Digging Deeper: The Trial of Jesus

After praying, Jesus crosses the Kidron Valley with his disciples and they stop at an olive garden.

Judas knew that Jesus would go there, so he also shows up leading a group of religious leaders and soldiers to arrest Jesus.

 Jesus goes up to them and asks, “What do you want?”

They ask for “Jesus of Nazareth” and he says “I am.”

When he says “I am” the mob falls over backwards… including Judas.

Then he’s like, “Who did you say you wanted again?”

And they stand up and say “Jesus of Nazareth” and he says “I told you I am,” and he tells them that if it’s him they want then they should let the disciples go.

But Peter runs forward with a sword and cuts off the right ear of the high priest’s servant – a guy named Malchus.

Jesus commands Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

Then they arrest Jesus and bind him and bring him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year.

Annas had been deposed from the high priesthood by the Romans in AD 15 but was still regarded by many as the true high priest.

Caiaphas is the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.

Peter and another disciple are following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he goes with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter has to wait outside at the door. The other disciple comes back, speaks to the servant girl on duty there and brings Peter in. She asks Peter if he is also a disciple and he denies it.

It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

Meanwhile, the high priest questions Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.

Jesus replies, “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.”

When Jesus says this, one of the officials nearby slaps him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demands.

“If I said something wrong,” Jesus replies, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?”

Then Annas sends him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

In Jewish law no one could be sentenced on the same day their trial was held. The two examinations – one before Annas and one before Caiaphas – may have been conducted to give some form of legitimacy to the proceedings.

In a formal Jewish trial, the judge did not ask direct questions of the accused. Instead he called on witnesses, whose words determined the outcome. If two or more agreed on the charge, the verdict was sealed. The accused was not required to prove his innocence. But the scene here was more like a police interrogation than a trial. Perhaps Annas regarded this as a preliminary inquiry, not a trial. By pointing out that Annas should be talking to witnesses, Jesus unmasked Annas’s attempt to make Jesus incriminate himself. In essence, Jesus was demanding a trial.

Meanwhile, Peter is still standing there warming himself. So they ask him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”

He denied it, saying, “I am not.”

One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?”

Again Peter denies it, and at that moment a rooster begins to crow.

Jesus is then taken to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, but the Jews refuse to enter the palace because that would make them ceremonially unclean for the Passover meal… they apparently didn’t think plotting murder would also make them ceremonially unclean.

So Pilate has to come out to them to see what in the world they want at that hour of the morning, and he asks them what the charges are against Jesus.

And they say his charge is that he is a criminal.

Seeing as how they can’t find an example of any Roman law that Jesus broke, Pilate tells them all to go away and settle their own problems themselves.

But they protest, saying they want permission to execute Jesus.

So Pilate has Jesus brought inside where they can talk alone.

Pilate asks, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus responds, “Did you come up with that yourself, or did you hear that from someone else?”

Pilate’s like, “Am I a Jew? Your own people handed you over to me! What did you do?”

Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

Pilate is like, “So you are a king, then!”

Jesus says, “You say, ‘You’re a king!’ but in fact, the real reason I was born and came into this world was to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Pilate’s like, “Oh, what is truth anyway?” And he goes back out to the Jews to reason with them.

At this point we learn that it was traditional for a prisoner to be released once a year at the request of the people. We also learn that there was at this time a known terrorist and murderer locked up in prison named Jesus Barabbas.

Pilate uses this opportunity to ask the crowd who they would like to release – Jesus Barabbas or Jesus Christ?

But the crowd is like, “No! Give us the terrorist! Set Barabbas free!”