Read Luke 23
On February 27, 2015, Boris Nemtsov was another critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin found shot to death in Moscow. Although the Kremlin has denied any involvement, a growing number of journalists, aid workers, and political opponents have been arrested or assassinated in Russia. Nemtsov had spoken publicly about corruption within the government and had been preparing a paper documenting the experiences of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
When corrupt political leaders want either to seize power or to protect it, they consider the strategy of assassination. We see this in our reading today. Though the Jewish religious leaders wanted Jesus dead, they had to make a political case for His execution. They had to prove that Jesus wasn’t just a religious problem that threatened their regime of temple worship. They needed to paint Jesus as an insurrectionist and a threat to Roman rule. He had to be portrayed as a self-appointed candidate for king, who refused to bow the knee to Caesar.
And they were right, of course, about the radical nature of the message that Jesus preached. When Jesus announced the coming of a new kingdom, He wasn’t simply speaking about how people get to heaven when they die (although this is important). He was proclaiming a transfer of power. He was saying that He deserved worship and allegiance—not Caesar.
Even though Jesus is the rightful King, He allowed an egregious miscarriage of justice on the day He surrendered to have His name taunted and His body subjected to beatings. It was not justice that prevailed on Good Friday; it was the shouts of the people. It was the voice of the crowds, whose shouts of praise days earlier had become death threats: “Crucify him!” (v. 20).
APPLY THE WORD
We are nearly a week past Good Friday, but this reading should cause us to reflect with soberness on the terrible price that Jesus paid to redeem us. Are we like the crowds, demanding our own way? Like Herod and Pilate who choose expediency over truth? Or like the women who remain faithful to following Jesus?
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