A Crucial Contradiction

Throughout church history, believers have faced resistance from two persistent rivals: traditional religion and secular government. These rivals have taken many different forms. In John 18:28-32, for instance, we find traditional religion in the form of orthodox Judaism, and we find secular government in the form of the Roman empire.

Throughout church history, believers have faced resistance from two persistent rivals: traditional religion and secular government.

This instance also demonstrates how these rivals tend to converge, even when they dislike one another. In this case, they converged to condemn and crucify Christ. From that point forward, both rivals (traditional religion and secular government in all their many forms and combinations) have persistently collaborated to suppress and exterminate Christians who follow the crucified Christ.To achieve their mutual goal of suppressing or eliminating Christ and his followers, both traditional religion and secular government often resort to corrupt political strategies and force. Though they hope to outsmart and overpower the influence of Christ in the world, they unwittingly play into the plan of God. God’s purpose triumphs despite religious and political corruption.

God’s purpose triumphs despite religious and political corruption.

The Jewish rabbis attempted to eliminate Jesus for religious reasons, and the Roman government attempted to pacify the masses for political reasons. At first glance, it appeared that Jesus would lose this brush with corruption and that his two-headed rival (and ours) would win; but John provides a different view.At second glance, we find that through this brush with religious and political corruption, God would work out his relentless plan of redemption. He would accomplish what he had set out to do from the beginning of time and creation. In the book called Revelation, John describes Jesus as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). This means that before God created anything in the material universe, he intended for Jesus to die as an innocent sacrifice for the guilt of our sins.Peter – who struggled through the trials of Jesus – affirmed this view in a later sermon to the Jewish people, “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death” (Acts 2:23). By saying this, he recognized the lawless and corrupt nature of the way that the Jewish people had colluded with the Roman government to crucify Jesus. Yet he also recognized that this insidious collusion accomplished what God had eternally purposed to occur – the sacrificial death of his Son in place of sinners like you and me. He repeated this view in a letter to Christians suffering for Christ: “With the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet 1:19-20).This outlook enables you to view the microscopic details of your day-to-day encounters with religious and political corruption through a macroscopic lens. It enables you to read a passage like this in a similar way, with a big picture perspective. What appears to be a tragedy or failure, then, turns out to be some progress and a very important detail in the massive, marvelous, and eternal plan of a loving, faithful, and sovereign God. Let’s look at this episode in the trials of Jesus from this perspective. As we do, you will notice a crucial contradiction.

They observed the Passover law carefully.

As the Jewish rabbis plotted to eradicate Jesus, they displayed a religious – yet hypocritical – sensitivity to their ceremonial laws.

They issued a formal religious sentence after daybreak.

When you read the way that John describes the trials of Jesus, you will notice that he focuses on three of them, not all six. For instance, he describes only one of the three religious trials before the Jews – the initial one before Annas (John 18:12-14, 19-23). Though he acknowledges that they sent him to Caiaphas for additional religious prosecution (John 18:24) and that they sent him away from Caiaphas for civil prosecution by the Roman government, he provides no further details.You can learn more about Christ’s appearance before Caiaphas from Matthew. He tells us that the official Jewish council (the Sanhedrin) convened that night at Caiaphas’s house (Matt 26:57-68) and decided that Jesus should die (Matt 26:66). Nevertheless, Jewish law forbade them from holding capital trials at night. Out of respect for this legality, they gathered again for a third trial after daybreak to announce a formal sentence against Jesus (Matt 27:1).

They refused to enter the Roman judgment hall.

Once the Sanhedrin had falsely and formally accused Jesus, they brought him to Pilate, a Roman procurator. He was responsible to maintain good relations with the Jewish people by preventing any rebellious uprisings and handling their civil complaints.When they arrived at Pilate’s headquarters (the Praetorium), they refused to enter the building out of concerns of ceremonial uncleanness (John 18:28). That is why John says that Pilate “went out to them” (John 18:29), then “entered the Praetorium again” (John 18:33), and then “went out again to the Jews” (John 18:38). This “back and forth” pattern of Pilate going “in and out” of the Praetorium continues into John 19.But how would entering Pilate’s headquarters cause them to touch a dead body? Jewish people commonly believed that Gentiles like the Romans aborted babies in their homes, then buried them in the house or placed them into their sewer system. Because of this belief, they hoped to avoid any contact with such behavior and claimed that entering the home of Gentile would make them unclean and unable to participate in Temple worship. Ironically, though the Jewish leaders showed fastidious sensitivity to their civil and ceremonial laws, contradicted the purpose of the Old Testament law that God intended. Rather than bring them to Christ (Gal 3:24), they observed it in a legalistic, hypocritical way that caused them to separate from Christ instead.

They handed over the Passover lamb unknowingly.

The centerpiece of the Jewish Passover feast was the sacrifice of an innocent lamb to depict the way that God would atone for sins. No animal sacrifice could ever remove the sins of any person, “for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Heb 10:4). Nevertheless, the innocent lambs would die because of the sins of those who killed it, even though the lambs themselves had never committed sin of any kind.At the beginning of his gospel, John tells us how John the Baptist announced the start of Jesus’ public ministry. This would be a theme that he develops throughout the book up through this point and beyond. He said, “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).Now here in John 18:28, we read that the Jewish leaders “led Jesus” to his eventual execution. It seems that John, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, used the word led deliberately. By describing the entourage of Jewish leaders leading Jesus to Pilate, he uses language that resembles the way that a Jewish head of house would lead an innocent lamb to be a Passover sacrifice. As the Old Testament Isaiah once prophesied about 700 years before, “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter” (Isa 53:7).

Despite the total innocence of Jesus, the Jewish religious leaders accused him of being an “evildoer.”

Despite the total innocence of Jesus, the Jewish religious leaders accused him of being an “evildoer.” This is a vague accusation because it provided no formal or specific charge. It merely accused him of being a criminal in a general sense, of being a person who “does bad things.” Now we know that the opposite was true about Jesus – he had never done anything bad, evil, or criminal. As Peter would later remind us, “He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Pet 2:22).Nevertheless, Paul explains what happened to Jesus when he offered up his life as our atoning sacrifice for sin: “He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus stepped into the category of “guilty” so that you and I could step into the category of “innocent.” He exchanged his perfect righteousness and innocence for our sinfulness and evil, and the Jewish leaders unknowingly aided this cause through their attempts to ruin him.

They fulfilled prophecy unintentionally.

As they had already done before, the Jewish leaders did more than hand over the Passover lamb for his climactic sacrificial death (John 18:8-9; cf. 6:39, 17:12). Without knowing, they fulfilled divine prophecy in the process.

They fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus.

Throughout this gospel record, John repeatedly mentioned something Jesus said about the manner of his death. Consider the following three instances:

• “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14).
• “Jesus said to them, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he” (John 8:28).
• “I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself” (John 12:32).

When Jesus said that he would be “lifted up,” what did he mean? He was not describing something that you or I do when we talk about Jesus, witness for Jesus, and draw attention to Jesus – though these are all good things to do. He was describing the mode of his death. We know this because John tells us that Jesus gave this reason himself. “This he said, signifying by what death he would die” (John 12:33).

By persuading Rome to exterminate Jesus for them, they were fulfilling the repeated prophecy which Jesus had given.

This is noteworthy because if the Jews had executed Jesus for blasphemy, for claiming to be equal to God, then they would have thrown him down to stone him. They would do this later to Stephen, the first martyr for Christ (Acts 7:58-60). But Jesus said that he would die by being lifted up, not by being thrown down. To die by being “lifted up” required a death by crucifixion, which happened to be the way that Romans executed criminals. Little did the Jewish leaders know that by persuading Rome to exterminate Jesus for them, they were fulfilling the repeated prophecy which Jesus had given. Once again, we see that God’s purpose triumphs despite religious and political corruption.

They may have also fulfilled Old Testament prophecy.

Though the actions of the Jewish rabbis directly fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus regarding the mode of his death, they may also have fulfilled Old Testament prophecy as well. According to the law of Moses, God considered anyone to be cursed, abhorrent, repulsive, and shameful who was hung upon a tree. Moses said, “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree [or wood], his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God” (Deut 21:22-23).Technically, this law does not refer to death by crucifixion. It refers instead to someone who had first been executed for a crime, but whose body was hoisted up for public display on a wooden cross or stake. (Jewish people did not execute criminals by crucifixion.) Non-Jewish cultures followed this practice of hanging the dead bodies of criminals to cause people who would see the dead body to fear committing the same crime themselves. The Mosaic law instructed the Jewish people to follow this practice carefully, if at all.While other cultures may have displayed such corpses indefinitely, God required the Jewish nation to remove such displays before sundown. Why? Because the Jewish people understood the true nature of death and a lifeless corpse. Death was the curse of God and to make such a spectacle of an accursed body would have corrupting effects on the nation. It would also dishonor God, since he created our bodies to glorify him. For that reason, God required them to remove the body quickly, burying it away from sight.

To become our substitute for sin, Jesus had to subject himself to the curse of the law in our place.

When Jesus died on the cross and his lifeless corpse remained in public view for all to see, his very body – which had never committed sin of any kind and had never felt the evil impulses of a sinful nature – became exposed to the shameful curse of the law in your place. Paul refers to this himself when he said, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’)” (Gal 3:13). To become our substitute for sin, Jesus had to subject himself to the curse of the law in our place. Remarkably, the evil intentions of the Jewish rabbis and the cruel form of execution practiced by the Roman government aligned in the death of Jesus in an important theological way. And once again, God’s purpose triumphed despite religious and political corruption.

Final Thoughts

To this day, those who have believed on Jesus as Lord and Savior continue to experience pressure and persecution from various forms of traditional religion and secular government. Ultimately, these rivals are directing their opposition against Christ, yet because we have believed on him, identified with him, and follow his teaching, we receive the opposition that is directed at him.When we look back at the opposition that Jesus experienced, we find that no matter how corrupt and clever his adversaries behaved, they remained subject to the sovereign plan and purposes of God. Jesus himself displayed complete authority and control over his own betrayal and arrest and over all his trials, whether religious (before the Jews) or civil (before the Romans). From this we gain courage to continue following Jesus, even when we experience corrupt treatment of our own.

We gain courage to continue following Jesus, even when we experience corrupt treatment of our own.

We also learn that whatever religious or political corruption we may witness or experience today, in our modern world, we know that God remains in full control. When we zoom in to the day-to-day headlines and our own experiences of suffering, it may appear that corrupt religion and politics are triumphing over Christ, but they are not. We need to learn how to zoom out from our day-to-day minutiae to see the grand and marvelous plan which God is working out in history for his eternal glory. In fact, the book of Revelation, which John also wrote, expands this “big picture” perspective in a vivid and prophetic way.

We know that God’s plan for your life is not falling apart at all. It is falling into place.

As Paul appropriately said, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). Just as with the betrayal, arrest, and trials of Jesus, so it may seem to be for you today – that the further you go in following Jesus, the more you feel that the pieces of your life are falling apart. But when you look at your life from the lens of God’s eternal plan and sovereign purpose, you know that just the opposite is true. Just as in the final hours before Christ’s crucifixion (and indeed, because of his crucifixion!), we know that God’s plan for your life is not falling apart at all. It is falling into place.