March 23, 2022 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Luke 22:66 “THE SEMBLANCE OF LEGALITY”

 

MIDWEEK LENT 4

March 23, 2022

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Luke 22:66

 

“THE SEMBLANCE OF LEGALITY”

 

          We are continuing to look at crucial hours in the Passion history of our Lord. Those crucial hours are times when it appears God’s plan of salvation hangs in the balance. Things could go one way or another. Today we look at a time when there was a semblance of legality. Synonyms for semblance are an appearance, an impression or a veneer. I think you get the idea. When you say something has semblance it looks like it, but it really isn’t. Here is what happened.

 

Luke 22:66 “As soon as it was day, the council of the elders of the people met together, both the chief priests and experts in the law. They brought him into their Sanhedrin.” 

 

At first glance there doesn’t seem to be anything special here. The sun has risen on the day we call Good Friday. The chief priests and experts of the law brought Jesus before the Sanhedrin, the full Jewish religious ruling council, to put Him on trial. To get a better understanding we need to know what happened under the cover of darkness before this. Jesus’ real trial. That was the one where they looked for evidence that Jesus had done something deserving the death penalty. But they couldn’t find any. That was the one where they brought witnesses to testify against Jesus, but no two of them could agree. That was the one where the frustrated High Priest finally asked Jesus if He was the Messiah to which Jesus honestly answered, “I AM.” That’s when they condemned Jesus to death, spit on Him, blindfolded Him, slapped Him and hit Him.

          So what’s up with this second trial? Ah, the semblance of legality. You see, it was illegal for the Sanhedrin to meet at night. Everything was supposed to be done decently and in order. Everything was supposed to be done out in the open. The first trial was illegal. To make it look like their decision was legal as soon as it was day they met together again. I think you can see what was going on here. A cover up. They were trying to cover their bases, cover their tracks, cover everything else you try to cover, when you know you are doing wrong. They would make it look like they had done it right. A semblance, an impression, a veneer of legality when it was not!

          Wasn’t that just awful what they did? Doing wrong and trying to cover it up? Yes it was. Just like it is awful when we do the same and we do the same, don’t we? We try to cover up our sin. Students, when you don’t have your work done and you say, “I left it home. I forgot. I did it. I don’t know where it is.” Surely nobody really says, “The dog ate it,” do they? Sometimes it is true that we forget something at home but it isn’t always. Every lie that comes out of our mouth is an attempt to cover up our sin. Why do you use social media apps that don’t keep a record of what you sent? Are you trying to hide something? Cover it up? Is there some reason you are clearing your browsing history all the time? Deleting text message conversations? It’s really quite simple. If you have to hide it, you already know it’s wrong. That’s why you’re trying to cover it up.

          But you can’t. All our efforts to cover up sin don’t work, anymore than the bums who presided over Jesus’ fake trial had it work. Their illegality is written down in the book that has the most reads ever! God knew. Just like He knows with your lies and truth shading, your snapchats, instagrams, tiktoks and deletes. The sin is there despite the semblance of legality. You can’t cover up your sin. And if you become like the chief priests and experts in the law and reject Jesus as your Savior all your cover ups will be exposed on the last day of Judgment.

          That would be a shame because while all our efforts to cover up our sins don’t work Jesus’ efforts did! That’s why Jesus let Himself be put on trial—twice! It started with the first cover up. Remember what Adam and Eve did when they first sinned? They sewed fig leaves together to try to cover themselves up when for the first time in their lives they felt shame. Then they tried to cover up their sin by hiding from God when He came to them in the garden. Then they tried to cover up their personal guilt by playing the blame game. But, more importantly, do you remember what God did? He swooped in and promised a Savior who would cover sin for good.

          Jesus is that Savior. But to be our Savior He would have to perfectly obey, have no sins of his own to cover up, and then let Himself be sacrificed on the cross where He would be covered with the sins of the whole world. So Jesus let the first illegal trial go on without protesting, filing a lawsuit or appealing to the Supreme Court. He did not ask Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea to call their leaders to account. He did not hire some fancy lawyer to argue his case, “If the trial’s at night, it ain’t right!” He calmly endured the first trial and the next. As a sheep before her shearers is silent, He did not open His mouth. He had work to do. A cover up. And so another crucial hour passed as Jesus walked to the cross. Another opportunity for Jesus to end His upcoming suffering but He didn’t. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. He loves you that much. And when your own crucial hour comes and you stand before God to face judgment you will have no sin. Jesus has covered them up, not with a semblance of legality but by doing things the right way, by the Book.

          And that has changed things for us.  Now instead of trying to cover our sins by lying and hiding we learn to confess them and God forgives. Instead of trying to have a semblance or veneer of Christianity about us where we outwardly do the right things we can practice true Christianity where Jesus’ love for us motivates our love for each other, where Jesus’ forgiveness of us moves us to forgive each other and where our daily living is not done to please the letter of the law but to follow the law of love. After all we get to love, because He first loved us. Amen.