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The Punishment Fit the Crime
When I was a young child, one of the rules that we had in my parent's house was thou shalt not use bad words.
Matthew 26:66
When I was a young child, one of the rules that we had in my parent’s house was thou shalt not use bad words. Now the punishment for being caught using bad words was having our mouth washed out with soap. Now, I don’t remember every single inappropriate word that I got caught using, but I do still remember what that yellow dial bar of soap tastes like. It’s disgusting.
The punishment fit the crime. We had a dirty mouth and we needed it to be cleaned. Jesus in our text is accused of a crime. Our text reads.
“What do you think?” They answered, “He is deserving of death!” (Matthew 26:66)
Jesus is crime according to the chief priests and the Sanhedrin was blasphemy. They accused Jesus of bad mouthing God and in this particular case, badmouthing God by claiming to be God. In the Old Testament, crimes of blasphemy were punishable by death. (Leviticus 24:16) The irony of there accusation here is that Jesus wasn’t guilty of blasphemy, but they were guilty of blasphemy.
Jesus hadn’t lied. He is the Christ, the Son of God. He always loved God perfectly. He never took his name in vain. The chief priests and the members of the Sanhedrin, on the other hand, were openly insulting, mocking and hitting Jesus Christ, the Son of God. They were blaspheming like nobody’s business. For their crimes. They were guilty of death. Just as you are for your crimes. Think of the last time you took God’s name in vain. Over the last time were you have not borne the name Christian properly. Have you cursed? Sworn? Lied? Deceived? You are guilty of blasphemy. You’re guilty of death.
It is because of your blasphemy and sins that Jesus came into this world. He took your verdict of guilty for himself so that you would receive the verdict of innocent. Even though Jesus was innocent, he took your title of blasphemy and gave you his title of Child of God. Though you were worthy of death for your sins. Jesus took that death in your place. So you would be declared forgiven, for Jesus sake. We see God’s stamp of approval in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. When God raised Jesus from the dead, he was accepting Jesus’ death in your place. Your sins are forgiven for Jesus sake. Amen.
