The Gospel of John The Trials of Jesus ~ The Jewish Trials ~ Part 2 The Civil Trials ~ Part 1 John 18:28-40; Various Passages Just as a reminder of the overall tenor of the Jewish trial(s) and their specific goal, obviously the death of Christ, I want to quote Alan Cole by way of introduction. This appears to have been a sort of preliminary fact-finding commission of the Sanhedrin. While they had long ago decided on the death of Jesus, they had still to formulate a legal charge, adequate to justify the death penalty; they had no desire simply to assassinate him, lest it provoke a bloody riot and consequent Roman action. A proof of their moral blindness was their failure to see that, in God s eyes, there was no difference between the quick knife of the sicarii or dagger-men, who abounded at festival time (see Acts 21:38), and such judicial murder as they contemplated. But even if the high priests could find some clear breach of the Torah, sufficient in Jewish eyes to warrant a death sentence, their task was still only half done. They also had to produce some political charge, adequate in Roman eyes to warrant the carrying out of the death sentence. Both Pilate (Mark 15:14) and Gallio (Acts 18:14 16) show Roman reluctance to condemn a provincial on purely religious grounds, especially when that religion was to them an offensive oriental cult, practiced by an unpopular subject people. The Mishnah makes frequent bitter reference to the fact that the Romans had taken away the cherished power of capital punishment from the Jewish courts, even when dealing with their own people (cf. John 18:31, where this is made explicit). Especially in explosive Jerusalem at Passover time, with the city tense and full of milling throngs of nationalistic Jews, the Romans were on their guard. Such legal murder, especially if it provoked an uproar (14:2), might have dire consequences for the Jewish leaders, if not to the whole Jewish state (John 11:48), as they knew well. 1 IX Jesus Arrest, Trials and Crucifixion Chapters 18-19 C. The Trials of Jesus 1. The Jewish Trial(s) Various Passages d. Before the Council Luke 22:66-71 2. The Civil Trial(s) Various Passages a. Before Pilate Verses 28-38 b. Before Herod Luke 23:6-12 c. Before Pilate Mark 15:6-15 Introduction: Last week we began our consideration of the trials of Jesus. We noted that depending on one s perspective there were either two or six. The two are the Jewish and Civil trials. Each is made up of three hearings thus the suggestion there are six. The Jewish trial(s) included appearances before Annas, Caiaphas and finally the Council which passes a verdict allowing for bringing Jesus up on charges before the Roman authorities. The problem is, all aspects of the first two hearings violated multiple aspects of Jewish jurisprudence. 1 Cole R. Alan, Mark: An Introduction and Commentary, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 1989 p. 309-310.
And as Jesus stood before Caiaphas for the first time He acknowledges to the powers that be that not only is He the Christ, but He was going to the Father and would come back to judge the nation. It appears Jesus was referencing both Daniel and Psalm 110 when He said this. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. The Lord says to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool (Daniel 7:13-14; Psalm 110:1 ESV). Now if what Jesus said wasn t true the He had committed a serious blasphemy deserving of death under the current interpretation of the Law. Accordingly some would have us believe Jesus condemned Himself by His own words. No further witnesses were needed. But as we noted last time a person could never be condemned on the basis of his own testimony alone, for the testimony of two or three witnesses was required (Deut. 17:6 7; 19:15 20). 2 The most important things to remember about all of this is, first and foremost God is in control. These men have no power over Christ but what He allowed. They were fulfilling God s work of sending Christ to the cross for our sins. Second, here is a group of men who had constantly hounded Christ, using nitpicking of legal minutiae that hadn t even come from God, to try to show Him up. Now they had jettisoned huge chunks of the Law so they could have Him put to death. Cole notes The priesthood stood on trial that day, although the execution of sentence was yet to come, on the terrible day in AD 70 when the priests were cut down by the Roman soldiers at the altar, as they steadily continued with their sacrifices to the last. 3 And again it is worth noting that one of the reasons these were held at night and in secret was to make sure those on the council who either were committed to the law or were possible supporters of Christ were not present. d. Before the Council: So to see the last hearing before the Jewish authorities we need to go to Luke: When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said, If you are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God. So they all said, Are you the Son of 2 Berg, Laurna L., Bibliotheca Sacra, The Illegalities of Jesus Religious and Civil Trials., Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, TX, 2004 Vol. 161: 333-335. 3 Cole, p. 313. ) 512 (
God, then? And he said to them, You say that I am. Then they said, What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips (Luke 22:66 71 ESV). This last hearing may have overlapped the previous one with Caiaphas which ended with the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, Prophesy! Who is it that struck you? And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him (Luke 22:63 65 ESV). But where the authority had been with Caiaphas now it shifts to the council. In any case it s now morning and the council is ready to act. By waiting until light this hearing could at least give an appearance of being legal, the operative word being appearance. Consequently, the council members ask the same question as Caiaphas, Are you the Christ? And yes, they were being disingenuous. Here though Jesus is a bit different. He had given Caiaphas a straight forward answer. Now He addresses the underlying lie of all of this. Why should He bother answering since they had no intention of believing Him? They had made up their minds to put Him to death. Nevertheless Jesus reiterates that He was going to sit at the right hand of God. He describes Himself as the Son of Man and they ask if He is the Son of God. The distinction here may be that the former is reference to His role as Messiah and the latter that He is God. So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19 ESV). Remember the idea that the Messiah was actually God Himself is only understood in context of the incarnation. While this truth is alluded to in the Old Testament it is only clearly understood when Christ comes and this truth can clearly be seen. The Lord says to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool. (Psalms 110:1 ESV). By Christ now clearly identifies Himself members of the council are placed in the same position as any lost individual when confronted with the truth of who Jesus is. The could accept Him, leading to their salvation, or reject Him and confirm their status as lost for all eternity or as Peter would later put it Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. ) 513 (
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified (Acts 2:22 24, 36 ESV). Now the council, stating that Jesus has condemned Himself believe they have enough to convict Him. But what is still missing is a charge that would be of any interest to the Roman authorities as they were soon to discover. But first The illegalities: Again quoting Berg The third Jewish religious trial of Jesus is recorded in Mark 15:1a and Luke 22:66 71. This action was primarily an attempt to place a veneer of legality on the previous blatantly illegal proceedings. The chief priests, elders, scribes, and the whole council held a consultation early in the morning in the Sanhedrin council chamber, known as the Hall of Judgment or the Hall of Hewn Stone, within the temple complex. They reconfirmed the charge of blasphemy, based on their questioning of Jesus and His personal testimony and without the confirmation of witnesses. The agreement was unanimous, and the entire group brought Jesus before Pilate. Four illegalities were involved in this third religious trial: There were no witnesses, Jesus was condemned on His own testimony, no evidence was presented for either innocence or guilt, and the verdict was announced immediately without the required interval of one day. 4 2. The Civil Trial(s): a. Before Pilate: Which moves the events from the Jewish trials to the Civil ones. And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate (Mark 15:1 ESV) We return to John for Jesus appearances before Pilate. What is missing from John s account is Jesus appearance before Herod which occurs between Verses 38 and 39. So we are only going to consider the first eleven verses here. Now before we go any further I want to consider one more irony. The powers that be were now ready to make their case to Pilate in order to have Jesus condemned to death. But since they were committed to keeping the Law they couldn t enter Pilates palace. He was a Gentile and entering his hoe would make them unclean so they couldn t celebrate the Passover. Hold it! Wasn t Passover over? Have we just found a contradiction? The Archeological Study Bible notes: Passover here may refer to the combined festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread, which together lasted seven days and included a number of meals. 5 And the people of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness, and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with all their might to the Lord (2 Chron. 30:21 ESV). 4 Berg, p. 335. 5 Walton, John H. ed., Archaeological Study Bible, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 2005 ) 514 (
Anyway since the powers that be wouldn t come in to see Pilate, he went out to them to find out what all the hubbub was. He wanted to know the charges against Jesus. And unfortunately they apparently still hadn t come up with what they believed was a viable charge against Jesus. So like a lot of modern politicians they fell back on, Well since we ve said he s evil then he is. Apparently this kind of nonsense didn t fly well with Pilate. Pilate didn t want to have anything to do with what was clearly a local, religious dispute. He didn t understand the religion of these people. Their petty squabbling over nothing was driving him crazy. He just wanted to get out of this backwater and get to civilization. While Pilate didn t share his thoughts it was clear he wanted nothing to do with the situation because he told them to handle the situation themselves. But then the these people surprised Pilate. The reason they brought Jesus to him was because they wanted Him put to death and they didn t have the authority to do so. Once again John makes it very clear who is in charge. He tells us that with the Jews requesting that Pilate take control of the situation and execute Jesus he would simply be fulfilling Jesus own words. See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will rcondemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day. You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified (Matthew 20:18-19; 26:2 ESV). Verses 33-38: And so the scene moves from the portico to inside the Governor s house as Pilate takes Jesus in to question him. Keep in mind he is already predisposed against the rulers and in favor of Jesus. Pilate too asks the all important question: Who are you? Though in this case he ask Jesus if He is King of the Jews. Instead of answering Jesus asks if this was Pilate s own thought or is he simply repeating what he s been told. Now you get a glimpse of Pilate s general attitude to his situation. He is essentially asking Do you think I'm a Jew? Of course someone said it. I have no clue what you people think. And really I m not all that interested. Pilate wants to know what Jesus has done to make these men so angry that they d come to the hated enemy for legal assistance. They wouldn t come into his house. They d probably walk on the opposite side of the street to avoid him. Contact with a Gentile made them ritually unclean. Yet here they were asking his help. What s up with this? Jesus doesn t respond directly. What He does say is that His kingdom isn t a political one and isn t a threat to Rome. It s not a worldly kingdom. His words make it clear that the current situation isn t one with which Rome need be concerned. After all Pilate hasn t see a group of insurrectionists trying to free Jesus from the Jewish leadership? ) 515 (
Pilate recognizes that Jesus is saying He s a king, just not in a way that need concern Rome. Then Jesus makes a statement that, from Pilate s perspective, would seem a bit obscure. He appears to be saying that as a king His actual purpose was to present truth to the world. What Jesus is saying is that first and foremost His kingship is a spiritual one over a spiritual kingdom. And that is the truth until His second coming when the kingdom is also a physical and political one. The other aspect of Jesus truth is the truth of the incarnation, the gift of salvation. And it is the rejection of that gift that leads to judgment. This is truth. And Pilate is disgusted by the whole situation. He turns from Jesus and heads back to the Jewish leaders. What is truth anyway? And that reflects the world s view of truth. Everyone has their own truth. There is no real truth. But one think Pilate does know. Whatever this man has done to outrage the Jewish leadership, He certainly hasn t done anything under Roman law requiring his intervention. Which is not exactly what the powers that be want to hear but we ll pick up with their outrage next time when we hear them say they were urgent, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place. When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other (Luke 23:5 12 ESV). Conclusion: If it were up to Pilate and the Roman authorities Jesus would have never gone to the cross. As we ll see next time they were pressured into carrying out Christ s death. But this was only because that was the Father s purpose and Christ s intent. It really didn t matter what the Jewish leaders wanted or what Pilate and Herod wanted. All that mattered then and matters now is what God wants. Christ rises above all the rulers and powers. Just as the world was turned upside down when God used Rome to move a poor couple from Nazareth to Bethlehem He was again using her to turn all the world upside down because of a tomb in which she couldn t keep the Christ locked up. So finally take three truths from this section. First as Christ is facing the cross you and I are in His heart. He is going there for each of us individually. ) 516 (
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3 4 ESV). Second, even His enemies are used to carry out God s work. He is in control This is why we don t have to fear our powers that be because while they may and do impact our circumstances. We are to trust Him and we are to pray for our powers that be. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions for As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God (1 Timothy 2:1 2; Romans 14:11 ESV). No matter what goes on in this world we are kept in the arms of God and nothing can separate us from the one who stood before the Jewish leaders, before Pilate all for our bless. ) 517 (
The Gospel of John The Trials of Jesus ~ The Jewish Trials ~ Part 2 The Civil Trials ~ Part 1 John 18:28-40; Various Passages IX Jesus Arrest, Trials and Crucifixion Chapters 18-19 C. The Trials of Jesus 1. The Jewish Trial(s) Various Passages d. Before the Council Luke 22:66-71 2. The Civil Trial(s) Various Passages a. Before Pilate Verses 28-38 b. Before Herod Luke 23:6-12 c. Before Pilate Mark 15:6-15 Introduction: (Daniel 7:13-14; Psalm 110:1) d. Before the Council: (Luke 22:66 71; Luke 22:63 65; Mark 16:19; Psalms 110:1; Acts 2:22 24, 36) The illegalities:
2. The Civil Trial(s): a. Before Pilate: (Mark 15:1; 2 Chronicles 30:21; Matthew 20:18-19; 26:2) Verses 33-38: (Luke 23:5 12) Conclusion: (1 Corinthians 15:3 4; 1 Timothy 2:1 2; Romans 14:11) Personal Application: Over the next couple of weeks meditate on what you have learned from the trials and how this relates to the Christmas season. Prayer for the Week: Lord may Your Spirit help me to ever grow in my appreciation of what Christ suffered in my place. In Christ s name, amen.