The Jewish Trial Lesson Five - :12-14; 19-24

There is something about courtroom trials that capture the interest of people. Yet, no trial has so challenged and captivated us like the trial of . Walter M. Chandler, a former member of the New York bar of lawyers and author of an excellent book on the trial of Jesus, has written, "These [other] trials, one and all, were tame and commonplace, compared with the trial and of the Galilean peasant, Jesus of . These were earthly courts. The trial of the Nazarene was before the high tribunals of both heaven and earth." In this lesson, we shall examine the Scriptural record of the trial of Jesus.

In our last lesson, we investigated the betrayal and arrest of Jesus as Judas led a mob consisting of a cohort of elite Roman soldiers, a contingent of the Temple police, along with the chief priests and to the Garden of Gethsemane where Christ is waiting with His disciples. Christ initiated a confrontation with the mob in which He willingly presents himself to them for arrest.

I. The Captors (v. 12)

This is an interesting multitude that has come to arrest Jesus, and they provide a good illustration of the world's sin and rejection of Christ. Within this multitude there are Gentiles and Jews, the heathen and religious, soldiers and servants, and priests and Pharisees. Though they may not all have all things in common, they do have one thing in common, and that is that they are totally blind to the incomparable qualities of the Son of . They are insensible and unmoved, untouched by the tremendous display of the power of Jesus Christ that they have just witnessed.

Notice that in verse 12 they "bound Him." There were probably several reasons for this. It was common practice with a captive to bind him in order to secure him.

But beyond these two there is certainly a very beautiful fulfillment of typical noted in Psalm 118:27b and Genesis 22:9. By being bound, Jesus fulfills the type - bound in preparation as a sin offering.

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Imagine it. The Son of God standing there bound before His captors. The Creator bound by creatures. The Sinless bound by the sinful.

He was bound in another sense: what bound Him was love. What bound Him was the will of God. What bound Him was the Word of God that must be fulfilled. What bound Him was the accomplishment of the course set before Him.

After His binding, Jesus was immediately taken to the house of .

II. The Conspirators (vv. 13-14)

In Lesson Three, we named several conspirators. In today’s lesson we will acquaint ourselves with a few more. In verses 13 and 14 we are introduced to two despicable degenerates - Annas and .

Jesus had at least two trial venues - a religious trial and a civil trial.

The religious trial had three parts:

 The arraignment before Annas  The meeting with Caiaphas and the at night  The second meeting with Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin at daybreak

After the religious trial, Jesus went to the civil trial, which also had three phases:

 Before Pilate  Before Herod  Back to Pilate

So, these are the three phases of each of the trials. This entire mockery of a trial had no evidence from beginning to end. It was a meaningless charade.

A. The ___Characters______of the Conspiracy

1. ____Annas______

According to John 18:13 Caiaphas is the “high priest”; yet, in verse 19, Annas is called the "high priest." The question that arises is: Why is Annas called the high priest as well as Caiaphas?

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Annas legitimately had the right to be high priest. In fact, he was officially high priest during the years A.D. 6 to 15 - the childhood years of Jesus. But in the year A.D. 15 he was pressured by the Romans to bail out of the office of high priest because they wanted it to be a puppet office and Annas was too powerful to be used as a puppet.

In order to be high priest, all that one had to do was kneel on the ground and kiss Rome's hem… and come up with a lot of money to buy the office. Annas was so rich that, once deposed, he just continued to buy the office of high priest for his relatives. Annas was so powerful that when he was removed from office, seven of his successors were relatives: five were his sons, one was his grandson, and Caiaphas was his son-in-law. So Annas may not have been high priest officially, but he was running the show.

Annas “earned” his money by being in charge of the Temple concessions. When he was removed from office in A.D. 15, he took control of the concessions in the Temple. Annas was the biggest cog in the ecclesiastical machine of . He was immensely rich and consequently could buy his way into important offices. So he remained the power behind the scene.

As history has indicated to us, at time they sacrificed a quarter of a million lambs. That was a lot of money. Annas made his money in extortion. In fact, the entire Temple ground became known as "The Bazaar of Annas."

Now, guess who had twice messed up Annas's operation? None other than Jesus. At the beginning of His ministry, He entered the court and chased everyone out (John 2:13-17), and then did it again at the close of His ministry (:12-13). This did not make Him very popular with Annas. Annas was not about to sit idly by and allow it to go unpunished.

2. ____Caiaphas______

Caiaphas actually served as High Priest for more than 20 years – and evidently had gained the favor of Rome. Caiaphas was certainly corrupt. And, it was under the corrupt leadership and heavy–handed leadership of Caiaphas that the Temple concessions began to thrive. He charged vendors licensing fees and gathered a commission as well. They had made Caiaphas a wealthy man. And, Caiaphas hated Jesus. He was already plotting to get rid of Him; he was only waiting for the right moment.

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B. The __Criminality______of the Conspiracy (vv. 19-24)

It is important to understand that the trial of Jesus Christ took place within what legal scholars say was the most advanced, most just and most exacting of any existing legal system. And yet, the trial was a mockery, a sham, a conspiracy, a lynching. We cannot fully appreciate what happened and what Scripture records unless we have some rudimentary understanding of the Jewish legal system. Let me just list a few of the points and you will recognize that some of them coincide with our own legal principles.

1. When anyone was brought to trial he could not be required to testify against himself.

2. All evidence must be presented from two or more witnesses in order to convict.

3. The witnesses were also to have explicitly warned the defendant of the potential legal consequence of his or her crime immediately before the crime was committed.

4. A man is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The burden of proof was on the court.

5. Trials involving capital offenses could only be held publicly during daylight, never privately at night.

6. Judges were never to seek to condemn the accused but were to take his side and seek every means for his acquittal.

7. If a guilty vote were registered, sentencing must be postponed at least one day.

The reasoning behind this principle was so that each man could go home, fast and pray and consider whether something had been overlooked which might result in acquittal. Even then delays were sought.

But the humane and indulgent spirit of Hebrew law continued to operate and deferred immediate sentence. The judges continued to deliberate.

Even as the death march left the great hall of the Sanhedrin, the judges would continue to seek for new arguments. If one occurred, the procession was immediately recalled and the new evidence considered. The desire was to find the perpetrator innocent if possible.

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8. A prisoner was never to be struck.

9. Capital cases could only be heard before the Sanhedrin.

10. The Sanhedrin could never initiate a charge.

11. A unanimous vote by the court allowed the accused to go free.

With this brief knowledge of the Jewish legal system in mind, let's navigate our way through the events of late Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning.

1. The ___Malice______of Annas (vv. 19-23)

This begins the mockery of this indictment and arraignment before Annas. He had no right to ask Jesus that question. Jesus was not to be the one who testified. So Annas violated the principles of Jewish justice when he questioned Jesus.

Jesus replies not by answering their questions, but by indicting them (vv. 20-21).

So the whole trial was a plot with no evidence. Jesus left Annas nonplussed, unable to proceed. He turned the tables on Annas, and now Annas doesn't know what to say.

See v. 22. Here is a typical henchman looking for a promotion from Annas. The Greek word for "struck...with the palm of his hand," is rhapisma, and can also be translated, "struck with a stick." Never was it legal for someone to strike a prisoner. (See also Micah 5:1).

2. The ____Mockery______of Caiaphas (v. 24)

Annas now sent Him to Caiaphas. Taking Jesus first to Annas, gave Caiaphas time to summon the Sanhedrin to his house for the impromptu trial.

The trial before Caiaphas was a mockery. It also took place in the middle of the night. During the time that Jesus was before Annas, the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas gathered together to carry on the mock trial. They wanted it at night before the people would know about it so they could have Him convicted and turned over to the Romans by morning.

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They couldn't find any evidence against Him. Apparently, there was a search for testimony that might have condemned Jesus, but the priests could not procure it. See Matthew 26:59, 60; Mark 14:56-59.

The law required two or more witnesses to an offense, and these had to have been witnesses of the same thing at precisely the same time and then be able to testify to it in virtually identical terminology. Clearly, valuable time was wasted in these fruitless accusations.

Caiaphas was in a difficult position. He had taken a chance on arresting Jesus at a very late hour in Passover week and was therefore committed to conducting a quick trial during the course of this one night after which he would present the judgment of the Jewish court for ratification by Pilate in the morning. If he failed, it would be a disaster. The situation was slipping from his grasp.

At this point Caiaphas revealed that shrewdness of character and determi- nation for which the Romans had undoubtedly made him the chief Jewish ruler. What he did was illegal, but it was a stroke of genius politically. Seeing that the case was dissolving before his eyes, he abruptly turned to interro- gate the prisoner Himself, demanding of Him on the basis of the most solemn form of oath known to Israel, the famous Oath of the Testimony (Matt. 26:63, 64).

It was a brilliant stroke. Although Jesus was not compelled to give evidence against Himself, being a pious Jew He would not refuse such a solemn challenge and therefore replied, "Thou hast said." When Jesus answered “yes” to that accusation, He was immediately convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death unanimously.

Then the high priest tore his clothes and screamed, "Blasphemy!"

Tearing one's clothes was an expression of extreme grief and shock from the most ancient biblical times (cf. Genesis 37:34; Numbers 14:6 I 2 Samuel 1:11). However, the high priest was forbidden to tear his clothes (Leviticus 21:10). So ironically, while Caiaphas was theatrically feigning indignation over Jesus' supposed act of blasphemy, he was violating God’s law.

Finally having accomplished the evil goal they had so long sought, the members of the Sanhedrin began to vent their satanic hatred of Jesus

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openly – blindfolding him, spitting in His face and mocking Him (Matthew 26:67-68; Luke 22:65; Is. 53:3).

At this point, the council decided to adjourn until later that morning – until daybreak. The recess would give council members time for a couple of hours' sleep, and the court could be officially reconvened in the daylight hours to render a formal verdict, in keeping with the required procedure for such cases.

The Sanhedrin reconvened their council and brought Jesus in for their final hearing of His case "as soon as it was day" (Luke 22:66; Matthew 27:1).

They subjected Christ once more to the same line of questioning Caiaphas had used the night before. Again, it is Luke who provides helpful information. Christ is brought again for questioning. He was asked, “Are you then the Son of God?” He replies, “You rightly say that ” (Luke 22:66-71).

As soon as Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, the trial was immediately brought to a close. "What further testimony do we need?" (v. 71). As far as they were concerned, all "further testimony" would be superfluous and counterproductive. They now were eager to move ahead with the execution of their sentence.

The decision was made immediately to take Jesus to to get Roman permission to have Him put to death—preferably by Roman executioners. "They led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor" (Matthew 27:2).

And thus Christ was unjustly condemned to die. Condemned to die for telling the truth. His trial before the Sanhedrin had gone exactly according to Caiaphas's evil plan. At the same time, the plan of God was right on schedule as well.

We have seen that His arrest was illegal for several inarguable reasons:

 it was at night

 it was achieved by the agency of a traitor and not the two required witnesses

 it was without a formal charge

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The trial itself was illegal because:

 it was conducted privately at night

 it was conducted on the day before a Jewish Sabbath. Jewish law stated that no court could lawfully meet on a Sabbath day or on a day preceding a Sabbath day.

 it was completed within 24 hours. Thus, the one day interval required by law was ignored.

 the conviction was secured on the basis of the defendant's own confession.

 Caiaphas interrogated the accused which was not allowed

 there was no defense provided for the accused

 it was a unanimous vote – which should have negated the verdict

III. Challenge

The point of this exercise is to point out that Jesus was not condemned under a primitive, barbaric, or even inadequate judicial system, but under the best. He, the righteous One, was condemned to death by the most merciful and careful system of judicial process known. If we ask, as we must, "But how could that happen? How could the very Son of God be condemned?" The answer is simply that the problem, then as now, is not so much in the system itself as it is in the hearts of those who implement the system. The human heart is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," as Jeremiah once wrote (Jeremiah 17:9). It is this that circumvents the law or (as in this case) actually-uses the law to destroy the innocent.

Do you realize that the roots of even the most heinous crimes ever perpetrated in history of the world are within us and that, being placed in a situation similar to that of others who did these things, we have nothing within to hinder us from doing likewise. Given the right situation and the right power, each of us would do exactly as they did. We would attempt to get rid of Jesus.

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We must never look to the actions of this court and say in our supposed superior righteousness, "Look what those unscrupulous men did! How horrible!" Rather, we must look to their acts and see those who, although they thought they were operating in the best interests of the Jewish state, nevertheless performed the greatest crime in history. We must add, "There, but for the grace of God, go I."

Who were the blasphemers that day? Who were the accused? The Sanhedrin and the nation they represented? Yes! And everyone who has ever heard the story of Jesus and refused to bow and worship Him as well.

Annas and Caiaphas and the mob were faced with life's most important decision. It involved Jesus. They could accept him as the Lord He claimed to be or reject him as a blasphemer. They chose to reject him and in so doing condemned themselves to eternal death.

Each person is faced with that same decision. It is the most important decision in life.

Have you heard this prisoner? Do you understand that this Lamb, innocent and pure, is being tried before Israel's high court so that you and I would never have to be tried before the court of heaven? He is condemned to die by earth's justice, so that you and I will never be condemned to die by heaven's justice. He faced that anger, hatred, and hostility of religious men, so that all who believe in Him will never experience the wrath of a righteous God.

“Man of Sorrows!” what a name For the Son of God, who came Ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood; Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Lesson Six: A Defense for the Accused