beyond injustice

And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.”

Mark 15:2

Looking in on the trial of Jesus, as Mark records it, we see the injustice and unfairness Jesus suffered for us. He did nothing worthy of execution, yet at every turn the religious and civil authorities lead Him to His death. Pilate is the climax of this injustice. As the Roman governor he had the final say and he found no real reason for Jesus to be found guilty of capital offenses that compelled an execution order. But the crowd was demanding. And Pilate was motivated most by political expediency. And so, to please an angry crowd, he handed Jesus over to the death squad.

Ironically, this sort of thing is why Jesus came to give up His life. The complexities of sin are woven through all of human existence and experience. Sin complicates individual lives and social structures. Sin hurts us in about every way possible. Sin makes every human structure flawed and broken. We should not be surprised that we’d see Jesus the victim of a broken system even as His death and resurrection will bring victory over that broken system.

Jesus died in a broken system, betrayed by a broken system, misunderstood and lied about in that broken system, so that He could as King of Kings finally break the power of that broken system, making all things new in Him. In Jesus, all things are new. And nothing in this broken world will stop what Jesus has done and is now doing!