Turn to Mark 14 in your Bibles please. This message is called, “Jesus Handed Over.” It will give us another window to look at the story of Jesus’s death, a story you already know.
We will look one Greek word, an ordinary word that meant “to hand over.” The word is paradidomi (para DEE dō mee). Paradidomi was common in biblical Greek. In the message today “hand over” has a negative meaning, but the word itself was also used positively. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes, “I handed over to you what I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and he rose the third day according to the Scriptures.” Paul handed over the gospel. So “handed over” gets used in different ways.
No English version translates this word as “hand over” ever time, nor should it. But in this message I will translate it as “hand over” every time, so you can pick up a certain sequence.
1 Judas Handed Jesus Over to the Council
Biblical Greek does not have a word that means “betray.” If your friend hands you over to your enemies, if someone you love gives you to your enemies, we say you’ve been betrayed. But in Greek they just said, “your friend handed you over.”
Mark 14:10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to hand Jesus over to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. A few verses later…
Mark 14:18 While they were reclining at the table eating, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will hand me over—one who is eating with me.” They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?” “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. The Son of Man will go, just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who hands over the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
After eating the Passover, Jesus and the Eleven go to Gethsemane. Jesus knows that Judas will hand him over, and Jesus knows that Judas will know how to find him, which he did. Jesus did not avoid what Judas and the Council were up to. On the other hand, we know from his Gethsemane prayers that Jesus found it very difficult to put himself in the hands of his enemies.
Mark 14:42 After the Gethsemane prayers, Jesus said, “Rise! Let us go! The one handing me over is here!” Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders.
Now the one handing him over had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard.” So Judas handed Jesus over to the Jewish Council.
2 The Jewish Council Handed Jesus Over to Pilate the Roman Governor
The thing about Judas handing over Jesus to the Council is that Jesus keeps being handed over. The Council took Jesus from Judas and when they were finished, they handed Jesus over to Pilate the Roman governor.
Mark 15:1 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate was reluctant to condemn Jesus. He was pretty sure that Jesus was innocent. He tried to get Jesus released. Jews were always rebelling against the Romans, and there were always Jews in prison for attacking the Romans. To the Romans, they were criminals, but to the Jews, they were heroes. So every Passover, Pilate would release the one Jewish prisoner that the Jews most wanted released, as a favour to them.
Mark 15:9–10 “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed over Jesus to him.
In John (18:30), the Jewish leaders answer Pilate, “If Jesus were not a criminal,” the priests replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.” So Pilate interviewed Jesus. (John 18:35) “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied to Jesus. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me.”
Just as we are repeatedly told that Judas handed Jesus over to the Council, so we are repeatedly told that the Council handed Jesus over to Pilate the Roman governor. Jesus predicted this Mark 10:33 – “We are going up to Jerusalem,” Jesus said, “and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. [That is what Judas did.] They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles.”
There is a deep humiliation in this. Jesus was a Jew. His ministry focussed almost entirely on Jews, his own people. He was the Jewish Messiah, the true king of the Jews, and their Savior. Not only did they not want him, they handed him over to the Gentiles to get rid of him.
The Jewish Council handed Jesus over to Pilate the Roman Governor
3 Pilate Handed Jesus Over to the Crucifiers
We’re still working with the same word here, paradidomi.
Mark 15:15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
Matthew (27:26) reads this way: Then Pilate released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
Luke (23:25) Pilate released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and handed over Jesus to their will.
In John (19:16), Finally Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.
In all Four Gospels, Pilate handed Jesus over reluctantly. Pilate could not see how Jesus was a threat to Rome or had broken Roman law. But the Jews pressured him, and he gave in. In the end, Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified.
Judas handed Jesus over to the Jewish Council, the Council handed Jesus over to the Pilate the Roman governor, and Pilate handed Jesus over to the crucifiers, the soldiers. Jesus gets passed along from one to the next. He’s not in control.
4 God the Father Handed Jesus Over to His Enemies – Romans 4:25
In Romans 4 (v25) Paul writes, “Jesus was handed over for our transgressions.” Jesus was handed over for our transgressions. Who handed Jesus over? God the Father handed Jesus over. The Father led Jesus into this. Why did God the Father hand Jesus over? Because of our transgressions.
To whom did the Father hand Jesus over? To Judas and the Jewish Council and Pilate and the crucifiers. The Father handed Jesus over to those people, to that sequence. God the Father put Jesus in their hands so that they could keep handing him over and get rid of him.
Romans 8:31–32 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
God handed Jesus over, his own Son. Handed over to whom? To Judas and the Jewish Council and the Roman governor and the crucifiers. God handed Jesus over to his enemies. Why? For us all. God handed Jesus over for us all, and that’s how we are freed from our sins and given eternal life.
In Genesis 22, when Abraham bound Isaac and was about to sacrifice him, Abraham had a knife in his hand. That’s how he would take Isaac’s life. When Jesus died, the knife was Judas and the Jewish Council and Pilate the governor and the crucifiers. All those together were God’s knife.
Since the Reformation, there has been a teaching around that God poured out his wrath against sin onto Jesus. We are saved, they say, because Jesus absorbed God’s wrath in our place. Have nothing to do with that teaching, people. It never crossed the minds of the ancient church to understand salvation that way. Jesus did die in our place, but the wrath teaching takes the logic of substitution much farther than Scripture takes us.
Jesus himself had no sense at all that this wrath was coming on him, and it’s just not taught in the Bible, anywhere. I will read from Isaiah 53 (vv5–6, 10).
He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all…
It was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.
The LORD makes his life an offering for sin.
This is all true just as it is written here. God made all this happen by handing Jesus over to Judas and the Council and the Governor and the crucifiers. It was God’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. That is true. God did that by handing Jesus over to his enemies. God did make his life an offering for sin. God used Christ’s enemies as his knife. That’s how God made him an offering for sin. And that’s how we are saved.
5 Jesus Handed Himself Over to the Father’s Will
Ephesian 5:1–2 Walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
To whom did Jesus hand himself over? Jesus handed himself over to his Father and his Father’s will. “Not my will but yours be done.” Jesus knew, when he handed himself over to his Father, that the Father would hand him over to his enemies. To Jesus this was dreadful, but that is what he did.
Why did he hand himself over to his Father’s will? Because he loved us. Because he loved us, he wanted to be a fragrant offering and pleasing sacrifice to God. And that’s what he was.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her.
A few lines later, Paul tells wives to submit to their husbands. Submitting to their husbands offends some women, and I don’t blame them. Husbands can be very unpleasant, and I surely include myself. But women, listen: would you rather be crucified? What is Paul’s picture of a loving husband? A man kindly ruling his household from the head of the table? No.
A husband loving his wife is a man nailed to a cross so that he can be good to his wife. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her. Christ handed himself over to crucifixion.
But this is not a sermon on marriage. Christ loved the church and he handed himself over for her. He handed himself over to his Father, who he knew would hand him over to his enemies. The enemies would punish him and kill him. Why did Christ hand himself over to his Father’s will? Because he loved the church. Because he loved the church.
Summary: Judas handed Jesus over to the Jewish Council. The Council handed Jesus over to Pilate the Roman governor. Pilate handed Jesus over to the soldiers to flog him and crucify him. Behind all this, the Father handed Jesus over to his enemies because of our transgressions. Jesus handed himself over to the Father’s will because he loved us, he loved the church. Amen.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ, to you be glory and power for ever and ever. You are the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. You love us, and have freed us from our sins by your blood. You have made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve your God and Father—to you Lord Jesus be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
BENEDICTION: May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. Go in God’s peace to love and serve the Lord.