Matthew 27:11-26, "You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do"

Matthew chapter 27 Starting verse 11 to verse 26 hear the Word of the

Lord Now Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him.

Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus said you have said so but when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders he gave no answer

Then Pilate said to him Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?

But he gave him no answer not even to a single charge so that the governor was greatly amazed

Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted and They had been a notorious prisoner called

Barabbas. So when they had gathered Pilate said to them Whom do you want me to release for you

Barabbas or Jesus who was called Christ? Now he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up Besides while he was sitting on the judgment seat his wife

Sent word to him have nothing to do with that righteous man for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream

Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus The governor again said to them which of the two do you want me to release for you?

And they said Barabbas Pilate said to them Then what shall I do with Jesus who was called

Christ? They all said let him be crucified and he said why what evil has he done?

But they shouted all the more let him be crucified So when

Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning He took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying

I am innocent of this man's blood See to it yourselves and all the people answered his blood be on us and on our children

Then he released for them Barabbas and having scourged Jesus delivered him up to be crucified

If the Lord had his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word, I'll do your duty

You have a job to do Let's do it We are all told now that we have a duty to practice social distancing.

All right, stay six feet apart. No groups larger than ten It's your responsibility, but we still have some people who were asking, you know, why can't they just be responsible for themselves?

I'll stay home if I if I want to stay home or if I want to go about my normal routine And then I'll do that.

I I got to do what I got to do. But what happens when what you got to do?

Usually often what you want to do affects other people What maybe affects?

Whether they live You've you've got to do what you've got to do Even if it means that sometimes restricting yourself losing some of your luxuries for the necessities of others

You have a duty To others in law They talk about having a duty of care if if you own a restaurant you have a duty of care that the food you serve

Is healthy, it's not poisonous If you have a dog you have a duty of care that it not bite

Passers -by if you run an airline, you have a duty of care to get people to their destination in 2009

Mary bought a ticket from Greensboro to Singapore and back but the airlines couldn't get her past Atlanta the airline had a duty to do it, but no one

Individual in the airlines would take responsibility to actually do they just had their all their whatever their little job

Take care of this ticket or whatever No, nobody's job was actually To get her there all of them had this lady in front of them paid them paid them to get her to Singapore but none of them would

Take responsibility and actually do it. They would all initially try to be nice to marry she tried to get the flight she paid for and Individually each of them probably hated having to turn her down to say no.

I'm sorry I can't get you there each one wish they could do something about it But they all thought that there was nothing they could do they hated to tell her that she couldn't go

But they had to do What they had to do So they thought We say that about some chore, you know

I got to do what I got to do some some chores some unpleasant task that we wish we didn't have to do

It's just necessary. Maybe it's firing someone at work. You have an employee. He's not so good you got a got a fire you hate to do it, but You got to do what you got to do.

Maybe it's keeping the restaurant open during an epidemic All right, you got bills to pay or failing a student or I've had to do that It's a teaching assistant.

They just didn't do the work. You got to hand them a grade that says F You got to do what you got to do Maybe it's just something is getting to work on time.

Keep working instead of talking You got to do what you got to do it's one of the qualities we teach our children

We want to teach our children. You have to take responsibility. You've got to do your duty It doesn't matter whether you want to do it or you like to do it fulfill your obligations

Even when it is unpleasant even when you hate to do it Somebody's got to do it, right? I'm a

I once met a man in Singapore whose job it had been to take care of prisoners to handle their cases

From the time that they had been convicted in court to the time that they were executed his job was to supervise

Condemned criminals and we could say well somebody's got to do it, you know, we're making that someone's responsibility

Now here it here. He is. Here's the criminal get her done But what if that condemned criminal is?

Innocent, is it still your duty? What if he's not only innocent of the crime it was convicted of but of all crimes of all sins

Here in this patches we see confused duty Someone thinking, you know,

I just got to do what I got to do and then doing the wrong thing and we see that unfold in three steps first the evil of envy and Second the mob mentality and finally the the requirement of responsibility

The Roman governor Pontius Pilate knows all about his duty of care Pilate is he's not a

Jew. He doesn't care about the scruples of the law. He doesn't care about what they think Blasphemy is he doesn't care about their interreligious squabbles.

He doesn't care about theology only politics His duty is to keep Israel under a Roman occupation to keep the taxes flowing to Rome to keep it under control

That's his duty. So before Pilate is brought a new prisoner and his question to him first is an entirely political are you the king of the

Jews pilot wants to know if he's a rebel an insurrectionist the

Lord Jesus answers simply as before you have said so or Something probably more like he means that's your way of putting it.

I wouldn't put it that way but yeah That's your way of putting it and then silence He would speak simply

Minimally to the governor pilot, but when the chief priests and the elders accused him of all kinds of things he said nothing

And like any good judge pilot knows that there's always another side to the story And if first he expected

Jesus pilot expected Jesus to interrupt all these accusations and to defend himself Like you know often people do when they're feeling threatened

They're being falsely accused or maybe they're even being truly accused. They just don't be killed to interrupt. No, no, no, that's false.

They're lying instead Jesus does nothing like that Accusations keep flowing and the

Lord Jesus keeps quiet after a while this kind of incessant Torrent this flood of accusations of charges coming from the priests and the elders the religious leaders

We could call them and maybe the good old boys. I'll call him that that became like it became like so much background noise just kept going and coming and you probably don't even pay any attention to Specific accusations anymore and the amazing thing like and we got what got more and more amazing as it went on amazing to pilot

Was Jesus's silence I don't think he'd ever seen anything like that before He's all kind all kinds of men have been brought to him

Accused and probably many of them desperate to defend themselves and done or maybe a few of them They're just hot -headed kind of rebels

You know You are you have no right to rule over us you foreigner yelling back at him and cursing him He probably seen all kinds of people like that, but never someone just a man standing there silent

So finally pilot interrupts, do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you still silence like a lamb led to the slaughter and that Impresses pilot more than all the accusations that they hurled at Jesus pilot knows a hot -headed rebel when he sees one

And so he knows that Jesus is no hot -headed rebel. He's not that kind of revolutionary

He might be a revolutionary of some kind but not that kind Even with no answer even based on the accusations of the religious leaders and the good old boys.

He realizes This is all about envy They're motivated by envy they envy him

He thinks he realizes that he's judging the priest the leaders

They're envious. They want something Jesus has the silence that's convinced him that Jesus is no threat to him.

No threat to Rome and So he has no duty to punish him certainly not to kill him Condemning men to death was already.

I'm unpleasant enough. It was just you're you know He his attitude was probably I got to do what I got to do. It's part of the job but This time he realizes

Rome doesn't have a dog in this fight. He has no duty To execute

Jesus and some Roman philosophers might even tell him that you have a duty pilot to uphold justice

You have a duty to let it go. The Romans prided themselves on their administration of justice they had a written code of laws that they weren't supposed to enforce fairly and Justice demanded that an innocent man go free if he hadn't done any crime and he shouldn't suffer any time

So pilot wanting sort of to be just Starts looking for a way to let

Jesus go free And he is just the thing he has this custom of letting a

Criminal go free every year at the Passover feast, which just happens to be right now He had to be thinking

Wow how lucky for me what timing this is perfect this way I can let them think

That I was gonna give them what they wanted I was gonna execute Jesus like he wanted but then the people chose

Jesus. That's what he's gonna think That's how he thinks it's gonna play out He's gonna he's thinking I'm gonna give

Jesus a record I'm gonna convict him of a crime but then I also get to let him go free I get to make everybody happy an

Idealistic person might say well that you know, that's not even fair pilot. He should go free. Jesus is innocent

He should go free just based on the fact. He's innocent, but pilot doesn't have time for idealism

Idealism is not his job keeping these cantankerous people under control. That's his job and if it takes some compromise

Okay, I'll do it he thinks It's the evil of envy that has brought Jesus before our

Roman judge and the judge can see that now clearly in verse 18 He perceives it is all about envy

I wonder if we realize How bad how depraved? Envy is a lot of people in our culture just are trying to stoke our envy

These other people have something and they took it from you you should want you should punish them for it It's one of those hidden even possibly even respectable sins and here it is directly behind the murder of Jesus Envy occurs when a person one person like me me lacks another what's another person has superior qualities superior achievements or possessions and Either desires those things

I want to take them from him or Wishes that the other lacked him if I can't have what he has at least I want him to not have it if someone else has something whatever it is, you know money a

Good family good marriage, maybe praise, you know acclamation Popularity or even a good character righteousness they have a lot and I don't have it

Then the envious either wants to have what they have. I want to get it for myself

Have their cash or their family or their esteem or their goodness even

Or wants for them not to have it if I can't get it then at least take it from him so that they'd be bankrupt or fired or divorced or condemned caught in an affair that Will make me feel good to know that that other person

No longer has that thing that I wish I had The religious leaders and the good old boys envied

Jesus they envied his popularity his acclaim his Esteem that the people had held him in, you know, just a few days before this when

Jesus came in to Jerusalem He was hailed like a movie star coming into town.

The crowds were calling out to him Putting palm leaves on the ground shouting Hosanna to the

Son of David and the priest saw that They saw this, you know a claim that Jesus was getting from the from the people and they told the told him to quiet down those

Crowds. Oh, but they had to shout Jesus said it would be unnatural for them not to Nature itself the the rocks themselves would have to do it if the people would not

Because of who Jesus was and the priest hated him for that and he was deserving of such acclamation

And one of the main reasons many people get involved in religion is that they want to be well thought of By other people they want a claim and often the church is a forum

For them to get that acclaim for them to be somebody they could be the big man They want recognition the esteem.

They want to be seen and so in Jesus's day. They'd say long prayers

Right out in the street. So everyone would see them They'd make large donations when the people were gathered around the money box you know at the temple just looking on if they fasted they make sure everyone would know how hungry and and How hungry they were by just being unkempt.

They wouldn't comb their hair. They just look like they're fasting They craved to be hailed.

So people would look at a man. Look how holy he is. He's fasting. He's praying He's giving a lot. So when the

Lord Jesus was hailed Hosanna Hosanna When he was hailed as the son of David and then he was attacked and then he turned around he attacked them

For being a brood of vipers seven times calling them Hypocrites in chapter 23 here in Matthew when he did that when that happened

They envied him verse 18 says that it was out of envy that they delivered him up They wanted what he had but they couldn't get it.

And so they then wanted to take it from him The evil of envy is deadly

It killed Jesus and it will kill churches today when people join and participate and do everything they do

Because they want something other than really serving the Lord The evil of envy started as a seed in the hearts of the religious people here led to this

But to get their goal to get to their end goal of killing Jesus, they would have to turn the crowd

Against him. All right Remember just a few days before they were hailing Jesus as the new king and now they have to turn them away from him

In verse 20, we're told that the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd Now we Americans might not be so impressed with with leaders chief priest and and elders

That's the kind of thing, you know, we kind of almost naturally suspect them, but we are impressed by crowds

The majority must be right we think in our democracy the majority gets the leaders it chooses because they're right

So we think that if a lot of people do it It must be the right thing to do if you want to sell things to go to Americans You you tell us everyone is trying it.

Everyone is eating it. Everyone is drinking it. Everyone's watching it So many customers can't be wrong if you want to discourage something you say well, no one does that anymore

It's out of style people don't talk like that anymore. You're on the wrong side of history if you believe that Even after the fact we like to believe that we acted with the majority.

I always like to think we're on the side that's in One of the closest elections in American history was the 1960 election between Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy Kennedy won with just under 50 % of the vote

But after his assassination when he was very popular Polls taken showed that 80 % of Americans claimed to have voted for him

And that means that the mob mentality is so strong it caused over half of those who voted for Nixon To forget who they voted for that they think they voted for Kennedy.

They wanted to be on the the in side Here the crowd probably many of them the same individuals who had greeted

Jesus So think of that almost certainly many of these people calling crucify him crucify him We're just a few days before calling out

Hosanna to the Son of David throwing palm branches in front of him They've been turned they've been turned against him.

It's the herd Instinct just managed to get the herd moving in the right direction

And then every individual will follow along a few years ago. Everyone was buying stocks

Now everyone is selling right? It's the herd Why is the stock market go up and down and these right the herd gets involved but few think about what they're doing

They're just they're just doing what the herd is doing Just following along in a stampede either of cattle or people the individuals don't know why they're running in a particular direction

They just want to stay with the herd Even if it's going off a cliff Here the herd is steered to call for the crucifixion of Jesus.

They didn't really know what all this was about Probably most of the individuals. They're calling crucify him crucified

Hadn't thought clearly. Why am I saying this? It was just what the herd was supposed to do all they knew with them

That's what the religious leaders That's what the good old boys were calling for them to do the men standing around them was what they wanted to do

So I'll go along It must be the thing to do it must be right, you know after all if you're in the middle that crowd

Everyone else is calling crucify him crucifying you think well so many people they must be right The mob mentality has taken over now if you take any one individual from that mob

You got give him time to sit down to think by himself Think clearly over these accusations to look at Jesus what he's actually done decide rationally on their own whether this is the right thing to do

Probably most of them would have decided no it's Jesus is right. He's innocent He should be let go after all look at their choice on the one hand

They have Jesus there's done nothing wrong even his betrayer who's got him into this position is

Judas has repudiated this trial has exclaimed that Jesus is innocent and Stormed out and then hanged himself rather than living with the blood of Jesus on his hands

Jesus was a teacher and a miracle worker. He had straightened people out Enabled them to stop sinning given hope and joy and forgiveness to many people.

So that's the first prisoner in your choice on the other hand There's this other guy

Barabbas Who Matthew says in verse 16 is a notorious prisoner. That's his term for him notorious

Prisoner notorious is not a good thing. You don't be thought of as notorious Notorious here appears to mean that he was especially despised notorious.

He means you're well known or for a bad reason Especially despised for his crimes.

He's famous for evil. He was infamous Pilot probably chose him rather than any of the other probably a lot of many small -time criminals that he had locked up But he chose

Barabbas because he thought that would make an easy choice Barabbas was notorious everyone knew about him and everyone hated him.

So here's the choice Jesus yeah, okay. He's a little controversial, but he's certainly no criminal or the infamous villain

That's what pilot has set up. He's tried to rig the choice in favor of Jesus He wanted to let

Jesus go He had the power to let Jesus go But he wants to avoid responsibility himself put it on the people

He did this little trick to make them choose between a controversial religious teacher and notorious criminal that way

Lee lets him off the hook and Hopefully lets Jesus go but he underestimated the mob mentality the mob mentality drives everyone in the same direction

Even irrationally to do crazy things. It drives in here to ask for the infamous villain and kill

Jesus The evil of envy is a spark in the hearts of the religious leaders and the good old boys is it started a blaze that sets the mob on fire a

Cascade starts chain of events like like falling dominoes one after another so that the end it says in verse 25 all the people all the people

Were crying out for the crucifixion of Jesus the evil of envy and the mob mentality

Cannot be stopped by a weak Unprincipled man who thinks you know, just I got to do what

I got to do Who thinks that he can avoid the requirement of responsibility Pilot knew that Jesus had violated no law

That stream of unsubstantiated accusations from the priests and then the elders proved it They couldn't prove a thing against him and then his wife's dream

Confirmed it as he was sitting there and see him on some kind of like Judges seat of like a throne a message comes from his wife mrs

Pilot and she had a dream and in it she suffered much because of seeing her husband condemn

Jesus a righteous man. She knew they would be punished if have his blood on their hands And so she said to him a message have nothing to do with that righteous man

In other words, don't be responsible for his death Now surely he has to tremble When he when he gets that already he knows he's innocent already.

He's trying to get out of this He's trying to let him go free. Although he doesn't have the willpower to say no.

He's innocent. I'm letting him free I don't care what you want And then his wife comes or sends a message somehow

Don't have anything to do with condemning him you know, that's just got a Shaken and that's more than a coincidence

And she would get word to him about about this while the court was still in session while he's actually in the act of judging

Him, but for all that well, he thinks well, I got it. I have a duty I'm supposed to keep the peace

Pilots thinking, you know if I if I do what's right? Okay, if I let Jesus go these people they're so irrational it could be a riot, you know, and then

I'd have to call in the troops to put down the riot and Some of those people would be killed perhaps some of my own troops would be injured or maybe even killed

Then I have to write a report to Rome They'd ask questions back. I'd be you know, I have some kind of inspector come to figure out what's what happened

It might look bad All that hassle. I'd have to go through all that hassle all that paperwork over over what over Justice over doing what's right over this

Teacher from Galilee sure. He's a righteous man, but come on Is it is it worth it to let him go?

It's not what I want to do. I don't want to condemn him but he thinks It's my duty

When I get home, I'll just explain to the wife, you know, I got to do what

I got to do And those are the things we tell ourselves when we choose what is expedient the easy way the road most traveled

On the one hand here pilot appears in some ways. He appears very sympathetic doesn't he we might understand his predicament

We might even think well, he's he's the good guy here. I mean, he wants to let Jesus go

He's not like the religious leaders and the good old boys, you know, they really they just really despise

Jesus They've been plotting and scheming and waiting for this moment They're working that crowd hard to steer the herd in the right way pilot though.

Just marvels at This man at Jesus. He's so composed so so regal so Majestic he's being accused but he never stoops to the level of his accusers

Pilot maneuvers to try to let Jesus go He stalls he's looking for a way out

There's there's a hint even in that verse 23, you know, why? What evil has he done?

It's just a hint in that if you if you can hear it inwardly he's desperate he's begging

To not have to give the order to crucify Jesus He has the power sure to just let him go

But he's too weak to use it Well with the viciousness of the religious leaders and the good old boys

And you know in the crowd that they ripped up into a frenzy this mob this herd It's kind of easy to sympathize with pilot, isn't it?

And he's trying to let him go so we understand right that sometimes You know, you got to do what you got to do.

You don't you don't want to do it, but it's your duty This is the best option available if we're being swept along by forces outside of our control

If it's just so much pressure if it's our duty, we think then we're not really responsible. Are we just it's the it's not good

But it's the it's the least evil That's what pilot thought Are we really responsible?

He didn't want he didn't want it to come to this But he thinks you know, what can

I do? so like almost like he's in a Kovat 19 epidemic

He'll wash his hands wash your hands. We're tall all the time now. He washes his hands proclaiming with that That he's not responsible

He's got to do What he's got to do The pilot is not a good innocent man.

Just doing his duty not responsible for the order. He finally gives he is responsible He can wash his hands all he wants

But the blood of Jesus is still on them he can't avoid the requirement of responsibility

He is the authority to let this innocent man go free He has a higher duty than just keeping these people quiet a duty to do what is right to justice

The vision of that higher duty should be what is bright before his eyes the cry for justice

Should be what is ringing in his ears But all he can see instead of that and all he can hear is this tumultuous crowd

Shouting crucify him crucify him He can see the paperwork that he might get bogged down in if he puts down a riot

He can see he could possibly even see himself maybe getting fired and brought back to Rome and having to answer charges

Those are the hard facts of life So well, he'll just have to he'll just have to tell his wife.

You know, look I Have you and the family to take care of I've got a job to do it just had to be done

So the Lord Jesus is condemned After all that just kind of that volcano of spewing of hatred from the religious leaders the other leaders

His condemnation comes his final condemnation comes Coldly from an exasperated man

With no animosity no theological opposition No, no heat of hatred.

No, no trumped -up trial the final order comes Because a weak man was worn down and took the easy way out

Jesus was condemned because of something that appears so common to us

So natural That it's just a matter of a fact. Sometimes maybe we might even say it's it's noble.

Jesus was condemned by a man who thought He was doing his duty

Doing what he had to do He makes a show out of avoiding the requirement of responsibility is washing his hands the people though They take responsibility his blood be on us and owned our children

Here again, is that that bad religion? We looked at two weeks ago. Remember that the worldly people like pilot

Well, sometimes do something is wrong and they'll feel bad about a pilot probably kind of felt a little bad about what he had to do

He got justified as the least The least worst evil, but the fee felt kind of bad about it, but the religious people here they they own it

But the secular people more like like like pilot they might wish they hadn't done whatever they did

They might even admit that it's wrong. They just think it's the the lesser of the evils They'll think well they had to abort their baby because they couldn't afford it

It was it was their duty to their other children to their duty to their future even in their twisted logic

It was their duty to the baby. They killed somehow, but at least they still admit what they did was not not right

Not the best the religious though Will do something that's evil and will be completely unashamed of their sin

They might believe their sins are somehow in service of God They justified themselves that they are something to be proud of they'll be proud of Their responsibility because they see nothing wrong with what they did his blood be on us and our children

They think it's something to be proud of so here they'll take the blood of Jesus on them because they've convinced themselves

That killing Jesus was the right thing to do and when 40 years later less than a generation

Roman armies crucified thousands of Jewish men probably many of the same ones who's standing right here or their sons

Then it was too late When these men who said his blood be on us Faced the judgment seat of Christ with his blood on them

It will not be for their washing but for their condemnation They didn't dodge the requirement responsibility they they took responsibility

Because they were so deluded by their own self -righteousness but someday

They will wish they were not being held responsible for that righteous man's blood

Now we live in an age and so many people think that they will not be held responsible for their sins

They think well circumstances forced me into it. It was the best choice I had available

They were lonely so they had to have an affair They couldn't stand not to be in a relationship. So they'll enter into an immoral one the rich steal from us

So it's okay for me to steal a little back, you know in office supplies at work or in my taxes

Anyway, sin isn't a big deal people think today God will excuse sins.

We don't have a duty to God that we fail to keep do we? Sins don't have to be paid for do they?

No, no one has to be punished for them certainly not scourged or crucified for them do they

Sin isn't like a disease like kovat 19 that you need to be healed up. Is it not that serious?

Is it? besides Even if it is Jesus is sweet and nice. He won't require any responsibility from us

Willie that's the idol of Jesus that the the watered -down idea of sinned the scourgeless stripeless cheap salvation that many have created in their minds to avoid the requirement of responsibility the evil of envy steered a mob mentality to cause a weak man to try to avoid the requirement of responsibility and the result

Was that Jesus was condemned So finally Pilot gives the order and the

Roman troops Well, they got to do what they got to do, right? They take the first steps toward killing him

He has to be scourged Which that was not only vicious torture seeking to inflict as much pain as possible prior to an already

Excruciating death. It was also to weaken the victim some died just from the scourging He would be tied to a post his clothes just ripped off his back

The whip would be several cords each with sharp pieces of either bone or iron balls or sharp barbs

Tied in the stripes of the leather strips at intervals that the scourging would sometimes tear strips of flesh off the back

Usually two soldiers standing on either side would alternate strokes one pulling one way one pulling the other way

Then as the flogging continued the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of Bleeding flesh the

Jewish law said they must stop at 39 strokes, but the Romans were not bound by that They might keep going until they were worn out or until it just wasn't fun anymore

Ripping and slashing flaying the skin flinging blood everywhere tearing flesh leaving stripe after Stripe and by those stripes

We are healed what you've got to do your responsibility now

Is to stop following the mob? Stop in being the world or the rich See those stripes and Sacrifice all the vain things that charm you most sacrifice them to his blood