Unfair!

John 19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ² The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe ³ and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face. ⁴ Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." ⁵ When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!" ⁶ As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!" But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him." ⁷ The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God." ⁸ When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, ⁹ and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ "Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" ¹¹ Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." ¹² From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar." ¹³ When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). ¹⁴ It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour. "Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews. ¹⁵ But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!" "Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked. "We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered. ¹⁶ Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.

In July of 2004, a jury in central Vermont found Isaac Turnbaugh not guilty of first-degree murder of his friend and co-worker, Declan Lyons. Police had no suspect in the murder until they were told how at a party, Turnbaugh had confessed to the murder in front of six friends.

The police, along with the prosecutor, believed that such a confession would almost certainly bring a conviction. They were wrong. Turnbaugh’s attorney brought the witnesses to the stand and asked them about his admission of guilt. They all agreed that Turnbaugh, under the influence of drugs, had admitted to the murder. But at the same time, he also claimed responsibility for bringing down the World Trade Center.

The jury declared Turnbaugh not guilty and he was released.

There was only one problem – Turnbaugh was guilty. Last July, he showed up at the police department and confessed to the murder. But, because of double jeopardy, he cannot be retried for the same crime. So the guilty is now free.

It seems so unfair! Almost as unfair as what happened at another trial – a trial that took place before the Roman governor early on a Friday morning in Jerusalem. Of course, the unfairness is the only thing these two trials have in common. In Turnbaugh’s case, the guilty had been allowed to live free. At Jesus’ trial, Pontius Pilate announced to the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against him,” yet Jesus was condemned to death. In Turnbaugh’s situation, the prosecutors believed he was guilty and was an unsympathetic murderer, yet at Jesus’ trial, Pilate tried to gain sympathy from the mob by having Jesus’ flogged. The jury in Turnbaugh’s trial felt he was not guilty because he was smoking pot, eating magic mushrooms and had a mental illness – that’s why he claimed to be responsible for 9/11. But Jesus had no delusions about being a king. He really was the King. That’s why He told Pilate, “You have no power over me except that which is given you.”

Jesus’ trial was unfair. Not unfair because the guilty was declared innocent. But because the innocent was declared guilty.

It was unfair that the Creator allowed His creatures to crucify Him. Unfair that the King does for His subjects. Unfair that the Son is treated not even as good as a common criminal. Unfair that the Holy One took upon Himself the sins of human flesh, so that He could die for ungrateful sinners. Unfair that the Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep who stray and His lambs who love to wander. Under that the Lamb’s perfect blood had to be shed for those who gladly and willingly shed blood.

The truly unfair part is that we, who are truly guilty, are declared innocent in Christ. It is apathy that caused Jesus to have His back torn apart by the flogging. It is your pride that pushed the crown of thorns into His head. It is your mocking tone toward your parents that caused the soldiers to mock Jesus as a king. It is your intentional disobedience that was a slap in Jesus’ face. It is your cowardice in the face of persecution that caused no one to step up to defend Jesus.

It was your sin, and mine, that put Jesus on Golgotha’s cross. Just as our first parents were driven out of the paradise of Eden because of their sin, so we have been driven out of the heavenly paradise because of our inborn sin; our actual sins; our sins of thoughts, words and actions; our sins of commission – the things we do wrong; our sins of omission – the things we fail to do right. Guilty as charged. Doomed. Condemned. Sentenced. Damned.

Even as the scourge bit deeply into His back, the thorns pierced His head, the nails tore through His hands and feet, the bitter vinegar touched His lips, each breath became more difficult to exhale, the spear pierced His side, so my sins did the same. And so did yours. They put Him through all this. So deeply does our sin separate us from a holy God that it is only possible that we might be forgiven if the holy Son of God would die. Peace with God would come by the Father pouring out His wrath upon His Son. Reconciliation with God would come only by the abandonment of the Son. Salvation with God would only come through the sacrifice of the Son. Peace, reconciliation and salvation. They are now ours. But at what a terrible price!

Jesus paid that price … for us … on this day. It is a day we Christians call “Good Friday.” For although the Son of God died on this day, for us and for our sins – and this should tear us up and tear us up – it is the day that changed the world forever. “Good” because Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). “Good” because Jesus fulfilled the promise given to our first parents to crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). He brought the gift of salvation to all people by His death on the tree of the cross, so that the devil, who overcame us by a tree, would in turn be overcome by a tree. Finally, after all millennia of sin and temptation, the head of the Evil One was under the heel of the Holy One of Israel.

The Man of Sorrows was despised and rejected by men. Men and women hid their faces from this beaten, bruised and bloodied man carrying His cross to Golgotha’s hill. The Suffering Servant was stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. He endured punishment so we might receive peace. It is by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53). Jesus came to offer the last and final sacrifice, to put away sin forever (Hebrews 9:26). It is with repentant and mournful hearts that we receive this salvation won for us. It is with joyful and peace-filled hearts that we receive this salvation won for us. For this is what makes this Friday “Good.”

As a result of that first Good Friday, we have peace with God – peace that transcends all human understanding (Philippians 4:7). God has poured out His cup of wrath into His Son and instead God has poured out His Son’s blood over us – the Lamb’s blood which washes over us, cleanses us and takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Now we know that there is no grief too deep, no hurt too painful, no sin too horrible, no guilt too enormous, that it is not covered by the blood of Christ flowing deep and red from Calvary’s cross.

A great exchange was made on that first Good Friday. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). A very unfair exchange, indeed! Jesus died our death and gave us His life. He suffered hell so we might receive heaven. He took our sins and gave us His Father’s love. He paid the ransom price so we might be set free.

Because of this unfair exchange, we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

There is no power on earth, no grief, no sickness, no pain, no loss, no hurt, no trouble … nothing, absolutely nothing that can pull us away from our God and what His Son did for us. Nothing. Not ever. You are loved by God. See His wondrous love hanging upon the cross.

What happened to Jesus was unfair – terribly unfair. Jesus’ trial and sacrifice were all part of the Lord’s plan to save us. As our heaven-sent Substitute, Jesus fulfilled the laws we have broken; He resisted the temptations we have fallen for; He carried the sins which condemned us; and He died the death which should have been ours.

It was unfair, terribly unfair, but Jesus willingly did all that was asked, all that was necessary, so that all might be fulfilled, and so all might be saved by believing in Him as their Savior. So that they might be forgiven and adopted into God’s family of faith.

Unfair? Yes! But it is an unfairness that turned out to be “Good.” Unfairness which causes you and me who are guilty, to be declared innocent. Unfairness which causes us to both shed tears of guilt and tears of relif on this day. Unfairness which causes us to be, quite literally, eternally grateful. Amen.