Here in the United States of America we are “guaranteed” a fair, a just, and a speedy trial. We can be tried either by a judge or by, what we call, a jury of our peers, although having been on jury duty, more often than not it is not our peers who become our jury, but people who know nothing about us at all, which I guess is better for the one on trial. Unfortunately, our judicial system has waned in its glory over the past number of years, probably due to such factors as too many people needing to be judged, judges becoming corrupted, as well as lawyers and police looking out for themselves. Certainly the old adage is true, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” But things are not really different today than they were in Jesus’ day.
In the case of Jesus, or we might say in the case of Jesus versus the Sanhedrin, not only did Jesus face a religious trail, but because the Jewish council of the Sanhedrin was not able to convict someone and sentence them to the death penalty, which is the sentence they were seeking, even before He was found guilty, but because they were under Roman rule, Jesus also had to face the civil court.
First, Jesus faced the religious court. He was brought before Annas, who had been high priest and who was the father-in-law of the now high priest. This was done out of respect for Annas and today we might say that this was the “lower” court. Perhaps it was because Jesus knew there was a major confrontation coming He was not as cooperative with Annas.
After Annas confronted Jesus, getting his kicks if you will, he sent Him to stand trial before Caiaphas. Now, keep in mind, the group that was trying Jesus were the ruling group of the children of Israel. These were the “elite” if you will who had the power, at least they had the religious power among the children of Israel. You might would think that this group of responsible people might at least attempt to act responsibly, especially in such an important case. Yet, although a night trial was illegal, Caiaphas knew that he did not want to attract Jesus’ supporters, nor the civil authorities, so the trial went on.
The call for witnesses against Jesus went out and although the number of witnesses was great, their testimony did not agree. Now, the least we can say for this “kangaroo” court, in their favor is that they knew they could not convict Jesus with only one witness. So, they tried as hard as they could to get any of two the witnesses to say something remotely similar, but they were unable, so Caiaphas tries another way to get a conviction. Notice that it does not matter to Caiaphas, nor to the Sanhedrien what is the charge, because they have already judged Jesus as guilty. At this time they are simply looking for a charge with which to charge Him, and especially to charge Him in the civil court so that they might get the declaration of capital punishment against Jesus. So, Caiaphas “traps” Jesus in His own words, thus setting up the religious charge of blasphemy. Jesus claims to be God and that is blasphemy and that is sin, and that is a conviction.
The Sanhedrien rules that Jesus has committed blasphemy and the sentence according to their law is death. Unfortunately, as we have said, because they are under Roman rule they are not able to carry out their conviction without the sentence from the civil government so the civil trial is set.
At the civil trail Jesus is brought before Pilate, but knowing that they cannot get a sentence of death for a religious charge of blasphemy, they accuse Jesus of treason. Now, especially to the Romans, treason was a serious offense and was punishable by death. A treasonous person was a threat to the Romans, to the country, to all involved and must be dealt with in the strictest of ways. Pilate questioned Jesus, but found Him guilty of nothing of which He was being charged.
Pilate found out that Jesus was from Galilee and that was Herod’s territory. So, rather than get in trouble and attempting to pass the buck, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod for him to make a ruling. Interestingly enough we are told that Pilate and Herod were not necessarily friends until this event. Herod had hoped to see Jesus, but really for no other reason than he wanted to see Jesus do a “magic” trick. So, Jesus was brought before Herod and as Herod questioned Him, Jesus made no defense for Himself, much to Herod’s surprise and dismay.
Herod got nothing out of nor from Jesus, so he sent Him back to Pilate. One of my favorite exchanges happens when Jesus is brought back before Pilate and that is the question of “What is truth?” I guess that is a favorite exchange because that same questions comes up so often in our world today. The answer to “What is truth?” is so simple and so clear as Jesus quite well states when He says, “I am the Way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus is truth and apart from Jesus there is and can be no truth. Truth was standing right in front of Pilate and he could not see it. Even today, we have such a problem with truth because we do not know Jesus and apart from Jesus there is and can be no truth. Anyway, after questioning Jesus, and from the prompting of the crowd, Pilate makes his judgement. He washes his hands and turns Jesus over to let the Jews have their way with Him, which is to put Him to death.
What does this mean? Perhaps there is a bit of irony in this whole trial sequence. Remember, Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets and He had fulfilled all the law and all prophets perfectly and completely, for us, in our place, because we cannot. Even more, Jesus came as the embodiment of the whole nation of Israel. What the whole nation of Israel could not do, live as God’s people, Jesus did, perfectly. Of course, that was not why He was on trial. He was not on trial for fulfilling the law and the prophets. He was on trial for blasphemy and treason. Here again is a bit more irony, how can Jesus, who is God, blaspheme Himself for calling Himself God?
More than Jesus being on trial for blasphemy and for treason, was the fact that He had challenged the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jewish council, and not that He had challenged them, but He was a perceived threat to them. He was a threat to their perceived positions of power and authority.
But most important is the fact that Jesus was on trial for us, in our place. We are sinners, we are blasphemers. We are guilty. Yes, we are even treasonous. We rebel against God. We sin. We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission, by not doing what we ought to be doing and sins of commission, doing those things we should not be doing. We sin and every inclination of our heart is evil all the time. Jesus, took our sins, all our sins and all the sins of all people, of all places, of all times upon Himself. He who knew no sin became sin for us. And so, He was on trial for our sins.
And the judgement, death, which should have been our sentence, was placed on Jesus so that He was condemned in our stead.
Irony of ironies. What we deserved, Jesus suffered. What Jesus gave up and what He returned to, eternal glory, is ours all because of His great love for us. Jesus traded our sins for His righteousness. And even today, even though we continue to sin, the price for all our sins has already been paid. This gift of forgiveness does not give us license to sin, but it does give us hope and comfort and certainly it moves us to repent. And it moves us to rejoice and give thanks to God for what a great, loving, gift giving God we have. We have forgiveness of sins, earned and paid for by Jesus and given to us by Him so that we have life and salvation. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
In the case of Jesus, or we might say in the case of Jesus versus the Sanhedrin, not only did Jesus face a religious trail, but because the Jewish council of the Sanhedrin was not able to convict someone and sentence them to the death penalty, which is the sentence they were seeking, even before He was found guilty, but because they were under Roman rule, Jesus also had to face the civil court.
First, Jesus faced the religious court. He was brought before Annas, who had been high priest and who was the father-in-law of the now high priest. This was done out of respect for Annas and today we might say that this was the “lower” court. Perhaps it was because Jesus knew there was a major confrontation coming He was not as cooperative with Annas.
After Annas confronted Jesus, getting his kicks if you will, he sent Him to stand trial before Caiaphas. Now, keep in mind, the group that was trying Jesus were the ruling group of the children of Israel. These were the “elite” if you will who had the power, at least they had the religious power among the children of Israel. You might would think that this group of responsible people might at least attempt to act responsibly, especially in such an important case. Yet, although a night trial was illegal, Caiaphas knew that he did not want to attract Jesus’ supporters, nor the civil authorities, so the trial went on.
The call for witnesses against Jesus went out and although the number of witnesses was great, their testimony did not agree. Now, the least we can say for this “kangaroo” court, in their favor is that they knew they could not convict Jesus with only one witness. So, they tried as hard as they could to get any of two the witnesses to say something remotely similar, but they were unable, so Caiaphas tries another way to get a conviction. Notice that it does not matter to Caiaphas, nor to the Sanhedrien what is the charge, because they have already judged Jesus as guilty. At this time they are simply looking for a charge with which to charge Him, and especially to charge Him in the civil court so that they might get the declaration of capital punishment against Jesus. So, Caiaphas “traps” Jesus in His own words, thus setting up the religious charge of blasphemy. Jesus claims to be God and that is blasphemy and that is sin, and that is a conviction.
The Sanhedrien rules that Jesus has committed blasphemy and the sentence according to their law is death. Unfortunately, as we have said, because they are under Roman rule they are not able to carry out their conviction without the sentence from the civil government so the civil trial is set.
At the civil trail Jesus is brought before Pilate, but knowing that they cannot get a sentence of death for a religious charge of blasphemy, they accuse Jesus of treason. Now, especially to the Romans, treason was a serious offense and was punishable by death. A treasonous person was a threat to the Romans, to the country, to all involved and must be dealt with in the strictest of ways. Pilate questioned Jesus, but found Him guilty of nothing of which He was being charged.
Pilate found out that Jesus was from Galilee and that was Herod’s territory. So, rather than get in trouble and attempting to pass the buck, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod for him to make a ruling. Interestingly enough we are told that Pilate and Herod were not necessarily friends until this event. Herod had hoped to see Jesus, but really for no other reason than he wanted to see Jesus do a “magic” trick. So, Jesus was brought before Herod and as Herod questioned Him, Jesus made no defense for Himself, much to Herod’s surprise and dismay.
Herod got nothing out of nor from Jesus, so he sent Him back to Pilate. One of my favorite exchanges happens when Jesus is brought back before Pilate and that is the question of “What is truth?” I guess that is a favorite exchange because that same questions comes up so often in our world today. The answer to “What is truth?” is so simple and so clear as Jesus quite well states when He says, “I am the Way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus is truth and apart from Jesus there is and can be no truth. Truth was standing right in front of Pilate and he could not see it. Even today, we have such a problem with truth because we do not know Jesus and apart from Jesus there is and can be no truth. Anyway, after questioning Jesus, and from the prompting of the crowd, Pilate makes his judgement. He washes his hands and turns Jesus over to let the Jews have their way with Him, which is to put Him to death.
What does this mean? Perhaps there is a bit of irony in this whole trial sequence. Remember, Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets and He had fulfilled all the law and all prophets perfectly and completely, for us, in our place, because we cannot. Even more, Jesus came as the embodiment of the whole nation of Israel. What the whole nation of Israel could not do, live as God’s people, Jesus did, perfectly. Of course, that was not why He was on trial. He was not on trial for fulfilling the law and the prophets. He was on trial for blasphemy and treason. Here again is a bit more irony, how can Jesus, who is God, blaspheme Himself for calling Himself God?
More than Jesus being on trial for blasphemy and for treason, was the fact that He had challenged the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jewish council, and not that He had challenged them, but He was a perceived threat to them. He was a threat to their perceived positions of power and authority.
But most important is the fact that Jesus was on trial for us, in our place. We are sinners, we are blasphemers. We are guilty. Yes, we are even treasonous. We rebel against God. We sin. We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission, by not doing what we ought to be doing and sins of commission, doing those things we should not be doing. We sin and every inclination of our heart is evil all the time. Jesus, took our sins, all our sins and all the sins of all people, of all places, of all times upon Himself. He who knew no sin became sin for us. And so, He was on trial for our sins.
And the judgement, death, which should have been our sentence, was placed on Jesus so that He was condemned in our stead.
Irony of ironies. What we deserved, Jesus suffered. What Jesus gave up and what He returned to, eternal glory, is ours all because of His great love for us. Jesus traded our sins for His righteousness. And even today, even though we continue to sin, the price for all our sins has already been paid. This gift of forgiveness does not give us license to sin, but it does give us hope and comfort and certainly it moves us to repent. And it moves us to rejoice and give thanks to God for what a great, loving, gift giving God we have. We have forgiveness of sins, earned and paid for by Jesus and given to us by Him so that we have life and salvation. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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