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Show JESUS SENTENCED TO DEATH Tntcnuitional Sunday School Lesson for June 15th, 104!) Memory Selection "Christ . . . when he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten." I Peter 2:21,2.'. , Lesson Text John 10:1-10. The student will notice that, ; while we have been studying the Gospel of Mark since the first . of the year, the account of the) trial and sentencing to death of Jesus is taken from the Gospel of John, because the Apostle John gives a more detailed account, ac-count, having been present for some, if not all, of the proceedings, proceed-ings, probably being the disciple dis-ciple "who stood afar off." Immediately after the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Geth-semane, Geth-semane, he was hurried before a group of Sandherists who had been hastily summoned together by the chief priest. Since a formal trial could not be held at night, under Jewish law, all that could be done was to hold a preliminary pre-liminary investigation, the object ob-ject of which was. to see what charges could be laid against the prisoner and to determine the procedure to be' followed in order that those charges might be pressed against him. Although they had Jesus in their power, it was not at all easy for them to decide what to do with him. They knew, of course, that he must die but they also knew that there must be charges brought against him which would make him guilty of death and that these charges would have to be proved so that the Roman governor would pronounce pro-nounce the sentence of death upon him. Then, there were the people to take into consideration. It being the time of the celebration celebra-tion of the Passover, Jerusalem was filled with religious pilgrims pil-grims from all over Palestine and among them were the Galileans Gali-leans and these Galileans were proud of this prophet of theirs. True, Judas had told them that this Jesus had claimed to be the long-promised Messiah of the Jews and while this claim had not been made public in so many words, Jesus had acted with all the authority of the Lord's Anointed, one of the chief reasons why the Saddu-cees Saddu-cees had determined to get ridj of him. To have Jesus condemned to death on the ground that he had claimed to be the Messiah might be dangerous. Therefore, they must have him sentenced on a ground which would condemn him in the eyes of the people. They decided to bring charges against him of having assailed the temple, which, in the minds of the people, was blasphemy indeed. Didn't he predict that the beloved edifice would soon be destroyed? They seized upon this prophecy, twisted it and secured two false witnesses who would testify that Jesus had claimed that he could destroy the temple and, in three days, build it again. Realizing that they could not take Jesus before Pilate on a charge of blasphemy, they trumped up a political charge, that he claimed to be the King of the Jews. Pilate was in a difficult position posi-tion for a politician. He was not a bad man, nor an immoral one, but he was a politician, having hav-ing to keep the Jews satisfied, on the one hand, and Rome satisfied sat-isfied on the other. Therefore, he found himself in the position of being unable to take sides in this matter. If he refused to condemn this prisoner, whom he knew to be really innocent of the charges brought against him, he would infuriate the ruling rul-ing class of the Jews. If this brought about a rebellion, then he would be in disfavor with Caesar, in Rome. Wanting to do right, but weakly submitting to the wrong, Pilate played politics pol-itics with the life of Jesus, keeping keep-ing his office but crucifying his Savior. So, in the end, theSadducees had their way. Led by them, the crowds shouted: "Crucify him, crucify him!" And when Pilate asked them, "Shall I crucify cru-cify your King?" the chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." Then, John tells us, "Therefore, he delivered deliv-ered him unto them to be crucified." cru-cified." Henry Ward Beecher aptly ' reminds us, "He who goes about mourning and saying 'It is too bad, but I can do nothing to prevent pre-vent it,' he is a Pilate." |