This is Darren Kuhn with the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we search the ancient paths to find ways that God brings light into a dark world and helps set men free from the struggles that we all face on a day-to-day basis. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it. Share it.
But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Listen to your wives. Two thousand years ago, Pilate did not take that advice. His wife had a bad dream, and he didn't listen.
At the most famous trial in history, a man's wife interrupted the most important decision her husband would ever make. She said to him, "...have nothing to do with this righteous man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him." That is Matthew 27, verse 19. The incident we're looking at took place in Luke's Gospel, which we're journeying through right now, so glad you're with us, in Luke chapter 23, verses 12 through 25. We're back again with Experience Truth, and I was able to wrangle the Christian car guy to be back with us, Robbie Dilmore. Thanks for jumping in here, man. This is awesome stuff. We're going to read starting in verse 21, and then we've got some more questions as we journey through Luke here on Experience Truth.
So glad you're with us. Go ahead, Robbie. But they shouted, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Then he said to them the third time, What evil has he done?
I found no reason for death in him. I will therefore chastise him and let him go. But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices, Did he be crucified? And the voices of these men and the chief priests prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested, and he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison. But he delivered Jesus to their will. So we pick up on our questions, Robbie, as we get toward the end, as to what's going on here.
The notorious washing of the hands. Here we have this great trial, and throughout the night as we've journeyed, we have seen Christ. He's appeared before Pilate, and then he's off to Herod, and then back before Pilate. And so Pilate offers to try to assuage the crowd to scourge Jesus, hoping that this nefarious cat of nine tails, also known as the flagellum whip, would assuage and pacify the crowd.
But it did none of that. In fact, they were even more upset, more angry, and bloodthirsty after that. By the way, the only reference of releasing a prisoner at Passover feast is in the Gospel of Luke, but you also should see the other Gospels for the account of the Passion. The Passion of Christ is a huge chunk of narrative in the Gospels. And the only point, we know that Pilate's wife interrupted this whole ordeal from Matthew's account, which we read earlier.
So this is a fascinating contrast. Remember, when Jesus' cousin John the Baptist was on trial, you have Herod being interrupted by his wife. Now Jesus is on trial, and Pilate's interrupted by his wife. One wife pressed her husband to kill and behead John. The other wife to spare Jesus.
So you see a contrast in that. The mob is intensified, it's gotten louder. It's as though they had Pilate over a barrel. In John's account, they actually threatened to go to Caesar. Because Pilate's already been in trouble. He's already been on eggshells with these people. Political careers hanging in the balance. They want to go to Caesar.
He could not afford the political fallout. So then we have this question here. The question is, why did Pilate wash his hands? A lot of deep symbolism there in both Jewish tradition and in Roman tradition. This is a symbol of, I am passing the buck.
This is not on me, this is all on you. And as noted in the passage, the Jews received it. They said, His blood be upon us and our people. And so this was a very condemning statement.
This was just a sad day. And there's a very real sense that His blood be upon us. Jesus will later say, we'll get to this in Luke 23, a little bit farther down the road, when He says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. In Luke 24, when He says those words from the cross, they know not what they do. So Pilate had no idea He's washing His hands over the one who would die to wash away our sins. And so, this is what we do, by the way. Do we have any idea that our sin, that our passing the buck, our blaming, our victimization of ourselves, our mistreating of others, and this and that, is what Jesus Christ died for? And so, some deep things happening here.
Keep going. So in what ways do we see God's perfect plan at work here, even in the evil crowd? I mean, what's so sobering about the statement, His blood be upon us and our children? Yeah, one of the most sobering statements in all of history, in all of the Bible for certain. And you have that language all throughout John, you have that language all throughout Isaiah, in Peter's sermon in Acts chapter 2, where he effectively comes out against Israel and says, You killed him, Jesus Christ, whom you crucified, whom you executed.
You called for his blood. And then to say it's be of... Now, this statement has also led to unfortunate anti-Semitism, where even some of the days of the Reformation, and even some of the folks in the Catholic Church, would, in a misguided way, lay at the feet what the Jews did to Jesus. Even Adolf Hitler would try to pass the buck on his atrocious evil sin on the Jews, saying, Well, look at what they did.
You can read that. It's led to anti-Semitism. But the import is on the fact that they called for Christ's blood, and they are no more sinners than you and I are. There's an old saying, The ground is level at the foot of the cross. But it's important to note, in this point in history, they did say this, and it was a damning statement. How beautiful that some of these very Jews that cried for the blood of Christ would be washed in the blood of Jesus at Pentecost, as salvation would come down and 3,000 were saved. A couple chapters later in Acts, 5,000 are added, and some of the worst, most anti-Jesus, zealous Pharisees like Saul would be turned and changed by the very blood that they cried for, to become preachers of the gospel, to bring us the gospel to this very day.
So a lot of contrast, a lot of sobering thoughts on that, and it gets real personal with these final questions. How does Barabbas represent me, and whose hands are stained with the blood of Jesus? Barabbas literally means, the name means Son of the Father. Look at the contrast between Barabbas and Jesus. Barabbas was getting what he deserved. That middle cross had his name on it, and the other two guys on either side, one would be unrepentant.
We'll study these two thieves coming up in the next chapter. In a real sense, if you look at the Hebrew on that name, it's homeboy. Which, you know, can't help but make me feel like, you know, this is my house. This is my situation, and the beauty of actually taking communion is, in a way, you're celebrating his death every time you do it.
It really is. And the fact that it took the name, a notorious criminal's name, Son of the Father. I mean, Barabbas' parents weren't bragging, hey, this is our little guy. Look, he ended up being a seditious, you know, violent murderer. I mean, if you look at the other gospels, this was a bad dude. And even the thieves on the cross. It says he was, you know, he was condemned with two malefactors. They're called malefactors, they're called thieves.
But the word in the Greek is terraced. These would be like members of ISIS, members of the Taliban, murderous people that cut people's throats. Innocent children killed them.
Horrible people. And Barabbas was the ringleader. He was like the top dog. He was like the Charles Manson.
He would have been the guy that everyone would have been afraid of. Like, we're glad that he's locked away. And so here Pilate says, hey, we'll turn Jesus loose on this Day of Atonement. And they said, no, rather than the Son of God who's come to save us, rather than receive his salvation, we would rather have Barabbas a bloody, evil man. But there's a very real sense that Jesus, you know, like you said, Robbie, he took our place so we could become sons of the Father. I love Romans 8 where it says we're not given the spirit of fear under bondage, we're given the spirit of adoption.
We cry, Abba, Father, Daddy. And we all literally bear that name, but we bear it rightly, because in Adam's sin we fall. By one man's sin, sin entered the world and death by sin.
Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15, both passages tell us explicitly, But Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came, so as many as received him to them gave he the right to become sons of the Father. So we have been adopted, but that price was an infinite price, a price paid by Christ, and it's pictured right here. The substitutionary atonement. We always say this, Jesus died in my place. We talk about Jesus died for you, right?
1 Corinthians 15, how that Christ died for our sins. We say that, but he literally died for Barabbas. In other words, that cross was literally, remember Simon the Cyrene literally carries Jesus' cross, but Barabbas was literally designed, planned, due to hang on that cross and be beaten and bloodied. But he went free, so his crime was placed on Jesus. Jesus' freedom was placed on Barabbas. It was an exchange.
Now, it was a temporal transaction. We don't know that Barabbas' heart was changed. I mean, for him to see that, to look back later, you think, whoa, that guy had to get saved later.
Boy, I sure would like to know if he did. I'd love to see him in heaven. But imagine Barabbas wandering by that crucifixion site.
There is his two good buddies, Partners in Crimes, and in the middle is the guy who died for him. And how are we like that? Yeah, and that's, I get back to the communion again as I think about that as I'm celebrating that, is it is in fact a feast. And we're literally taking in the body of Christ, and we're literally drinking his blood, that we recognize that it's our sin that is requiring this every single time we do it. But that's a celebration, too. It's saying, hey, this was shed for me, you know.
It's awesome. It is a celebration. That's the crazy mystery and all of that. It is completely Jesus' love for Barabbas. Jesus' love for you, that he was willing to do such a thing.
And let's close with this thought, Robbie. The statement they said, his blood be upon us, right, and our children. Well, what are we saying when we take the cup?
What are we saying? You know that song, Are You Washing the Blood, which might kind of freak out unbelievers that haven't been around church, like, are these guys vampires or barbarians? But you will either have his blood on your hands burning in hell forever because you never admitted it was your sin that killed him, and you never took the gift of salvation, or you will have his blood covering you in the Levitical type, where he says, without the shedding of blood, in Hebrews says that there is no remission of sins. The question is, which side of that cross do you want to be on? Where the cross that you deserve, well, you will suffer in hell forever because of what your sin did to Jesus, right? Or you will allow his blood to flow over you, and that beautiful, there is a fountain filled with blood that flows from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners there beneath the flood lose all our sin and shame.
So receive that gift. Let his blood cleanse you. I love that 1 John 1-9 verse. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us.
Why? Because the blood of Jesus washes away all sins. So have you been washed? Have you recognized that Jesus took your place? And when that happens, everything changes.
That's our prayer, didn't it, Robbie? That everyone listening. And then here's the final question. Who are you telling about that? Because if he has washed you, you need to go tell somebody, just like the leper would cry out, I'm clean! I'm clean! Well, who are you telling? I'm clean! I'm washed!
Look what he did for me! Who are you grabbing and taking with you? Who are you sharing the good news? The sign of someone who's been saved as they want to reach others, and tell them the good news that a Savior came and died for a wretch like me. And I'm a beggar showing other beggars where they can find bread. That's Experience Truth. I'm Stu. Thanks for being with us. Please read the Word, study the Word, memorize the Word, meditate on the Word, and share this Word of God with someone else before your head hits the pillow at night. Even a young person in your home, share with them the good news that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, just like me.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-09-15 18:52:12 / 2023-09-15 18:58:05 / 6