- Talk about how this is the forgotten part of the trial, as well as the overall pieces of the trial.
- There are basically three pieces to the religious trial and three pieces to the civil trial:
1. Religious trial.
a. Here before Annas.
b. Before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:57-68; Mark 14:53-65; Luke 22:54).
c. After sunrise confirming the decision (Matthew 27:1; Mark 15:1; Luke 22:66-71).
2. Civil trial.
a. Before Pilate (Matthew 27:2, 11-14; Mark 15:1-5; Luke 23:1-5; John 18:28-38).
b. Before Herod (Luke 23:6-12).
c. Before Pilate again (Matthew 27:15-26; Mark 15:6-15; Luke 23:13-25; John 18:39-19:16).
- It’s worth noting that John is the only one who mentions this brief interaction with Annas, so it’s only in one of the gospels.
- Further, this interaction is intertwined in the text with the three denials of Peter. When preachers preach this larger passage, they tend to preach on that aspect of the passage because it’s an important and renowned incident. When that happens, though, the details about Annas usually get passed over.
- For both of those reasons, I think it’s fair to say that this passage is the “forgotten trial of Jesus” (or, at least, the forgotten part of the trial of Jesus).
- I want to deal with the denials of Peter in a separate sermon. This morning I just want to focus on Annas and this forgotten interaction. What can we learn from it? Well, it turns out that digging into it focuses on an issue that is still as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago: power.
WHAT WE SEEK: Many make power their religion.
- John 18:12-14, 19-24.
- As you dig into this passage (which we are going to do), it’s all about power and the manifestations of power.
- Before we get into that subject, we need to start with Annas. Who is he and why is he the first person that they bring Jesus to?
- First, we start with the fact that at this moment Annas doesn’t hold office. Of course, we know that there is a difference between having a title and having power.
- Second, he had been the high priest until he was deposed by the Romans in around 15 A.D. The role of high priest was supposed to be a position that was held for life. There was a lot of resentment among the Jewish people that Annas had been removed from his office.
- Third, he had several of his relatives who held the role of high priest, including some of his sons. Here Caiaphas is high priest and v. 13 tells us that he is Annas’ son-in-law. So you get a picture of him as the power behind the throne, making sure there were people who were serving that he had control over. In fact, in Luke 3:2, it says that during the time of John the Baptist Annas and Caiaphas were ruling as high priest. There are alternate ways to take that reference, but the most likely explanation is that everyone knew who the power “behind the throne” was.
- Fourth, Annas was largely the one responsible for the compromise of the Temple. He was instrumental in forcing people to buy overpriced animals for sacrifice and the exorbitant fees for exchanging money. No doubt he personally profited handsomely from those practices. This would mean that the incidents where Jesus overturned the tables and drove out those turning the Temple into a place for profit would have been very offensive personally to Annas.
- When you add all this up, the picture becomes clearer. Yes, Annas doesn’t hold office at this moment, but he is the quite possibly the most powerful man in Jewish religious circles. So they bring Jesus to the power center first and then everyone else follows.
- I’m reminded of a story I heard years ago of a young pastor. There was some significant change he wanted to make in the church, so he spent hours and hours talking to key people in the congregation and getting their support. When it came for the business meeting, he was confident it would sail smoothly through but almost no one voted for it. He just couldn’t understand. Afterward he asked someone what had happened. It turned out there was an old man in the church who no longer held any offices but who had been the power center in the church for decades. He sat toward the front in business meetings and if he didn’t want people to vote for something, he would just raise his arms out to each side and place them on the top of the pews. That was the sign that he didn’t support what was being voted on. Few would vote against him. The pastor had talked to everyone in the church with a title and a position, but hadn’t talked to the one who actually held power in the church.
- Now, having established who Annas is, let’s talk about the point your sermon outline for a moment.
- There are many who make power their religion.
- What do I mean by that? I guess another way to say is that they make power their god. The thing they value most is their power. The thing they want to preserve at all costs is their power. The thing they love the most is their power.
- So, in essence, power becomes their religion.
- It’s the thing they worship. It’s what gives their life meaning. It’s what they bow down to.
- This is an incident where the person who has power as their religion is a Jewish high priest. (They retained the title even after they had resigned, similar to U.S. presidents.) Of course there are many in other fields (business, politics, etc.) where power is there religion, but it also happens often among the religious. I wish I could say that wasn’t the case, but it is.
- In fact, the Jewish religious leaders as a group pursued the death of Jesus because they felt He threatened their power and position. See John 11:47-48 for the most direct confession of this. Knowing that the death of Jesus is the greatest injustice of all time, we can say that power was the reason behind the greatest in justice of all time. That’s how important this issue is.
- In churches, we often see things get sideways because there are people guarding their power. You would like to think that wouldn’t be a temptation in situations where people are ostensibly seeking the glory of God, but it happens all the time. And, of course, power issues show up in lots of other situations as well: family, relationships, work, etc.
- What all this adds up to is that this is an important subject for us to understand well.
- Let’s look at some of the specific details this passage brings out about what it looks like when people make power their religion.
WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE:
1. “IT'S NECESSARY SOMETIMES FOR ME TO VIOLATE THE RULES TO MAINTAIN MY POWER.”
- John 18:12, 14, 20, 22-23.
- Let’s look at the ways in this passage that this shows up.
a. v. 12.
- I mostly want to reference their love of the Mosaic Law, but let’s start with an informal rule.
- They hated the Romans. They desperately wanted to be free from Roman rule. Yet here they are colluding with the Romans.
- It shows that the Jewish leaders are fine partnering with Rome when it serves their purposes. After all, whatever it takes to maintain their power is worth it.
- In political circles they use the term “strange bedfellows,” simply meaning that oftentimes when holding or increasing power is involved, you never know who might partner up to make it happen.
b. v. 14.
- Obviously an open statement that murdering someone is justified if it helps the nation as a whole is morally repugnant.
c. v. 20 – By contrast Jesus speaking openly.
- Jesus stands in sharp contrast to Annas by being someone who is open about who is He is and what He stands for.
d. v. 20 – Jesus’ public and private realities were the same.
- Jesus didn’t stand for one thing in public and another in private. Jesus didn’t act one way in public and another in private.
- This shows up in these situation as people profess to be one thing and then act in a way that’s contradictory to that. Just to give an easy example, someone claiming that honesty is important and then massaging the facts to get them to line up with what they want people to believe.
e. v. 22-23.
- It was against the rules to strike a prisoner as happens here. No conviction had happened or sentence from that.
- And then nothing happens as a result of this violation of the Law. That is, no one steps up and says, “Hey, we don’t behave that way because we believe in the Law.”
2. “IF MY POWER IS THREATENED, IT'S JUSTIFIED TO DESTROY MY ENEMIES.”
- John 18:12, 14, 24.
a. v. 12 – “arrested Jesus.”
- The most obvious and blatant example of this is that they arrested Jesus in the first place.
b. v. 14.
- As noted a moment ago, Caiaphas wasn’t worried about the morality of his actions. Jesus was a threat and He had to be destroyed.
- It’s worth noting here the reason that people can justify thoughts like this. Usually it is that we have intertwined our agenda and God’s agenda to the point where we genuinely believe that “what’s good for me is good for God.” This is how we justify our questionable actions – we’re not doing it to further our own power but instead we’re doing it for God.
c. v. 24.
- With no real crime to charge Jesus with, they nonetheless send Him on to the next leg of this series of sham trials.
3. “I AM EASILY OFFENDED BECAUSE I SO CAREFULLY GUARD MY POWER.”
- John 18:22-23.
a. v. 22-23.
- It’s interesting how quickly the official responds to Jesus’ words. What Jesus said isn’t particularly offensive, but the official interprets even a slight rebuke as a reason to overreact.
- And that’s what he does: overreact.
- Jesus’ calm response indicates how ridiculous the official’s slap is.
- This is something that is pretty consistent among those obsessed with their power: a tendency to overreact. They are so easily offended and so quick to argue and fight.
- Why? It goes back to what we said earlier: their power is their god and so they are quick to notice anything threatening their power.
THE CONTRAST: One man here is willing to do whatever it takes to maintain his power; one Man here is willing to do whatever it takes to do God’s will.
- John 18:12-14, 19-24.
- As we look at the passage as a whole, it’s clear that Annas is a prime example of someone obsessed with his power.
- On the other hand, Jesus is focused on something else. What is it?
- Quite simply, it’s doing God’s will.
- Jesus wants to do the Father’s will. That caused Him to lose power three decades before when He entered this world (see Philippians 2:5-11). Here it will happen again as He submits to crucifixion in order to accomplish the Father’s will.
- Jesus is able to do this, though, because He is absolutely secure in the power that the Father has. He doesn’t have to grasp after power. In fact, Philippians 2 mentions that. And so He can pursue the Father’s will trusting that the power will be there from the Father when it’s needed.
- This is true for us as we think of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). Jesus promises us that we would have power to do what He called us to do. Why then should be obsess over whether I have power? Jesus has already granted me all the power I need!
- Therefore I can walk forward, pursuing the will of God, blissfully unconcerned about power dynamics, and solely focused on accomplishing God’s will.
