Come Follow Me LDS- Matt 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 18 Part 2

'The Law, Mercy & A Valley'
- Law and Mercy meet in Gethsemane
- The Valley of Kidron, where Gethsemane lies, is the Valley of Judgement
- There is no way 'around' the law
- The Sacrifice of Jesus and the 'Sacrifice' of Judas (Cain & Abel)

 

 

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in this episode we cover the mock trial

of Jesus here we go alright so we pick

up from last week where Jesus was

brought first to honest who was the high

priest and then to his son-in-law the

current high priest who is Caiaphas he's

then brought to the Sanhedrin the full

Sanhedrin all 71 members and they

condemn him to death now remember again

the distinction here of why he is

condemned to death is not because he

says that he is the Christ that he is

the Messiah but it is because he says

that he is the son of God that is a very

big difference John specifically says

that he writes his gospel and remember

he writes this after the other three

Gospels have been written he adds his

testimony in the Gospel of John for the

specific reason to say that Jesus is the

Christ , the Son of God so that's what

he's trying to fill in here he feels

that he needs to add that in and add a

clarification to the Gospels that this

is the son of God this is Jehovah the

Lord who was crucified on the cross and

so everything that he does where he adds

things in that the other synoptic gospel

authors do not include typically have to

do directly with Jesus being the Son of

Man or showing or the Son of God and

showing that he is divine that he is

Jehovah and I think that this is a again

a very important distinction for us

today to understand today for example

the Jews do not believe that

that the that Jesus was just not the

Messiah

right they believed that he was not the

Son of God not the Messiah but it's not

just that they are waiting for the

Messiah and Jesus was not the Messiah it

is that they are waiting for a messiah

who is not the Son of God they're not

looking for Jehovah to come down that is

the big distinction and it seems to be

that throughout the Scriptures that is

what gets lost the Jews hang on to the

idea of the prophets talking about a

promised Messiah but they lose the

concept that this Messiah is the son of

God that it's actually Jehovah the

creator of the world and that happens in

the Book of Mormon a couple times at

least as well it seems to be something

that is naturally attacked and lost

through apostasy and so John is

confirming this so we're going to

continue in John 18 John also does the

best job of talking about the trial with

the Romans says here in verse 28 of

chapter 18 then led they Jesus from

Caiaphas unto the Hall of judgment this

is where the Roman Hall of judgment and

it was early and they themselves went

not into the judgment Hall lest they

should be defiled but that they might

eat the Passover so they can't go in

somewhere on this day where they're

going to be partaking of the Passover

meal later on in the day so they don't

go inside for this judgment and this is

an important logistical thing to show

again the imagery of the Day of

Atonement here with Pilate so in verse

29 it says Pilate then went out unto

them and said what accusation bring ye

against this man so remember this is

Friday and they're going to have

crucifixions this day this morning and

so Pilate is overseeing these things in

Jerusalem and the Jews bring him

to be condemned to death and to be

crucified and so Pilate tells the Jews

to take him and judge him according to

your law the Jews therefore said unto

Him it is not lawful for us to put any

man to death so technically the Jews are

not supposed to put anyone to death and

they don't want to mess this up the

Romans have to do this it has nothing to

do with the Jewish law the law of Moses

it has to do with Rome they're not going

to allow the Jews to carry out any

capital punishment although they were

gonna stone the adulteress at the temple

previously and later on they stone

Stephen the Apostle so maybe that

they're just trying to be very very

careful here with this situation with

Jesus they don't want to be the ones

that do this they want the Romans to

take this role because Jesus is very

very popular and so Pilate calls Jesus

into the judgment Hall with him so it's

just Pilate and Jesus the Jews are

outside of the judgment hall and he says

art thou the King of the Jews John

really focuses on that term and the

reason is because this is imagery of

the Day of Atonement and of the king

being born out of the holy of holies and

Jesus answered him sayest thou this

thing of thyself or did others tell it

of thee and so Pilate then says you know

am I a Jew I don't know your ways I don't

have these beliefs as to whether you're

the King of the Jews were not the

Messiah is kind of what he's referring

to he's saying thine own nation and the

chief priests have delivered thee unto

me what hast thou done and Jesus

answered my kingdom is not of this world

if my kingdom were of this world then

would my servants fight that I should

not be delivered to the Jews but now is

my kingdom not from intz and so Pilate

says okay well are you a king and

Jesus says to him you say it you said it

and to this end was I born he says and

for this cause came I into this

roll this is imagery again of the king

being born out of the holy of holies

through the veil for this reason came I

into this world from Mary and so he has

this discussion with Jesus and he finds

no fault with him it's really

interesting that you know Pilate here in

one of the other Gospels Pilate finds

out that Jesus is from Galilee well

that's out of pilots jurisdiction so he

sends Jesus to Herod and Herod judges

him and that's actually where he ends up

with the throne or the throne the crown

and with the robe is with Herod a purple

robe not a red one not a scarlet one but

of a purple robe so he's coming back to

Pilate here already with this robe and

with this throne this this crown on

his head

but he and Herod find no problem with

him Herod in fact really wanted to meet

him hoping that he would perform some

miracle so the Romans have zero issue

with Jesus he they see him as zero

threat but of course the Jews see him as

a massive threat and again when I say

the Jews I'm talking about those that

are in power primarily the high priests

the scribes and the elders and of course

many of the Pharisees and Sadducees as

well but they don't want the role of

killing Jesus they want the Romans to do

it and so Pilate comes out and says I

find no fault with this man and he says

but you have a custom that I will let

one man go on this day of Passover so

again this is a custom so the

crucifixions this is a common thing to

happen here on the day of Passover this

is a mixing of Roman sacrifice with a

Jewish culture and this is something

that probably happened every Passover

and in some ways it was probably viewed

as the sacrificial lamb whoever

was that was sacrificed this is not

unique to Jesus remember there are two

thieves that are crucified with him on

this day they didn't decide to crucify

these two thieves just because Jesus

Jesus was going to be crucified and so

he says you've got this custom of

letting a man go here how about if I let

Jesus the King of the Jews go why don't

I let him go I find no fault with him

and they say no and the high priests

kind of rile up the people that are

there the crowd it's not one of

the gospel says a multitude it's really

thinking about more like it's a crowd

here and they rile up this mob mentality

among the crowd probably those that

support the high priests and they demand

that Barabbas be the one who is let go

now this is again Day of Atonement

imagery so Barabbas is a problem is some

type of a zealot he has caused a riot an

insurrection of some type and in that

insurrection in that riot in that event

he killed at least one person so he's a

murderer he's in there for murder

against who against the Romans not

against the Jews so he's looking to kind

of overthrow the power of Rome he's

a revolutionary his name Barabbas in

Aramaic the language that Jesus and all

the Jews spoke primarily means son of

the Father which is very interesting

right you have a name that is very

similar to Jesus's son of God who is the

son of the father and here Barabbas

is son of the Father now Abba is a real

given name during that time during

Jesus's time so it could just be a title

or it could be Bar of us which would be

son of Abbas so it means the father but

it could have been the son of it

of us but it also could have been added

later on to kind of show the exactness

the similarity between Jesus and

Barabbas want to say similarity what I

mean is the Day of Atonement imagery on

the day of atonement when they brought

in the two goats to the altar they had

to be very similar than to be just

exactly alike same size even bought on

the same day

and so here John and the Gospel writers

are kind of I think trying to show the

similarities here between Jesus and

Barabbas Barabbas is real name in the

early transcripts the early Greek

transcripts of the Gospels in some of

those transcripts they have his name as

Jesus Bar ABBA's and so Yeshua

Barabbas so he was I had almost the

exact same title the exact same name

that Jesus would have because these

goats were exactly similar this is the

imagery that is being given to us and

then remember that the scapegoat where

the sins were transferred on to that

goat from the one goat which is then

purified and those sins are put on to

the scapegoat that scapegoat is run out

of town as let go that's what happens

with Barabbas I am certain that he would

have been kicked out of the city at that

point they let him go but they probably

had he had to be kicked out of the city

but here's the interesting additional

parallel here that we can look at the

Jews believed in a messiah that a

messiah was coming but they believed it

was more someone like Barabbas

they believed it was a revolutionary a

savior a political Savior that would

come and rebuild Jerusalem and overthrow

their enemies

that's what Barabbas was trying to do

and so you have kind of this lower law

Messiah that the Jews believed in in

Barabbas and Jesus Christ who is not

overthrowing the Romans but he's

overthrowing the entire

world he's over throwing sin he's over

throwing the adversary by taking on the

sins of the world and the Jews choose to

let this other messianic figure go and

not Jesus yeah pretty interesting and so

you have this imagery again of Pilate

coming out in a sense as the Roman high

priest on the Day of Atonement who is

presenting Jesus as the goat as the

sacrifice and showing that he's pure and

then saying than the Jews saying no we

want the other goat to be let go we want

the scapegoat the one with the sins to

be let go so this is all imagery of the

temple all imagery of the Day of

Atonement and then we go over to chapter

19 in John and we see that Pilate then

has Jesus scourged so here's where this

mocking continues to go on and you know

just as we talked about in the spiritual

economy where Jesus talks about the

first shall be last and the last shall

be first and he parallels that with

several things but one of the things he

parallels that with his service he's

saying that the greatest among you is

the least among you in other words the

one that lowers himself the most below

everybody else by taking on their

burdens by service serving everybody you

know that's what the greatest

does is that King Benjamin he is a great

example of the first shall be last and

the last shall be first and here there's

something similar happening where you

can see that between the Romans and the

Jews this mocking of Jesus of this pure

lamb of this pure the pure goat that

they're taking all that is good and

they're just piling everything on him

that is bad

and this mocking attitude that comes at

him is something we see in the world all

the time

mocking somebody like this is basically

devaluing them it is taking hatred or

agenda to someone or to something and

completely devaluing what you are

attacking what you are mocking and

that's what they're doing with Jesus we

see this in our lives all the time

we might even do it sometimes ourselves

where we mock something even sarcasm for

example where we're trying to kind of

maybe devalue something here they take

Jesus with a purple robe and a crown of

thorns which is mocking right away right

there and they scourge him they give him

the straw I give him stripes they whip

him and they beat him as a figure of a

suffering King they take what is great

and they show it by his robes by how

they make him appear and they completely

devalue him and mock him we can see this

with eternal principles of the gospel

and how often times in the world will

take something that is pure and

beautiful and eternal and the way they

approach it is by mocking it think again

of the Great and spacious building what

are they doing to those across the Gulf

at the Tree of Life they are mocking

them they are shaming them we hear often

times now again it's a something that

has used a tool that is used all the

time or that's actually stated right

shame shame shame to somebody today we

see that mostly with political

correctness in the 1600s in Salem that

shame shame shame would have been from

the other side of the aisle from a

religious perspective which is the way

this is happening here

or a Scarlet Letter on someone to shame

them to put them out in public it's a

way to devalue someone and say that they

are not acceptable or a principle to

devalue the principle and to say that it

is not acceptable and so on verse 3 then

the soldiers have him their scourging

him their beating him and they say hail

King of the Jews and they smote him with

their hands so again John mentions the

King of the Jews

and then in verse 4 again we see this

confirmation of where pilots coming from

he says Pilate therefore went forth

again and saith unto them behold I bring

him forth to you that ye may know that I

find no fault with him remember that

pilots wife had a dream about Jesus the

night before this night before the night

that Jesus is in Gethsemane going

through the spiritual sacrifice in the

valley of judgment and pilots wife has

a dream that night where she is really

bothered about this and she tells Pilate

so Pilate is very wary of what he may

need to do here Pilate is not a nice guy

don't think of Pilate as a guy who's

just you know hey he finds no fault

in Jesus and he is a good guy he ends up

washing his hands because he's saying

there's no fault with Jesus Pilate has

described several times as a very

merciless type of a person he probably

struggles a little bit with this

situation this is a huge political

problem for him and this is probably

very early on in his governorship here

over Jerusalem over Judah Pilate was in

place from 26 BCE to 36 BCE and we think

of Jesus at this time being about 33

years old so 33 BCE but that's not the

case the it is anywhere from four to

seven years earlier than that

so he's somewhere around 29 see

or ad 29 ad 226 ad the first year the

pilot is in power here and then in verse

5 then came Jesus forth wearing the

crown of thorns and the purple robe and

Pilate saith unto them behold the man

the man is a term for the Messiah right

that's everybody knows what's going on

here right they that what this messianic

figure means Pilate doesn't know the ins

and outs of it but John at least has him

saying behold the man which is a Masonic

figure and then we get some specificity

as to who is crying out for Jesus's

crucifixion verse 6 when the chief

priests therefore and officers saw him

they cried out saying crucify him

crucify him Pilate saith unto them

taking him and crucify him for I find no

fault in him and the Jews answered him

we have a law so he's put to death by

the law and by our law he ought to die

because he this is why very important

john specifies this right here because

he made himself the son of god that's

why he ought to die that is the charge

that was put forth with Anna's and

Caiaphas and with the Sanhedrin the high

priests who are rallying the troops the

mob here

they say he ought to die because he

claims he is the Son of God not the

Messiah not the king of the Jews and so

Pilate then returns back away from

the high priests and the people and he

goes back in with Jesus into the

judgment Hall and saith unto Jesus

whence art thou but Jesus gave him no

answer so he's very concerned about this

then saith Pilate unto him speakest thou

not unto me knowest thou not that I have

power to crucify thee and have power to

release thee but Jesus is saying if if

the if my father wanted me

to be let loose he would let me loose in

other words you have no power here and

and so this is a concern to him

remember with King Noah as a Bennett I

spoke and he was at first determined to

have a vented I put to death along with

the priests wanting the same thing he

starts to get worried a little bit about

what a Bennett is saying and he starts

to change his mind like okay well maybe

maybe we better let him go I'm getting a

little bit concerned here about what

we're doing and then the priest talked

him out of it the same thing is kind of

happening here with Pilate because of

the words from his wife and because of

the words of Jesus here he's getting

pretty concerned about condemning him

and so from thence forth it says in

verse 12 Pilate sought to release him

but the Jews cried out saying if thou

let this man go thou art not Caesars

friend whosoever maketh himself a king

speaketh against Caesar of course the

Jews don't really care about this again

the Jews we're talking about those in

power they don't really care about this

it's the last thing that they care about

but they know it's there in with Pilate

it's how they have to portray the

argument here the accusation is that

Jesus is claiming that he's a king and

that he ought to be put to death because

this is treason against Caesar and then

13 is interesting verse 13 it says here

when Pilate therefore heard that saying

he brought Jesus forth and sat down in

the judgment seat in a place that is

called the pavement but in the Hebrew

gabbatha well it says that he sat down

but really what is he said here the

term that is used here is one that would

really probably better be translated as

and sat Jesus down in the judgment seat

and that would be more consistent with

what is happening here right this is

kind of a ritual that they're going

through this kind of we're gonna put him

up as king but we're gonna mock him and

crucify him this is typical of Roman

culture this is typical of a lot of

ancient cultures and so they actually

set Jesus down likely in this judgment

seat and then they would all say judge

so judge I so judge Oh King and of

course the crazy thing is he doesn't he

sits there but eventually he prays for

forgiveness from the Father for all of

these people he does the exact opposite

and so you could see it here and you

even have in the following verse Pilate

saying behold your king as part of this

custom and he's looking over to Jesus

who's sitting down in the judgment seat

that's looks to me like that's what's

really happening here and they cried out

and said away with him away with him

crucify him and Pilate saith unto them

shall I crucify your king he's trying

very concerned the chief priest answered

we have no king but Caesar give me a

break

then delivered he him therefore unto

them to be crucified and they took Jesus

and led him away so John is making it

very clear here that it is the high

priests and several of the Jews that are

responsible for the death of Jesus and

just as the law the judgment that came

down upon Christ in Gethsemane in the

valley of judgment of Kidron it is here

also that their law is what comes down

upon Christ and so they take Jesus and

have him bare his own cross this would

be just the horizontal peace that he

would be holding up because the vertical

post would already be in the ground up

on Golgotha and so they would have him

carry this where that he will be have

his hands and wrists nailed up with and

they have him very heavy and they have

him carry this up the path from where

they're at up to Golgotha and we're told

in I believe it's Luke that as he goes

up through this path up the up to

Golgotha several of the women decide

there with him and they began to mourn

and lament what is happening so you

could see kind of a scene here where in

the morning here as he carries this this

beam on his back on his shoulders

likely the women crying and mourning and

being very very expressive as they would

be in that type of a culture this is

what happens when Ishmael dies Ishmael

the father of the wives of Nephi laman

and lemuel etc remember that when he

dies there's a specific reference to the

women that are lamenting and mourning

this would be that's part of the Middle

Eastern culture they become very

expressive in what is happening here and

again they represent those steps in

eternal progression birth and passing

away and probably resurrection and so

the women would be present there and

hold a very big role at this time and

they do as we find out that they are

mentioned here several of them at the

cross so the whole world has been heaped

on to Jesus's shoulders not just this

morning but the night before he has

borne all of the sins of the world his

bearing the cross on his back now and

we'll see in the following episode that

again it's the law that doesn't come

down on him as a heavy spiritual press

on the cross but as nails into his arms

his wrists and his feet it's the law

that kills Jesus but it's the law that

he's going to overcome

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