The Arrest Of Jesus Series

And basically, John does something interesting in this portion of scripture because he alternates between the interrogation of Jesus by Annas and the questioning of Peter by those who were in the courtyard. And it almost seems like he’s comparing these two interrogations and their response. And John graphically shows us the majesty of Jesus Christ while contrasting that to the shallowness of faith in the life Peter as he’s does the one thing he bragged he would never do, which was to betray the Lord.

So, we see Jesus arrested and brought before Annas in verses 12-14 and we know that the Roman soldiers who were present during the arrest were only mentioned in the gospels by John and as I said they may have kept their distance and were only there in case any trouble had broken out. And the officers who did arrest Him would have been the Jewish temple police who it says tied His hands before they took Him away which is pretty absurd considering that He had just knocked the entire crowd over with one word but there were three reasons why they would have done this. First, it was common practice to tie up anyone in order to secure him. Just like today, when someone is arrested they take them in with handcuffs on. Second, it was also done on the advice of Judas. In Matthew 26:48 Judas had made the statement: "...hold Him fast" which is the same as saying, tie Him up. And then third, it was a fulfillment of prophecy. Psalm 118:27 tells us to, "bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar." When the sacrifice was given to the priest, it was bound or tied up. In Genesis 22:9, Isaac, who is a picture of Jesus Christ, was bound by his father before he was to be sacrificed. So, by being bound, Jesus was fulfilling the Old Testament type because He was bound in preparation as a sin offering. And although they couldn’t see it, the body of Jesus was bound by ropes so that our souls might be free from the bondage of sin and Satan.

And here we are seeing the beginning of two trials. There is a religious trial and there is a civil trial. And His religious trial was with Israel while His civil trial was with Rome. In terms of Jesus’ execution, nothing could be done without Rome, so, Israel could decide that He should die, but Rome had to execute Him because the Jews had no right to take a life because they were under Roman bondage.

And then we are told that Jesus was led away to stand before Annas who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas. And here, we see John focusing on Annas because he’s the real power or the driving force, behind the condemnation of Jesus. Annas wasn’t the high priest at this time but his son-in-law Caiaphas was, as John told us back in chapter 11 verse 49. Annas had been the high priest from A.D. 6 to A.D. 15 and then he was removed from the position by the Roman prefect according to the historian Josephus because he had become so powerful. Now, even though he no longer had the title he wasn’t actually stripped of any authority because in the years that followed, he arranged for the appointment of each of his five sons and one of his grandsons as the high priest and this was followed by his son-in-law Caiaphas. And so Annas was the real power so far as the office of high priest was concerned, and those who officially held the title of high priest were only figureheads.