SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS for November 6

1) Why do you think the four Gospels devout a disproportionately large amount of time to the last few days of Jesus’ life?

In our series on The Life of Christ, we are near the end of Christ’s life and ministry today. Last Sunday we saw Jesus enter the final period of his life by setting his face firmly to go to Jerusalem to die. There were those along the way that would deter or redirect him but he resolutely pressed on to Jerusalem. And then when he gets there it’s as though the Gospels just slow down to almost a crawl. A simple reading of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John shows that all of them are completely lopsided time-wise. They all devote tremendous space to the very, very end of Jesus’ life. If you put the life of Christ on a time line, more than half of John’s Gospel for example deals with just the last day or two of his life. And today as we come to his arrest and trial, I have between 20 and 25 minutes to deal with it! I thought about punting to Sean or John but decided that would be really cruel and did not yield to the temptation.

2) Name the two trials that Jesus endured. What were the charges against him at each of these trials? Why did the charges change?

What follows is Jesus being tried before two courts. There was not just one trial but two trials. He first appeared before a Jewish Court called the Sanhedrin – the main ruling body of the Jews, a large group of 71 Jewish men. Even before bringing Jesus to the Sanhedrin, the Jews had made up their minds that he was going to be condemned. The only question was what the charge would be. When Jesus said before Caiaphas, “I am the Christ” it was more than they had hoped for. The charge would be blasphemy – claiming to be God. So they take Jesus before the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the highest Jewish court and as such they were allowed to pass the death sentence but did not have authority to carry it out. For that they needed the approval of the Roman government above them. So the Sanhedrin meeting was a formality that had been rehearsed the night before. So very early the next morning, they whisk Jesus off to the Roman Court, to Pilate – probably getting him out of bed.

3) Why did the Jews need to bring Jesus before the Roman Court?

The Sanhedrin was the highest Jewish court and as such they were allowed to pass the death sentence but did not have authority to carry it out. For that they needed the approval of the Roman government above them.

4) What was the bind that Pilate found himself in as Jesus stood before him?

Now Pilate may have known a little about this Jesus but he doesn’t know much about their accusation against him. So he asks, “What accusation do you have against him?” And their answer is interesting, John 18:30____. They didn’t even say what charge they had against him. They said, “We’ve condemned him already – if he wasn’t worthy of death we wouldn’t have brought him here in the first place.” The reason of course was that the only charge they could agree on was blasphemy and that wouldn’t have meant diddly squat to Pilate. Blasphemy wasn’t against the Roman Law.

So now you see a huge shift. The Jews now start accusing Jesus of a political crime, the highest one of all – treason. They charge him with being a religious zealot who is fomenting insurrection. Jesus says he is a king. Now that is a charge Pilate is interested in. So Pilate questions Jesus, “Are you a king?” And Jesus responds “Yes, that is why I have come into this world but I’m not a king of this world.” And Pilate decides that he is not guilty – innocent.

5) What stance did he take with regard to Jesus?

So by the time you get to the trial, Pilate is on this ice. He’s not been doing well. He’s got a lousy relationship with the Jews and he’s in a very touchy situation. Roman historians see him as a vengeful, mean man. But the N.T., maybe with deeper insight, pictures him not so much a vengeful, mean man but as a very, very weak man, as someone who has no final values to stand by. He just seems to react and some of the time over-react.

He seems to be sure of two things and uncertain about a third. He was sure that Jesus was innocent and that the problem was one of envy in the midst of a power struggle. He was sure also that the Jews were absolutely determined to kill Jesus and it would be a lot of trouble to stand against them. But the thing he was unsure about is WHO in the world this Jesus was. He was disturbed – confused – and wondered greatly as to who he was. Was he the Son of God? What about his wife’s dream? You remember she had a dream and told him to have nothing to do with killing this man.

So what does Pilate do? He tries to be neutral. He tries not to get involved.

6) Would you consider Pilate a weak man? Why or why not.

7) Do you agree or disagree with Pastor Dave’s characterization of Pilate as a modern man?

So what does Pilate do? He tries to be neutral. He tries not to get involved. It is in this way that I see him as a modern man. Trying to be neutral about Jesus is a very typical stance today. Pilate believed many of the same things that many who try to be neutral today would believe. He believed Jesus was innocent and a good man. He approved of Jesus and seemed to like him and think he was up to no harm. But he also knew it would be very hard to stand for Jesus in this world that was against him. He knew it would cost him personally. This is very much the same, isn’t it, as anyone trying to be neutral about Jesus Christ today. But Pilate wasn’t quite sure who Jesus was. He was so modern in so many ways. For we are surrounded by so many today who are saying, “Well, you can never know about these things. We know he was a good man but you can never know for sure what sort of person he really was.” As a result, without any final place to stand, trying to basically be safe, Pilate was simply swept along with the crowd - as many people are today.

8)The Book of Proverbs often speaks of the wise and foolish person. In what way might Pilate be considered the archetype fool in the Bible?

He tries to absolve himself by taking water and washing his hands before the crowd saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood, his blood be upon your heads.” But it was an entirely irrelevant action because his guilt was before God and God alone can say that your hands are clean. How wrong Pilate turned out to be. But there is something even more here if we take this neutrality stance a step further. I think we see in Pilate the archetype fool in the Bible. Now when we speak of a fool we think of someone who goes around cracking silly jokes – but that’s not the fool of the Bible. The biblical fool is the one who through sin and shortsightedness has no long vision of life and so destroys himself and is himself the loser. Just imagine if Pilate had stood for Christ. He would have incurred the wrath of the Jews but he probably could have withstood that. Imagine if he had even become a Christian. He would have had the wrath of the Jews and might even have lost his job because he would have had to have taken a stand against the Roman polytheism at the same time. But he would have been in a right relationship with God.

9) How do people today try to remain neutral when it comes to Jesus? Discuss the meaning of “You can avoid making up your mind, but you cannot avoid making up your life.”