save, save. Let the Christ, the king of Israel, descend now from the cross that we may see and believe. Even those who were crucified with him reviled him. SPEAKER A Yeah. And then a remarkable physical event happened, Robyne, that sort of stopped the religious leaders in their tracks, I think. Don't you think? SPEAKER B It certainly did because they couldn't see where they were going. It says here in verses 33 and 34. And when the 6th hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the 9th hour. And at the 9th hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, eloi, eloi Lama Sabakhtanai, which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So this was not a solar eclipse. They only last just a few minutes, certainly not 3 hours. And across the land with the solar crypts, there are varying degrees of darkness. This darkness was oppressive. It was supernatural, as though nature was experiencing the death of the creator. It must have made the religious leaders really seriously conceived. Consider who Jesus really was. SPEAKER A Now, normally, Daniel, people who are crucified, they seem to take days before they die. But how long was it before jesus died. SPEAKER C Well, we read early in verse 25 that Jesus suffered on the cross at the third hour. And then that's about 09:00 a.m. and then here we read that he breathed his last in the 9th hour. SPEAKER A 9Th hour, which would be 1500 hours or 03:00 p.m. then. SPEAKER C That's right. And so he was suffering. He was on the cross for 6 hours. So it took him 6 hours to die. SPEAKER A Okay, so, Robyne, did Jesus felt forsaken at the cross, but did his father really forsake him? SPEAKER B That's an interesting thing to consider. Jesus was the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world. So as the sin bearer for our sins, he had to go through death without God, the father's presence, because sin separates the sinner from God. This separation was absolute agony for Jesus, and hence his cry that was prophesied in psalm 22 one. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? SPEAKER A Yeah. So it was certainly he had a sense of being alone, didn't he, on the cross. You know, he'd always had this relationship with his father, you know, which was closeness. But that was kind of had gone from him at this time, wasn't it? How do you think he really felt? SPEAKER C We cannot imagine how he felt. SPEAKER A Okay, so were there any other supernatural things happen at the time of Jesus death, Daniel? SPEAKER C Yes, a very big one. So we find that in mark 1538. And it says then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So there are a few interesting things here. Now, the temple veil was very, very big, and it wasn't torn from the bottom to the top. It was torn from the top to the bottom. So there was no way that an earthly, like any earthly person, would be able to do that. But there was another significant thing, and that is that the holy place, the most holy place, was behind the veil. And by the veil tearing, it signified that there was no longer a separation, that the price has been paid, and there was no longer any separation between men and God. And Jesus was the one that was the propitiation for our sins. SPEAKER A Yeah. So you see some significance in this, Daniel? And this tearing of this, not only was it big, but it was also thick, I believe, wasn't it? SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER A Yeah. But what about this? You know, the actual sacrificial system? Was there significance in that, too? SPEAKER C Well, yes. So by the tearing of that veil, it marked an end to the sacrificial system, because the sacrificial system pointed to this event, it pointed to Jesus dying, taking on our sin and dying. And so it marked the end of that system. SPEAKER A Yes. It makes one wonder just how many more sacrifices happened that I think it eventually finished in AD 70, didn't it, when the temple was destroyed? So, Robyne, so we were talking about Friday afternoon when all this happened and the Sabbath was approaching and an unexpected event occurs. What was that? SPEAKER B Yes, so we can read that in from verse 43. So it says, joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counsellor which also waited for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead. And calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead. Sorry, whether he had been any while dead. And while he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin, who were the jewish judges of the law. His high position was a witness not only to Jesus followers, but also to Pilate, that even such men believed in Jesus. SPEAKER A Yeah, and it reminds me, Daniel, of another character like that. It was Nicodemus, wasn't it? You know, he came to Jesus by night and he later became a disciple of Jesus. So, Daniel, why was it important that Pilate should actually verify that Jesus was actually dead? SPEAKER C Well, it had to be verified because, first of all, Pilate was absolutely flabbergasted, thinking, how could this person be dead? And so when Pilate found out from the roman centurion that he was dead, then he put these things in place. And in fact, this was to refute the claim by the jewish leaders later on that Jesus did not really die. He may have passed out or something, and then he didn't really rise from the dead. And so they were trying to do this, of course, to diminish Jesus work as the sin bearer, the lamb of God, and to refute that he, our sin saviour and redeemer, rose from the dead. SPEAKER A Yeah. So this puts to rest the swoon theory, you know, that Jesus didn't really die, or the fact that, as we learn later that the theory put around that his disciples came and stole his body and that he really didn't rise from the dead. Well, we've just about run out of time, Daniel and Robyne, so thank you very much for your contribution. My guest today were Daniel Vokurka and Robyne Butler. And I'm Clive Nash. Now, Jesus last hours were marked by physical brutality and mocking. He was the son of God and he could have at any time come down from the cross. The mocking religious leaders and soldiers thought they were mocking a condemned criminal and they didn't realise that they were actually mocking the son of God. It makes me think that Jesus love for us was so deep that he went through all this so that you and I can have eternal life. What amazing love this is. And I'd like you to just pause for a moment, wherever you are, and think about the sacrifice of Jesus. He did it for you and for me and take time out of to praise God for what he has done. Well, we're glad you joined us today on let God speak. Remember, all past programmes plus teachers notes are available on our website, three abnaustralia.org dot au dot. Email us on lgsabnaustralia.org dot au dot. We hope you'll join us again next time, but until until then, may God bless you. SPEAKER B You have been listening to let God speak, a production of 3ABN Australia television. To catch up on past programmes, please visit 3abnaustralia.org.au. Call us in Australia on 02 4973 3456. Or email [email protected]. we'd love to hear from you.