I love the Gospel of Mark … well, I love all the gospels … but Mark reminds me of Joe Friday from the 1950s TV series “Dragnet.” Some of us older folks remember Sargent Friday’s famous signature line: “Just the facts.” Mark’s gospel is terse and to the point. He gives us “just the facts” and events of Jesus’ life and ministry. Mark’s signature line would be the word “immediately” as he moves quickly from one event to another in Jesus’ life. No miraculous birth story. Mark jumps right in with John the Baptist and then immediately describes Jesus getting baptized by John and then driven out in to the wilderness. John is arrested and Jesus immediately begins His ministry … all in the first 14 verses of his gospel.
Mark presents us with the facts … the bare bones of Jesus’ ministry … to challenge us. No spin. No agenda. No ulterior motive. Just the facts … and then leaves us on our own to figure what these events mean so that we come to our own conclusion as to who this Jesus of Nazareth is. As we shall see, that can be a risky and bold gamble because people may or may not come to the right conclusion, amen? Like Peter, James, and John, do we drop our nets and follow Jesus? As we watch Jesus heal the sick and the lame, what do we think? Like the Pharisees and Sadducees, what do we make of Jesus and His teachings … His claim to be the Son of Man and the Son of God?
You may or may not know this, but there are two different endings to the Gospel of Mark. In the shorter … and what is believed to be the original ending … Mark’s gospel ends rather abruptly. It ends with the women discovering the empty tomb and an angel of the Lord explaining to them that Jesus’ prediction or promise had come true … “[Jesus] has been raised; He is not here. Look, there is the place they laid Him. But go, tell His Disciples and Peter that He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you” (Mark 16:6-7). The women run away from the tomb in what Mark described as “terror and amazement” and “they said nothing to anyone” (Mark 16:8). Boom! Leaving us, like the women, faced with an empty tomb trying to figure out what happened and what the angel meant.
As I said, presenting us with “just the facts” can be a bold and risky gamble … and Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin is an excellent example of what I’m talking about. We love to condemn these men and are very smug and comfortable in judging them for the way that they condemned and judged Jesus … but can we? Maybe … just maybe … these men … these devoted, sincere religious leaders felt that they were doing the right thing in isolating and neutralizing what they thought was a blasphemous and heretical cancer in the body or nation of Judah. Is it possible for us to become so self-righteous that WE can’t see what’s right in front of us?
Now … I’m going to make a bit of a jump here but stay with me … I promise to bring you back to this point. On April 10th, the Titanic set sail for Cherbourg, France, then Queensland, Ireland with 1,300 passengers and 900 crewmembers on board. From there, she headed west and started across the Atlantic to her final destination … New York Harbor. Not only was she the largest ocean liner ever built, her designers and builders claimed that she was unsinkable. Every effort went into making her the most modern and safest ship to ever sail the Seven Seas. At 2:20 a.m. on the night of April 15th, the Titanic struck an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland and sank to the bottom of the ocean.
The ship was designed by Thomas Andrew and was built by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Shipping Line. Andrew’s divided the Titanic into 16 compartments that included doors that could be closed remotely from the bridge … sealing off the compartment so that the water could be contained in the event that the hull was breached. Andrew designed it so that the ship could stay afloat if four of these compartments flooded. After hitting the iceberg, however, water began flooding the Titanic’s forward six compartments. The bulkheads and watertight walls in the compartments meant to keep water from flooding the rest of the ship were not tall enough to contain the water in the damaged compartments, filling more and more compartments until the ship sank. Even after the Titanic struck the fatal iceberg and began taking on water, Andrew, who was on the Titanic’s maiden cruise, kept insisting that the ship’s internal structure would keep the water at bay and the ship would not sink. Two hours later, the sink broke in half and sank to the ocean floor. 1,517 of the 2,223 passengers drowned; 710 survived. Fortunately, the ship wasn’t running at full capacity or there would have been an additional 1,000 or more people on board that night.
Consider this. Thomas Andrew designed the ship and Harland and Wolff’s company built the ship but they were far from alone in this enterprise, amen? I’m sure that Andrew had a huge team of electrical, mechanical, and nautical engineers and designers. Models were built and tested. Plans were drawn up and gone over again and again. Ship builders Harland and Wolff employed thousands of experienced shipbuilders whose work was constantly being inspected. When Andrew and Harland and Wolff and their advertisers claimed that the Titanic was unsinkable, they weren’t just saying it to sell tickets. They absolutely believed it.
Which led to the tragic decision to put only 20 lifeboats on the Titanic. Andrew’s original plan called for 64 lifeboats. J. Bruce Ismay, Director of the White Star Line, wrote the following stern letter to Andrew: “Control your Irish passions, Thomas. Your uncle here tells me you propose 64 lifeboats and he had to pull your arm to get you down to 32. Now, I’ll remind you just as I reminded him, these are my ships. And, according to our contract, I have final say on the design. I’ll not have so many little boats, as you call them, cluttering up my decks and putting fear into my passengers.” Would the sight of so many lifeboats put fear in my heart or make me feel safe? It all depends upon how you look at it, amen? It’s easy to judge Ismay for his poor judgment but I truly believe that Ismay made his decision based on the firm belief that the Titanic was unsinkable and that a lot of lifeboats were unnecessary and would send the wrong message. I doubt he thought to himself, “Hum … lifeboats are expensive, let the passengers and crew sink or swim if the boat goes down.” I’m pretty sure that if he had the luxury of 20-20 hind-sight as we do today that he’d have made a different decision, amen? Which brings us back to the Sanhedrin. Is it possible that they had become so self-righteous that they couldn’t see Who was standing right in front of them?
Mark says that the Temple guards took Jesus before the high priest and all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes (Mark 14:53) and they began questioning Him and bringing in witnesses to testify against Him. Boo! Hiss! Right? But who were these men? They were part of the Great Sanhedrin … which was the supreme religious body in the Land of Israel made up of 71 sages … highly trained men who had what I would call a better than average knowledge of the scriptures and the Law. They were responsible for defining and protecting the religious beliefs of God’s people … a great responsibility that they took very seriously, amen? I would if I were fortunate enough to have been chosen to be a member of the Sanhedrin back then, wouldn’t you? I’m just a lowly pastor of a couple of local church and I take that very seriously … I can’t imagine being the head of an entire denomination and carrying that weight upon my shoulders, can you?
The Sanhedrin in Jerusalem was called the “Great Sanhedrin” because there were also smaller Sanhedrins in every town in Israel. As I said, the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem was made up of 71 sages or experts. They met daily during the daytime and did not meet on the Sabbath or during festivals or festival eves … but they saw Jesus as such a threat that they met at night and on the eve of or night before Passover. Again, it all depends upon on how you look at it. I’ve heard a ton of sermons that accuse the Sanhedrin of meeting under the cover of night because they were in a hurry to dispense of this radical rabbi and avoid scrutiny for their actions. I’ve heard it called a “kangaroo court” and I have been guilty of calling it that myself … but another way of looking at it is as a sign that they saw Jesus as a tremendous threat … one that required drastic and immediate and unusual measures. Let’s say the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 24th, for example, instead of on December 7th. Would we expect the president and our leaders to wait until December 26th or January 2nd to meet and take action? Unusual events require unusual measures … and judging from the size and intensity of the crowds that were coming to see Jesus … and worse, beginning to follow Him … well, the religious leaders could no longer just “keep an eye” on the situation as they had been. They needed to take action before this movement got out of hand. God only knows what this heretic had on His mind.
Mark paints a pretty accurate picture of what Jesus experienced that night. The Sanhedrin had the responsibility of judging someone accused of breaking the law but they could not initiate arrests. Once a person was brought before the Sanhedrin, it required a minimum of two witnesses to convict a suspect. There were no attorneys. Instead, the accusing witness or witnesses would state the offense in the presence of the accused and the accused could call witnesses on His own behalf. The court also had the right or authority to question the accused, the accusers, and the defense witnesses. The Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem was also granted the power to oversee and direct religious and ritualistic Temple matters, rule in criminal matters similar to that of a secular court, direct investigations in connection with the discovery of a corpse, preside over the trials of adulterous wives … that should ring a bell … go read John 8 if you don’t know what I’m talking about. The Sanhedrin also oversaw the collection and distribution of tithes and the production of the Torah scrolls for the king and the Temple … which is why they had such a close working relationship with the Sadducees, who were responsible for copying the scrolls … and which explains why the Sadducees commanded the respect that they did with the people. The Great Sanhedrin was responsible for drawing up the calendar … which changed every year because it was based on the cycles of the moon … and they resolved any disputes that involved the ritual law or ritual practices in the Temple. Up until 30 AD, the Great Sanhedrin also had the power to inflict capital punishment. If they had tried Jesus in, say, 29 AD, they would have had the authority to put Jesus to death themselves and would not have had to go through all the rigamarole of having to bow and scrape before Pontius Pilate. The Great Sanhedrin was discontinued after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD … just 37 years after Jesus’ execution. So, as you can see … Jesus stepped into a maelstrom and was brought before a court that was losing some of its power and was uncertain about its future given Rome’s growing power and the increasing fear and rising tension amongst the Jewish people.
Jesus was a person of great interest and concern for the leaders and the members of the Great Sanhedrin. Jesus’ teachings … His growing popularity … His reputation as a miracle worker could lead to riots and the brutal downfall of many. When Judas offered to betray Jesus, this gave some of the chief priests the opportunity to rid themselves of a potential uprising. We judge them for being so pleased that Judas was willing to work with them but can we, who live in a cancel culture that is so willing and so ready and so quick to attack and drag down any perceived threats to their beliefs and way of life?
Like it or not, the Great Sanhedrin does attempt to build a legal case against this agitator. Jesus is brought before them and allowed to face His accusers. Mark says that the “chief priests and whole council were looking for testimony against Jesus to put Him to death” (Mark 14:55). No doubt. Gee … we don’t see anything like this today do we? Our whole nation is waiting on pins and needles for the outcome of Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s trial … and there are definite sides being drawn. Each side is hoping and praying for their desired outcome, amen?
Just because some of the members of the Great Sanhedrin are hoping to silence and perhaps eradicate this rabble-rousing rabbi doesn’t necessarily mean that they rigged the trial. Judas came to them, they arrested Jesus, and then they hoped to build a case against Him so that they could go to Pilate and request that He be put to death … end of Jesus, end of problem. We don’t know who rounded up these false accusers or how or where they found them. It could have been some members of the Sanhedrin … or some priests, or some elders, or some scribes … or a combination or coalition of some priests and elders and scribes … we don’t know but I do know that I have been guilty of looking at the whole Great Sanhedrin with a jaundiced eye and assuming that they were all “in it together.” Perhaps agents outside of the power circle were at work … working independently or in cooperation with members of the high council … we don’t know. In fact, if you think about it, why go through all of this rigamarole? Why not just have Jesus and possibly His Disciples quietly, discreetly eliminated on some deserted trail out in the wilderness in the middle of the night? They just disappear on their way from, Oh, Jerusalem to Capernaum, you know what I mean? There were certainly enough planned attempts on Paul’s life later on … so we know that they were capable to such treachery, amen?
They seemed determined to build a legal case against Jesus … so they may have seen it as their only or best option … one that didn’t seem to be going anywhere at first. As Mark pointed out, “many gave false testimony against [Jesus]” but none of the accusers’ testimony agreed. Here’s where things do get a little shady for me. One of the 10 Commandments … the ninth one to be exact … prohibits giving false witness or testimony and we can see why God considered it to be so serious. If I wanted to get rid of my neighbor so that I could steal his wealth or his fields or his wife, all I would have to do is bribe a friend of mine or an enemy of my neighbor and I could legally accomplish my nefarious goal, amen? In order for us to appreciate how serious a crime this is, listen to the punishment God decreed for bearing false witness: “If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you. The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Deuteronomy 19:16-21). Yikes, amen? But listen closely to the reason for this action. “… do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you. The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you” (Deuteronomy 16:19-20).
The role of the Great Sanhedrin was to uphold the law and God clearly states here that they were to make an example of any false witnesses as a way to discourage the malicious practice of perjury for personal or multifarious gains. Mark doesn’t tell us what happened to these people who gave false testimony against Jesus but the law clearly states that they were to be put to death since their purpose was have Jesus put to death as a result of their false testimony. Ironically, Jesus Himself had been brought before the Great Sanhedrin to be made an example of so that any future false messiahs would think twice before claiming they were the long-awaited and anointed king appointed by God and stir up the people to overthrow the Romans and establish a never-ending kingdom.
I hate to tell you this, but the verdict of the Great Sanhedrin has not changed over the centuries. Most Jews today still consider Jesus to be a false messiah. Some Jewish People are willing to go so far as to believe that Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher, or even a prophet … but the Messiah … never. That is still considered to be the highest form of blasphemy. In one article I read, it said that it is blasphemous and forbidden in Judaism to worship ANY human … to state that any human can be part divine … or claim that God ever appears in the flesh. The article goes on to say that the “Tanakh” … or the Jewish Old Testament … gives detailed, specific instructions on how to precisely identify the real “messiah” and Jesus, they claim, is the exact opposite of what is described in the Tanakh (how many men claimed to be Israel's messiah before Jesus? | Yahoo Answers). There are many Bible scholars, on the other hand, who claim that Jesus has fulfilled well over 300 prophesies of the Messiah and His coming in the Old Testament.
Which leads me to the conclusion of Jesus’ trial and the darkest irony yet. None of the witnesses could agree. It looked like the Great Sanhedrin wasn’t going to be able to build a case … until the high priest asked Jesus: “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61). “Son of the Blessed One”… devoted Jews, especially men like the high priest and the members of the Sanhedrin, never pronounced the name of God. I point this out to show you that these men were incredibly devout Jews. They were the real deal … the leaders … the examples for all the rest of Israel to follow … and I have no doubt that they believed in their hearts that what they were doing was for the good and future of Israel.
Unlike those who bore false witness against Jesus, Jesus tells the truth and ends up bearing witness against Himself in the eyes of the Sanhedrin: “I am” … Yikes! The high priest could have stopped Him right there! But Jesus goes on: “I am; and ‘you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’” … with a capital “P” … “and ‘coming with the clouds of Heaven’” (Mark 14:62) … double, triple YIKES! Jesus is quoting from Daniel, Chapter 7: ““In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14).
I don’t think that the high priest’s ripping up his clothes and tearing out his hear was a put on or an act but was a genuine demonstration of his utter shock and rage at hearing such high, high blasphemy coming out of the mouth of a self-proclaimed rabbi from the backwaters of Galilee. His reaction was a reflection of how much the members of the Great Sanhedrin believed that Jesus was a kook, a dangerous nut job who had to be stopped because the uninformed were listening to Him and believing the blasphemous poison coming out of His mouth. One of the functions charged to the people of Israel, of whom the Great Sanhedrin both represented and protected, was to identify false prophets … so I believe that they truly believed that they were doing what was legal and right and good in the eyes of God … and that should cause us to pause and reflect before we pick up our stones and begin judging and condemning them. Lent is, after all, a time for personal reflection and introspection. As I asked you before … Is it possible that WE can become so righteous like the members of the Great Sanhedrin that we can’t see what’s right in front of us?
If you don’t think so, you haven’t been awake or listening to the news or going on the internet lately. We are a country locked in a civil war in which every side believes that they hold the monopoly on what is right and true … and believe that the other side is absolutely wrong and totally lost … to the point that people are physically attacking each other over matters of science, medicine, race, culture, and politics. Every group, every “tribe,” every faction absolutely subscribe to their own righteousness and virtue … and anyone who disagrees with them or holds a different or opposing view is guilty of blasphemy and should either be silenced or punished or both. I’m not saying this applies to everyone but let’s face the fact, the choosing up of sides and the demand that others choose a side is and has been growing more intense … or maybe it’s just me who feels this way.
Believe it nor, my brothers and sisters, we are called to perform the religious or spiritual duties of the Sanhedrin. We are called to protect the church, which is the body of Christ, from cancer, from infections of thought and practice, amen? Both Jesus and the Apostle Paul warned us more than a few times to be on guard for wolves who seek to prey upon the sheep and destroy them and to watch out for false prophets and groups like the Nicolaitan and the followers of Balaam who seek to lead the people astray. We are charged with the same responsibility of detecting and excluding false prophets and false teachers today. We have governing bodies at the international, national, and the local level who create laws and procedures to protect our churches and help them to grow and flourish. I can’t speak for other denominations but the Methodist Church has a book of laws and rules called “The Book of Discipline” which contains the criteria and procedures for protecting and governing that pertain to the entire denomination … right down to the local churches … as well as provides rules and procedures for holding trials for members who violate certain rules. It doesn’t provide for jail time or the death penalty for violators but violators can be expelled from the church … in effect neutralizing or silencing or containing their ability to disrupt or destroy the community … the same thing that the Sanhedrin was trying to do the night that they arrested and tried Jesus.
I know … I know … this is uncomfortable but let me ask you this: What would happen if someone from Saluda or Bath claimed to be the Son of God and began preaching his or her doctrine all throughout North Carolina? Would we immediately believe everything that this self-proclaimed Messiah was saying? How about if they went about performing miraculous healings? Maybe then, huh? Well … this country is full of people who claim to have the power to heal. There are a lot of charlatans too … which causes us to doubt the ones who may truly be divine healers. I know that I’ve been skeptical of such claims.
If someone like that showed up at our church, what do you think we would do? How do you think that we would react? Would we be leery? Would we demand proof … and would we believe them even if we saw the proof? We’d like to think so … but honestly, I think many of us would remain skeptical or would demand a whole lot of convincing. And how would we feel if that person out-and-out claimed that they were the Son or Daughter of God? That they were Immanuel … God in the flesh … standing in our church or in your living room? Would that not cause your heart to freeze. Again, I don’t know about you but if I heard someone make such a claim I would be inclined to put some distance between me and them so that I wouldn’t get hit by the lighting too, amen?
The great joy of the Easter is the empty tomb … with its promise that Jesus will once return to claim His own. I hope He comes with a trumpet blast, as the Apostle Paul predicts that He will (1st Corinthians 15:52) … or that it will be as obvious as “signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:25-28) … although being born of a virgin, healing terrible sickness, bring the dead back to life, coming back to life Himself were all pretty powerful signs the first time around. My concern is that He’ll come back “with the clouds of Heaven” (Mark 14:62) … and if you notice, clouds move swiftly and silently and can change and go unnoticed if you’re not paying attention, amen? Rather than condemn the sages of the Great Sanhedrin, let us learn from them, amen? Let us pray:
Dear Incredible, Creative Lord:
Help us to be vigilant ... to stay awake … to expect the unexpected … to be open to the impossible. Help us not become so self-righteous, so certain that we will not know and recognize You or Your power at work in our world and our lives and actually miss it. Give us Your Holy Spirit, like You did Peter, so that we can not only see the facts but can accept the truth and the reality that they represent. In the name of Jesus, who came to show us the way, the truth, and the life, we pray. Amen.
