Freedom Story Part 3 - The Trials
The situation was a complex net of clashing forces. But it needed to be, that was the plan. There is so much more to this story in John 18 and 19 than most of us understand. The worst of human nature was needed to be seen for the plan to be fulfilled.
Despite it being the middle of the night the soldiers and the Temple guards to Jesus to Annas. From here the corruption deepens, the scheming becomes Machiavellian on so many levels it gets out of control.
Annas was an ex-High Priest and Caiaphas’ father-in-law who still wielded significant power with the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees. His personal plan was to manipulate things before they got to the next level of authority. His experience with the Sanhedrin court and the law alongside of his arrogance let him believe that he could trip Jesus up into saying things he could corrupt and use by being a witness in Jesus’ upcoming trial. But to do that Annas had to break the law. High Priests could only gather evidence from witness to the charges being laid at someone. They were forbidden to interrogate suspects. Hence Jesus being taken to Annas’ house in the middle of the night and there only being household slaves and Temple soldiers as possible witnesses to his actions. Annas knew none of them would talk.
Clearly the man did not know Jesus. Annas’ mistake was starting with trying to trap Jesus into saying something that Annas could twist authorities - something he could use as a witness like ‘inciting a revolt’. He asked about Jesus’ teaching.
“I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said” John 18:21-22 nlt Jesus’ reply exposed him for breaking the law and trying to twist what happened, in front of witnesses. Annas sent him to Caiaphas.
Caiaphas didn’t get any further, so in the early hours of the morning he sent Jesus to Roman HQ, the Governor Pilate. Normally Pilate be on the coast where he lived, but the leaders knew had come to Jerusalem to oversee the Passover festival. It was all part of the plan. And, Pilate was a brutal ruler and his atrocities against the Jews was legendary.
Pilate came out to them and asked “What is your charge against this man?” He wasn’t going to be seen as pandering to the Jewish leaders problems. Their non-reply reply “We wouldn’t have handed him over to you if he weren’t a criminal!”. Again Pilate wasn’t going to get into a religious fight or into the middle of a power struggle, so he told them to take Jesus away and get him judged by their own law.
To Caiaphas truth was relative to any situation as was morality and because of this attitude his assessment of the situation failed. The plan wasn’t working, the leaders assumed Pilate wouldn’t pass up the chance to kill another trouble making Jew and they needed Jesus dead. There was no going back. Then someone shouted ‘only the Romans can execute someone’ everyone joined in. Their true intentions were exposed and tensions were suddenly stratospheric.
Back inside Pilate took a pause. Caiaphas was responsible to him an he was responsible to Rome, personally. Caiaphas’ charges were that Jesus told people not to pay taxes, and the he was a king. The taxes charge could be a capital crime in which the interests and security of the Roman Empire could be at stake, and the King accusation could be terrorism so Pilate had to start a formal legal enquiry.
After talking with Jesus, Pilate realised he was no threat, articulate and different and a threat to the Jewish leadership but not to Rome. He was not going to sentence Jesus on no evidence. He went out again, by then a crowd had gathered with the leaders. He made the announcement that Jesus was guilty of no crimes and asked if they wanted ‘The King of the Jews’ to be released, or as was the custom at Passover, another prisoner. The crowd shouted for Barabas, a violent revolutionary who had led a failed revolution. The Jewish people hated the romans and their taxes and saw Barabbas as a hero. Barabbas was released.
Pilate needed to end things, so he had Jesus whipped to appease the Sanhedrin and the people. The soldiers put a crown made out of the branches of a thorn bush on his head and a purple robe on him to mock his ‘Kingly’ status. Thinking this would be enough Pilate brought Jesus out, but immediately the leaders and the Temple guards shouted ‘crucify him”. Pilate had had enough told them to crucify Jesus themselves because as far as he was concerned Jesus was not guilty.
This was the point where things changed. Caiaphas levelled a charge of blasphemy against Jesus - “By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God”. In itself this wasn’t illegal, however Pilate had to keep the peace by upholding local law. The Jewish Law saw anyone who claimed divine authority as committing blasphemy. Again Pilate tried to release Jesus, but his time the leaders shouted ‘if you release this man you are no friend of Caesar’.
Somehow the Sanhedrin had found out that Pilate’s patron in Rome, Sejanus the chief administrator the Empire under Tiberius Caesar, had fallen out of favour and been executed. His backing had diminished significantly. Pilate now had good reason to be afraid this was an overt threat that they would send a bad report to Rome to ruin his career and threaten his life. He capitulated and turned Jesus over to the leaders for crucifixion.
