Exercise in Irony

Have you ever considered the considerable irony of the trial and execution of Jesus?

The first thing we find is a trial without truth. The actual truth is of no concern in this exercise. As John's Gospel leaves Jesus's interaction with the world and goes to the private interaction with His disciples, John tells us, "Though He had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in Him" (John 12:37). The evidence was in. The proof was present. The case was shut ... and they didn't care. The Sanhedrin went to great efforts to convict Him on false testimony (Mark 14:57). That didn't work. Pilate was more concerned about his status with Rome than the truth. He was pretty sure Jesus was innocent, but that didn't stop him from having Him crucified. And when Jesus brought up the matter of truth, Pilate dismissed it with a curt, "What is truth?" No, in this trial the truth before them was of little importance.

It was ironic, wasn't it, that the trial was started by the religious leaders of Israel. I call it ironic because here we have the religious leaders putting the Son of God on trial. He condemned them. He did what His Father told Him to do. He healed on the Sabbath and demonstrated the fact that He was God ... and the Sanhedrin put Him on trial as if God could be tried by Man.

Of equal irony, then, was the Roman Pilate weighing the culpability of the Sovereign of the Universe. Now, Pilate was no god, but he served Caesar, a "god on Earth". He was god's emissary, so to speak. Still, standing in the presence of the Creator and asking blindly, "Are you the King of the Jews?" (Mark 15:2) seems quite feeble.

There is, next, the irony of the "winners". In the trial, the Sanhedrin and Pilate came out as winners. The Sanhedrin wanted Jesus killed. Jesus was put to death. Pilate wanted to avoid the appearance of being an enemy of Caesar (John 18:12) and he managed to succeed by verifying that Jesus was no threat to Caesar. These two won ... didn't they? Of course, the truth is that they were final losers. To secure their goal, the Jewish leadership surrendered their loyalty to God when they said, "We have no king but Caesar" (John 19:15). They stood guilty of opposing the Son of God. They violated their own rules by trying and condemning Jesus even when they were trying to remain pure for the Passover (John 18:28). They surrendered all that was of real value to them to win this trial. Pilate, too, lost when he won. He surrendered integrity by convicting a man he believed to be innocent. He put a conflict between himself and his wife. Trying to remain in control, he yielded to the whims of the people. Trying to appear strong, he crumbled at their threat to tell Caesar. Like the other "winners" in this scenario, Pilate lost everything he tried to retain.

The final irony, of course, is that the "loser" in this process turned out to be the ultimate winner. The despised and condemned Christ took on the sin of the world on our behalf. He took the rejection of His Father on our behalf. He died on our behalf. And ... He rose again! He proved He was God's Son. He received "all authority in heaven and on earth" (Matt 28:18). He was declared Judge of all (Acts 10:42). The one who called Himself "The Truth" (John 14:6) demonstrated that fact, defeated the Jewish leaders, the Roman authorities, the false trials, death, and Satan himself.

This whole thing turned out to be a grand exercise in irony. I suppose the ultimate irony here is that we find ourselves repeating this too many times. We get caught up in power plays or self-aggrandizement and think we can get Jesus to play along. We use religion for our own ends and try Jesus for not doing it our way. We seek to maintain our own feeling of power by setting Christ aside. We actually put God on trial, thinking we have a case against Him. We too often set aside truth -- truth we know like the fact that God is sovereign or that Jesus is Lord -- to pursue what we want. We know that God causes all things to work together for good, but we don't thank Him for the bad. We know that we are more than conquerors in Christ, but we try to do it on our own. And we even think we win. Then, in the final twist, the Savior offers to us forgiveness rather than retaliation. He offers us love and welcomes us, like the wayward Peter at His trial. Ironic, isn't it?