March 22, 2006 Matthew 27:1-2
Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
In the last hour of darkness we saw Judas hand Jesus over for trial with a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane. The next time period takes us through the night to the early morning, where Jesus is put on trial before Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod, and then Pilate again. The last time God showed up for a trial - that I can recall - was way back in the book of Job. If you recall, God wasn’t too happy with it. Job had been spent the previous thirty some chapters accusing God of all kinds of things - not caring for the righteous, rewarding the evil, being indifferent to wickedness - and God had remained quiet through it all. Finally, after all of Job’s belly aching and accusations, God showed up in a thunder cloud and put Job back in His place. The trial was over and done without one of Job’s questions being answered. Instead, Job ended up with his tail between his legs - repenting in ashes over his foolishness. Would the same thing happen here as God is put on trial? Let’s find out.
The Early Morning Trials
First of all, Jesus was brought to Annas - the former high priest and father in law of Caiaphas - the current high priest. John 18 says, “the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.” Annas main line of questioning seemed to be concerned with the doctrine of Jesus - and the fact that Jesus had gathered disciples to Himself. He was on a doctrinal head hunt - suspecting that Jesus was some sort of David Koresh or Jim Jones type of character - as if Jesus was running some sort of fly by night operation. This was also a stall tactic - used to gain time so some of the Sanhedrin could gather for trial before Caiaphas. Jesus simply told Annas that He could ask anyone what He taught - since He taught openly in the synagogues and the temple. During this time Jesus received some of his first abuse, as He was slapped in the face and then turned over to Caiaphas.
I don’t know exactly what time it was when Jesus was handed over to Caiaphas; perhaps one or two in the morning. The law was specific that no trials could be held at night. God’s Word also talks about the darkness having a fear of the light. It gives good indication of how this trial was going to go. Mark 14:55-56 says, “The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.” Usually you arrest someone AFTER there is evidence of a crime, not before. The punishment is not stated until after the crime is proven. The exact opposite happens here. Their punishment is already revealed before the trial; to put him to death. So they arrest him and then look for evidence to find a reason to do it.
Remember those commercials for Snickers that ended with the punch line, “not going anywhere for a while?” That’s exactly what ends up happening here. Talk about a kangaroo court; we who know Jesus as true God would obviously realize that they were going to have a long night if they were looking to find some dirt on the Holy One of God. It shouldn’t surprise us as the text goes on, “but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree.” The only two people who could agree said that Jesus was going to “tear down the temple.” Yet even those who heard Him say this knew that Jesus was talking about His body, because they were the first to post the guard to make sure His body didn’t raise. This whole trial was getting to be an embarrassment to the Sanhedrin and the chief priest.
I find it rather ironic that those who thought they could accuse God of wrong doing were seemingly the most educated in the law of God. Somehow they felt that with their great learning that they knew more than Jesus - that they could find plenty to accuse him of. The more they studied the Word - the more they thought they were right - and God was wrong. I would call it an arrogance of learning. It happens in the wise scholars that permeate our universities - who look at the Bible and the things that God does in the Bible; and put judgment on these things as if the God portrayed in the Bible were some sort of neolithic monster. In the same way the Sanhedrin were so consumed with their positions and their knowledge and education that they thought they could easily judge Jesus - and here they found themselves floundering for evidence.
Just because you know God’s Word - and just because you try to live according to it - doesn’t somehow give you the right to judge what it says or how God acts. Just because God does things that make you question His justice doesn’t give you the right to do it. “Who are you, oh man, to talk back to God?” The very concept of Christianity does not give us the right to question any of what God does, because He is who He is; God. God doesn’t care how much of His Word you know - He can do what He wants when He wants and never can be found guilty. You want to accuse Him of being unloving - prove it. You want to accuse Him of not caring - you better be able to show it. In your mind you can point to your cancer or the behavior of your children or the conditions at work as evidence against God - but you’d best take a careful look at who is really responsible for your hardships. Is it God? Or is it the devil? Is it Jesus? Or is it YOU? Before you accuse God of being cheap or withholding blessings - take a good look around you at the blessings you do have. Before you accuse God of not caring, take a good look at Jesus standing on trial here - and tell me that God doesn’t care. Right at the point you think you have something against God - you will find yourself without any accusations that come even close to sticking.
At this point in the trial, you might expect the thunder clouds to come rolling in. Hold on to that thought, because it’s going to take a while. Jesus gives them the same treatment He originally gave Job. Mark 14:60-61 Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. As the high priest tried to make these accusations seem like something serious, Jesus was following His own advice in Proverbs 26:4, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly.”
In Matthew 26:63 Caiaphas then takes over the trial and asks His own question. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” This gets to the core of their main and ongoing beef against Jesus. Earlier in His ministry, Jesus equated His work with the Father’s work. After accusing the Pharisees of being children of the devil He also said in John 8:58-59, "I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!" At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. This was the key thing that they would not tolerate. In John 10 they had already tried to stone Him for it. It wasn’t just the claim of being God’s Son that made them so angry. It was more irritating that Jesus was telling them that they were children of the devil. It was the fact that Jesus was telling these Pharisees that the tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the kingdom of heaven that they really couldn’t tolerate. Jesus questioned their righteousness - their holiness - their self worth. When He did this as a “teacher” and more importantly as the chosen Messiah - it had to either mean that they were right or Jesus was right. Even though Jesus had done miraculous signs, they still wouldn’t believe it. They certainly wouldn’t repent. So the chief priest went for the jugular - the thing that he knew would get all of the Sanhedrin worked up - the claim that Jesus had made of being the Christ - the actual Son of God.
If Jesus had hesitated at this point, if He had refused to speak, it would have appeared that He was embarrassed as to who He was. It would have then appeared that His previous claims were only made in secret - that He only said it when He could get away with it. He would have shown that He was actually afraid of these men. This in itself would have proved that He was not the Messiah. Jesus didn’t fail or falter for one second. “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Jesus made it clear, He certainly was the Christ. He also gave them the stern warning that either they would bow to Him now or on Judgment Day.
“Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. Mark 14:64-65 What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him.
The interesting thing here is that they condemn Him of blasphemy for simply making the claim of being the Christ. There’s no crime in claiming something. I can claim to be a police officer or the President of the United States. The crime comes when I prove myself to be lying. Yet instead of even giving Jesus a smidgeon of possibility that He actually MIGHT BE the Christ - they condemned him on the spot. What does this show us? They really didn’t want a Messiah. They didn’t want a Christ - especially not one like Jesus. Their Christ had to be one that agreed with their ideals and their agenda. Any other Christ - well He just had to be false.
This is the way darkness responds to the true Light. Even though Jesus had performed the miracles and spoken exactly according to the Word of God - the Sanhedrin rejected Jesus because Jesus didn’t accept them for who they were. They rejected Jesus because He condemned them. They wanted a more accepting God - a more tolerant God - a more amicable Messiah. When Jesus didn’t respond, they decided to take pot shots at this Christ and crucify Him. Jesus had to spend the second part of His evening enduring this garbage. He still endures it yet today. Whenever Jesus confronts the “religious” with laws that they don’t like, they accuse His pastors and teachers of lovelessness and blasphemy. When a close friend or confidant has to point out a sin in you, do you respond with a defensive, “who made you God?” Do you get angry with your accuser and look for ways to get back at him? This is the same response as the Sanhedrin. “You can’t be God - you can’t come in the name of God!” Why? Not because it’s not possible, but because you’re making me feel bad.
Here we come to the next time reference in our story. A full night had taken place. Matthew 27:1-2 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor. It took them a whole night, but finally they came to a formal resolution to put Jesus to death. Since they could no longer legally do this under Roman law, they had to have the Romans do it - especially since they were in Jerusalem during a popular time of the year. Even though it was early morning, the Romans were up and ready to provide justice. The Romans kept their courts open from dawn to dusk. They prided themselves on even handed justice and on availability and quickness.
Pilate naturally wanted to know what their accusations were. At first they tried to bluff their way through it, saying that if He weren’t guilty they wouldn’t have brought Jesus. Here again you see the arrogance of the Sanhedrin. They felt they were so righteous that there was no way they could proclaim a faulty death sentence on someone. When Pilate still demanded an answer, this is what they came up with in Luke 23:2, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.” Notice that none of these claims really have anything to do with what got them so riled up in the first place - that Jesus was claiming to be the Son of God. Notice also one other technicality - none of these accusations were true! When Pilate took Jesus into his inner court, he recognized the same. Jesus wasn’t claiming to be an earthly king - but a spiritual king of truth. So here again, Pilate returned and said, “I find no basis for your charges!” You would expect that this would be the end of the story. Yet, instead of just closing his court and leaving it at that, Pilate allowed the Jews to keep arguing! Imagine if a judge made a judgment, “not guilty,” and then the defense attorney kept on arguing after that point. On top of this, he sent Jesus over to Herod and also had him whipped. What would that tell you about the judge? He didn’t have much clout or sense of justice, did he? His word and judgment really wasn’t final. As the accusations went on, what did Jesus once again continue to do? Matthew 27:14-15 says, “Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.” Why answer a fool - who doesn’t even know the Truth when it is standing in front of him?
After all of these trials, Pilate gave the mob a choice - who did they want to crucify - Barabbas - the well known murderer and insurrections - or Jesus? To no surprise, the Sanhedrin and their mob chose Jesus. After a full evening and morning of trials and beatings on a man already pronounced innocent; Pilate washed his hands and then handed Jesus over to be crucified.
There was no justice for Jesus on this night of trials. The only justice we see was justice for us. For we are all like modern day Barabbas. We deserved to be on trial and on death row. Yet instead of us getting all of the accusations, Jesus gets our accusations. Instead of getting the death sentence, Jesus is sentenced to death - as God’s chosen and voluntary scapegoat - to pay for the sins of murderers, adulterers, and every other filthy sinner in the world. On Judgment Day, our judge will not be indecisive. He will not place the decision for his judgment in the hands of vengeful and self righteous Pharisees. He will make a clear cut decision based on His own form of justice - the suffering and death of the Christ as the substitute for the world. Those who believe in Him and are baptized will be saved - declared not guilty. Those who are on the side of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin - without faith in Christ - will be damned. His own hands will provide the evidence needed of our innocense. His own mouth will proclaim the verdict. There will be no second guessing. His decision will be final and eternal.
When you see someone in the early morning, it is usually pretty telling for how his night went. If you see dark bags under his eyes, if her shoulders are half slumped over, or the hair is disheveled, you know that for some reason he or she didn’t get much sleep. When you don’t get much sleep, it makes for a very long day. I can’t imagine how Jesus looked by the time morning rolled around. He had to be exhausted and worn out - a whipped and beaten man. Unfortunately, the day to come was going to be even worse than that night. This night, as you remember that night - keep in mind this one main thing. He did this for you. Then tonight, and every night, you will have a much better night than Jesus did. You will wake up in the early morning with a good night’s rest and a clear conscience, knowing your sins were paid for. Amen.
