Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Unsplash
If I were to ask you who the most important person involved in Easter was, you would hopefully say Jesus. If not…the answer is Jesus. Jesus is easily the most important person involved in the events of Easter. And it’s not even close.
That doesn’t mean we can’t learn something important by looking at the people around Jesus during those events, does it?
After all, as I said last week, how we respond to Jesus is of the utmost importance, and there is no such thing as a lukewarm, indifferent response to the real person of Jesus Christ. So, it stands to reason that those who were near Jesus during the Crucifixion and the ensuing days would have a lot to show us by how they responded.
The first group of people we need to take a look at are the Pharisees. Not that you really need me to tell you much about them, since the Pharisees clearly weren’t fond of Jesus. After all, they were the ones who had Him put to death.
But, since I want to back up my point as thoroughly as I can, here’s a passage from Matthew:
Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to him, “I demand in the name of the living God—tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
Jesus replied, “You have said it. And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Blasphemy! Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?”
“Guilty!” they shouted. “He deserves to die!”
Then they began to spit in Jesus’ face and beat him with their fists. And some slapped him, jeering, “Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who hit you that time?”
Matthew 26:62-68 (NLT)
So maybe nothing in this passage is all that inflammatory until you get to the very end. I mean, the shouting and the tearing of clothing isn’t great, but the worst of it is certainly when they start to beat Jesus and spit at Him. These are what we would call not good behaviors.
So the Pharisees turn Jesus over to Pilate because they do not have the authority to execute Jesus on their own. They need Rome to do it, so they call the ancient equivalent of the fuzz.
There’s quite a bit you could say about Pilate’s interactions with Jesus. His questions about Truth are fundamental questions that everyone should ask, and Pilate also clearly leaves his meeting with Jesus with some new ideas.
But that’s not what we’re focusing on right now. Look at what Pilate does after he talks to Jesus.
Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner to the crowd—anyone they wanted. This year there was a notorious prisoner, a man named Barabbas. As the crowds gathered before Pilate’s house that morning, he asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you—Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” (He knew very well that the religious leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy.)
Just then, as Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: “Leave that innocent man alone. I suffered through a terrible nightmare about him last night.”
Meanwhile, the leading priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death. So the governor asked again, “Which of these two do you want me to release to you?”
The crowd shouted back, “Barabbas!”
Pilate responded, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”
They shouted back, “Crucify him!”
“Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”
But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”
Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!”
And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children!”
So Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
Matthew 27:15-26 (NLT)
The Pharisees haven’t changed at all. They’re the ones urging the people to shout “Crucify Him!” and encouraging Pilate to release Barabbas.
Not exactly a happy looking fellow, is he? (Still from Passion of the Christ, Property Twentieth Century Fox)
If I may take a quick sidetrack here, far too many people have used the next-to-last verse here for some twisted purposes. People have used v. 25, among others, to encourage acts of violence against Jewish people, claiming, “They killed our Lord!” That’s just absurd. For starters, the idiom used here is often translated as, “Let His blood be on us and our children!” The irony there should not be lost on us, since that was actually God’s plan all along. God wanted to put the blood of Jesus (figuratively) on His people so that they could be saved. This verse is simply an example of people speaking God’s will without realizing it.
Also, if you really need me to tell you, “Don’t hate Jewish people,” then you should probably seek more qualified help than I can offer.
Back to my main point, though, the Pharisees are still jerks. They hate Jesus, they’re jealous of Him, and they want Him dead. And they’re about to get their wish at the hands of our second group of people, the Roman soldiers.
Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.
Matthew 27:27-31 (NLT)
So the Roman soldiers are now mocking Jesus and beating Him. They are acting exactly like the Pharisees were, even though they had no prior exposure to Him. They’ve just been handed this guy Jesus, probably told His charges, and then decided how to proceed with Him.
Of course, in literary terms, we would call the soldiers dynamic characters because they don’t hold the same opinion throughout the events of the Crucifixion.
While it may not be accurate or fair to assume that every mention of the Roman soldiers in Matthew refers to the same group of soldiers, I still want us to look and see how exactly these soldiers respond to the Crucifixion. Plus, the passage above does say that they called out the entire regiment to join in, so I think there’s a good chance that many of these soldiers were present for both the mocking and what comes next. When it’s all said and done and Jesus has given up His spirit, some new things happen.
At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. But the rest said, “Wait! Let’s see whether Elijah comes to save him.”
Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.
The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, “This man truly was the Son of God!”
Matthew 27:45-54 (NLT)
I don’t know if we can go so far as to say that the soldiers believed in Jesus after this, but they certainly recognized that Jesus wasn’t just any other man. They recognized that He was the Son of God, for starters, and that’s pretty key.
Not John Wayne’s best work. (From the 1965 film The Greatest Story Ever Told, which is really a great movie except for this shot.)
The Pharisees saw Jesus, they heard Him teach, and yet they refused to believe Him. They were coming from a place of rebellion. The soldiers, on the other hand, started off in a place of rebellion before moving to a place of recognition. They may or may not have fully understood the gravity of what was going on, but they at least recognized that Jesus was right about who He said He was. They recognized that He was different.
It is so important for us to see here that these soldiers, if we say that both groups of soldiers are the same people, were able to change. Just because they were beating Jesus and mocking Him in the morning, that didn’t prevent their hearts from changing later in the very same day. If these men can literally stand there and beat Jesus before having their eyes opened to Him, then God can overcome whatever actions are in someone’s past or biases that are in someone else’s heart now.
The third group of people I want to look at is the women who were at Jesus’ tomb on Sunday morning.
Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.
Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.
Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.”
The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”
Matthew 28:1-10 (NLT)
Did the Pharisees believe in Jesus? For the most part, no. There were a few who believed, but most did not. Did the Roman soldiers believe in Jesus? Maybe. We really can’t be sure if they went so far as to believe, but they came to recognize something in Jesus, at least. But did these women believe in Jesus? Absolutely.
These women loved Jesus and followed Jesus and, ultimately, believed in Him. But if you were going to play Devil’s Advocate here, you could go so far as to say, “They didn’t believe in Jesus. They saw Jesus! They didn’t have to believe in anything.”
Take a look at what the angel says to the women, though (Matt. 28:5). The angel says, “I know you are looking for Jesus…” and that’s crucial. In Matthew 7:7, Jesus says, “Seek and you will find.” Sure, these women saw Jesus, but they were also looking for Jesus. If we seek Jesus, then we can see Jesus and see how he changes lives.
This article has been brought to you by the letter R. (Photo by Steinar Engeland on Unsplash)
Since my first two points started with R, I guess my third should, as well.
We’re all on one of three steps in our faith journeys. Some of us are in a place of rebellion. I know that sounds harsh, but you have to understand that rebellion is the default. It’s where we all started out at. Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. Israel rebelled against God’s laws countless times in the Old Testament. The Pharisees rebelled against Jesus when He spoke to them. After all, if the Son of the King is murdered, what else can you call it but rebellion?
I find it pretty interesting that God used our rebellious nature against us in order to save us.
The soldiers started in a place of rebellion, but they soon moved to a place of recognition. They saw how Jesus was different. They saw how there was power in His death. At some point, many people will come to a place of recognition. They will recognize God’s call on their heart to come to Him. This is where your response is so important. You have to respond to God’s call and trust in Him. “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved…” (Acts 16:31b, NLT).
Finally, we can come to a place of redemption. The women who were looking for Jesus found Jesus. If we look for Jesus, we will find Jesus, and He will save us: Save us from sin, save us from separation from Him, save us from ourselves and our own rebellion.
But that’s not where I want to end it. See, even though I’m calling redemption the “end point” for our faith journey, there’s a lot that goes along with that. We can’t just call it a day and sit back if we are redeemed.
Even when Jesus was on the cross, there was a plan being put in place for what comes next.
And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it.
Then the leading priests objected and said to Pilate, “Change it from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘He said, I am King of the Jews.’”
Pilate replied, “No, what I have written, I have written.”
John 19:19-22 (NLT)
Do you see what happened here? When Jesus was on the cross, there was a sign above His head, written in three languages, at a heavily trafficked area, that told people who He was. If we are in Christ, then it is our responsibility to do the exact same thing this sign did. We are now responsible for pointing people to Jesus.
There’s no other plan. Jesus is God’s plan for salvation, and we are God’s plan for telling people about that salvation. If we don’t do it, then we are suddenly less useful than a 2,000-year old plank of wood.