March 30, 2021
53 Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.” – Luke 22:53
The more we learn and understand about the law of Moses, the more we begin to understand the events that happen on the night Jesus was betrayed and handed over.
Leviticus 16 spells out for the priest of the Hebrew people an order for the atonement of sin, for it to be acceptable to God and true for the people. The Yom Kippur sin offering must be delivered over to death by the high priest himself, otherwise the sins of the people would not be covered.
So on the night after the Passover meal, after Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, he is handed over to temple officials with the help of Roman guards and taken to the house of Annas, a former high priest, and member of the Sanhedrin, but who is also father-in-law of Caiaphas the high priest for that year.
3 Trials of Jesus take place before the sun ever comes up. 1. Jesus is taken from the garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives by temple guards, to Annas who calls together a few temple administrators and they have court. Even though it is the middle of the night, even though it is still the day of the Passover. Both forbidden under Levitical law. All courts are to be held in the daylight, and no court is to be held on a feasting or festival day. Ignoring both of these Annas holds court, but though he has arrested Jesus, he has no charge of which to hold him, so he must catch Jesus or trap him into saying something worthy of accusation, trial, and condemnation.
Annas can get no confession out of Jesus of which to accuse him, so rebukes him and denounces his honesty and sends him to Caiaphas.
2. Still in the early morning hours before the sun is up, Caiaphas now has the charge and goal of producing a formal accusation at the second trial. Jesus by Annas is charged with religious insubordination. So, Caiaphas assembles priests, the council and witnesses to come up and corroborate charges against Jesus. Nothing seems to match up, so in a moment of desperation to end Jesus, Caiaphas does something both illegal and unethical. He introduces two new questions into the trial, and these questions essential compel Jesus to testify against himself, then to make matters even more unethical Caiaphas adds an oath to the mix, making Jesus situation in answering, “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
According to Matthew 26, Caiaphas asks: I command you by the authority of the living God to say if you are the Messiah, the Son of God”
To which Jesus has no other choice, but to respond as he does in Mark 16:62. “I am”
Done. Now it’s time for the 3rd trial.
Just as the sun was coming up and Peter has denied his Lord now for the third time, the third Jewish trial convenes.
3. The Sanhedrin is gathered with chief priests Anna and Caiaphas at the helm. They have Jesus for a religious crime for claiming to be the Son of God. But they knew that the roman authority could care less about these claims. Many of their own persons in authority were claimed to be ‘sons of gods.’ This would not be enough for Jesus to be handed over and put to death, they needed more.
The Sanhedrin council questions Jesus, and ask him: “are you the Messiah?”
Jesus responds: “If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68 and if I asked you, you would not answer. 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”
70 They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?”
He replied, “You say that I am.” This is the “gotcha” moment.
Jesus has now made a political claim that he has a right to the throne as the Messiah, the anointed one of God. This is all they needed, now Jesus can be bound and taken before Pontius Pilate, the governing authority in Judea for a criminal charge of treason and he is to be executed.
These events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday have significant meaning, for the people of God, and for the fulfillment of the law. When we see it, we begin to understand the Passover lamb, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Grace & Peace,
Sam