Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Lent 5 - 2021

March 23, 2021

Text: Mark 14:53-72

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Justice is often used as a pretense for injustice. 

Our Lord was arrested on false charges and put on trial illegally.  It was unlawful to try someone at night, and those on the council known to be friendly toward Jesus were not notified of the hearing.  The Council sought “testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but they found none.”  For “many bore false witness against Him, but their testimony did not agree.” 

Justice is often used as a pretense to destroy an inconvenient enemy or rival.

More false testimony ensued, including a metaphor that Jesus employed about destroying the temple – but “even about this their testimony did not agree.”  Knowing that His mission was to die convicted of guilt while being innocent, our Lord offered no defense.  Rather, “He remained silent and made no answer.”  The prosecution certainly did not expect this.  They finally asked Jesus if He were the Christ.  His response to this question, His affirmation, is what brought about their wrongful “guilty” verdict in their illegal trial.

Justice in this case was used as a pretense by the prosecution, but as providence by God.

For our Lord Jesus Christ, like the Scapegoat of the Old Testament, was imputed with guilt and sent to die in our place, even as his righteousness was imputed to us.  He was denied justice so that we too might be denied justice.  For if we were judged by an honest court without pretenses, one that heard correct testimony and rendered a just verdict, we would be condemned “as deserving death.”  But He bore the brunt of our sins so that we might be released from the prison that we deserve.

Thanks be to God our Father that He too runs a rigged justice system, in which the innocent is convicted and the guilty go free. And in this divine justice system, the enemy, Satan, is destroyed even by means of this miscarriage of justice: the passion and death of our Lord.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.