67. Unmasking Sin: Jesus on Trial on Good Friday

G'day and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Dave here.

Do you know that you're in danger right now?

Right now you are in danger.

Not from a lion or a shark who's about to burst into wherever you're listening, but from something inside you.

Something called sin.

Sin is when we make ourselves more important than God, when we say, I'm going to do what I want to do and not what God wants.

It's when we think we're doing the right thing, but we won't listen to God when he says, actually, you're not doing the right thing, you're doing the wrong thing.

Sin is so dangerous, it can lead us to do things that we never thought we'd ever do.

Sin is so dangerous, we can convince ourselves that we're doing something good even when we're doing something really, really bad.

Just like the people in today's story.

Today's story is a really sad one, but if you listen closely, you'll hear it has the best news in all the world.

So get ready for our next episode of stories of a Faithful God for K.

At the end of our last episode, Jesus had been betrayed by his worst disciple and denied by his best disciple.

The high priest of God didn't recognise his own God standing right there in front of him.

And the Jewish leaders had decided it was time for Jesus to die.

Now the sun's risen and the priests and the other leaders take Jesus to the Roman governor's palace.

The Romans had made a rule that even though the Jewish government called the Sanhedrin was allowed to make a lot of laws and even punish people if they did the wrong thing, they weren't allowed to punish anyone by putting them to death.

If they wanted someone put to death, they had to go and ask the Romans to do it.

When they get to the palace, they don't go in.

You see, they think they're really good at obeying God.

They think they're really good at serving the one true God.

And if they go into the house of a non Jewish person like the Roman governor, it's like it'll make them unclean in God's eyes.

They'll have to do all this special washing before they can do things like eat the Passover meal.

And so because they're so keen to obey God, they won't go into the governor's palace.

Do you see the problem?

They think they're obeying God, but they're actually about to ask to have God killed.

God the son, Jesus.

Even though they Think they really love God.

They don't actually know God.

Well, the governor, Pilate comes out to them and he asks a question that any good judge would ask.

The Romans like to think of themselves as really good judges.

They think we make the best laws and we judge laws really, really well.

They think actually everyone should thank them for conquering them so that they can have the Roman laws.

Well, in chapter 19, verse 29, Pilate says to the Jews, what charges do you bring against this man?

In other words, what's he guilty of?

The Jews don't really want to have to explain why they want Jesus dead.

They don't want to have to convince anyone that he should die.

They just want him dead.

There's no need for a fair trial.

So they tell the governor to just get on with it.

They answer, he's a criminal.

That's why we brought him to you.

I think that gets Pilate a little bit frustrated.

He's not going to put Jesus to death just because they want him to.

After all, he's Roman with really good laws.

That's just not what the Romans do.

Okay?

So he says, take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.

Oh, well, that's a problem for the Jews.

They complain to him and they say, but we're not allowed to put anyone to death.

Pilate goes back inside and he asks Jesus a question, a really important question, a question where if Jesus says yes, he could be put to death.

Pilate asks in verse 33, are you the king of the Jews?

If the Jews have a king who hasn't been picked by the Romans, it's probably because they want to kill all the Romans.

So the Romans put people like that to death really quickly.

Jesus doesn't really answer.

He says, is that your own question or did others tell you about me?

He's kind of hinting that Pilate's just being made to do what the Jews want.

Pilate's really frustrated because he kinda thinks the same thing.

He yells back, I'm not a Jew.

It was your own people and their leading priests who brought you before me.

What have you done wrong?

It's really weird to ask the criminal what they've done wrong and why they're on trial.

Most criminals would say, ah, nothing.

Yeah, nothing.

I haven't done anything wrong.

Of course that's what you'd say if you were innocent as well.

So I guess that's what everyone would say.

Well, Jesus answers in a different kind of way.

He shows that he is a king, but not the sort of King that the Romans are scared of.

And not the sort of king who a lot of the Jews might actually want.

He says, my kingdom does not belong to this world.

If it belonged to this world, my servants would have fought to keep me from being given over to the Jewish leaders.

But my kingdom is from another place.

Pilate says, so you are a king.

And Jesus answers, you say that I am a king.

That is true.

I was born for this, to tell people about the truth.

That is why I came into the world.

And everyone who belongs to the truth listens to me.

Truth, Truth.

Who cares about truth?

Pilate just wants to work out what's going on.

He says, kinda jokingly, what is truth?

Even though he has God the Son in front of him, even though Jesus could tell him how to have eternal life, even though Jesus could tell him the truth, that would save him for all eternity and give him happiness for all time, Pilate's not that interested.

He goes back outside and he says something really strange.

He says to the Jews, I can find nothing to charge against this man.

But it is your custom that I free one prisoner to you at the time of the Passover.

Do you want me to free this king of the Jews?

Do you see the problem?

He's the judge.

He's asked a few questions, and he's decided that Jesus is innocent.

As a Roman, as someone who supposedly loves the law and justice and fairness, what should you do if you find out that someone's innocent?

You should let them go, of course.

But instead he's gone out to the people who want Jesus dead and ask them if he should let Jesus go.

Even though he thinks he's really fair, his sin is making him an unfair judge.

As you might expect, the Jews don't want Jesus to be set free, and so they ask for someone else to be released.

A man named Barabbas.

Barabbas is a robber, and he may have even fought against the Romans.

Remember, the Jewish leaders were always scared of people who want to fight against the Romans.

Because the Romans will fight back.

They've got the biggest, baddest, meanest army in the entire world.

And if the army has to come and sort things out, a lot of people are going to die.

The priests and Pharisees.

They think that's what Jesus is trying to do.

Fight against the Romans, Start a war.

Which is nuts.

If they bothered to listen to Jesus at all, they'd know that that has nothing to do with what he's on about.

I mean, gee, Pilate spent 30 seconds with Jesus and He's able to work it out.

Why can't they?

It's because of their sin, which has so much power over them.

They're so blinded by their sin, they can't see how silly it is to have Barabbas set free.

They want the innocent man to die and the guilty man who could destroy them all, set free.

Pilate seems to think, what if I just hurt Jesus and embarrass him and turn him into a bit of a joke?

Then maybe they'll let me set Jesus free.

So he gives the order for Jesus to be taken away and whipped.

The soldiers who whip him also make fun of him.

They put a robe on him as though he's a king.

And they give him a crown.

Not a beautiful golden crown, but a crown of thorns that would dig into his head and make it bleed.

And they all yell out, hail, King of the Jews.

And then they hit him in the face.

Have you ever had someone make fun of you?

It's pretty yuck, isn't it?

Well, this is a large bunch of soldiers making fun of the King of the universe.

Jesus has healed people, cared for people, raised people to life and offered eternal life.

And they're just teasing and hitting him.

Their sin has made them not care.

Pilate, who, remember, thinks that Jesus is innocent, goes back out to the Jews.

He says in verse four, look, I'm bringing Jesus out to you.

I want you to know that I find nothing I can charge against him.

Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.

Pilate said to the Jews, here is the man.

When the leading priests and the guards saw Jesus, they shouted, kill him on a cross.

Kill him on a cross.

Again, Pilate says that Jesus is innocent.

In verse six, he says, oh, take him and nail him to a cross yourself.

I find nothing I can charge against him.

Of course, he knows they're not allowed to do that.

He's actually trying to set Jesus free.

He's just not doing a very good job of it.

The crowd is getting angrier and angrier.

They yell, we have a law that says that he should die because he said he is the Son of God.

Now Pilate's really scared.

Son of God is a title for the king of the Jews from the Old Testament, but it's also what the Roman emperors called themselves.

If Jesus is claiming to be like the Roman emperor, Pilate has to put him to death.

He rushes back inside with Jesus and he asks him, where are you from?

But Jesus doesn't answer.

He knows he's going to be killed on a cross.

He's not trying to get out of it.

That makes Pilate even more angry.

In verse 10, he yells, you refuse to speak to me.

Don't you know that I have the power to set you free and power to have you killed on a cross?

Jesus isn't impressed.

He knows that it's God who has the true power.

If God wanted to stop this, he would.

So Jesus says, the only power you have over me is the power given to you by God.

The man who gave me to you is guilty of a greater sin.

Pilate tried again to let Jesus go.

But the Jews try to make it seem like Pilate will be a traitor.

If he doesn't kill Jesus, he'll be going against the Roman emperor called Caesar.

They say, anyone who makes himself king is against Caesar.

If you let this man go free, you are not Caesar's friend.

If Caesar heard about that, it may be Pilate who's put to death rather than Jesus.

So now Pilate's really scared.

He brings Jesus out and he sits down on his judgment seat.

He's ready to be the judge.

He's ready to do the job of fairness that Romans like to tell themselves they're really good at.

In verse 15, he says to the Jews, here is your king.

And he's right.

Jesus really is their king.

But they shout, take him away.

Take him away.

Kill him on a cross.

And Pilate asks, do you want me to kill your king on a cross?

And then the leading priests, the guys who serve God as the leading king, the great king of the universe, the guys who are meant to lead all the Israelites in treating God as their king, reply, the only king we have is Caesar.

And so with that, Pilate hands Jesus over to be killed on a cross.

Now, you might be thinking that this is a really sad story.

And in one sense it is.

You can see how sin leads people to make really bad decisions.

The people who want to honour God put the son of God to death.

The guy who's supposed to be this great, wonderful, fair judge says that Jesus is innocent and then has him beaten up, teased, and then put to death.

And sin is something we all have ever since the first humans, ever since Adam and Eve.

Every human prefers to live our own way rather than God's.

Every human, including you and me, makes really bad decisions because we don't do things God's way.

Every human, including you and me, is guilty of treating God badly.

And yet this story is actually really good news.

The one person in the story who's innocent is very deliberately waiting to die.

He could escape or fight back.

He has all the power in the universe.

He's not guilty so why is he getting ready to die?

He's going to die for the guilty.

Just like Barabbas was set free.

He was guilty but Jesus took his place.

Now everyone who trusts Jesus can be saved by Jesus.

Saved from the punishment for sin but also saved from the effects of sin.

To help us not be caught in doing such foolish evil like Pilate was and like the priests were.

Jesus will make us more and more like him and when he comes back he'll make us completely perfect with no more sin ever.

Back in Jerusalem, Jesus is given a cross to carry and he's led outside the city to be killed.

But that's a story for next time.

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Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.