“24 Hours that Changed the World: Condemned by the Righteous”
Mark 14:53-72
One day a bus driver was driving along his usual route.
He didn’t have any problems for the first few stops; a few people got on and got off, and things went pretty smooth.
At one stop, however, a big hulk of a man got on.
He was 6’8” tall, built like a wrestler, and his arms seemed to hang down to the ground.
He glared at the bus driver and told him, “Big John doesn’t pay!”
Then he sat down at the back of the bus.
The driver was 5’3” tall, thin, and very meek…so he didn’t argue with Big John.
But, of course, he wasn’t happy about it.
The next day, the same thing happened.
Big John got on again, made a big show of refusing to pay, and sat down.
It happened the next day, and again the day after that.
The bus driver started to lose sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him.
Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore.
He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and a class on finding your self-esteem.
By the end of the summer, the bus driver had become quite strong and felt really good about himself.
The next Monday, Big John got on the bus again and declared: “Big John doesn’t pay!”
Enraged, the bus driver stood up, glared back at Big John, and bellowed, “And why not?!”
With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, “Big John has a bus pass.”
Fear can cause us to do silly things.
It can cause us to see danger where there is none.
It can paralyze us from doing what we know is right.
It can also cause us to do horrible, atrocious things.
In his book Fearless, Max Lucado writes about the power fear has to turn us into beastly people:
“[Fear] turns us into control freaks…[for]…fear, at its center, is a perceived loss of control.
When life spins wildly, we grab for a component of life we can manage: our diet, the tidiness of our home, the armrest of a plane, or, in many cases, people.
The more insecure we feel, the meaner we become.
We growl and bare our fangs.
Why?
Because we are bad?
In part.
But also because we feel cornered.”
The guards that had arrested Jesus took Him to the “high priest, and all the chief priests, elders, and legal experts gathered.”
Meanwhile, Peter had mustered enough courage to follow at a distance, hiding in the shadows, distraught and afraid.
We are told that “the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death…”
The Sanhedrin was a council made up of 71 of the wisest and most religious men of the time.
In Jesus’ day, the Sanhedrin ruled over all things religious just like the Romans ruled over their political lives.
The Sanhedrin had control of the Temple and the religious courts.
They were men who devoted themselves to God, and their high priest was the leading religious figure of his time.
We are told that all these religious folk condemned Jesus to die.
“Some began to spit on him. Some covered his face and hit him, saying, ‘Prophesy!’ Then the guards took him and beat him.”
These are some horrible things.
Especially when we realize that Jesus is God Who walked in human flesh on this earth as an itinerant preacher, teacher, carpenter, healer—and pauper.
He came as one of us.
He healed the sick, forgave sinners, showed compassion to the lost, and taught people what God was really like.
Given these facts, isn’t it ironic that those who condemned Jesus to death were not gangsters, or criminals or mentally deranged serial killers…
…they were the most pious and religious people on the face of the earth!!!
The God they claimed to serve walked among them in the flesh, and they couldn’t see Him.
The people who would be most expected to recognize and worship Jesus instead arrested Him in darkness and brought Him to trial.
And I think the question we must ask is “How could this happen?”
How could 71 righteous men, dedicated to God, do what these men did?
Why did they condemn an innocent man to death?
And even if they thought He was a false Messiah, why would these “pillars of the community” spit on Him?
Why would they blindfold, mock and hit Him?
Why would they act like playground bullies?
The answer, or at least part of the answer, I believe, is fear!
These men saw Jesus as a threat to their way of life, their positions of authority, their status, their jobs, their lives.
Have you ever been afraid of Jesus, of what might happen to some of the “unconverted corners” of your life if you were to give yourself completely over to Him?
I think a lot of people are scared of Jesus.
People are scared that following Jesus will mean they will have to give up this, that, the other thing.
In reality, when we make the decision to follow Jesus, this, that and the other thing lose their significance in comparison to knowing and being with Christ.
Anyhow, the religious leaders had seen the crowds flocking to Jesus.
They had seen Jesus heal the sick, and command unclean spirits out of people.
Jesus threatened their social pecking order!!!
Caiaphas, the high priest, had said, “This man is dangerous.”
And so their inherent fear and insecurity worked on them, ate at them; and fear breeds hate, which all too often leads to horrible, tragic acts of inhumanity and stupidity!!!
A German pastor named Martin Niemoller first met Adolf Hitler in 1933, as he stood at the back of a room and listened to his rants.
Later, Niemoller’s wife asked him what he had learned, he said, “I discovered that Herr Hitler is a terribly frightened man.”
It’s been said that we are all “born afraid.”
And part of the reason for that is a mechanism God has given us to protect ourselves; we call it self-preservation.
And that mechanism can be both helpful and dangerous.
It becomes dangerous when it is coupled with our sin instinct—that “something” in all of us that is broken.
It’s what causes us to twist that which was meant to be good, and to misuse it, distort it and turn it into something awful.
Fear is so often used to lead us into the devil’s direction.
Think about how fear was the major player in the Salem witch trials in 1692.
What role did fear play in the apartheid laws of South Africa or the Jim Crow laws of the United States?
How did fear shape US foreign policy during the Cold War and after 9/11?
How has your fear led you to do things you might later have regretted?
Is fear controlling any of your actions or inactions today?
In our Scripture Lesson for this morning, Jesus faced trial, shame, and suffering on behalf of each one of us.
Yet, when Jesus was on trial in front of the high priest and the Sanhedrin, His closest followers and friends were too afraid to take a stand on His behalf.
Peter, whose name means “the rock” actually denied Jesus three times while Jesus was on trial.
Jesus stood up for a world that wouldn’t stand up for Him.
And Jesus continued to love the disciples who abandoned Him, and even Peter who denied Him.
And through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ extraordinary love, grace, and forgiveness would eventually give Jesus’ disciples the courage and conviction to put their lives on the line to spread the Good News about Christ and to preach and heal in Jesus’ name—to change the world!!!
The Bible, in 1st John Chapter 4 tells us that “God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them.
This is how love has been perfected in us, so that we can have confidence on the Judgment Day…
…There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear…”
How many of us have experienced the perfect love that drives out fear?
In the center of the storm which was Jesus’ trial, stood Jesus, listening as these pious men looked for reasons to put Jesus to death.
Jesus saw their growing frustration as the witnesses they brought to testify against Him told stories that didn’t stand up.
According to Jewish law, two people had to agree in their testimony in order to convict someone, and there was no agreement here.
Finally they looked at Jesus; and the high priest asked, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the blessed one?”
All Jesus would have had to do was keep silent or deny it and there would have been no grounds for His conviction.
Instead, the One Who is Perfect Love replied with the greatest courage ever displayed: “I am. And you will see the Human One sitting on the right side of the Almighty and coming on the heavenly clouds.”
And that’s all they needed.
And Jesus did this for you and for me.
Perfect Love came to rescue us from our fear and trembling.
Perfect Love sacrificed His life in order to save those whom He created that were lost.
Perfect Love looked fear straight in the face and said, “I am.”
Which means, “I am God.”
And God, went to the Cross, and took upon Himself every sin that you and I would ever commit.
God took upon Himself the accusations of the enemy against the entire human race.
He paid the penalty for our transgressions.
He took upon Himself the entire world system that is in rebellion to God.
He took upon Himself the full weight of evil and the complete brunt of the curse and He crucified them all!!!
Certainly, fear causes people to do some horrible things.
But as those who believe in the God of Perfect Love—We have nothing to fear.
Under the scrutiny of his aparthied government, South African Bishop and Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu declared: “There is nothing the government can do to me that will stop me from being involved in what I believe God wants me to do.
I do not do it because I like doing it.
I do it because I am under what I believe to be the influence of God’s hand.
I cannot help it.
When I see injustice, I cannot keep quiet, for, as Jeremiah says, when I try to keep quiet, God’s Word burns like a fire in my breast.
But what is it that they can ultimately do?
The most awful thing that they can do is to kill me, and death is not the worst thing that could happen to a Christian.”
We have a world of people we come in contact with every day who need to hear that Jesus loves them.
This building is surrounded by homes in which people live…
…some of these people are addicted to drugs…
…some are terribly depressed…
…others may be contemplating taking their own life…
…you name it…
…but all of them are scared.
The only answer to their problems is Jesus Christ!!!
What are you going to do about it?
What are we going to do?
A story was told about a town where all the residents are ducks.
Every Sunday the ducks waddle out of their houses and waddle down Main Street to their church.
They waddle into the sanctuary and squat in their proper pews.
The duck choir waddles in and takes its place, and then the duck minister comes forward and opens the duck Bible.
He reads to them: “Ducks! God has given you wings!
With wings you can fly!
With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles.
No walls can confine you!
No fences can hold you!
You have wings.
God has given you wings, and you can fly like birds!!!”
All the ducks shout, “Amen!”
And then they waddle home.
Let’s not “waddle home.”
Let’s soar boldly with the message of the God of Perfect Love Who came down and died so that all may live.
We have nothing to fear.
Praise God!!!
Amen.
