John 18:28

Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.

John 18:28

We want to live in a community where law and order are maintained, but we willfully violate the speed limit. We expect our children’s words to be respectful and kind, but we model for them unrestrained speech. We plead with our physicians to find cures for our ailments because we fail to heed the warnings that could prevent our illnesses. We insist people forgive our sins and show us grace, but embody the wicked servant when it comes to settling those debts owed to us. We are hypocrites, plagued with contradictions, not all that different from those religious leaders who argued for Jesus’ execution.

The ministry of Jesus was an affront to the power of the religious elites of his day. His authoritative teaching astonished the crowds. His command over unclean spirits made him famous. His healing of  pain and paralysis caused the masses to follow him. The crowds even responded positively to Jesus’ rebuke of their economic and religious institutions. As Jesus’ standing with the people increased, the plotting of the clergy (i.e. priests, scribes, and elders) and civic leaders (i.e. the Herodians) intensified.

The competition reached a fever pitch in the days before the Passover. On Tuesday, April 4, 30 AD, just three days before his crucifixion, Jesus exposed the faulty religion of those claiming to represent his Father. He confronted them with seven statements of condemnation, the fourth of which aptly describes the contradictory nature of their faith and practice: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

What a gift of grace! Jesus pushed against their piety and showed them its glaring weaknesses. This was an opportunity for them to repent, an opportunity for them to be reconciled to God. But they rejected it. Jesus made that clear in his closing statement to them: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.

On Friday morning the chief priests took steps to kill the Prophet. They approached the headquarters of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect, conscious of the requirements of the law. To partake of the Passover they needed to be ritually clean. Because Gentiles were outside of the covenant people of God, entering the home of a Gentile would leave them ritually defiled for a week’s time, thus causing them to miss the Passover. So they stood on ceremony, remaining outside of Pilate’s home in order to maintain their purity. Even in this moment they strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel. They were feigning adherence to the law, ignoring the fact that their actions had already made them unclean. Their premeditated plotting to destroy Jesus, reaching a guilty verdict before the trial began, and acceptance of false testimony had defiled them.

They were not holy. They were hypocrites.

So am I. So are you.

Our only hope is to trust in this Jesus, who bore our hypocrisy in his body on the tree that it might be forgiven.