A Blossom Bible Podcast
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A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 14:53-65 Justice in an Unjust World
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When the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper, where is justice? Diving deep into the sham trial of Jesus in Mark 14, we confront one of faith's most troubling paradoxes – the apparent absence of justice in our world.
The trial itself reveals everything wrong with human attempts at justice. Meeting at night, during a feast day, with conflicting testimonies, the religious leaders broke their own regulations to condemn an innocent man. Why? Mark 15:10 gives us the uncomfortable answer: envy. Such a common emotion led to history's greatest injustice, revealing how easily our hearts can justify terrible actions.
Justice itself seems straightforward – getting what we deserve. For God, however, justice isn't something He does occasionally; it's who He is. As Tozer insightfully noted, "Justice is not something that God has. Justice is something that God is." This explains why injustice creates such a deep ache within us – we're made in God's image, carrying a divine sensitivity toward rightness.
Yet we're confronted with a humbling truth: we're all deserving of justice. Like David, who demanded death for a sheep-stealer while ignoring his own theft of Uriah's wife and life, we're hypocrites when it comes to justice. Our sin looks different when we see it in others.
The cross provides God's astonishing solution. Romans 3:24-26 reveals that God is "just and the justifier" – maintaining perfect justice while extending undeserved mercy. Sin isn't overlooked but paid for by Christ. Meanwhile, Jesus promises future justice: "You will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven." Until then, we live gratefully in the tension between God's patience and our longing for righteousness.
Have you considered how God's patience with injustice – the very thing that sometimes frustrates us – might be the same patience that gives us opportunity after opportunity to experience His mercy?
Mark, chapter 14, verse 53. It's a big chapter, right, so it's taken us a little while, and that's okay. We're in no hurry. No hurry, mark 14. About verse there is no 53,. Is there? Wait, where am I? I'm in 15. Got it? Fear and trembling. Alright, 53. Alright, so as you know by now, it is still Thursday night.
Speaker 1:In the Jewish reckoning of things, it is the beginning of Friday. Friday began at sundown, so Jesus enjoyed a Passover meal with his disciples Thursday night, aka Friday morning. In the Jewish reckoning it's the Passover. It is officially the Passover. It is the day of the cross in that reckoning as well, and we picture Jesus and his 11 disciples.
Speaker 1:Judas has left his 11 disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus has spent time praying to the Father. He's prayed, we find in the book of John. He's prayed for his disciples. He's even prayed for us, those who would come to know him. And as he's there praying, his disciples are dozing. Good intentions, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak and they're asleep. Jesus lets them know. Here comes my betrayal.
Speaker 1:Judas enters the garden and you can picture it, john tells us in John 18, with a detachment of troops About 600 is what we might be looking at here, 600 people armed with clubs and swords. The temple guard armed with clubs it's the best they could do the Roman guard armed with swords. They come to the garden with torches held high and Judas walks up to Jesus and he kisses him, says Rabbi, rabbi, he betrays Jesus with a kiss. Now here they come and picture it again 600 people to take Jesus. His 11 disciples are with him. I'm going to say it's a little overkill, right, a little overkill. As they come to capture him. John lets us know that they bound him when they found him. But yeah, he willingly went with them, but yet he willingly went with them. And they take him from the garden we see in verse 53 to the house of Caiaphas the high priest, about half a mile average, about half a mile from the garden to what might be Caiaphas' house. It's perhaps maximum 20 minute walk for this lumbering group. And they arrive at the house and we read in verse 53,. And they led Jesus away to the high priest and with him were assembled all the chief priests, the elders and the scribes. But Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest and sat with his servants, sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire.
Speaker 1:Now the chief priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but found none, and many bore false witness against him. But their testimonies did not agree. Then some arose and bore false witness against him, saying we heard him say I will destroy this temple made with hands and within three days I will build another made without hands. But even then did their test. But not even then did their testimony agree. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus saying do you answer nothing? What is it? These men testify against you. But Jesus kept silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him saying are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed? Jesus said I am, and you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, coming with the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his clothes and said what further need do we have of witness? You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think? And they all condemned him to be deserving of death. And some began to spit on him and blindfold him and beat him and say to him Prophesy, and officers struck him with the palms of their hands.
Speaker 1:Well, we see this here, this trial of sorts. See this here, this trial of sorts, and you can read the other gospel accounts and piece together some other aspects of this trial. But looking at it, we can see right off the bat that this is a sham. If we were to look back at Deuteronomy and how trials and justice was supposed to go down, they weren't even obeying that or their own regulations. You were not to hold trial at night. You were not to hold trial on a feast day. Passover would include that if it was a capital offense, you had to have at least two days worth of trials. And so even in just their meeting together to do this, it's not right. It's a sham.
Speaker 1:If we peek over to chapter 15, verse 10, we know something about why they're doing this. Notice, in verse 10, chapter 15, pilate knew that the chief priest had handed him over because of envy. We know the motive on this whole thing. Why did the priests do this in the first place? They were envious. They didn't like Jesus questioning their authority or leading people to himself.
Speaker 1:And there's a lot of things we could look at in this, but the thing that hits me the most is just the injustice of it all. Right, it's a trial. Now it's easy and commonplace in our world to watch trials just for entertainment, right? Has anyone done it? Trials on the news, trials on TV, judge Judy right, and we watch it. And we can see in our world that justice is rare. Don't you ever feel that way in the news? And in Judge Judy is where is justice? We see powerful and corrupt people abusing power, getting away with injustice. Where is justice and really that's the thing that really struck me the most in this passage is just the injustice of it all.
Speaker 1:Now, granted, in this case, in the case of Jesus, we know it was the will of the Father for him to ultimately suffer for us and go to the cross, but it doesn't stop us from thinking why do the righteous suffer? Do the righteous suffer? Why is justice so rare? So I want to consider just that topic. We'll look at Mark 14 and other places, but I want to consider that idea of justice in the world. So follow with me if you can.
Speaker 1:What is justice? Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, justice. The dictionary perhaps defines it as an impartial administering of rewards and punishments. That's sort of helpful. Simply, justice is getting what we deserve. Justice is getting what we deserve.
Speaker 1:Concerning God, now listen. Concerning God, it's doing what is right. That's what he does in justice. God does what is right. Justice is an attribute of God. God is just. God is always just Now. Listen. Tozer said it like this Justice is not something that God has. Justice is something that God is. God is just.
Speaker 1:The psalmist says this about God Psalm 89, verse 14. Says this about God Psalm 89, verse 14,. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Mercy and truth go before your face. Righteousness, justice, foundation of God's throne. Paul said in 2 Timothy 4, that God is a righteous judge and distributes to each one according as they deserve. So check it out. As we look at justice, it's getting what we deserve. But as we look at God's character this is important, god's character he is just. He's always just. Nehemiah proclaimed it in prayer Nehemiah 9.33. However, you are just in all that has befallen us. You have dealt faithfully, but we have done wickedly. So when it comes to the end of it all, we will find out. God is just and he is pure justice.
Speaker 1:But now, why is justice denied, as we see here in Mark 14? Why is it that justice doesn't always come about. We look at ourselves and this is a real question right, why is there injustice in the world? We see injustice and there's something in us that kind of aches a little bit. Right, it aches for justice. Maybe that's because to some degree in Christ we're made in the image of God. Right, maybe that's that ache in our heart when we look at the world and we go. It's just not right, it's just not just.
Speaker 1:Why do people get away with things? Why is there injustice? We see this kind of thing, this trial, this sham trial of Jesus, and it angers us and it grieves us. We see the injustice of man around us and it doesn't sit well with us For those of you in law enforcement because there are some, obviously perhaps you struggle with this, maybe you do, maybe you don't, but you see the injustice of things and people hurting and abusing, taking advantage of and many times getting away with it, the stronger taking advantage of the weaker. There's something in us that we long for justice we all enjoy. Scammer payback right, does anyone else watch that? Right? Scammer payback, where the guy goes on and masquerades his voice like a little old lady and calls the scammers you know and then just destroys their computer or something you know, and you go yes, justice, you know, and we love it. Right, there's something just in us that can't handle it. Now we wonder why? Why is justice often denied?
Speaker 1:We live in a fallen world. That's number one. That's the answer to a lot of things, right? Why is there evil and wickedness in the world? We live in a fallen world, filled with fallen people. We see the chief priests here and again, in chapter 15, verse 10, we understand that the basis for what they're doing is envy. They saw Jesus and they were envious. The motive is something we can all understand, though Look at that In our own fallen hearts, we all experience envy from time to time, simple emotion, right To look at somebody and want what they have or what they are To question why did they get the promotion? And I didn't right Asaph in Psalm 73, he struggled with it.
Speaker 1:He said why do the wicked prosper, right? Why do they have it all perfect? And you see, it's just a natural thing, but it's a danger, right? That should be a warning to us. Something as simple as envy in our hearts can lead to this. Right Can lead to something as unjust. Unjust as that.
Speaker 1:Solomon struggled with injustice in Ecclesiastes 3.16. He said this Moreover, I saw under the sun, in the place of judgment, wickedness was there. In the place of righteousness, iniquity was there, and he stumbled with that. So, number one, why is there injustice in the world? We live in a fallen world. We're fallen people. I'm a fallen person and we experience envy and hatred and wrath and bitterness and all these things, and they cause us to do sinful. And they cause us to do sinful, unjust type things. But why does God allow it? Well, we also see, god is patient. That's one of his attributes, along with his justice. God is patient. He patiently bears with us. He doesn't judge sin right away.
Speaker 1:In the book of Genesis didn't take long. Chapter six, god sees the world is filled with wickedness and he tells Noah I'm going to judge it, build an ark. Now, that's God's justice and we see it. But something maybe we don't see is that we're told later on in the New Testament that it was a hundred and twenty years that Noah built the ark. It was a hundred and twenty years that Noah was a preacher of righteousness in his generation. A hundred and twenty years is a long time, right to state the obvious, a long, and God was patient during that time to send somebody to preach righteousness to them through Noah. It didn't destroy him right out, he was patient.
Speaker 1:In Genesis 15, verse 16, god is telling Abraham the land will be your descendants' land. And he says but it'll be 490 years because the iniquity of the Ammonites was not yet complete. So check it out. God was going to give them the land the book of Joshua, right. But he gave the Ammonites, a wicked people, 490 years to get it all wrong, to get it completely wrong. 490 years is a long time.
Speaker 1:Why does God allow it? Because he's patient. Right, peter tells us that God is long-suffering, not desiring that any would perish, but all would come to repentance. And so we look at this and we go God, why are you not judging this stuff? Why are you not bringing justice? And we find out, god is patient with us. And we stand, maybe, in our story, here, in our account, here out in the courtyard, and we look at this injustice and we go. But God, why? Why do you allow things like this to happen? We forget this. Now listen, we forget this. We're all deserving of justice, we're all humans.
Speaker 1:Romans 3.23, a basic Bible idea All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Even with our best shot at justice, we're usually not fair either. Think about it. We're usually not fair, right? We're like David, right when Nathan the prophet is telling him of the guy who took his neighbor's sheep and offered it as dinner to a friend from out of town, and David says that man should surely die for stealing a sheep. And yet David had Bathsheba's husband, uriah, killed, stole his wife, and we look at that and we go. You know what? We're not right when it comes to justice. We're just not right, we're not fair and a lot of times we're just not honest. We forget the failure in our own life. Right, our failure, our sin. Think about it. Our sin looks different on someone else. It really does.
Speaker 1:The disciples remember when James and John sent their mommy to talk to Jesus about finding a place in the kingdom? Remember that one and the other disciples were so mad. How dare they send their mom to go ask for a position in the kingdom? I should have thought of that. You know what I mean. And that's the thing. We look at other people and go. That's just wrong.
Speaker 1:And yet it's our own sin that sometimes we forget. We despise the opportunist because they wanted a promotion. We despise the gossiper and want everyone to know that she just can't be trusted. Generally, no offense, but generally we're hypocrites. We don't see it. Right?
Speaker 1:I was scrolling through Facebook because I do from time to time Silly little thing. Right, the optical illusion. Right, you see that this face comes up and it's this woman smiling right, and you turn it upside down and it's like. It's like not quite what you thought it was. Your brain plays tricks on you. Right, we're kind of like that, aren't we? We look at our own smiling face and we're like but I got good intentions in my justice. Then we turned it upside down and we see our hearts for what they really are.
Speaker 1:And so many times we understand what the Bible says. We're just not just, we're not right, we're sinful in ourselves ourselves. That's something that the Bible lets us know. And Yet we look at this and we want justice. And let's turn to Psalm 103, verse 6. Psalm 103, verse 6. And see how God deals with these things.
Speaker 1:Psalm 103, verse 6. It's a psalm, it's beautiful. It says this the Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities, whereas the heavens are high above the earth. So great is his mercy towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. So God, thankfully, doesn't always give us what we deserve. We see his character in perfect tension. That God is just, that's a fact. He's righteous. He can't do anything else but be righteous. But he's also merciful to us. He doesn't give us what we deserve. He's gracious. Every day he gives us things that we don't deserve. God in his character is just so good.
Speaker 1:Let's turn one more place. What do we do about justice in our world? Romans, chapter 3, verse 24. We'll go here to Romans 3, 24, and then we'll go back to Mark. If you still have that one. If you don't, it's okay, we'll be all right? Romans 3, 24. How does God deal with all this injustice? Romans 3.24.
Speaker 1:Beautiful passage being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation, or atoning sacrifice by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance, his patience, god has passed over the sins that were previously committed. Now check this out verse 26. To demonstrate, at the present time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So when we talk about justice, we go just forward a tiny bit in our gospel account to the cross and we see the justice of the cross just hours away God justly judging sin. Now picture it.
Speaker 1:Bible tells us we talked about it last week that all of our unrighteousness, all the ways we failed, were placed on Jesus on the cross. When he died on the cross, he paid the penalty for all of our sin, our selfishness, our failures, all those things. Jesus justifies us. He makes us just when we're not just. It's a gift right of what Jesus does for us on the cross. He justifies us. But notice what it says here in verse. Was it 26? 26,? Yeah, he demonstrates that he is just the sin of the world judged, and the justifier of the one who has faith. So check it out. He does both. He justly pays the price for sin and unrighteousness and then he justifies us. He gives it to us as a gift. He's totally just, though, in that we look at it and we just go mind blown God, why would you do that for us? And really that is the punchline of this thing.
Speaker 1:It wasn't that much after this that Jesus became sin, even for that high priest, even for those that were spitting on him and punching him and crucifying him. It's their sin as much as our sin. So that really is the punchline. But what about practical justice? I think we want to find that before we leave today. What about practical justice?
Speaker 1:Let's turn back to Mark, chapter 14, something we don't want to miss. Mark, chapter 14, verse 61. So this trial is going down and Jesus, verse 61, kept silent and answered nothing. Right, isaiah? Isaiah 53 tells us that, like a sheep before her, the slaughter is silent. So he opened, not his mouth, and and that's Jesus right there, he's silent, answered nothing.
Speaker 1:The high priest asked him saying are you the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the blessed? Jesus said I am oh man, you could just pause right there for a second as Jesus, in front of those priests, he uses the, really the name of God, who God was. I am, who God told him, told Moses, this is who I am. I am that I am. And Jesus, here in front of these high priests, says I am, and you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven. This is still to come, the power and coming with the clouds of heaven. This is still to come. Right, jesus has not come in the clouds of heaven. He has not returned to earth to establish justice, but he will, and I think that's really important for us to see in this world, as we're confronted with unrighteousness, we go God.
Speaker 1:Why? Why do you let people get away with it? Well, he's patient, aren't you glad he's patient? And he was patient with me. He still is every single day. What if God, like, just judged my sin right away? Every time I stepped out of line, he's like yeah, that's enough, you know over, you know he doesn't. He's patient and not willing that any should perish. But check it out. One day God will establish righteousness.
Speaker 1:Read the book of Revelation and spells it out in pretty vivid terms Right, he's going to establish real righteousness on earth. He's going to judge the wicked, the unrepentant wicked that have never come to Jesus. He's going to judge them. He's going to give people what they deserve. And we look at that and we go that's harsh, but it's good, right. When we look at all the abuse that goes down without any question, without any consequences, you know, when we look at the injustice of murders without any penalty, and you go it's just not right and it just isn't right. But one day God will make it right. And Jesus gives a little sneak peek and he says one day you're going to see the son of man coming there with power, you're going to see it go down and justice will be served.
Speaker 1:And what did they say in Revelation 15, verse 3? They sing a song of Moses, the servant of God, the song of the Lamb, saying great and marvelous are your works, lord, god Almighty, just and true are your ways, o King, I love that. You know you kind of rest in that, don't you? When it comes to the very end of the story, everybody says just and true. Just and true are all your ways, everything you do is right and God will establish real justice. But thank God that he hasn't given us what we deserve. He offers us forgiveness. We each need it right Forgiveness by what Jesus did on the cross. And you know, even for those of us that are saved, check it out. This week, I predict. I predict you will need God's forgiveness and you will need God's mercy in your life. I will definitely need God's mercy and his grace in my life and thank God that he gives it to us.
Speaker 1:God, thank you so much for who you are, and we do ache a little bit as we look at the injustice around us. From time to time. It's all around us, it's on the news and it's in our life. God, we wonder why? Why do you let things like that happen? But yet, god, thank you for being patient. We don't always love it in other people, for other people, but, god, we need it, your patience and your kindness, that you don't just smash us and judge us.
Speaker 1:Now, god, you plead with us and you want us to turn from our sin and turn to you. God, thank you for being better than we could ever imagine. God, we just thank you that this week, although we'll try. We won't be perfect, but, god, you'll be good and you'll be merciful. And because of what Jesus did on the cross for us, you make us just and you make us clean. God, I pray for my friends. You would just encourage and keep them. I just ask that you'd strengthen them in their inner heart to know you and love you and walk with you. God, watch over us as we go from this place. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.