This week’s pew is one that was quite frankly, not even planned. My wife mentioned to me this morning a Bible reading that she had been doing, and it rang a bell. Matthew 27 details the trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ. If you’ve been following us for the past few weeks, you know that we haven’t really been following, so to speak, the church calendar. After discussing with my wife, what she had read, I was so impressed by what she had to say that I am going to pause here on the good way for just a few and read Matthew 27 and share my thoughts with you this week. 

Matthew 27 shares the details of the trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ. I occasionally refer to those little biblical gems that we sometimes overlook, and this is one of them. The chapter includes Judas suicide, Pilate sentencing Jesus to death while releasing Barabbas, followed by the intense mockery by soldiers, and Jesus’s death on Golgotha, accompanied by an earthquake and we don’t want to forget the tearing of the veil in the temple and tombs open all at the moment that Jesus took his last breath.It was Joseph of Arimathea who asked for and got the body of Jesus and buried him in a garden tomb. As most writers would say, there’s a lot here. So let’s get started by first acknowledging the fact that we all do what I call surface reading. If you’ve been in church any length of time many of these scriptures you’ve heard read many times and you’ve heard many sermons about them so you tend to simply read the words, so let’s go beyond the words.

There’s betrayal and regret, there’s a trial before Pilate, then  soldiers mocking Christ, calling him king of the Jews, and then whipping him with a bone tipped whip. Then Christ was made to carry his cross to his crucifixion at Golgotha. What follows of course is crucifixion and the death of Jesus Christ. He dies on the cross between two convicted criminals, one of which acknowledges his ministry, and he is saved by Jesus. We read that Christ was on that cross from about noon till 3 PM, during that time there was a darkness that covered the land. We read  that upon his death, the temple veil tears in two and an earthquake occurs and all the tombs open. 

Now, what about those little gems. We read in the Bible concerning Judas’ regret for what he had done and that he returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests, admitting his sin and then he goes out and hangs himself. We pass over at least I always have, although I’ve read it many times but I haven’t let it register with me that the chief priests had a discussion about that 30 pieces of silver and decided that it would not be proper to place it in the offering box because it had been used as and I underline this…“payment for murder.”  (NLT Matthew 27:6-8) the trial that in itself is of course another one of those little gems. Barabbas was a Jewish criminal and common thief. Pilate recognized the fact that Jesus had been brought before him because of the Jews jealousy of him. Pilate’s wife asked him to please reconsider and let the man go for he was innocent. But the crowd insisted and continued to demand something be done about this Jesus. Pilate while he still had his mind intact, decided that one way out was to offer a courtesy that had been extended by the Roman government every year at this time. He would release one of these prisoners to the crowd. Pilate was looking for a way to absolve himself of the responsibility of the death of this man. The crowd would have none of it and of course, as we’ve said above, they picked Barabbas to be set free. Jesus was then given up to the soldiers who, of course mocked him, and then Pilate ordered the scourging of Jesus. Here’s what we miss. It wasn’t a whip. It was a lash. I hope I got this right, but my understanding is the lash was a group of leather strips brought together at one end and tied off to a wooden handle. At the end of those lashes were sharpened bones, which cut the skin, slashed it with every swing.  The Mel Gibson movie “The Passion” got it right. They crucified Christ between two thieves, and of course we all know about what happened between Christ and one of those thieves, but I believe a little gem that we miss is that this punishment was reserved mostly for the most despicable, lowlife, criminals, and characters at that time. The crucifixion in itself was a humiliation and as people would walk by and they would mock Christ. They would be soldiers and even religious leaders that would come by and make fun of him. That other little gem would be that many commentaries, study guides often refer to the tearing of the veil in the temple during the earthquake, the opening of tombs the darkness of day all of these things at the time of the death of Christ were supernatural events. They use the word supernatural. Now the meaning of that word is simply something that cannot be explained something out of the ordinary, there’s something for which there is no scientific explanation. I preferred to believe that it was all from the hand of God.

Now these are just a collection of perhaps little things that we sometimes overlook, but here’s the connection that my wife made, and I believe she hit the nail on the head…

After All This Time we are still choosing evil over good. Just as a crowd that day chose the evil of Barabbas over the good of Jesus Christ we in this very day to do the same. Evil may have another name, but it is evil and we choose it over the good way. May God have mercy on us. Come back and join us in next week as we begin a short series on covenants, thanks for being here today.

Life is Good

jk