Beautiful Scandalous

We sing a song at Bethlehem titled "Beautiful Scandalous Night." The song conveys a paradoxical truth about the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Namely, that it was both beautiful and scandalous. It was horrible and wonderful. It was, as John Piper puts it, "history's most spectacular sin," and it was also history's most vivid act of love. It showed both the depths of Man's depravity and the inexhaustible goodness of God. It was an act of justice and mercy. And there, God poured out both wrath and love...wrath upon His only Son and love upon all who would believe upon His name.

Not everything is revealed to us. There are many "hidden things" that belong to God. We will not be able to understand the intricacies of this event until we meet Him face to face. However, that which has been revealed to us through His Word is fascinating enough to challenge our minds and thrill our hearts for a lifetime.

For me, one aspect of the crucifixion that continues to challenge and thrill, is the Biblical truth that the religious leaders carried out their evil will, and God carried out His perfect will, in the same event... Scandalous and Beautiful.

The Bible makes it very clear that the religious leaders sought to kill Jesus. Their hostility toward Him was twofold. First, they believed He was a blasphemer, which was precisely the charge they brought against him that led to His crucifixion. To be fair, the charges were not completely misplaced. His blasphemy was not normal blasphemy. He was not speaking against God. He was not cursing God. Instead, He was saying that He was God. He was claiming to be one with God. Ultimately, He was claiming to be the Christ. Accordingly, if Jesus claimed to be the Christ, and it were not true, then the religious leaders were just in their charges against Him. In their own minds, they were honoring God by doing away with this blasphemer.

The second reason for their hostility toward Him had to do with the Roman threat. We see this vividly in John 11. As the religious leaders gathered to plot against Jesus, it is clear that they feared that Rome might soon come and destroy Israel. These were credible fears. Jesus had had thousands of people listen to Him. There were rumors that He might possibly be the Christ, the long awaited King that would deliver Israel from all her oppressors. And who was the oppressor at this time? Rome. If Rome had sensed a serious rebellion among the people of Israel, they most certainly would have crushed the rebellion by force.

In John 11, as the leaders expressed their concerns about Rome, something very interesting happened. It was scandalous and beautiful. Caiaphas, who was the High Priest, said to them ,"You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish." Now here is the most fascinating part. Regarding Caiaphas' statement, John wrote, "He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad." John makes it very clear that Caiaphas' announcement did not originate from him. He prophesied earlier that year that Jesus would die for Israel. John is showing us that God gave Caiaphas this prophecy. It's tragic that Caiaphas did not understand the prophetic utterances that were coming from his own mouth. He wanted salvation from Rome, but God was delivering salvation from the condemnation of sin.

The way it all played out in the end is mind boggling. Some scholars have questioned the historicity of the Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion because the Gospels claim that the religious leaders went to the Roman Governor to seek capital punishment. These scholars say that Israel retained the right to practice capital punishment on their own. In other words, the Jews did not need Rome's permission to execute stoning. Critical scholars would appeal to the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7 as a proof text. Several answers have been given to this critique such as enforcement restrictions due to the Passover festival. Nevertheless, whether the Jews had to seek the permission of the Roman authorities or not, I would like to make a speculation. I would like to speculate that the Jewish leadership particularly wanted Jesus to be crucified upon the cross rather than stoned. The reason for this goes back to a text to which I alluded in an earlier blog; specifically, Deuteronomy 21:22-23. The Jewish people, and especially the religious leaders, knew the law. They knew that Deuteronomy 21:22-23 says that a man who is hanged on a tree is cursed by God. As the Jewish people continually saw criminals hanging on Roman crosses along the sides of their roads, they must have been constantly reminded of these verses. I would like to speculate that Caiaphas and the religious leaders had this text in mind as they sought the crucifixion of Jesus. They could have killed Jesus by stoning him, but crucifying Jesus would prove to even His most trusted followers that He was not chosen by God. His body, hanging on the tree, proved that He was not chosen. Rather, He was cursed. Here we find scandalous and beautiful meeting again. God had given Caiaphas a prophecy that Jesus would die for Israel. Caiaphas thought this prophecy meant salvation from Rome, but God was delivering salvation from Sin. It is clear that God, in His sovereignty, purposed for Jesus to be crucified on the Cross. But I believe it is also very probable that Caiaphas and the religious leaders also purposed for Jesus to be crucified on the Cross. Here, the intricacy continues even further, for it was both God's intent, and the religious leaders' intent, to prove that Jesus was cursed by God. In the case of the religious leaders, their intent was scandalous, but in the case of God's design, His purpose was beautiful. The religious leaders sought God's curse upon Jesus so that He would be utterly despised and rejected by men. But God placed our curse upon Jesus so that all who believe upon His name could be completely and unconditionally welcomed as the children of God (Gal. 3:13). O how scandalous and beautiful!