INTRODUCTION

When the evidence as to facts is beyond reasonable doubt, our judgment of other people reveals at least as much of our own character as it does of the character of those we judge. Thus the current legal and judicial bias in favor of criminals as against their innocent victims reveals nothing more clearly than it reveals the character of the lawyers, lawmakers, and judges who have created and continue to maintain that bias.

Not in any spirit of malice toward the personalities involved, but in genuine concern for principles of decency and justice, we may justly wonder whether the murder-fostering "justices" of the U. S. Supreme Court, in banning the legal execution of convicted murderers while legalizing the murder of untold millions of unborn babies are merely expressing a subconscious resentment against their own parents for failing to abort them.

Likewise we may well question the motives and character of lawmakers who seek to disarm peaceful citizens, denying them the means of self-protection, while at the same time seeking to cripple law enforcement agencies and to encourage the lawless and violent elements in society.

Certain it is that this world has never given a clearer demonstration of its inherent wickedness that when it officially rejected the King of righteousness and nailed Him to a cross. Our lesson touches on events immediately preceding that crucifixion. Outline:

1. Testimony, Matthew 27:11. 

2. Temporizing, Matthew 27:15-19 
a. Wicked wavering, 15-18. 
b. Wasted warning, 19. 

3. Tumult, Matthew 27:20-23. 
a. Rabble ropsing, 20. 
b. Rabble ranting, 21-23. 

4. Transfer, Matthew 27:26. 

5. Turpitude, Matthew 27:27-31. 

NOTES ON THE TEXT:

TESTIMONY, Matthew 27:11.

Make no mistake about it: Jesus plainly declared Himself to be the divinely anointed King of the Jews, the promised Messiah, the Son of man and Son of God. "Liberals" and "modernists" who deny that Jesus was Who and What He claimed to be are neither liberal nor modern: they are reactionary and antiquated infidels of the same stripe as the Jewish leaders who rejected their Messiah. Compare Mark 15:61-63; Luke 22:66-71; John 18:33-37.

TEMPORIZING, Matthew 27:15-19.

Pilate was neither the first nor the last governor or judge to compromise principles for the sake of popularity. Like many judges today, especially those on higher levels of authority, he was more concerned with his own security and promotion than with questions of right and wrong. Some appearance of law and justice must be maintained of course; but legal sophistries make it easy for skilled operators to temporize and finally to render almost any desired judgment.

Wicked Wavering, 15-18.

Judges who connive in clearing the guilty are no less ready to condemn the innocent. An honest judge in Pilate's position would have protected Jesus from the mob; Pilate wickedly wavered between a decent desire to do justice and a practical fear of political pressure.

Not yet realizing the full extent of the hostility against Jesus, he sought an easy solution to his problem by offering to release either Barabbas or Jesus. Barabbas was a robber [John 18:40] and a murderer [Acts 3:14]. Naively enough, Pilate apparently expected the crowd to choose Jesus for release.

Wasted Warning, 19.

Think what we may about dreams, and think what we may about a wife's seeking to influence her husband's official actions, it is evident in this case that Pilate's wife gave him good advice. It is evident also that the warning was wasted.

TUMULT, Matthew 27:20-23.

Giving in to the mob is an old political custom which has never contributed stability or justice to any form of government. Strong and competent rulers are not swayed by fickle mobs; they manage to control the mobs instead of letting the mobs control them. At this point the Jewish leaders were more capable rulers than the Roman governor.

Rabble Rousing, 20.

We are not told what means of persuasion the chief priests and elders used, but they were effective. To such a depth had these religious leaders fallen, that instead of serving as faithful spokesmen of God to the people they had become mere rabble rousers, stirring up the people to ever increasing rebellion against God.

Rabble Ranting, 21-23.

Mobs are irrational and brutish, bringing out the worst in human nature. The ranting, chanting, and hubub of the rabble makes little sense; generally the less sense it makes the better the crowd likes it. Release the guilty and crucify the innocent - the passover mob anticipated the supreme court by nearly 2,000 years.

TRANSFER, Matthew 27:26.

Yet over all the sovereign God was accomplishing His righteous purpose through the wicked instrumentality of the religious leaders, the mindless mob, and the pliable governor. The more the cohorts of Satan devoted themselves to this monumental miscarriage of justice, the more they subserved the ends of God's eternal justice. Jesus was a voluntary victim. The sins of Barabbas were transferred to Jesus in temporal judgment; the sins of genuine believers in Christ are transferred to Him in eternal judgment.

TURPITUDE, Matthew 27:27-31.

But the fact that they were unwitting instruments of divine purpose does not in the least diminish the utter turpitude, the total depravity, manifested by the human perpetrators of this crime of the ages. Never before or since was there such a display of unleashed hatred against God and against all that is good and holy.

Monstrous Mockery, 27-30.

The scarlet or purple robe [John 19:2], the crown of thorns, the reed, the bowing of the knee before Him, were all a monstrous mockery of His royalty. Consider the shameful treatment patiently and silently endured by the King of kings for our sake, and let us never again complain of the little suffering we may have to undergo for Him.

Monstrous Mandate, 31.

After the soldiers had had their sport, they got down to the serious business of carrying out the monstrous mandate of the governor. Crucifixion is an unnecessarily cruel method of execution even for criminals, but to inflict such suffering on a man known to be innocent is a crime that only religious hypocrites, self-serving politicians, and other extremely hardened sinners could commit.

CONCLUSION [John 19:15]

So the covenant people of the Old Testament made their choice and have been under the rule of Caesars, that is under Gentile rule, ever since. Nor can they be restored to divine favor except through faith in that anointed King Whom they then rejected.
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[From Ashland Avenue Baptist paper, April 9, 1976, Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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