Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking Him while they beat Him, and they blindfolded Him and were asking Him, saying, “Prophesy, who is the one who hit You?” And they were saying many other things against Him, blaspheming.
Luke 22:63-65
Introduction
In the midst of Christ’s passion, we have this brief but powerful scene of men holding the condemned Lord prisoner while beating Him, mocking Him, and insulting Him. Scripture calls all of this they committed “blasphemy.”
We see after the resurrection that as the disciples worshiped Jesus, they did so in a way that honored God and so affirmed Jesus as God. In a similar but inverse manner, these men holding Jesus and blaspheming Him also affirms His divinity. That is because just as none is worthy of worship but God, only God is able to be the target of blasphemy.
Thomas Aquinas wrote on blasphemy in his Summa Theologica, stating that it is opposed to any confession of faith because in essence it claims one of three things (which are themselves the same):
- That God is guilty of something sinful
- That God is deficient in something good
- That a creature holds a divine attribute
For the soldiers to commit blasphemy in this case, their words must fit neatly into one of those categories. By denying Jesus’ ability to know which soldier struck Him, they denied the divine attribute of omniscience to Jesus. The only way this could be classified as blasphemy is if Jesus is God.
Mockery of a (false) god
To deny a divine attribute to a mere creature is the furthest thing from blasphemy there is. It affirms God’s holiness and distinguishes Him from His creation. In fact, God Himself does this in Isaiah 41:21-23 when He states this about the false gods Israel had turned to:
“Bring near your case,” Yahweh says. “Bring forward your mighty arguments,” the King of Jacob says. Let them bring it forth and declare to us what is going to take place; as for the former events, declare what they were, that we may establish our heart on them and know their outcome. Or cause us to hear of what is coming; declare the things that are to come afterward, that we may know that you are gods; indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.
Here we see the One true God mocking these false gods, challenging them to perform what only He can perform in order to earn the adoration they have stolen from His people. This is holy and right, because they are false and they are entirely unable to tell us why something in the past has happened. They are unable to predict the future and impose their will. In fact, they are entirely impotent in the face of the true Lord.
But Jesus did not answer the challenges of these men. He did not prove His divinity. If this is the case, then why were their words considered blasphemous?
Only God can atone for sin
They were blasphemous because He did in fact demonstrate His divinity. During Jesus’ ministry, He performed many signs and wonders. He intimately knew those whom He called, and He exercised the power of God. One miracle that comes to mind is the healing of the paralytic in Matthew 9:
And behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”
The scribes observing this were indignant, even proclaiming that Jesus Himself committed blasphemy! That is because the third type of blasphemy is ascribing a divine attribute to a creature. If Jesus is a mere creature, then He has no right to forgive sin. But the Lord’s response to them was to ask, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?” And then He commanded the man to walk. In this, He showed the world that He not only has the authority to heal the body, but also to restore the spirit and forgive a man’s sin.
Because Jesus is God, He can bear the sin of His people and render them truly and justly forgiven. Because Jesus is man, He can represent all of mankind as the second Adam and redeem a people for Himself.
Let us avoid the sin of blasphemy and recognize the magnitude of Jesus’ work in the incarnation and in His suffering. Rejoice that you are redeemed, and praise God for the fact that He is able to achieve things both great and small.
May the Lord bless you and conform you into the image of His Son.
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