Months into this series, we are now getting to the pinnacle of the story. Now we see that Jesus chose to endure for us, to die for us, to be in exchange for our falling short.

We have said it over and over again--John has a focused objective:

Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it. (John 20:30-31)

There have been a few things that have been helpful to me as we have been going through this series. The first is that John is walking out process. It is so easy to not embrace the process, but process is key to belief and John is walking it out with us. The process is a lot of work, and the objective will not be realized without the work.

John is also working to build depth of perspective. He uses hyperlinks (references and inferences connected to Old Testament narrative or perspective), repetition (to build emphasis and point towards importance), and themes (to bring out meaning through overarching and repeating themes). John is building and moving; the book is not to be read in piecemeal. John has four sections, but it is shared in one breath and thought and is about walking towards a destination of belief.

John is to be talked through and struggled with, together in community. John is not a one-and-done reading. It should be read and reread. It should be dealt with, not just flown through.

So as we finish our processing of chapter 18 today and move into the last chapters over the next two months, as we finish and move to another series, I don’t want to walk away from John’s writings. I don’t want to stop processing John’s objective or to stop my study and restudy.

Today we come to John’s picture of Jesus’ interrogation--a moment of so much pain and emotion, a moment of Jesus’ control, and a moment of Jesus submitting to process. And we are about to walk into a moment of seeing Jesus, and it is not meant to make us feel guilty, but it speaks to our value to God.

Before we go there we are going to build some perspective. Today we are going to use a tool that we haven’t used in a while, Sli.do. This tool will allow us to see what others are writing in the room right now, but also across our communities and even online. We are going to be asking two questions.  Right now I want you to just do the first one, under Polls.

Sli.do | #Cornerchurch | “polls”

What experiences cause the most physical pain? From the list, you are going to be able to pick up to five answers and see the live responses on sli.do.

What causes the most physical pain? 

As we are thinking about pain, it is important to see the power of personal experience, of comparison, of empathy. Hold onto that perspective as we keep walking towards Jesus’ experience.

Now, let’s move into the other quadrant of pain. Physical pain is real, but so is emotional pain. While you may not be able to point at the place that hurts, it still hurts. While you may not be able to see the injury getting worse or better, it is there. While you may not be able to quantify the cause of the injury, it is felt.

I am going to ask you to move from the polls tab in sli.do and go over to the ideas tab. The question is, what helps emotional pain? You can write simple or complex things. You can write several things, but submit them separately. You can thumbs up responses that you really like.

What helps emotional pain?

Now it is time to talk at our tables. Bringing our insights from the first question and the responses of the second question together:

Looking at the answers people wrote: What stands out to you? What is missing? What is surprising?

How do experiences and/or perspectives help with emotional pain?

As we get into things today, we are thinking about the large spectrum of pain: physical, mental, emotional; things that make them worse and things that help. Today we see Jesus’ interrogation in John. Here’s another foundational conversation:

What do you feel and how do you respond when you’re accused of something you know you did?

What do you feel and how do you respond when you’re accused of something you didn’t do?

We have been working for a while today before we have even gotten to the text. All of this pre-work for us today is important as we walk into an incredibly complex moment.

​​We are about to walk into a moment of seeing Jesus, and it is not meant to make us feel guilty, but it speaks to our value to God.

Today we come to a point in John’s narrative where the depth of emotional pain is unimaginable--at least to me. I don’t know where I was told it or taught it, but I feel like I am supposed to say that Jesus had the potential to feel emotional pain, but didn’t--that because He was God, that He somehow avoided or sidestepped the pains that He felt. That somehow, because He knew what the end of the story was going to be, it kept Him from feeling pain from the intense experiences He went through.

And that sounds nice, but there’s a dismissing that takes place when we view Jesus as not having experienced pain. And we can then think that as His followers, we are supposed to not experience pain. I think that dismissal of the pain dismisses the true character of God that we see in Jesus.

Because of this, we need to see and even feel some of that pain--the pain that Jesus had to feel.

Here is such a key factor to where we are in John’s process toward belief in Jesus: character is not void of the emotions of an experience, but character is exhibited while walking in the emotion of an experience.

Jesus wasn’t numb.

And as we process this today in its intensity, it will lead us back to the question that John has been walking towards:

Who really is Jesus? What do I believe about Him?

This question opens up John’s objective:

Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it. (John 20:30-31)

Who really is Jesus?

Messiah.

Who really is Jesus?

The one that as we believe in Him, we have real eternal life in the way He personally revealed it.

Who is Jesus?

We will be leaning into this at the end of our conversation today.

Here’s the story:

Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.

Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. “I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.”

When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded. “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”

Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” “But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die. Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising. (John 18:12-14, 19-24, 28-40)

If Jesus wasn’t void of emotion, if Jesus experienced this:

What would cause someone to not take up their own defense against false accusations?

What does Jesus’ response to His interrogators tell us about the character of Jesus? 

As humans, we might have our own versions of why this would happen. Maybe someone would feel really guilty about something else, and decide not to defend themselves because they feel guilty in another area. Maybe someone would be in such shock and disbelief that they couldn’t get the defense out.

But we see in Jesus’ processing and responses that He’s neither feeling guilty about anything or in shock or disbelief. He’s fully connected to the process of what’s happening and seems to almost be guiding the process along.

Imagine a close friend being accused of something you know they didn’t do. Imagine expecting them to clearly state how they didn’t do it, to give an alibi, to share where they were when the supposed thing happened, and then they don’t. How would you respond to them?

If I’m one of Jesus’ disciples and I’m watching this all happen, I’m internally screaming, “Jesus what on earth are You doing? SAY SOMETHING TO DEFEND YOURSELF!!!

Jesus didn’t seem too concerned about defending Himself. From the time of prayer He spent in the garden onward, it seems like Jesus’ intentions are set. He doesn’t even seem to care about answering questions about what He has or hasn’t done “wrong.” He knows what He’s doing. Jesus seemed to be living above the circumstances He was facing.

Why?

Because He was living His purpose. And His purpose is illustrated even in the trade for Barabbas.

There’s so much emotion in this. But in the emotion there must be a perspective of incredible value. This narrative is not telling us to do something; it is showing who God is. He endures for us, goes through “it” for us, is “traded” for us. I am Barabbas.

How does Jesus' experience of betrayal illustrate the power of the Good News (Gospel)?

We really struggled putting words together to define Jesus’ response. A compliant response would have been to just give in and give up, but a defensive response could have been violent. How Jesus responded in this moment of extreme personal pain exposes His character. Jesus was more concerned here for us than justice for Himself. In the weeks to come we are going to come to our response.

Just like in Jesus’ moment of pain, we are guaranteed moments of pain in our own life. How we respond in those moments can be viewed as a magnifying glass at our own character. Those moments of stress and frustration that lead to blow ups and harsh words to my wife and those around me expose my inner realities. They don't inherently make me a bad person, but I do think I’d be a better person, a more Christlike person, if I could root out the things in me that cause me to respond in those ways. 

Often it can be about stopping ourselves from doing the thing, instead of digging deeper and looking at the why behind the thing.

I think growing up in a more legalistic faith tradition, I was often taught to simply not do the bad things. Don't swear, dont lie, don't get mad, and so on. So an environment of hiding my inner realities became the norm. And that can only be done for so long. Hiding these things builds over time. It builds resentment and animosity, which then lead to even deeper and deeper feelings that at some point lead to either an explosion or a divorce of relationship.

John is not trying to tell us what to do; he is building perspective of who Jesus is.

So today, we have processed so much: Pain. Suffering. What helps those things. Feelings felt in interrogation. What it is like to be falsely accused. What Jesus had to have felt. But what Jesus actually did--living out the Good News.

We can be distracted from this by asking, what should I do? But rather the question is, what does this all say about Jesus?

Who is Jesus? 

How is He different from other people in history?

Who is Jesus to different people in your world? 

Who is Jesus to you personally?

Take It Deeper Questions:

• Read John 18:12-14, 19-24, 28-40.
• As a child, were you ever blamed for something you didn’t do? How did you react?
• Both Peter and Pilate caved. Who do you identify with more, Peter or Pilate? Why?
• How does Barabbas’ freedom at Christ’s expense illustrate the Gospel (good news)?
• How are you focused, challenged, encouraged and/or frustrated by this text?

Bible Reading Plan:

• Numbers 15
• Numbers 16
• Numbers 17
• John 7
• John 8
• John 9