Matthew 26-27 - Victory

Whether you’ve heard the Easter story a few times this week or you’ve never heard it before, I hope you’ll pay attention to this one. The day Jesus died was the most important moment in history. The Jewish leaders thought they had gotten rid of somebody who was causing them lots of trouble. Satan thought he had defeated God’s own Son! The disciples were scared out of their minds, hiding out of fear they might be next.

But as we hear the story of the events leading up to Jesus’s death, I hope we’ll remember one thing: God wasn’t surprised by any of this. I’m sure it broke His heart to watch people hurt and kill His Son, but He had the most incredible plan in mind to save us. And while everything that happened that Friday looked like a defeat, God knew differently.

But to tell us what happened that day, I want to introduce us to a Roman centurion named Placius. A centurion was a military commander back in the days of the Roman empire who was in charge of 100 soldiers. Placius was on duty the night of Jesus’s arrest… But I’m getting ahead of myself. I should probably let him tell you the story!

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Right… well, as our narrating friend said, my name is Placius. I’ve been stationed all over the empire, even as far north as what you call France. But the day Jesus died, I was right at the heart of the action. I hadn’t been stationed in Jerusalem long. Pilate, the governor in charge of the city at the time, had called in some extra soldiers to help guard the city during Passover.

You see, Passover is one of the biggest Jewish festivals each year. It brought way more Jews into the city than normal, and Pilate was afraid that if too many of them gathered together, they might start a riot. So, to keep the peace, he called in some reserves. I was one of centurions called in.

I remember when all the trouble started. Some of the Jewish leaders and priests started gathering a group of men to arrest somebody. As much as they could arrest anyone, at least. The Romans were the ones with the real power, but the Jewish leaders would sometimes hand out punishments for people who broke their laws. We – the Romans, I mean – didn’t mind too much, so long as the punishments didn’t get out of hand.

Given Pilate’s fears, I decided to take some of my men and go along with the group. I figured it would help having an “official presence” there to remind them not to do anything foolish.

The whole time we were walking, I kept waiting for them to start trouble. Which building are they going to burn down? Is this all a cover-up to assassinate Pilate? But it was nothing like that. I just kept hearing one name over and over: “Jesus.”

Again, I was new to the city, so I didn’t know much about Jesus, but I did know He arrived earlier that week to celebrations. The people had thrown down their coats and waved palm branches and cried out like He was their champion. That hadn’t made Pilate too happy, but Jesus hadn’t caused us any trouble.

I guess the Jewish leaders didn’t see it that way though. There had to be some reason they were sending a mob after Him! So I asked around, but nobody could give me a straight answer. People said things about Jesus “causing trouble” and “riling the people up,” but nobody could tell me anything specific He’d done wrong.

Regardless, I knew I had to stay with the group. I didn’t want any of their anger towards Jesus, however undeserved, to “accidentally” spill over to burning down Jerusalem’s walls or something.

We finally came to a place just outside the city, an olive garden called Gethsemane. There were 12 people standing there, though most of them looked pretty tired. The guy leading our group – Judas, I think his name was – he said he was going to point out which one we were supposed to arrest by kissing him on the cheek.

And that’s how it began…

Judas kissed Jesus. Some of the mob went to grab him. One of the other men with Jesus pulled out his sword and sliced somebody’s ear off. Then Jesus got mad at the guy defending Him!!! He says, “Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and He would send them instantly? But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?” (Matthew 26:53-54 NLT).

All I could think in that moment was This guy is crazy! I was no Jew. I wasn’t even sure I believed in God. But here Jesus was saying that God would send angels to protect Him and that He was fulfilling prophecy?!?

But then He did something amazing. With a whole bunch of angry men surrounding Him, Jesus stooped down, picked up the ear that had been cut off and placed it back on the man’s head. That’s right – Jesus healed the man’s ear! There was no blood or scar or anything. It was like it had never been cut off!

There was no waiting around any more, though… The mob was getting restless, so they marched Jesus back to the house where the Jewish leaders and priests were meeting. Given all the excitement so far, I figured I’d better stick around to make sure nothing else got out of hand.  

You could tell the Jewish leaders didn’t like Jesus. Almost all of them were scowling and shooting Him dirty looks. There was a lot of yelling and laughing at His expense. But for the longest time, I wasn’t sure they were going to get anywhere.

You see, a bunch of people were accusing Him of stuff, but just like with the mob, nobody could agree on anything. They had these wild, crazy stories, but you could tell it was all nonsense. And Jesus just stood there silently the whole time. Finally, two people came forward and said Jesus had threatened to destroy the Jewish temple and that He would rebuild it in three days.

I leaned forward at that – Destroying the temple would not be good. We’d have a bunch of angry Jews on our hands, and then that riot Pilate was worried about really would break out!

The high priest, the priest in charge of all the others, demanded Jesus answer, but He still stayed quiet. Then the high priest asked Him a totally different question: “Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?” And Jesus finally broke His silence:

“You have said it. And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64).

I learned later what this meant. Jesus had basically said that He was the Saviour the Jews had been waiting for for years. But more than that, He said that He wasn’t just God’s Son. He was God Himself! And for the Jews, this was a big deal…Their law said that if anybody claimed to be God, the punishment was death.

The high priest cried out in rage. He even tore his clothes he was so upset! With all the tension in the air, I was still worried something was going to burst soon! But there was one problem. You see, the Jews lived under Roman rule, and they couldn’t execute somebody without Roman approval. So they brought him to Pilate.

Pilate interviewed Jesus for a while, but no matter what questions Pilate asked, he just couldn’t see anything wrong with anything Jesus had done. He kept saying, “But He’s innocent! He’s done nothing deserving of death!” But no matter what Pilate said or the solutions he tried to find, the mob just shouted louder and louder, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

My hand tightened on my sword hilt. I sent one of my soldiers to warn my commander that we might need some more troops. This was getting ugly fast, and Pilate realized it. If he let Jesus go, the Jews really would rebel. The shouting got louder, the crowd started moving forward….

Pilate closed his eyes and shook his head. He walked over to a bowl of water, washed his hands and said he was innocent of Jesus’ blood. He was basically saying, “You are responsible for what happens to Him now, now me.” Then he gave into their demands.  

I don’t like to remember what happened next. It wasn’t pretty. When someone is condemned to be crucified, the punishment doesn’t begin on the cross. It begins with a beating before hand. And Jesus… well, He got it bad.

When they finally finished beating Jesus, they led Him through the city. He was in terrible pain, but the soldiers still expected Him to carry His cross to the place where He would be crucified. But finally, after a long walk and a lot of help, He made it.

The soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross. They raised it in the air. They crucified Him.

I wasn’t there for this part. I had been scheduled to guard the temple, so that’s where I stayed. But I can tell you this: Around noon that day, the sky went dark. This wasn’t a solar eclipse or anything. Darkness simply covered the world. People were scared. Then, a few hours later, I heard a cry. A cry of deep sadness and agony, and yet somehow of peace. Jesus was dead.

And then…

From behind me, I heart a ripping sound. I rushed into the temple courtyards, and though the priests wouldn’t let me into the actual building, I could see what was happening. The curtain they had at the back of the temple was being torn in half. That curtain was tall and thick, but there it was, tearing like it was paper. It was like God Himself was ripping the curtain from top to bottom.

Then the earth shook. I had never experienced an earthquake before. It felt like the entire planet was going to break apart. I saw rocks around the courtyard split into pieces. It was like creation itself was mourning that Jesus had died.

I even heard later that people who had died were walking around the city that afternoon. Godly men and women had come back to life! As if Jesus’ death had reversed death itself!

When the earthquake subsided and sunlight finally returned, I stared up at the hill where Jesus had been crucified. Tears rushed to my eyes. In the last 24 hours, I had seen so much pain, so much hate, so much confusion. But at that moment, I knew one thing for sure. I turned to my soldiers and said, “This man truly was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54).

I have thought back on these events many times, and I remain convinced Jesus was innocent. I remain convinced that He really was the Son of God, the Saviour. And not just of the Jewish people, but of us all. I remain convinced that evil did not win the day Jesus died. Despite all the horrible things that happened, the victory belonged to God.

Why can I say that? Because the last time I saw Jesus was not when He was led away from Pilate’s court about to be crucified. A few weeks later, I saw Him. He wasn’t a ghost or a phantom. It was totally, truly Jesus! He was alive again, and that clinched it for me. He was innocent, He is God, and He is now my Saviour!

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Jesus’s death on the cross seemed like a defeat. It seemed like the end of God’s great plan. It seemed like everything Jesus had been working towards would have been broken.

But God was not the one defeated that day. Jesus had died, but His death is what saved us. When Jesus died, He took all our sins on Himself. Every bad thing we’ve ever done and ever could do was placed on Him so it was like He did it instead. He was punished so we wouldn’t have to be. And when He died, all those bad things were done away with forever.

Not only that, but because Jesus died, death itself has lost its power. We know this because people came back from the dead when He died, and Jesus Himself came back to life a few days later. When God raised Jesus from the dead, it proved that Jesus won the victory over sin and death on the cross!

When we confess our sins and believe that Jesus died in our place, we are forgiven. Our sins are wiped clean! As a result, we can live with Him forever after we die, but more importantly, His death and resurrection mean we can have a relationship with Him now! The curtain has been torn from top to bottom. God doesn’t live in a temple anymore! Like we learned two weeks ago, now He lives in us!

What looked like God’s defeat was really His greatest victory – a victory over sin and death so we can have a relationship with God again. And that is the greatest news in the world!

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Thanks for tuning in, all! I was going to post this on Sunday, but I figured it fit better today. But don’t you worry – we’ll be back to Sundays again in three weeks for another story! See you then!

~Brentagious