Tonight we continued our series called CSI Jerusalem. This week our suspect for the crime of killing Jesus was the Romans. The Romans had conqured Israel many years before. They had soliders and governors in place in order to rule and keep peace. Let us look at the evidence that might point them out as the guilty party.
Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the
whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet
robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head.
They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him.
"Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. They spit on him, and took the staff
and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him,
they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to
crucify him. -- Matthew 27:27-31 (NIV)
#1 The Romans did mock Jesus and did in fact beat him. This included the mocking from the verses above as well as a flogging. Flogging is whipping somone severely.
#2 The Romans took Jesus to crucify him, which is how he died.
#3 The Romans had the authority to execute and did it by crucifixion.
The evidence is pretty strong that the Romans were guilty of the crime. But they were not guilty of killing Jesus. But why? They did in fact cruicy Jesus, but we can not blame a whole people group like this. There were Romans that were not involved in this death at all. Beyond that the ones that we talked about this week were soldiers. Soldiers would not have killed him on their own authority, they must have been ordered to do it, but by who?
We then started to apply the passage from Matthew to our own lives. Jesus is presented as a king in a mocking way. They place a scarlet robe on him, crown him with thorns, and give him a stick as a scepter. The interesting part is that Jesus is actually king. He is God, He created the world, He has all power and authority, and He deserves to be obeyed and worshipped as king. So the question becomes, How do you treat Jesus? Do you treat him as a mock king or an actual king? Your actions will show which Jesus is for you.
If Jesus is your mock king you will say He is king, but not do the things He tells you to do. You will go to church and act one way, but as soon a syou leave church you will act another way. You will do whatever you want, as long as you can get away with it.
If Jesus is your actual king you will obey what he tells you to do or not do. You will have a life that is matching in and out of youth group. You will ask Jesus what He wants you to do or not to do.
God wants us to treat Jesus as our actual king. Do your actions show that to be true? Maybe today is the day you should make him your real king.
I give tonight a:
A-Favorite moment of the night:
The made-up word Crucification
