Saturday, April 12, 2025
The Son of God on Trial
“The chief clergymen and the entire Sanhedrin have been searching for proof in opposition to Jesus in order that they might put him to dying, however they didn’t discover any.” (Mark 14:55 NIV)
The prosecution of Jesus presents a case research in injustice, hypocrisy, and evil. After He was arrested within the Backyard of Gethsemane, Jesus was taken to the home of Annas, a former excessive priest. Annas interrogated Him briefly after which despatched Him to the home of Caiaphas, the present excessive priest.
Caiaphas had assembled the Sanhedrin, the ruling non secular physique in Israel, to listen to testimony. He had hoped to incorporate the testimonies of false witnesses who have been prepared to lie about Jesus, however none of them may get their tales straight.
As a substitute, he used testimony from two males who stated, “This man stated, ‘I’m able to destroy the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days’” (Matthew 26:61 NLT). The excessive priest demanded that Jesus inform them if He was the Messiah.
“Jesus replied, ‘You might have stated it. And sooner or later you will note the Son of Man seated within the place of energy at God’s proper hand and approaching the clouds of heaven’” (verse 64 NLT). He gave His enemies all they wanted to convict Him of blasphemy. It didn’t matter to them that He spoke the reality.
“‘Responsible!’ they shouted. ‘He deserves to die!’” (verse 66 NLT).
The Sanhedrin made its verdict official a short while later. Nevertheless it didn’t have the authority to hold out the dying sentence. Solely Roman authorities may do this. So the Jewish leaders despatched Jesus to the Roman governor, Pilate.
Pilate may discover no cause to execute Him. When he discovered that Jesus had began His ministry in Galilee, Pilate despatched Him to Herod, the ruler of Galilee, who occurred to be in Jerusalem at the moment.
Herod requested a variety of questions, after which ridiculed and mocked Jesus, however may discover no cause to cross judgment on Him. So he despatched him again to Pilate.
In the meantime, the Jewish leaders had organized a mob to demand that Jesus be crucified. Pilate tried to clarify that he may discover no guilt in Jesus. He had Jesus flogged to attempt to fulfill the mob’s bloodlust. Nevertheless it didn’t work.
By all of it, Jesus used an unorthodox however extremely efficient authorized technique—efficient, that’s, in case your goal is to be discovered responsible and put to dying. He remained silent. Other than a couple of sentences, He refused to interact His accusers or reply their expenses, regardless that nearly each a part of His trial was unlawful and unjust.
In doing so, He fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 53:7: “He was oppressed and , but he didn’t open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep earlier than its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth” (NIV).
When it comes to human justice, Jesus’ trials have been a farce. However He was inquisitive about justice of one other sort. Jesus did precisely what He wanted to do to make sure that God’s justice was glad. Due to our sins, the one method for it to be glad was for an harmless individual to endure God’s wrath. And He was the one harmless individual.
Jesus was nonetheless in full management. He had outsmarted and outmaneuvered the non secular leaders at each flip in His ministry. He may have shamed His accusers and uncovered the hypocrisy of His judges. And that’s why He remained silent. He was forcing their hand. He was giving them no alternative however to crucify Him.
A key takeaway from this epic miscarriage of justice is that sooner or later the Defendant would be the Choose. Sooner or later all of us will stand earlier than the Lord to offer an account of our lives. And our everlasting destiny shall be decided by a single query: Who do you say He’s?
Reflection query: How can we reply to individuals who attempt to discredit Jesus?
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