We are now going to meditate on chapter 23. “The whole multitude of them arose, and led Him unto Pilate.” With what skillfulness did they adapt themselves to the moment! When He was before the Jews, they brought a charge of making Himself the Son of God. Before the Roman governor, they bring a charge of making Himself a King. He had a right to both of these titles. Both these claims were brought and challenged in a human court. Thus everything has been gainsaid and everything will be vindicated. We see Him standing as challenged before man; we find Him by—and—by vindicated before God.
Now when Pilate revives the question, “Art Thou the King of the Jews?” He answers, “Thou sayest it.” It is a beautiful thing for you to carry conscious glory in a hidden shape. He avowed Himself a King when He was asked. It was a glory He constantly carried, but was constantly hiding. We should be conscious of dignities that would outshine the glories of the world; but we find the world in such a moral condition that we cannot display them. That was the life Jesus. He was consciously a vessel of glory, but morally under the necessity of hiding it.
How instructive it is to see the laborings of different states of souls! Nothing can be more striking than the story of Pilate. He had no enmity against Christ. He would have discharged Him if he could at the same time have preserved his character in the world.
The Jews' conduct was a mere carnal enmity against God. In Pilate you see the victorious struggle that the world makes in the conscience. Now, Pilate naturally wished to rid himself of an uneasy conscience. So, when he “heard of Galilee,” he thought it was a little door of escape, and at once he took advantage of it. Ah, it will not do to get out by back doors. The subtlety of the human heart in wickedness seeks them.
So Pilate sent Him to Herod, and we find that, before Herod, He never uttered a word. Herod was unmixedly wicked. He did answer Pilate, because there was no enmity in his heart. He answered Caiaphas for the oath of God's sake, by which he adjured Him (Matt. 26:6363But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. (Matthew 26:63)); but as for Herod, He has not a word for him. He passes from before him without opening His mouth. It is a terrible thing for God to be silent. It is better that He should be speaking to us by chastenings “Be not silent to me: lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit” (Psa. 28:11<<A Psalm of David.>> Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. (Psalm 28:1)). The silence of God is as if you put a man into a pit. “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone” (Hos. 4:1717Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. (Hosea 4:17)). The intercourse between Herod and the Lord illustrates this. “And Herod... sent Him again to Pilate.”
“For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.” We are entering on a moral moment of great solemnity. Why must he release one at the Passover? There is no direct commentary on it, but my own thought about it is that they claimed from the Roman governor a sign of the dignity that attached to this feast — when the Lord of heaven and earth made a great deliverance for them. And in order to keep up the memorial of it they demanded that one should be delivered to them. The Passover was a memorial of the ancient dignity of the nation. We like some little relic of bygone dignities. Now at that time it so happened that there was a murderer in prison — one “who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.” You could not go lower in moral acting than that. Now the question arises, Will they choose such a man as that, or the Prince of Life? We find Peter in the opening of Acts making much of that. What does it tell us? It is the deep, full sifting of the heart of man, and it tells me that the heart of man in Luke 23 is exactly what it was in Genesis 3. Man in Genesis 3 preferred the lie of the serpent to the truth of God. Man here preferred a murderer to the Prince of Life! and if you do not think you are a full—grown Adam, you are deceiving yourself. I see the Jew of Luke 22 practicing the Adam of Genesis 3. The God of grace, the God of life, the God of glory, given up for the serpent. A murderer was preferred, for “he was a murderer from the beginning.” So it was here.
So Pilate “said unto them the third time, 'Why, what evil hath He done?” Still struggling! Those battles are not settled in a moment. Conscience loves ease too well to yield in moment. Pilate is in a field of battle till he is conquered. In this wondrous Volume we get man exposed and God revealed — man shown to be an incurable moral ruin — God revealed as a repairer of every breach. And He will go on repairing till He turns the howling of creation into the praises of creation. He begins with the conscience. If the conscience is not restored, it is nothing to you to see creation restored; but He begins where we want Him to begin. Have I any reason to doubt that if, as a sinner, my conscience is given to howl, He can give it the garment of praise? He is to do this in creation; by—and—by He will turn its groans into praises; and is not my conscience as worthy of His workmanship as creation?
Then Pilate gave sentence. He succumbed to pressure and condemned the guiltless.
Now we are introduced to the daughters of Jerusalem. The daughters of Jerusalem are not the women of Galilee. How do we distinguish between them? They are distinguished. It is another instance of the vast moral variety of Scripture. We get the disciples — the women of Galilee — the daughters of Jerusalem — the centurion — and Joseph of Arimathea. Are you not conscious of like varieties in the scene around you? It may puzzle and grieve you; but what is too big for you, roll over upon Christ. I can hardly tell where light begins and darkness ends. It is too much for me. I must leave it with God. Now, where must you put all these varieties? Do not put them anywhere. Leave them with Christ. “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” Do not seek to settle it. The angels will know how to clear the field by-and-by. I converse with people every day and, if I were asked, I should not know where to classify their souls. The women of Galilee were evidently “elect according to the foreknowledge of God.” But what do you say of the daughters of Jerusalem? They were not among the crucifiers. They represent, I think, the soul of the remnant by-and-by, in the first moment of awakening. “Weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.” Ah, this self—forgetting character of the Lord! I do not know that it more wonderfully displays itself than in these last scenes. If you are in trouble, do you not feel privileged to think of yourself, and to expect others to do so too? What beautiful witnesses we have here of self-forgetting love. “Woman, behold thy son”; “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me”; “Father, forgive them.”
Now we pass on to the cross. What do you say about the “spirit” (Luke 25:46)? Have you learned with calm conclusiveness that if the believer's spirit is now delivered from the body, it is with Jesus? When Stephen followed the track of his Master, he did it in life and in death. If they were battering his body here, the Lord Jesus was receiving his spirit there. Paul went to paradise simply as “a man in Christ.” Men in Christ are independent of the body. He clothes the body with immortality, and the spirit with indestructible life. In His own person the Lord was the first to recognize the spirit's going to the Father. He was the firstborn among many brethren, and the firstborn among many spirits.
Now we come to the confession of the centurion. Then Joseph of Arimathea seemed to get courage by the confession. He “waited for the kingdom of God.” What are we to make of him? Why had he not, for these many years, cast in his lot with the followers of the Nazarene? Well, we do not know; we must leave him there. He boldly goes and claims the body of Jesus. It did not cause him much trouble to go to Pilate. Pilate had no enmity.
What a chapter! The Lord closing the old creation. The Sabbath of old celebrated its perfection; the death of Jesus celebrated its close. The old creation was doomed from the beginning, and if we have not a place in the new creation, touching God we have nothing.