Introduction
My favorite scene in the Harry Potter movies is in the last
one.[1] Severus Snape had protected Harry throughout
his life from Voldemort because of his undying love for Lily, Harry’s
mother. But now in this scene, Snape
realizes to his horror that Harry must die at the right time and in the right
way.
As the Scriptures teach, Jesus
came to die for our sins, but it was essential that he die at the right time
and in the right way. Although there had
been attempts to silence Jesus (e.g. John 8:59), they were unsuccessful because
his hour had not yet come. When his hour
did come, however, he needed to be arrested, put on trial, condemned and
executed by crucifixion. Why did Jesus
have to suffer and die in this way? This
is what I want to consider because it leads us to the heart of the gospel.
The Necessity of the Trial
Jesus could have died in a number of different ways. He could have been stoned by an angry mob or
poisoned or assassinated by an elite soldier.
Instead, he was hauled before Pontius Pilate so that he might be
crucified. Why?
On the human level, Jesus “suffered under Pontius Pilate”
because the Jewish leaders at the time believed that it was in their nation’s
best interest. If they had simply wanted
Jesus dead, they could have had him killed without including the Roman
authorities as some had tried to do with the Apostle Paul (Acts 23:12-15). They did not do that because of Jesus’
popularity. As evidenced by the events
of Palm Sunday, many people believed that Jesus was the Christ and that he
would lead the nation to victory against the Romans. The Jewish leaders, however, are convinced
that he is an imposter and therefore he would fail miserably. Rome would destroy them all. Thus, Caiaphas said to the Council: “You know
nothing at all. Nor do you
understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people,
not that the whole nation should perish (John 11:49-50).”
The Jewish leaders, however, needed to be careful how they
disposed of Jesus, lest his death incite the people to do something
unwise. Their plan was to take Jesus to
Pilate—the only one who had the authority to administer capital punishment—and
have him sentenced Jesus to death. This
would effectively curb interest in Jesus as the Christ because they believed
that the Christ would conquer and not be conquered. Furthermore, if Jesus is crucified then it
would become clear that he was rejected and cursed by God (Gal. 3:13),
something that would never happen to the Christ.
On the divine level, the situation is quite different. Jesus had repeatedly said that he would
suffer and die in this way (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34; John 12:32-33). Jesus’ arrest, trial, condemnation and
crucifixion were all part of the divine plan to save us from our sins. This is why Jesus had to “suffer under
Pontius Pilate.”
We learn about the necessity of the trial in the accounts of
the trial itself. There are two key
points that the biblical writers emphasize.
First, Jesus is innocent. Pilate
knew this and declared it three times (John 18:38; 19:4, 6). Herod also examined Jesus and came to the
same conclusion (Luke 23:15). Second, Jesus
is officially condemned. Although Pilate
is convinced that Jesus is innocent, he succumbs to the political pressure and
he judges Jesus to be guilty of treason and sentences him to death by
crucifixion.
What is going on? How
is this part of God’s plan to save us from our sins? The answer is the great exchange. Jesus came, not merely to die, but to be our
substitute and die for our sins. We, not
Jesus, are the ones who are guilty of rebellion and deserve to be cast out of
the presence of God forever. We are the
ones who will stand before God on judgment day and be sentenced to eternal
death. But instead of us having to
endure the judgment, Jesus endured it for us.
He went before the Judge, and was condemned in our place. He, the innocent one, was sentenced to death,
and we, the transgressors, are absolved and set free.
This is what Isaiah had said would happen: “Surely he has
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him…
the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all…for the transgressions of my
people he was stricken…when you make his soul an offering for sin…he shall bear
their iniquities… and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors (Isa. 53).” And it is
what Peter says did happen: Christ “suffered once for sins, the righteous for
the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18).”
This is why Jesus had to be put on trial. To be sure, he stood before Pontius Pilate in
a human law court; yet, at the same time he stood before the divine
tribunal. Behind and through Pilate, God
judged and condemned Jesus for our sins.
This is why Isaiah says that God bruised him and put him to grief
(Isa. 53:10), and why Paul says that God made Jesus who knew no sin to
be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). As J.I.
Packer noted, “The miscarrying of human justice was the doing of divine
justice.”
God’s mercy to us is eminently displayed in sending Jesus to
be our substitute. But it is also
displayed in the fact that Jesus “suffered under Pontius Pilate” because by it
we become privy to the great exchange. It
happened, as it were, right before our very eyes. We know it is true because it happened in
human history. The trial of Jesus,
therefore, reassures us of our salvation in Christ. We can be confident that we will not be tried
for our sins because we know that Jesus was tried and condemned for them.[2]
The Necessity of the Cross
Why the cross? Why
not some other form of execution? One
reason is that crucifixion was the typical punishment for the crime that Jesus
had been found guilty of. Another, more
important, reason is that Jesus was suffering the curse of the law for us.
Among the varied painful forms of punishment in the ancient
world, crucifixion was one of, if not the worst. It was so brutal that no Roman citizen could
be crucified without approval from the Emperor.
Crucifixion was also shameful. The act itself was degrading, but the fact
that it was done publicly made it worse.
The victim would be stripped naked and paraded through the streets to
the place of execution. He would be
crucified in a highly public area to maximize the number of people who would
see it. Jesus was crucified just outside
Jerusalem beside the main road leading into the city. Many people would have seen him hanging naked
on the cross. In contemporary terms, it
would have been like crucifying Jesus in Times Square or live streaming it on YouTube. The intent, of course, was to humiliate and
shame.
The intent was also to make a statement and issue a
warning. Crucifixion asserted Roman
domination and deterred people from even thinking about being part of a
rebellion. This is why the Jewish
leaders didn’t like the sign (“The King of the Jews”) Pilate placed upon Jesus’
cross. Their king (Christ) would never
suffer such horror, shame and subjection.
Crucifixion was a horrible and humiliating way to die. We describe terrible parts of the world as
being “God-forsaken.” A person
witnessing a crucifixion would have said the same thing about the
crucified. And indeed, that is exactly
what happened to Jesus. He was forsaken
by God on the cross.
The account of Jesus’ death reinforces this truth in at
least three ways. First, Matthew says
that it became dark for three hours when Jesus was on the cross (Matt.
27:45). Darkness in Scripture is
associated with judgment (Isa. 13:10-11; Amos 5:18; 8:9). By means of the darkness in the middle of the
day, God was saying that he was forsaking Jesus and punishing him in body and
soul. Second, Jesus cried out on the
cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Matt. 27:46)?” Third, the fact that Jesus hung on a cross
indicated that he was suffering the curse of the law for us. As Paul pointed out, “Christ redeemed us from
the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-- for it is written, ‘Cursed is
everyone who is hanged on a tree (Gal. 3:13).’”
This is why Jesus had to die on the cross. He didn’t come merely to die, but to be
forsaken for us and to suffer the curse for us.
The cross, therefore, is the means by which Jesus saves us and reassures
us that we are saved. The Heidelberg
Catechism question 39 asks: “Does it have a special meaning that Christ was
crucified and did not die in a different way?”
The answer: “Yes. Thereby I am assured that he took upon himself the
curse which lay on me, for a crucified one was cursed by God.”
Conclusion
Jesus needed to die at the right time and in the right way
because he came to be judged for us, and to suffer the curse for us.
So, when you begin to doubt that God is for you, remember
Good Friday. When you begin to wonder if God might judge you or forsake you,
remember Jesus’ trial and death.
Remember that Jesus took your place in the courtroom and suffered the
curse for you on the cross. Remember the
Good Friday great exchange.
And remember that we are remembering. We are not waiting for Good Friday. Good Friday has come and gone. His trial and crucifixion have already taken
place. God has condemned sin in the
flesh (
[1] You can
watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqyf-kJWwIg
[2] John
Calvin wrote: “The curse caused by our guilt was awaiting us at God’s heavenly
judgment seat. Accordingly, Scripture first relates Christ’s condemnation
before Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, to teach us that the penalty to which
we were subject had been imposed upon this righteous man. We could not escape
God’s dreadful judgment. To deliver us from it, Christ allowed himself to be
condemned before a mortal man—even a wicked and profane man. For the title
“prefect” is mentioned, not only to affirm the faithfulness of the history, but
that we may learn what Isaiah teaches: “Upon him was the chastisement of our
peace, and with his stripes we are healed” [Isa. 53:5]. To take away our
condemnation, it was not enough for him to suffer any kind of death: to make
satisfaction for our redemption a form of death had to be chosen in which he
might free us both by transferring our condemnation to himself and by taking
our guilt upon himself. If he had been murdered by thieves or slain in an
insurrection by a raging mob, in such a death there would have been no evidence
of satisfaction. But when he was arraigned before the judgment seat as a
criminal, accused and pressed by testimony, and condemned by the mouth of the
judge to die—we know by these proofs that he took the role of a guilty man and
evildoer. Here we must note two things that had been foretold by the oracles of
the prophets, and which greatly comfort and confirm our faith. When we hear
that Christ was led from the judge’s seat to death, and hanged between thieves,
we possess the fulfillment of the prophecy to which the Evangelist referred:
“He was reckoned among the transgressors” [Mark 15:28, Vg.; cf. Isa. 53:12].
Why so? Surely that he might die in the place of the sinner, not of the
righteous or innocent man. For he suffered death not because of innocence but
because of sin. On the other hand, when we hear that he was acquitted by the
same lips that condemned him (for Pilate was more than once compelled to give
public testimony to his innocence [e.g., Matt. 27:23]), there should come to
mind the utterance of another prophet: that he repaid what he did not steal
[Ps. 69:4]. Thus we shall behold the person of a sinner and evildoer
represented in Christ, yet from his shining innocence it will at the same time
be obvious that he was burdened with another’s sin rather than his own. He
therefore suffered under Pontius Pilate, and by the governor’s official
sentence was reckoned among criminals. Yet not so—for he was declared righteous
by his judge at the same time, when Pilate affirmed that he “found no cause for
complaint in him” [John 18:38]. This is our acquittal: the guilt that held us
liable for punishment has been transferred to the head of the Son of God [Isa.
53:12]. We must, above all, remember this substitution, lest we tremble and
remain anxious throughout life—as if God’s righteous vengeance, which the Son
of God has taken upon himself, still hung over us (Institutes
2.16.5).” See also L. Berkhof, Systematic
Theology, 339-340; Z. Ursinus, Commentary
on the Heidelberg Catechism, 217-18.
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