God on Trial — Vindication

“You’re going to court!”  These are probably not the words you wanted to hear on Easter morning!  You know why people go to court.  Maybe they illegal aliens who are trying to get into the country, or they are being sued by the City of New York over a civil matter, or they are getting a divorce, or maybe it’s just for a speeding ticket.  I remember going to traffic court in college for a speeding ticket.  Remember when the speed limit was 55 MPH?  The officer said I was going 65 MPH and I knew for a fact that I wasn’t…. (I was going 75 MPH).  I went to court and the judge reduced my fine, but that’s about all I remember.  I don’t know that I would say I was “vindicated.”  In this regard, people are happy to go to court if they know they were improperly charged.  You can just imagine a man going to court and being released from prison after serving nearly 30 years for murder. A fresh examination of DNA evidence proved he wasn’t the killer. “I feel vindicated,” he said.  To feel vindicated is to be cleared of guilt or to be proven right.  If today’s theme is “God on Trial—Vindication,” we all know who needs to be vindicated? Jesus!

God on Trial – Vindication

When All Seemed Hopeless

After what took place on Good Friday, there were thousands of people who sure thought Jesus was wrong.  He had been put on trial by the Jewish leaders and declared guilty of blasphemy and worthy of death.  Pontius Pilate, against his better judgment, handed down the sentence: death by crucifixion. This was not only one of the most painful ways to die, but it was also one of the most shameful and disgraceful forms of execution, usually reserved for the worst of criminals.  Who needs to be vindicated?  Jesus does!

As Jesus was hanging, bleeding and dying, he looked so weak, powerless and hopeless.  You remember the taunting by the crowd, “Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him” (Mark 15:32).  If he were as good as he claimed to be, wouldn’t God rescue him? If he were God as he claimed to be, couldn’t he escape?  But nothing happened. The women who had followed him watched as he breathed his last—like every other person who had ever hung on a cross. When it was all over, they watched as Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ lifeless body and buried it in his own tomb cut out of the rock.  As the sun was setting that Friday night, it was impossible to process the hopeless situation. So much had happened so quickly. And things didn’t look good. As darkness settled over the land, there was silence.  Who needs to be vindicated?  Jesus does!

Let’s go back into the courtroom.  After long hours of the jury deliberating the case, you might hear the defendant say, “Those were the longest hours of my life. It seemed like time was standing still.” There’s no way of knowing exactly what was going through the minds of Jesus’ followers in those hours, but it must have been an emotional, bitter mix of sadness, confusion, doubt, fear and hopelessness. 

Maybe you can relate.  Was it at work when someone said something to you that hurt you deeply?  Darkness settles into your heart and might even tempt you to want to be vindicated.  Was it the time you planned a big party for a friend and one by one the excuses came in of people not coming.  You worked hard for that party and that’s how those people reacted!  You might want to be vindicated.  Maybe the worst is when someone you loved deeply has died. The funeral is over, and your friends and family are on their way home. As darkness settles on the day, it’s too quiet, and you feel very hopeless.  Hopelessness can turn into anger and anger can turn into vengeance!

It’s not just the death of a loved one that can leave us feeling this way. Thoughts of our own death are always lurking in the background. Whether or not we’re conscious of it, there’s this sense that time is running out, our bodies are failing, or our minds are fading. Even for the young, there is anxiety about making the right choices—friends, love, college, and career.  Then comes the heavy weight of sin!  Our sinful choices appear like enlarged shadows and can be magnified in our minds.  Do you feel hopeless?  Oh, how we have let down our Savior! Jesus wasn’t guilty, but we sure are.  Jesus had to die on the cross for you and me!  He certainly deserved to be vindicated!

We might not know exactly what the women were thinking on Easter morning, but Mark tells us what they were doing. “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.”

What did this mean? Even though Jesus had predicted his death and resurrection on several occasions, it seems it was too much to process. It All Seemed So Hopeless!  If the women had expected Jesus to be alive, they wouldn’t have gone to his tomb to anoint his body! “8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb.”  It all seemed so hopeless.  Jesus on Trial, crucified, dead and buried.  But, they were soon to find out that Jesus on Trial meant glorious vindication!

When Easter Makes It Clear

It didn’t take long for it to sink in. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.”  Later that day, Jesus would appear to them—the women at the tomb, to Peter, and the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and then to the Eleven and all who were with them behind locked doors. And later to the Eleven plus Thomas and then five hundred believers at once. The early reports were corroborated again and again. The good news was true: “Victory!” was the headline.  Against the enemies, the soldiers who mocked him, the religious leaders, and even more importantly to against the curse of sin, the power of the devil and the fear of death Jesus had Vindication!

Paul spells it out in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. “19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.”  If Jesus had not risen, we would have no reason to believe that he was anything more than a fraud, another criminal dead from crucifixion. We would have no reason to think his words of forgiveness carried any weight. And we surely wouldn’t expect to have any better fate after death. “19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:19,20).

Easter is vindication. Jesus didn’t come down from the cross to prove that he was the Son of God. He couldn’t because he loved you too much. He wouldn’t because his work was not complete. Jesus didn’t come down from the cross to prove that he was the Son of God. No, he did something even better: He rose from the dead! On Easter, Jesus was proved right: he is the God-man, the Messiah that he claimed to be.

Easter is vindication. Jesus did look guilty on the cross. It wasn’t just the charge nailed above his head, the criminals on either side, or the taunts of the crowds that gave that impression. It was also his cry from the depths of punishment: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Jesus did have guilt on the cross—not his own but ours. “He was crushed for the guilt our sins deserved” (Isaiah 53:5).  “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21).  By raising his Son from the dead, the Father put the exclamation point on Jesus’ own words from the cross: “It is finished.”  Vindication! Those sins are paid for—yours and mine.

There’s a hint of that forgiveness in the angel’s message to the women: “But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” Why Peter? Remember the last thing that Peter had done to Jesus: he denied even knowing him. But Jesus’ resurrection means that sin is forgiven, and Jesus wanted Peter to know it. Later, Jesus would personally forgive and reinstate him. “Simon, son of John, do you love me…” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus told him, “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15).  This means that Jesus loves and forgives you too, even for the times you have doubted him, for your sinful choices under pressure, for your fear and despair. Hear Jesus’ promise: “You have worried, doubted, and done all kinds of things, but never will I leave or forsake you.”

Easter is vindication also for those who have placed their hope in Jesus—like Job of long ago who declared, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth . . . yet in my flesh I will see God” (Job 19:25,26). Jesus’ resurrection is proof that Job was right. It’s proof for us too. If Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, we do have hope beyond this life. Paul calls Jesus the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). The firstfruits were a promise of the whole harvest to come. So Jesus’ resurrection is the promise of the resurrection for all his people: “Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him” (1 Corinthians 15:23).  The day Jesus takes us to heaven will be the day of our ultimate vindication.

But even now, Easter is vindication for us as we live as people judged by this world. There has been a lot of talk about the decline of the Christian church in the United States. Fewer people in this country follow Jesus, church attendance is down, and its citizens are becoming more secular. Even Christians may say, “The church is dying.” Is that possible? How can the church be dying when it is the body of the risen Christ? Congregations may die and Christians may fall away, but as long as Jesus lives, so does his church. We have been proven right. We are vindicated!

For us, then, this is the feast of victory for our God—not just this day but this post-resurrection era. We should expect to be afflicted by temptation and trouble and harassed by a hostile world. But we are on a triumphal march to glory. Along the way, our lives reflect the eternal hope was have as we love God, our neighbors, and even our enemies, and as we testify to the truth. The march goes on in simple and humble way until finally we sing the victory song with saints and angels in heaven.

Sin is forgiven. Death is defeated. Jesus is Lord. Just like Christ his people have been put on trial.  God Was On Trial and Easter brings the victorious verdict: Vindication! He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!  Alleluia! Amen.