And Jesus is just a rock, right? He's just like carrying forward this mission because he doesn't think that Pilate's his enemy. Jesus sure doesn't think Judas is his enemy. He doesn't think the Jewish leaders are his enemy. What Jesus is doing is he's moving towards the cross because he wants to die for these people. He's going to die for Judas. He's going to die for Pilate. He's going to die for the priests. Why? Why would he do that? And there's the powerful passage in Paul the Apostles' letter to the Romans that puts it more perfectly than I could. And so we'll close with these words. It's from Romans chapter 5 and you'll see it up there. Paul says, you see, at just the right time, when we all were still helpless, the Messiah died for the rebels. Very rarely will anyone die for an innocent person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, the Messiah died for us. I can't think of a better set of words to describe the humans who were portrayed in the story. Helpless. Helpless. Like Judas, or Pilate, were the crowds just like helpless and hopeless rebels, selfish, apathetic. Like this is such an accurate portrait of us and of our world. And at the center of the scene stands Jesus, the only innocent person. And who is he and what's he doing? And Paul puts it perfectly. He just says, he is God's love. He's God's love there in the midst of the insanity of this sham of a trial, just quietly living out sacrificial love for one's enemies. And while we were just stuck in the mess of the human condition, God's love become human dies for us. This is Matthew 27. So I don't know what this story raises for you. I don't know which character in the story you see yourself in. I don't know how this makes you reflect on your week or the world or politics or the election or where you buy your jeans. I have no idea. But the one thing that I'm certain that we all must hear from the story is the fact that Jesus of Nazareth, who is called the Messiah, he loves you. And despite your wishy washiness and your apathy and your being misinformed and unwittingly participating in the blood of the innocent, he loves you. And he gave himself for

you and

for me. Thank you for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible. We'll be back with another episode exploring the Gospel of Matthew the next time. So

we'll see you then.