There are many unjust cases in history, but there is one unjust case that was committed 2,000 years ago, which completely changed the history of mankind. The story begins with the Heyday of the Roman Empire.
[Roman soldiers fighting the Parthians]
Rome, a republican state originating in the Apennine Peninsula, absorbed and inherited Greek culture, experienced the southern conquest and internal turmoil, and finally in 27 BC, Augustus (Octavian) achieved unification, established the imperial system, and became the world's large empire spanning three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe. The territory of Roman rule stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Two Rivers Valley to the east, Egypt and North Africa to the south, and Gaul and Britain to the north.
【The Territory of the Roman Empire in Its Heyday】
The Romans ruled the peoples they ruled softly, granting certain autonomy to the ruled areas while ensuring the interests of the empire, and dividing up some indigenous kings to facilitate spiritual rule over these areas. Among them, in the Palestine region of the Near East, the ancient Jewish people have reached a crossroads in history. This nation has an extremely long history, even dating back to the first person on earth, Adam. They have lived in Judea (known as Canaan in ancient times) for nearly 1500 years. In the torrent of world history, this nation has gone through several ups and downs, from unification to division, and then through the Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire, and the Macedonian Empire enslaved and ruled. Especially after Alexander's death, his four generals divided up the vast Macedonian Empire, and the Jews fell under the brutal rule of the Seleucid dynasty. After persecution and revolt, the Jews ushered in a brief period of independence. However, the good times did not last long, and the Romans came. Eventually, they fell into the hands of augustus's Roman Empire. Now they face a historic choice: rebel against the Roman Empire's colonization or submit to its rule?
Just as they were hesitating, a man appeared.
Nazareth of Galilee
This man was neither a prince or a rich merchant at the time. He was the son of an ordinary carpenter. He traveled around Judea with his disciples, living on good fortune, helping the most in need and healing the sick. Surprisingly, he was neither a doctor nor ever used medicine. Some of the patients he treated were incurable even today. He cured diseases such as blindness, lameness, fever, blood leakage, cannabis, ghostly, and even dead people. In addition to healing the sick, he also performed many other miracles. For example, he fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. But the most of his time was spent teaching his disciples, teaching people:
"The kingdom of heaven is near, and you should repent!"
He exhorted people to renounce anger and adultery, and to stop the popular social diseases such as arbitrarily sabotaging marriages, repaying evil with evil, and taking false oaths. People are called upon to be righteous, merciful, harmonious, and to uphold holy conduct and set an example for the world.
He said, "You are the salt of the world. If salt loses its taste, how can it be salty again? It was useless later, but it was left outside and trampled on. You are the light of the world. The city is built on a mountain and cannot be hidden. People light lamps, not under the bucket, but on a lampstand, and illuminates the family. Let your light shine before men in this way, that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father in heaven. ”
The miracles and teachings he performed quickly earned him fame, and many people came to follow him.
However, his soaring popularity attracted the attention of the religious elites of the time. At that time, there were three kinds of forces in the ruling class, the first was the Roman government, which was the most powerful, in charge of taxes, law, law, and law; second, the local kings, usually exercising autonomy in a demarcated area; and finally, the local Jewish religious elite, composed mainly of priests and scribes (clergy), who controlled the faith of the people, controlled the national parliament, had intra-religious and partial civil trial powers, but did not have the right to carry out the death penalty.
This man touched the interests of the religious elite in at least the following ways
First, he declared that it was okay to do good deeds on the Sabbath (Saturday). This is understandable today, but at the time, the Jews extended the traditional Mosaic Law (the law was originally: no work could be done on the Sabbath) and did nothing on the Sabbath, even if it was cooking on a fire. The Jews severely rebuked him for healing on the Sabbath.
Second, he forbade people to trade in the temple. For he believed that the temple could only be a place of prayer and pouring out to God, not defiled by worldly business. But the trading in the temple was a business controlled by the priests, a source of their wealth.
Third, his prestige grew higher and higher, even surpassing their religious status. In contrast to the formalized dogmas of the magnates, his teachings revived people's enthusiasm for faith. Moreover, with so many people following him, there was a risk of triggering an uprising against Rome, by which time they would be implicated, regardless of the outcome.
Fourth, he denounced the beliefs of the religious elites, exposed their hypocrisy, retained only the form of faith, and did not accept the essence of faith from the heart. He stood on a commanding height higher than the priests and scribes.
Fifth, and most importantly, the priests and scribes seem to have heard the wind, and he is Christ (meaning anointed king)! That is, the prophets of all the ages had predicted that a king would come out of them and restore the glory of the ancient Kingdom of Judea. They didn't want to believe this because they couldn't accept a king who didn't protect the interests of the priests! But they were afraid that the people would believe him, because if the people embraced him as king, their position and interests would be damaged.
[The center of the ancient Jewish faith, the Second Temple (model), destroyed in 70 AD, only one wall remains, the current Wailing Wall]
So, without the authorization of the Roman authorities, the priests took advantage of the night to arrest him and interrogate him. They accused him of many things with inferences of guilt, but they could not confront him, even contradicted each other, and had no evidence. Finally, the high priest came forward and asked the most fundamental question, whether he was Christ, the Son of God. He admitted.
This man is the Jesus called Christ!
The high priest said, "Enough is enough, and with this one article he will be condemned to death, for he has falsely claimed the name of God." So they sent him to the Roman court, but roman law did not have the sin of "falsely claiming the name of God," so the priests and scribes gave him a crime: preparing to become king. Roman Inspector Pilate tried the case, and Jesus told him that his kingdom was not on earth, and he was not king on earth. Pilate said to him, "So, are you king?" Jesus replied, "You say I am king." I was born for this, and I came into the world for this purpose, especially to bear witness to the truth. Whoever is the truth will listen to Me. (John 18:37). Pilate disagreed, laughing at what the truth was. There is neither evidence nor confession that Jesus wanted to revolt and become king, and that he should be released under Roman law. Pilate wanted to set Jesus free, but the Jewish priests and scribes threatened Pilate that anyone who claimed to be king was betraying Caesar (the Roman Emperor). If Pilate had released Jesus, he would not have been a loyal servant of Caesar. The chief priest and the scribes provoked the crowd to demand that Pilate crucify Jesus.
It was a form of torture that executed slaves and rebels, crucified people's hands and feet, and made people suffocate due to pain that could not support their bodies. Pilate, fearful of chaos and unwilling to offend the local powers, compromised.
In this way, under the influence of various interests and powers in the world, an unjust case was born. Jesus was crucified for the crime of being king of the Jews.
[This is an archaeological excavation of the cross nail, made in the 1st to 2nd centuries AD, made of wrought iron, is the ancient Romans used to nail prisoners to the cross of torture, about 25 cm long, weighing 325 grams]
He did not sin, but was secretly taken to trial by the Sanhedrin; he did not break Roman law, but he was crucified according to Roman law; the only reason he was hated was that he confessed that he was the Christ, the future King of heaven. He came to his own place, but his own people did not receive him. As the prophets prophesied hundreds of years ago:
The cow knows its master,
The donkey knows the owner's groove,
Israel is not known;
But My people are not paying attention.
(Isaiah 1:3)
His unjust case concerned all generations, and because of his grievances he ransomed hundreds of millions of people. He was innocently killed so that the sinful world would not be judged and convicted. Not only was he crucified by the forces of his time, but all the people had a share in his wrongdoings, because all the people of the world had sinned, and he died precisely to bear our transgressions. Today, his grievances have been done, he has been resurrected, he has ascended to heaven, and he has gained authority. In the future, He will come again to judge those who have rejected Him, for:
He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe in Him is already condemned because he does not believe in the name of God's only begotten Son. The light came into the world, and it was here that the world condemned them because their works were evil, and did not love the light, but loved the darkness. (John 3:18-19)