By Pastor Hal Mayer
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry once again. Today, we bring you the final installment of the infamous and illegal trial of Christ. It is amazing to what ends humanity will go to achieve its evil purposes. And this becomes very clear as the trial progresses and Pilate confronts the mob. It has many lessons for us as we face the future, for the time is coming when these scenes will be repeated. These scenes will be a prelude to the coming of Christ in the clouds of glory. May we understand these things and get our minds ready for them, because mental preparation is more than half the battle.
Let us begin with prayer. Our Father in heaven, we look forward to what we’re going to learn today about Christ and about His magnificent sacrifice for humanity and for each of us individually. And You did it so that Your mercy can be everlasting and Your long-suffering can be very great. Please help us to understand both the trial of Christ and the times in which we live. May we behold in His final moments His serene dignity and majesty before His persecutors. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Let us read from Luke 23:6, “When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilaean. And as soon as he knew that he belonged unto Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time.”
Herod was a shallow, contemptible, petty princeling. Compared to him, Judas was eminently respectable. Judas had a conscience which, when smitten with remorse, drove him to suicide. It is doubtful whether Herod had a spark of conscience which places boundaries on the soul against wrong. He was a typical oriental prince whose chief aim in life was the gratification of his passions. The worthlessness of his character was so pronounced that it excited a nauseating disgust in the mind of Jesus and disturbed for a moment that serene and lofty magnanimity which characterized His whole life and conduct. The Master called him a fox which was an epitaph describing his shrewd and cunning character. Luke 13:32.
“And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.”
Christ could have said words that were much worse. Herod was a lover of luxury and beauty, something that characterized the whole Herodian family. Herod was the son of a man who was 10 times married and had murdered many of his wives. He was also the murderer of John the Baptist. He was the slave of a lewd and wicked woman. What more can be expected from him then a cruel, crafty, worthless character, whose attributes were those of the fox?
Why was Jesus sent to Herod? Because Pilate wished to shift the responsibility from his own shoulders, as a Roman judge, to those of the Galilean Petrarch. He may have also thought to conciliate Herod, with whom, history says, he had a quarrel. The cause of the trouble between them is not known.
Luke 23:8 tells us, “And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him.”
Note this from Desire of Ages, page 729.
“A large company of the priests and elders had accompanied Christ to Herod.”
Imagine, the church leaders, determined to get rid of him, hurried to follow the Roman escort from Pilate to Herod.
“And when the Saviour was brought in, these dignitaries, all speaking excitedly, urged their accusations against Him. But Herod paid little regard to their charges. He commanded silence, desiring an opportunity to question Christ. He ordered that the fetters of Christ should be unloosed, at the same time charging His enemies with roughly treating Him. Looking with compassion into the serene face of the world’s Redeemer, he read in it only wisdom and purity. He as well as Pilate was satisfied that Christ had been accused through malice and envy.”
The petty vassal king could be easily flattered, and sending the famous prisoner to him was no ordinary compliment. Herod, however, was not interested in the charges the Jews brought against Jesus, who had offended both the secular and religious powers. To condemn Jesus would incur the ill will and resentment of many of His followers in his own province of Galilee. Besides, he had already suffered keenly from the dread and apprehension caused by the association of the names of John and Jesus, and he had learned that from the blood of one murdered prophet would spring the message and mission of another still more powerful and majestic. He was therefore, unwilling to embroil himself and his dominions with the heavenly powers by condemning their earthly representatives. He did not want Jesus’ devoted followers to send an embassy to Rome to make serious and successful charges to the emperor.
Herod had heard about Jesus. Rumor had given word of marvelous feats. One messenger had brought news that the Prophet of Nazareth had raised from the dead a man named Lazarus from Bethany, and also the son of a widow who lived at Nain. Another had declared that the laws of nature had suspended themselves at His behest; that He walked out on the sea and did not sink; And that He stilled the tempests with a mere motion of his hand. Still others had reported that the mighty Miracle Worker could take mud from the pool and restore sight; That a woman, ill for many months, only needed to touch the hem of His garment to be made well again; And that if He but touched the flesh of a leper, it would become tender and beautiful as a newborn babe. He gathered from these reports that Jesus was a clever magician whose powers of entertainment were very fine; And this was sufficient for him and his court.
Herod interrogated him at length. The master treated his insolent questions with withering silence. This no doubt irritated the Idumean king.
Luke 23:10, “And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him.”
Herod felt chagrined and mortified at his failure to evoke from Jesus any response. And he was enraged that his plans had been foiled by one of his own subjects, a simple Galilean peasant. Showing his resentment he resorted to mockery and abuse.
Luke 23:11, “And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate.”
Desire of Ages, page 729 gives us more information.
“Herod questioned Christ in many words, but throughout the Saviour maintained a profound silence. At the command of the king, the decrepit and maimed were then called in, and Christ was ordered to prove His claims by working a miracle. Men say that Thou canst heal the sick, said Herod. I am anxious to see that Thy widespread fame has not been belied. Jesus did not respond, and Herod still continued to urge: If Thou canst work miracles for others, work them now for Thine own good, and it will serve Thee a good purpose. Again he commanded, Show us a sign that Thou hast the power with which rumor hath accredited Thee. But Christ was as one who heard and saw not. The Son of God had taken upon Himself man’s nature. He must do as man must do in like circumstances.”
Silence when under accusation and mistreatment adds to the stature and majesty of a pure character. Jesus would not work a miracle to save Himself the pain and humiliation that was His destiny, and which we must endure when placed in a similar position; to do something or say something in our own defense. Again, from Desire of Ages, page 730-731.
“Herod’s conscience was now far less sensitive than when he had trembled with horror at the request of Herodias for the head of John the Baptist. For a time he had felt the keen stings of remorse for his terrible act; but his moral perceptions had become more and more degraded by his licentious life. Now his heart had become so hardened that he could even boast of the punishment he had inflicted upon John for daring to reprove him. And he now threatened Jesus, declaring repeatedly that he had power to release or to condemn Him. But no sign from Jesus gave evidence that He heard a word.
“Herod was irritated by this silence. It seemed to indicate utter indifference to his authority. To the vain and pompous king, open rebuke would have been less offensive than to be thus ignored. Again he angrily threatened Jesus, who still remained unmoved and silent.
“The mission of Christ in this world was not to gratify idle curiosity. He came to heal the brokenhearted. Could He have spoken any word to heal the bruises of sin-sick souls, He would not have kept silent. But He had no words for those who would but trample the truth under their unholy feet.
“Christ might have spoken words to Herod that would have pierced the ears of the hardened king. He might have stricken him with fear and trembling by laying before him the full iniquity of his life, and the horror of his approaching doom. But Christ’s silence was the severest rebuke that He could have given. Herod had rejected the truth spoken to him by the greatest of the prophets, and no other message was he to receive. Not a word had the Majesty of heaven for him. That ear that had ever been open to human woe, had no room for Herod’s commands. Those eyes that had ever rested upon the penitent sinner in pitying, forgiving love had no look to bestow upon Herod. Those lips that had uttered the most impressive truth, that in tones of tenderest entreaty had pleaded with the most sinful and the most degraded, were closed to the haughty king who felt no need of a “Herod’s face grew dark with passion. Turning to the multitude, he angrily denounced Jesus as an impostor. Then to Christ he said, If You will give no evidence of Your claim, I will deliver You up to the soldiers and the people. They may succeed in making You speak. If You are an impostor, death at their hands is only what You merit; if You are the Son of God, save Yourself by working a miracle.
“No sooner were these words spoken than a rush was made for Christ. Like wild beasts, the crowd darted upon their prey. Jesus was dragged this way and that, Herod joining the mob in seeking to humiliate the Son of God. Had not the Roman soldiers interposed, and forced back the maddened throng, the Saviour would have been torn in pieces.
“Herod with his men of war set Him at nought, and mocked Him, and arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe.” Luke 13:11.
The Roman soldiers joined Herod and the priests in this abuse. All that these wicked men could do to humiliate Him was heaped upon the Saviour. Yet He was patient. Listen to what Desire of Ages says happened to Herod and some of the others, page 731.
“Christ’s persecutors had tried to measure His character by their own; they had represented Him as vile as themselves. But back of all the present appearance another scene intruded itself,—a scene which they will one day see in all its glory. There were some who trembled in Christ’s presence. While the rude throng were bowing in mockery before Him, some who came forward for that purpose turned back, afraid and silenced. Herod was convicted. The last rays of merciful light were shining upon his sin-hardened heart. He felt that this was no common man; for divinity had flashed through humanity. At the very time when Christ was encompassed by mockers, adulterers, and murderers, Herod felt that he was beholding a God upon His throne.
“Hardened as he was, Herod dared not ratify the condemnation of Christ. He wished to relieve himself of the terrible responsibility, and he sent Jesus back to the Roman judgment hall.”
Pilot was disappointed to see Jesus back in his court. He hoped that the Galilean tetrarch would assume complete jurisdiction and dispose finally of the matter. But Herod had simply mocked and brutalized the prisoner and sent him back. Let’s read Luke 23:16.
“And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him, and release him.”
Pilate was caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. He was trying to salve his conscience on one hand, while on the other he tried to mollify the demands of the mob. So, he proposed that he scourge Him and release Him. The injustice of this monstrous proposal was not merely contemptible, but it was detestable! If Jesus was guilty, he should have been punished; if innocent, he should have been set free and protected from the assaults of the Jews.
But the proposal was rejected by the mob. In his desperation Pilate thought of another loophole by which he could escape his dilemma. It was a custom at Passover to release any single prisoner that the people desired. The power of pardon serves to extinguish penalties of crimes alleged or committed. It is a merciful principle that is an acknowledgement of the weakness and imperfection of all human schemes of justice. Read with me Matthew 27:16-18.
“And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.”
Pilate vainly thought that the people would choose Christ over Barabbas, a prophet over a robber. It was logical. Any thinking human being would make the right choice. But these weren’t thinking human beings. They were passionate. They were angry. They were an unreasonable mob. They were animals. Caiaphas and his fellows had seeded the multitude that they should ask for Barabbas and call for the execution of Jesus. Do you ever sense that sometimes there are secret things that are said and done behind the scenes that predetermined the outcome of some issue? Certainly. Can you think of recent events that make you feel this way? Of course. Let’s read on.
“But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.”
The name Barabbas is ironically similar to Christ. He was also called Jesus. Barabbas meant “the son of the father.” This awful coincidence was something that the gospel writers omitted. But it may be significant. Here was the son of Satan, a thief and a robber that was in the image of his father the devil. Christ on the other hand was a son of His father in heaven. To make the choice of Barabbas over Jesus was the height of betrayal and must have wrung the heart of Jesus. He knew what Barabbas was. His own people chose the symbol of Satan and hell instead of Christ, the symbol of heaven. He had given so much evidence that He was the son of God. Yet in their evil hearts they chose wrongly.
There is another side to this story. The innocent was crucified so that the guilty can go free. Isn’t that the wonderful gospel story? Jesus suffered the second death so that we would not have to experience it. And the gospel is symbolized in this one act. The Jews were actually instruments of the gospel. And God has often done this throughout history, and He will do it in our day too. He puts His enemies to good use, who don’t even realize that they are thus being put to good use; He illustrates and symbolizes His principles, by the wickedness of His enemies. We don’t know if Barabbas ever became a follower of Christ. But the whole thing expresses the love of God for humanity. That’s why Jesus was in the judgment hall of Pilate in the first place. The Jews were in such a frenzy that they could not see the irony of their actions.
Amidst the tumult provoked by the angry passions of the mob and the priests, a messenger arrived and gave Pilate a note from his wife Claudia. It was news that filled the soul of Pilate with superstitious dread. Claudia had had a dream of strange and foreboding character. Let’s read it from Matthew 27:19.
“When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.”
In Pilate’s report to the emperor Tiberius of the facts of the crucifixion, he explains exactly what his wife said to him.
“Beware said she to me, beware and touch not that man, for He is holy. Last night I saw Him in a vision. He was walking on the waters. He was flying on the wings of the winds. He spoke to the tempest and to the fishes of the lake; All were obedient to Him. Behold! The torrent in mount Kedron flows with blood, the statutes of Ceasar are filled with the filth of Gemoniæ, the columns of the Interium have given way and the sun is veiled in mourning like a vestal in the tomb. O, Pilate, evil awaits thee if thou wilt not listen to the prayer of thy wife. Dread the curse of the Roman Senate, dread the powers of Caesar.”
Coming from a profligate woman whose hereditary stigma was not at all righteous, this was an extraordinary statement! But God uses anyone He can. But alas, it is certain that the dream of Claudia had no determining effect upon the conduct of Pilate. Resolution and irresolution alternatively controlled him. Fear and superstition were uppermost in both his mind and heart. And the Jews saw this and were anxious that he was about to do what they dreaded. They feared that the governor was about to pronounce a final judgment of acquittal. So, exhibiting fierce faces and frenzied feelings, they moved closer to him and exclaimed: “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the son of God.”
That’s from John 19:7. Seeing the indecision a Pilate, and despairing of convicting Jesus on a political charge, they deliberately revived a religious one and presented to Pilate substantially the same accusation on which they had tried the prisoner before their own tribunal. It is amazing that accusations once put to rest come back to life, especially when the primary objective is to eliminate the person who is the cause of the trouble. It becomes clear that the objective is not justice but elimination no matter the cost. It happens in the modern church too.
When Pilate heard these words, his mind was filled with a strange and awful meaning. There were many legends in the Roman pantheon of gods where the sons of the gods walked the earth in human disguise. And they were indistinguishable from mortal men. And it was dangerous to meet them because, if they were offended, it would provoke the wrath of their sires, the gods themselves. These reflections, born of superstition, now swept through Pilate’s mind with terrific force; and the cries of the mob claiming that he made himself out to be the son of God, called from the deep recesses of his memory the half forgotten, half remembered stories of his childhood. Could not Jesus be the son of the Hebrew Jehovah as Hercules was a son of Jupiter?
Trembling with emotion and dread, Pilate called Jesus inside the judgment hall a second time and asked: “Whence art thou?”
John 19:9. Jesus answered him nothing. This, no doubt, confirmed in Pilate’s mind the fears that he was in trouble with the gods, particularly the Hebrew God. When Pilate came out from the judgment hall the second time determined to release the prisoner; the Jews perceived his decision and began to cry out: “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!”
John 19:15. Upset by the relentless importunity of the mob, Pilate replied scornfully and mockingly: “Shall I crucify your king?”
The cringing, hypocritical priests, controlled by Satan who loves it when people deny the Lordship of Christ, shouted back their answer: “We have no king but Caesar.”
John 19:15. Amazing! Unfathomable! The Jews replaced loyalty to God with loyalty to Caesar. They denied Christ and proclaimed Caesar was their king. They were wholly corrupted. There was no recovery. This final accusation and menace from the quiver of their wrath drew the last arrow of spite and hate and fired it straight at the heart of Jesus through the hands of Pilate! But, in claiming to be subjects of Caesar, they also sealed their doom.
John 19:12, “If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.”
This last maneuver of the mob sealed the doom of Christ. It teaches also most clearly that Pilate was no match for the Jews when their religious prejudices were aroused and they were bent on accomplishing their desires. Man is no more ready to abandon this practice today than they were back then. Church trials are of much the same nature today. The principles still exist though maybe not as violent and vitriolic as they were. It will become much worse as time nears the end.
Those wicked priests knew Pilate and he knew them. They had been together for six full years. He had been compelled to yield to them in the manner of the standards and the eagles. And the sacred Corbin funds had been appropriated only after blood had been shed in the streets of Jerusalem. The gilded shields of Tiberius that he had placed in Herod’s palace were taken down at the demand of the Jews and carried to the temple of Augustus in Cesarea. And now the same fanatical rabble was before him demanding the blood of the Nazarene and threatening to accuse him to Caesar if he released the prisoner. The position of Pilate was painfully critical. Ironically, he still lost his procuratorship afterwards at the insistence of accusing Jews. The shadow of that distant day now fell like a curse across his pathway. Nothing was so terrifying to the Roman governor as to have the people send a complaining embassy to Rome. It was especially dangerous at this time. The imperial throne was filled by a morbid and suspicious tyrant who needed but a pretext to dispose the governor of any province who was rumored to want to be king.
Pilate trembled at these reflections. His feelings of self-preservation suggested immediate surrender to the Jews. But his innate sense of justice, which was woven in the very fiber of his Roman nature, recoiled at the thought of Roman sanction of judicial murder. Again, he felt that he was between the proverbial rock and the hard place. As the mob continued to cry, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Conscience sent to Pilate’s trembling lips the searching question: “Why, what evil hath he done?” “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
This was the only response he got from the infuriated mob. Pilate finally resolved to do their bidding and obey them to save his hide. This will surely call forth the judgment of God. But he seems to have secretly cherished the hope that scourging, which was the usual preliminary punishment to crucifixion, might be made to satisfy the mob. But this hope was soon dashed; and he found himself compelled to yield completely to their wishes by delivering the prisoner to be crucified.
But before this final step, however, which was an insult to true courage and an outrage upon mercy, he resolved to apply a soothing salve to his own wounded conscience. Calling for a basin of water, he washed his hands before the multitude, saying: “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”
Well, the Jews certainly did not escape the guilt of the crucifixion of the Son of God, but Pilate’s act did not justify him before the heavenly tribunal either. It was merely a theatrical act, but it meant little. It was mean, contemptible, cowardly. He washed his hands when he could have used them. He should have used them to point his legions to the field of duty and of glory. He could have used them like Napoleon Bonaparte did when he put down the mob in the streets of Paris. But he was too craven and cowardly; and herein is to be found the true meaning of the character and conduct of Pilate. He believed that Jesus was innocent; and that the accusations against Him were inspired by the envy of his countrymen who he found contemptable. He had declared to the Jews in an emphatic verdict of acquittal that he found in him no fault at all. And yet this very sentence was the beginning of that course of cowardly and criminal vacillation which finally sent Jesus to the cross. Indecision and complacency left Pilate as the unjust judge, deciding against his better knowledge. He was not deceived. Let’s read Matthew 27:26-31.
“Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.”
That ended the most memorable act of injustice ever recorded in history. Heaven must have been astonished. And thinking about it from their perspective it would have been a terrible act of treason and rebellion to the true King of Israel. At every stage of the trial, whether it was before Caiaphas or Pilate, the prisoner conducted himself with that commanding dignity and majesty so worthy of his origin, mission, and destiny. His sublime deportment at times caused His judges to marvel greatly. And through it all, He stood alone. His friends and fellows had deserted Him in His hour of greatest need. Single handed and unaided the Galilean peasant had but bared his back and brow to the combined authority, to the insults and outrages from both Jerusalem and Rome, church and state.
No single discordant voice was raised amidst the tumultuous clamor: no word of protest disturbed the mighty concord of anger and reviling; not the faintest echo of the late hosannas, which had wrung with wonder, fervor, devotion, and which surrounded and exalted to the highest pitch of triumph the bearer of good tidings on His entry into the Holy City.
The only voice of mild protest was that of a profligate woman who was the wife of Pilate and who could not have known better. Fear, caused by a dream of the unjustly accused, no doubt given by God, raised a singular voice in opposition to the tide of evil on that frightful day. God used even a spiritual stone to work His will and provide one last objection to the treatment of the Son of God.
Jesus was alone. No throngs of the hopeful and believing, who had followed Him day in and day out were there to protest. No bands of the humble and poor, of the afflicted and outcast complained about His mistreatment on that day. No troupes of women and youths who had drawn fresh strength from the spell of a glance, were there to remonstrate with Pilate. No voice was raised by the multitudes of disciples and enthusiasts who had scattered sweet, scented boughs and joyous utterances along the road to Zion, blessing Him that came in the name of the Lord. Not the remembrance, not a sign, not a word of the great glory so recently His. Jesus was indeed alone. Even Heaven was silent. Though He was among the multitudes, He was alone. Though the angels, who were forbidden to intervene, gazed in horror, He was left to suffer alone. The King of Glory, now suffering silently and alone with dignified bearing before angry and vitriolic priests and the Jewish rabble, roman soldiers, and servants, who had united themselves together with the government and were now determined to destroy him. The angels of heaven must have stood aghast and utterly horrified at the frightful scene.
When Satan stirs men up into a fury, there is no stopping them. These same principles that motivated the mob will again come into play against Christ’s followers at the end of time. God’s true people will be in the hands of the merciful God who understands from experience what they are going through. What will it be like when mercy no longer pleads for humanity: when Pilate, Annas, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin and the Jewish priests and other notorious persecutors throughout history see Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Only then will they understand the magnitude of what they have done to Christ and His followers. Only then will they understand the magnitude of their own loss.
Christ unjustly received the punishment of crucifixion. Around this word gather the most frightful memories and, at the same time, the sweetest and sublimest hopes of the human race. A thorough appreciation of the trial of Jesus, renders necessary a description of the punishment in which all the horrors and illegalities of the other proceedings against Him culminated.
Crucifixion was practiced by ancient Egyptians, Carthaginians, Persians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans. But the Romans employed this form of punishment on a colossal scale. The Roman general Verus crucified 2000 Jews in one day at the gates of Jerusalem. The close of the war with Spartacus, the gladiator, witnessed the crucifixion of 10,000 slaves between Capua and Rome.
Crucifixion as a form of punishment, was unknown to the ancient Hebrews. The penalty of death was enforced among them by burning, strangling, decapitation, and stoning. Among the Romans, only the violent among free men, such as were guilty of robbery, piracy, assassination, perjury, sedition, treason, and desertions from the army, met with death in this way.
Death by crucifixion was a terrible ordeal. The unnatural position and violent tension of the body, caused painful sensations from the least motion. The nails driven between parts of the hands and feet which are full of nerves and tendons, and yet at a distance from the heart, created the most exquisite anguish. The exposure of so many wounds and lacerations brings on inflammation, which tends to become gangrenous, and every movement increases the poignancy of suffering. In the distended parts of the body, more blood flows through the arteries than can be carried back in the veins: and too much blood finds its way from the aorta into the head and stomach, and the blood vessels of the head become pressed and swollen. The general obstruction of circulation which ensues causes an intense excitement, exertion, and anxiety more intolerable than death itself. And the victim develops a burning and raging thirst.
It was a general custom to allow the body to remain and rot upon the cross, or be devoured by wild beasts and birds of prey. Relatives and friends had to watch the birds pluck the eyes out of the deceased criminal, or find the carcass at daybreak that had been attacked by wild beasts. Therefore, it was a special dispensation for Pilate, perhaps out of self-condemnation or of remorse for his cowardly behavior, to give Joseph of Arimathea the freedom to bury the body of Christ. Of course, it had been prophesied that He would be buried, not left to rot, and this was a fulfillment of that prophecy.
Christ unjustly received the punishment of crucifixion, and the redeemed unjustly receive the rewards that were His. He traded His heavenly home for our earthly hovel. His celestial might for our human weakness.
Desire of Ages, page 25 says this, “Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. “With His stripes we are healed.”
The destruction of Jerusalem was a direct result of the rejection of Christ by the Jews. Jesus knew that it was coming and He prophesied that His people should act a certain way and take heed and move quickly when they saw His prophecy being fulfilled. So, in our day we can see what is coming by current events that point us to the scripture prophecies that tell us the end is near. So let us make ourselves ready to experience these things and to see Jesus come in the clouds of glory.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, these things are very disturbing. We realize that we will face similar circumstances at the end of time, though they are not prevalent right now and can’t be seen. But we can still see the onward march of Bible prophecy being fulfilled. We thank You that You have shown us what the trial of Christ was like when He was here on earth. It is as it were, a prophetic testimony of what will happen to God’s faithful remnant people in the last moments of earth’s history. So please help us to be ready for that. Please bind us close to your heart and don’t let us slip out of Your hand. May we be totally surrendered to You and give You praise and glory as well as plead with You for power and victory. And we look forward to the day when all earthly trials will be over, and we can fellowship with the redeemed and with the angels and with Christ Himself. Jesus, You are our hero. You are all powerful. But You are long-suffering and very patient and merciful. Please reform us according to Your likeness. And thank You dear father in heaven, in Jesus name, amen.