John 19:31-37 – Picky Picky Belief
Tonight, in our last message of The Life of Jesus before Resurrection Day, I’d like to point out an interesting characteristic about the religious leaders that really bears hearing. Just to let you know: likely something I say tonight might make you angry. Just letting you know that you may not be pleased with what I have to say, but hang in there till the end anyway.
You see, what i’m talking about tonight is a quality that we probably all share to a certain extent, and I’m going to try to help us see it in ourselves. It will probably never be cleared up completely until glorification. But until then, what do we do with ourselves? Let’s read John 19:31-37.
Now perhaps you already know where I’m going with this, but bear with me. Let’s look at what the religious leaders did here. They didn’t want the bodies of the 3 crucifixion victims hanging around exposed to the elements overnight.
It is almost certain that under normal circumstances crucifixion victims were left overnight, despite OT laws stating that the body of anyone hanged on a tree be removed and buried out of sight, not left hanging all night. Nevertheless, since the Romans were in charge, what they said went. When in Roman-occupied territory, do as the Romans do.
But this time the Jewish leaders put up a stink about it. Why? Because the next day was a special day. It was the Sabbath. And what’s more, it was a special Sabbath. It was the Sabbath that fell on Passover week. It was part of a grand religious celebration. It was not just any-old Sabbath – it was a high Sabbath. The leaders wanted to appear concerned about Jewish laws, and so they requested that Jesus and the other criminals come down.
So the Romans made sure that all the men on the crosses would die quickly. By breaking their legs, they would not be able to push themselves up on their cross to gasp for breath. They would suffocate sooner with broken legs. It turned out that Jesus was already dead, so they didn’t need to break His legs. Just to make sure He was dead, the soldier drove a spear into Jesus’ heart. Blood and water flowed out separately, indicating his heart had stopped. That would have killed Him anyway. So, Jesus was certainly dead when He came down off the cross.
Now, what’s funny about all this is that all of a sudden, the religious leaders gathered up some scruples about following the OT law. Up until that point, they weren’t too concerned about doing things by the book. They had been breaking OT laws, as well as their own added laws and regulations, for some time. But they wanted to appear more holy than they really were. Like Judas, whom we looked at for a month, they were concerned about how things looked more than how things really were.
I mean, let’s look at Jesus’ trial. There were 6 stages to His trial, at the end of which He was sentenced to die at the hands of Roman soldiers. His trial, from start of finish, was illegal.
First off, even before the trial began, it had been determined that Jesus must die – John 11:50, Mark 14:1. For some time, the leaders wanted Jesus dead. There was no “innocent until proven guilty” thinking.
Second, false witnesses were sought to testify against Jesus. Usually the religious leaders went through an elaborate system of screening witnesses to ensure justice, but they threw all that out, just to find someone to nail Jesus on something.
Third, no defense for Jesus was sought or allowed. If you read the end of Luke 22, you can plainly see that Jesus was all by Himself in his defense.
Fourth, the trial was conducted at night. It started probably at about midnight, and lasted all night long, into the morning. This was illegal according to the religious leaders’ own laws.
Fifth, the high priest put Jesus under oath, but then incriminated Him for what he said. I understand that people lie under oath, but why insist on oaths if you’re not even going to try to believe Him?
And finally, cases involving such serious charges were to be tried only in the Sanhedrin’s regular meeting place, not in the high priest’s palace. It was a location of convenience. And what’s more, if it had been done legal, there likely would have been someone recording the minutes. But what was said, they would want no record of.
As you can see, the very events leading Jesus to the cross were underhanded and under the table. Add to all this the day of the crucifixion. Now, in my research I wasn’t able to find anywhere that said executions were not to be dealt out on a holiday such as Passover, though it wouldn’t surprise me if they weren’t. But it seems to me that executing criminals should not have happened on a holiday such as Passover. It seems so contrary to the spirit of the day, even if the letter of the Law wasn’t concerned. To kill a person on the same day as killing lambs for worship just seems contradictory.
Of course, the irony is that at the same time worshippers were having their lambs killed, Jesus was being killed as well. The Lamb of God, slain on Passover, remembering God’s deliverance from slavery. It’s beautiful poetry.
But the point is, the religious leaders were picky about what OT laws to enforce and which ones to ignore. They obeyed the ones they wanted while ignoring or defying the ones they didn’t.
That’s the attitude I want to address tonight. Jesus had before accused them of straining gnats, while swallowing camels. Paying close attention to small things while ignoring the big things. Majoring on the minors and minoring on the majors. They paid attention to the Sabbath while they killed the Lord of the Sabbath.
And I’m just wondering about this in our own spiritual lives. I’m wondering about what we seem so concerned with that is at the expense of other things.
For example, we love to criticize the United Church because of their stance on homosexuality. We dismiss them as an unbiblical church because of it. But they are very concerned with other social concerns like AIDS and poverty. Social justice is very important to God, but we’d rather criticize them for what we think they do wrong, instead of applauding what they do very biblically correct.
You see? Selective spirituality. It’s the same as one-translation-only people criticizing every other translation. If they wanted to be biblically pure, they’d have to learn Hebrew and Greek. Even then, which variations, which alternative readings, which dialects? Granted, they may have heard rumors about such things as Byzantium and Alexandria, but they don’t understand them. But they leap to their conclusion, that their translation is the best one or the only oddly one. People who condemn every translation but theirs need to look at their own hypocrisy.
Some people set up their views as the only true ones. That their opinions are the only right ones. But if you think about it, have you ever changed your mind? About anything at all? Or do you have the exact same thoughts as you did when you were a child about every possible thing? Well, if you changed your opinion once, isn’t it possible to change them again at some point? To admit that you have been wrong about this, even as you changed your opinion about something before? If so, then isn’t it possible that we are now wrong and someone else is right? To insist that you have the only correct opinion is hypocrisy.
People love to judge another person’s spiritual condition by church attendance. That is, if they miss too many Sundays, there’s something wrong with them. They shouldn’t do that. But, just as soon as you miss a Sunday, unless you are on your deathbed, your attitude judges you as a hypocrite. I mean, we always rationalize away our own shortcomings while we are too hard on others. But can you see what I mean? It’s so easy to be hard on someone else while we have the same problems in our own lives.
Name the issue and you’ll find people who are hypocritical. People who lobby against Sunday shopping would still often eat out after church or fill up on gas if they had to. People who demand that believers only watch things that they approve of will eventually fall into the trap of watching something that someone else doesn’t approve of. People who insist on hair length as a form of godliness will still put their hair up, making the neck clearly visible, thus nullifying the effects of long hair.
You see how easy is it? Just as soon as we enforce our standards on others, we get caught in hypocrisy. Maybe we don’t mean to. Maybe it’s accidental. But I don’t think anyone means to be a hypocrite. It just happens when we insist on a certain level of godliness that even we can’t achieve 100% of the time.
And perhaps our hypocrisy isn’t as pronounced as the religious leaders’. But it matters to those around us. They can see when we are too critical towards others with judgements even we can’t escape. And no matter how we try to rationalize it or dismiss it away, people can smell hypocrisy. They look for it.
So what do we do about it? How do we avoid the unavoidable? How do we escape selective spirituality? How do we not get shot with our own guns of religious standards?
Well, we live out Jesus’ words to the Pharisees: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Watch this passage, spoken to the Pharisees just a few days before: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”
Jesus said it’s OK to have high standards for yourselves, but you can’t forget the more important things like mercy. Folks, what Jesus is saying, no matter how religiously devoted you are, you have to be merciful to others. You can’t judge their spirituality by their church attendance. You can’t dismiss whole congregations because they don’t see things the same as you do. You can’t set up some standard of godliness and follow it perfectly. It’s not fair, it’s not right, it’s not Christ-like.
You have to show mercy to others. That’s what matters. Don’t insist that others do all that you do. Don’t be too harsh on others, or you will make it harder for them to find God. And we don’t want to make it harder for others. Let God deal with each individual personally. He’s able to bring them to a deeper walk with Him without your laws. Be gracious. Show some compassion. Be courageous enough to let other believers believe.
