In this thought-provoking discussion, Clint Loveall and Michael Gewecke delve into the final snapshot of the sentencing of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. They explore the multiple layers of the narrative, including the role of the crowd, the decision-making of Pilate, and the significance of the character Barabbas. Join them as they analyze the themes of power dynamics, religious opposition, and the inversion of justice in this pivotal moment.
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Transcript
00:00:00:19 – 00:00:27:03
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for closing out the week with us as we continue through the Gospel of Luke. Today, we’re in the 13th verse of chapter 23. This is Luke’s final snapshot of the sentencing of Jesus. Just a quick review since we weren’t together yesterday. Jesus has been before the Council. He’s been before pilot. He’s been before Herod. Herod has sent him back to Pilot.
00:00:27:03 – 00:00:50:15
Clint Loveall
And this is the culmination of that narrative. So let me read it for you. It’s a little bit longer, but I think it makes sense to deal with it all at once, and then we’ll come back and talk our way through it. Pilot then called together the chief priests, the leaders and the people and said to them, You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people.
00:00:50:20 – 00:01:11:15
Clint Loveall
And here I have examined him in your presence, and I’ve not found this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither has Herod. He sent him back to us. Indeed. He’s done nothing to deserve death. I will therefore have him flogged and release him. They all shouted out together, then away with this fellow wreath release Barabbas for us.
00:01:11:20 – 00:01:33:42
Clint Loveall
This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city and for murder Pilot wanting to release Jesus, address them again. But they kept shouting, Crucify him, crucify him. A third time he said to them, Why? What evil has he done? I found in him no ground for the sentence of death.
00:01:33:46 – 00:02:00:58
Clint Loveall
I will therefore have him flogged and release him. But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified and their voices prevailed. So Pilot gave his verdict. And there that their demands should be met. He released the man they asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder. And he handed Jesus over as they wished.
00:02:01:03 – 00:02:30:18
Clint Loveall
There is a lot happening in this passage. Let’s start with the crowd. Perhaps that’s in some ways the cleanest, the cleanest character in the story. The priests, the chief priests, they interact with pilot in such a way that they make it clear that there’s no other acceptable end to this for them except the crucifixion of Jesus. When pilot says I release him.
00:02:30:28 – 00:02:59:25
Clint Loveall
Interesting. In other tellings of this, there’s pilot refers to an old custom here. Luke doesn’t he gives us the shorthand version of that. And the people again, though, as they do in the other story, choose Barabbas. And as pilot tries to get Jesus released, they they increasingly refuse more and more aggressively, more and more passionately until pilot finally relents.
00:02:59:25 – 00:03:28:01
Clint Loveall
And so this is Luke’s way, I think, of making clear we we alluded to this earlier in the week that it is these chief priests, it is the crowd here. It is this group of men who have engineered this that are making sure it goes this way in in this, telling the blame for this really lands squarely on those religious leaders.
00:03:28:03 – 00:03:32:22
Clint Loveall
They are the engineers of it and they’re bringing it to pass.
00:03:32:27 – 00:03:58:15
Michael Gewecke
So there’s so many layers to a story like this, Clint. And I think we have to kind of go layer by layer. I think the first layer is the thing that we’re introduced to immediately off of the start. And so maybe it’s worth taking a look at that right here in the first verse, the address of the text, we have verse 13, the pilots calling together, the chief priests, the leaders, and then we have the people.
00:03:58:15 – 00:04:39:48
Michael Gewecke
And we might not have this in our translation, but one of the commentators on this passage makes the note that the word that we have translated to your people is only used throughout the Gospel to reference those people who are in opposition to Jesus, the religious leaders, the the crowd who’s angry at him. So here Luke then in writing, is able to distinguish between the crowd that gathers who are for Jesus, the people who welcomed him into the city, even the people who are on some level have been following him and learning, and then the people who are resolutely set against him.
00:04:39:48 – 00:05:06:28
Michael Gewecke
And so this idea that the people set against Jesus are the same cast of characters who have been there all along. These are the people whose power are threatened. These are the people who have been offended by Jesus’s teaching. And and this idea that it’s the chief priests, the leaders, and then those people who are in opposition to Jesus, who are now the ones who are stepping up to see the action done, and that we said this already in the previous study.
00:05:06:28 – 00:05:38:39
Michael Gewecke
But as we continue on this study throughout Luke together, let’s remember that ultimately it’s the Gentile or the religious leaders who are the most receptive to Jesus. Herod doesn’t bring a particular charge against Jesus. In fact, Jesus doesn’t say anything to Herod. And then here, when Jesus is brought back to pilot, we’re told almost immediately in verse 15 here that Herod didn’t make any charges and he sent him back to pilot.
00:05:38:43 – 00:06:15:16
Michael Gewecke
And then in these very clear words, Jesus has not done nothing to deserve death. We see an amazing kind of distinction happening here. The distinction between those who, for religious reasons, are upset with Jesus or for power reasons, and then the world, the worldly leaders who do not experience the same threat. So there’s this kind of inverted thing happening in the story where the person who you think would be upset would be the one who in this case is not, and the people who are generally the ones advocating for peace or for resolution.
00:06:15:16 – 00:06:38:55
Michael Gewecke
These are the ones calling for Jesus to be killed. And and there’s more layers deeper than that. But I just think it’s worth noting that Luke wants us to be abundantly clear upon who the active characters in the story are. And that’s not a surprise. If you’ve been with us with the whole study, this cast of characters got along the whole way, but they remain called out and explicit in this text.
00:06:39:00 – 00:07:11:55
Clint Loveall
Well, Luke goes so far there in verse 20 to say that pilot wants to release Jesus. And the next layer of that story, I do think involves pilot. And here is a man who’s in authority and yet is ultimately persuaded by keeping the peace, or at least keeping those who are loud and aggressive, happy. Now, he does live under the danger, I suppose, of a revolt in a time like Passover.
00:07:12:00 – 00:07:42:02
Clint Loveall
Jerusalem is full of Jewish people and many of them have strong anti Roman sentiments. And maybe this is some sense of just keeping the peace for pilot. But though he clearly sees no reason to have Jesus executed and in fact actively tries to avoid that ultimately gives in because of their urgent demanding with loud shouts and their voices prevailed.
00:07:42:07 – 00:08:13:26
Clint Loveall
And and again, is that a sign of pilot? It’s weakness, maybe. It certainly could be. I think the scripture is not going to let pilot off the hook ultimately for for his part in this drama. But in Luke particularly, I think, as you’ve said, Michael, the blame lands squarely in one place, and that’s on the Jewish leaders. That’s not a judgment against all Jewish people.
00:08:13:40 – 00:08:39:01
Clint Loveall
It’s not a judgment against all Jewish leaders. It is to say that Jesus as a Jew, as the Jewish Messiah, as the one who is coming for God’s people, is rejected and is ultimately led to his death by the active work of those very same people. And what the Romans have to do with it is not of particular importance in the gospel story.
00:08:39:01 – 00:09:03:37
Clint Loveall
And so Luke doesn’t spend much time there, nor really do the other gospels there. There’s some interesting exchanges between Jesus and pilot in the other gospels. But for Luke, that just distracts from the point that it is Jesus own who are turning against him. And yes, they’re using pilot to do it and maybe pilot gives in when he didn’t need to and maybe pilots week and you can criticize him for that.
00:09:03:52 – 00:09:23:39
Clint Loveall
But but I don’t think those are the questions Luke is asking, nor do I think those are the questions that Luke is putting before his readers. This is this is about Jesus and the rejection of Jesus by the very people who should know better and should know who He is.
00:09:23:43 – 00:09:50:47
Michael Gewecke
There’s also larger textual reasons, I think, for us too, to see that there are differences. It’s like, remember that this is part one. Part two is going to talk about in the Book of Acts. It’s going to talk about how the church grows and the church grows within a Roman context. It grows. In fact, Paul’s story actually literally coincides with at one point protection by the Roman military from those who are out to kill him.
00:09:50:47 – 00:10:33:58
Michael Gewecke
And so the story is intimately woven, not just Jesus’s story in this moment before pilot who represents Rome, but the church and the early church will live out its life on the platform of Rome’s empire. And I think the fact that in the Book of Luke, what we have here, this language, I want to pull this up for you and this language here that we have translated, flogged, this is the only gospel translation that uses this word as opposed to the more brutal word of Jesus actually being what is not beaten, the more technical word for that scourging.
00:10:34:03 – 00:11:01:21
Michael Gewecke
And so I think like that that matters. And I think we should be aware of it, that at the end of the day, Jesus is here treated fairly or as fairly as pilot could from the start. And then he’s moved by the crowd. And I think that kind of larger textual context matters, because what it reminds us is that the earliest church wasn’t out to make enemies of of the places where they were.
00:11:01:30 – 00:11:29:11
Michael Gewecke
They weren’t out to cast people in a harsh light. But Luke here is trying to tell the story of how Jesus, the Son of God, ends up killed by crucifixion. And as we make our way forward into the story, I think I just want to point out for us that the call to crucifixion is a form of death penalty, which is reserved for slaves, and it’s reserved for the most despised enemies of Rome.
00:11:29:11 – 00:11:56:01
Michael Gewecke
It’s not a common occurrence to be leveled against just a person who’s been called up by religious leaders and made some people angry. In fact, the word that we have listed here in verse 19 insurrection, that’s the kind of word that generally proceeded down the road really quickly. I mean, once that got rolling, Rome would be pretty upset because insurrection stands against the political military power of Rome.
00:11:56:06 – 00:12:18:12
Michael Gewecke
And and so there’s just an interesting twist in this story that on one hand, the crowd wants to up the punishment ante as high as it can go, while simultaneously is Luke is letting us know. Yeah, the person that they’re calling to be released is the kind of person who would even be considered for that punishment in the first place.
00:12:18:12 – 00:12:31:25
Michael Gewecke
And that irony is intentional. It’s put is really, I think, showing us how difficult of a spot that the pilots being put into by the crowd that’s gathered this day.
00:12:31:30 – 00:12:55:58
Clint Loveall
So we can then look at that layer, this this character Barabas, that we don’t know a great deal about except in the few details we’re told in the narratives, is that he is guilty of murder or charged of murder and was put in prison for being an insurrectionist, which interestingly enough, there were many ways to be put to death in Rome.
00:12:55:58 – 00:13:19:24
Clint Loveall
And to get yourself on a cross was generally because you had been charged with sedition, revolt or insurrection. You had, In other words, acted against the government, you had acted against Rome. If you had just done some other things, you might be taken to the Colosseum. You might be sold into slavery, you might have some other death penalty.
00:13:19:37 – 00:14:05:20
Clint Loveall
But the cross and specifically the public ness of the cross, they were on display as a way of saying, this is what happens when you go against Rome. And so what does that mean here in the context of the story? It means that this man, Barabas, really is an enemy of Rome and has really done murder, which both pilot and the Jewish religious people should care about, because he’s far more dangerous in regards to the kind of trouble that he could make than Jesus is a Jesus who has done neither of those things, is replaced, takes his place, and is then destined for the cross.
00:14:05:20 – 00:14:35:30
Clint Loveall
The punishment for being one who creates or participates in an insurrection. The Roman government doesn’t have a great concern over Jewish religious squabbles as long as they don’t spill into the public peace, as long as they don’t create harm, as long as they don’t foster anti Roman sentiment or action, they really could care less that they don’t like Jesus or Jesus doesn’t like.
00:14:35:34 – 00:15:13:48
Clint Loveall
They’re just not worried about that. But in this move, we see Jesus moving to a place, taking a role in which he is now judged by both the empire and the religion as guilty and pilot backs into that, maybe, so to speak, but that’s still where we end up. So Barabas goes free and Jesus is sentenced and you know, the innocent is found guilty, the guilty is released.
00:15:13:53 – 00:15:21:06
Clint Loveall
And and that is Luke’s way of saying everything about this story is essentially upside down.
00:15:21:10 – 00:15:53:15
Michael Gewecke
The wording here is particularly stark, maybe even foreboding. Verse 23, they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that Jesus be crucified and their voices prevailed. You know, at the end of the day, Pilote had to make a calculus. And I think maybe Luke helps us see that in a way, particularly with him kicking Jesus over to Herod. You can see that as an effort to try to let the problem handle itself.
00:15:53:20 – 00:16:23:55
Michael Gewecke
When Jesus comes back, pilot takes that sort of next step of attempting to say, Hey, we’re going to rough Jesus up, we’re going to hurt him, we’re going to make him miserable, and then we’re going to send him on his way, a way of saying we’re going to do something and then hoping that that just blows over. And at the point at which we have once again these loud shouts, these urgent demands, it’s at that moment where pilot has to make a decision.
00:16:24:00 – 00:16:57:18
Michael Gewecke
Is he going to make these religious leaders angry? Is he going to call in the problems that are going to follow that kind of choice, or is he just going to give in and allow it to happen? And of course, we see that listed explicitly. Verse 24, he gives the verdict. Their demands should be granted. And and like you said, Clint, they let go the insurrectionists and then they turn Jesus over to his execution, to the demands of those very loud being met.
00:16:57:23 – 00:17:28:30
Michael Gewecke
And and ultimately then the people who have been pursuing Jesus’s entire career now can see those ends fulfilled. And I think it’s something striking. There’s almost a paired moment here, as in the beginning of this gospel, when Jesus goes to his home sanctuary, to his home community, He preaches the word there, He angers the crowd, and they carry him out to a hill to to get rid of him.
00:17:28:30 – 00:17:53:05
Michael Gewecke
On the charge of heresy here. Now, it is not the people who have the power to kill Jesus, but pilot. And it is the people, the urgent demands and their pleading and their crying and their political pushing. They have now convinced the the Roman ruler that this is the path to take. And ultimately then they’re going to this time succeed.
00:17:53:05 – 00:18:30:33
Michael Gewecke
And I think that Luke has told the story in such a way that we can see the bookends of that. We can see how the power has shifted from that that first day until the last day. And we can kind of understand that though Jesus is equally in charge in both of those bookends in this case, ultimately, he’s going to submit to the decision of pilot, which we should we should read, ironically in the text, the idea that pilot is giving his, quote unquote, verdict, the idea that the Son of God in front of him is allowing him to make that verse, that shouldn’t be lost on us.
00:18:30:37 – 00:18:34:36
Michael Gewecke
And then ultimately God’s plan will proceed from there.
00:18:34:40 – 00:19:06:36
Clint Loveall
Yeah, remember, it wasn’t that long ago that we saw that these religious leaders wanted to harm Jesus, but they were afraid of the crowds. And now by enlisting pilot, by getting pilot involved in this, the scheme, they’ve essentially protected themselves. They’re demanding that pilot do something. And pilot has no fear of the crowds. Pilot isn’t worried. And and they get to do this from the pilots in the driver’s seat, but they’re kind of steering the car.
00:19:06:41 – 00:19:33:22
Clint Loveall
They’re engineering this, making it happen. And yet now they’re not taking the risk of of whatever that might have been that we saw, even just a chapter or so ago, that they were afraid of the people they have maneuvered and they believe they’ve outmaneuvered Jesus. I don’t think that’s a fair way to say it from our perspective, because Jesus knew it was heading this way.
00:19:33:27 – 00:19:36:29
Clint Loveall
But that’s what they believe has happened.
00:19:36:34 – 00:20:05:11
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, And I only want to point out that no, this that Jesus has won every time that it it fell to the rhetoric or to the argument that every time Jesus, when brought questions or traps, he’s responded in a way that disarmed his opponents. No this that the one place for his opponents have success this shouldn’t be lost on us is in their pursuit of the power of the world.
00:20:05:11 – 00:20:38:20
Michael Gewecke
When they circle around Jesus and they circle around the faith and they circle around the law and the conversation changes from what is right in God’s eyes to instead how can we leverage Rome’s fears or pilots convenience. It’s when they get to that level that they find success. And I don’t think that’s an accident that that’s pointed out that ultimately they’re only able to succeed when they turn to the the self-centered ness or the shallowness of the world.
00:20:38:20 – 00:20:46:52
Michael Gewecke
They can’t beat Jesus at the merit of the law or the faith or the tradition. So they have to find external means.
00:20:46:57 – 00:21:23:19
Clint Loveall
We will have some other opportunities, I think, early next week to have this conversation. But though Jesus is not perhaps where he wants to be in this moment, he is where he believes that he is supposed to be needs to be, that this is Jesus will. And I think maybe other gospels are slightly more explicit about that. But it’s it’s clear throughout all of the gospel stories, this Jesus has not been the victim here.
00:21:23:24 – 00:21:56:49
Clint Loveall
There is violence against him. There’s dishonest scheming, there is political maneuvering. He does stand as the recipient of all of those negative and even sinful acts. But he is not where he is by accident, nor by by being outmaneuvered or out schemed or bad luck or anything else. Jesus is where he needs to be and where he wants to be in the sense of following God’s will.
00:21:56:54 – 00:22:26:48
Clint Loveall
You know, we saw in the garden He he would have liked to had another path, but he said, you know that my your will not my will be done. And so Jesus is where he intends himself to be in this moment. And I think that’s an important reminder. It is. Jesus is a if we can call Jesus a victim, he is a willing victim from that perspective.
00:22:26:52 – 00:22:54:29
Michael Gewecke
I realize that we’re going long here, so I’ll be very brief. But I just think one other thing to note, as we’ll transition next week to the crucifixion story, just claim up to this point, Luke has been very, very muted in conversations about physical violence to Jesus. It’s been in there, there’s been mocking, there’s been but are other gospel writers, I think emphasize that aspect of this process to a higher degree.
00:22:54:34 – 00:23:17:36
Michael Gewecke
And in doing so, I think Luke is able to keep the focus of this story on that point, on what Jesus is allowing, and also the fact that Jesus is about his mission. This isn’t about what other people are doing to him. This is about what Jesus has set his face to do. Now, that’s to say that the other gospel writers help us see a fuller picture of this event.
00:23:17:36 – 00:23:29:36
Michael Gewecke
But I just think it’s worth noting that different gospels emphasize different things, and this particular gospel doesn’t spend a substantial amount of time talking about some of those aspects of the process.
00:23:29:40 – 00:23:53:18
Clint Loveall
Yeah, in some ways I think Luke’s sticks click clearer, closer to the bare bones of the story. There’s an interesting exception to that that will run away, will run into right away next week, where Luke gives us the detail that nobody else seems to. But for the most part, I think you’re right, Michael. I think that Luke doesn’t get far from the main thrust of the story.
00:23:53:18 – 00:24:10:28
Clint Loveall
So we don’t have long conversations between Jesus and the pilot. We don’t have a pilot’s wife having a dream. We don’t have the all the maneuvering of the chief priest, Luke doesn’t get distracted by those and just focuses kind of on the main thrust of the story. I think that’s I think that’s fair. I think that’s well said.
00:24:10:28 – 00:24:33:27
Michael Gewecke
We’re going to continue on with this story. Hope that you will join us. If this video like there’s been something of interest or if you learn something from it, and also subscribe to this channel here on YouTube, if that’s where you’re with us, or of course you can find the audio podcast link in the description. Friends, we hope that you’ll stick with us as we go through the story because Luke will lead us along this journey in a way that’s powerful and we look forward to seeing you next week.
00:24:33:30 – 00:24:34:12
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.