23:1,2
The Jewish council did not have any authority to have Jesus killed, and that is what they wanted to do. This is a sad indictment upon them, and indeed upon all humanity. We complain that God does not make His presence obvious enough, yet when He came as a human being, doing many obvious things, we killed Him. we need to realise that the problem is not with God but within us.
The Jewish Council was playing political games. They knew that the last thing the Roman leaders wanted was any uprisings, so they claimed that they were concerned about Jesus leading a rebellion against Rome, or inciting a rebellion. So they accused Him of opposing payments of taxes. We know of course, that when they had questioned Him on this Jesus had actually said quite the opposite.
23:3,4
Pilate was the Roman Governor at the time. He asked Jesus directly if He was indeed the King of the Jews. Jesus does not deny the charge.
Verses 4 and 5 are unique to Luke. He was probably wanting to stress that Jesus was not a political rebel. Pilate declares that he could find no basis for any charge against Jesus. The Jews reacted against this , claiming, without any foundation, that Jesus stirred up trouble wherever He went. The truth was that Jesus stirred up trouble only for the Jewish leaders, highlighting their hypocrisy. We always seek to put the blame on someone else when the problem is us.
No comments:
Post a Comment