Legally Correct, Morally Bankrupt
Jesus just doesn't get into it. He's showing us something else.
The different factions with overlapping powers in first-century Roman-occupied Judea are hard to compare to modern structures. There were civic rulers, like Herod, who governed under Roman oversight, and religious leaders, like the chief priests and the Sanhedrin, who had their own systems of law and enforcement. But Rome held ultimate authority—especially when it came to executions.
We see all of this playing out in the way Jesus is handed off, again and again, between authorities. It’s a bit of a mess, isn’t it?
But the heart of today’s passage is that the religious leaders have finally said out loud that they want Jesus dead.
We’ll watch this passing off of the Human One, back-and-forth, and the “responsibility” of putting him to death. The religious leaders say he needs to die, but they can’t do it. They are legally and technically correct. But we’ve also see that there may be vigilante movements to see someone to death, like the woman caught in adultery in John 8. The religious leaders are really working the system here.
Isn’t it just like that? When humans get all fussy into laws they’ve created themselves, it gets messy and complex beyond simple reason. Scripture points this out in many ways and places. Yahweh warns Israel that they don’t really want human kings in I Samuel. The wisdom literature, Ecclesiastes in particular, laments such human efforts to govern and be governed. The psalms mock it all (like today’s).
It’s not that God wants chaos. It’s that the end result of humans trying to institutionalize ourselves is that…we become institutionalized. The more we try to institutionalize power, the more it institutionalizes us. Paralyzed to the point that whoever has power in the moment requiring decision-making has to twist things in such a way that they of course would favor themselves.
Jesus displays something different. Indeed in his trials in John, he’s quite silent. He’ll speak up to Pilate here in a bit, but he has no desire or effort to get into the weeds of human politicking and governance.
…even to the point of his own death.
This is a difficult aspect of the story. But we cannot ignore it.
John 18:28-32
The Jewish leaders led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s palace. It was early in the morning. So that they could eat the Passover, the Jewish leaders wouldn’t enter the palace; entering the palace would have made them ritually impure.
So Pilate went out to them and asked, “What charge do you bring against this man?”
They answered, “If he had done nothing wrong, we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.”
Pilate responded, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your Law.”
The Jewish leaders replied, “The Law doesn’t allow us to kill anyone.” (This was so that Jesus’ word might be fulfilled when he indicated how he was going to die.)
Psalm 2:1-4
Why do the nations rant? Why do the peoples rave uselessly?
The earth’s rulers take their stand; the leaders scheme together against the Lord and against his anointed one.
“Come!” they say. “We will tear off their ropes and throw off their chains!”
The one who rules in heaven laughs; my Lord makes fun of them.
Prayer1
God,
Foolish we are, believing that we can rule ourselves by selecting this or that person or faction to rule over us. Help us not to think it more significant than it is, but also give us and those we elect enough wisdom to acknowledge our follies. We desire to dominate and thus are dominated. Free us, dear Lord, for otherwise we perish.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
Adapted from Stanley Hauerwas, Prayers Plainly Spoken.
It IS difficult