{"id":8700,"date":"2023-02-28T18:04:58","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T01:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8700"},"modified":"2023-03-17T06:07:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T13:07:19","slug":"caiaphas-and-the-trial-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8700","title":{"rendered":"
Caiaphas and the Trial of Jesus<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 11:49-53<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sermon for the Season of Lent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have taken up Peter, and today we\u2019ll take up Caiaphas and the trial: What actually happened, and who was responsible for this trial and crucifixion, this miscarriage of justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 170 A.D. a Christian named Tatian put all four gospels \u2013 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John \u2013 together into a single narrative of Jesus\u2019 life. It was called the Diatessaron<\/em>, which means \u201caccording to the four.\u201d And we think that it was actually all together! We think so because there are such movies, like The King of Kings<\/em>, a silent movie from the 1920s, and there are others since, most recently, The Passion of the Christ<\/em> by Mel Gibson. We think we can really see things \u201cas they actually were\u201d (the goal of historical research as stated by the historian, von Ranke). Of course it was much more complicated. We need to see this in order to understand what happened at the trial of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we look at the four gospels, we find that in Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus had a three-year ministry, but in John Jesus\u2019 ministry was only one year. That obviously becomes a problem when we think we can put all four gospels together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we look at the account of the cleansing of the temple, we find that in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it is just before the end of Jesus\u2019 ministry, but in the Gospel of John it\u2019s at the beginning of chapter two. Because revolt was a constant threat, the temple was heavily guarded at all times. Roman soldiers were everywhere. It is difficult to imagine how Jesus could take five steps without the soldiers being right there to stop Jesus taking a whip and driving out the money changers and overturning their tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there is the trial itself. The Sanhedrin, the court, did not even exist as it is described until about sixty years later. To be sure, there were some kinds of courts in Jesus\u2019 time, and the Jewish law was strict about certain things. First of all, the court could not meet at night. And yet in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, this happened Thursday night. It also says the court is not to meet during a festival or the eve of the Sabbath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been those who have said perhaps the trial really happened on a Wednesday. There have also been those who have said perhaps it wasn\u2019t truly a court but a kind of preliminary hearing. But that does not eliminate the problem because they asked for Barabbas, a convicted murderer, in place of an innocent man. There were false witnesses, and they could not reconcile their testimonies so they had to throw out the witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in John 18:31 the Jews say: \u201cWe come to you, Pilate, because it\u2019s against your law to let us kill somebody.\u201d But in the Book of Acts 6:1 the Sanhedrin was there and Stephen was stoned to death. The same is found in Josephus when James, the brother of Jesus, was put to death by the Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy: \u201cAre you the Christ or not?\u201d (Mark 14:62). Jesus answers: \u201cI am.\u201d And then goes on to quote Daniel 7:13: \u201cYou shall see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.\u201d We are often confused by this because everyone who followed God and was a believer was \u201ca son of God,\u201d but the \u201cSon of man\u201d who came on the clouds of heaven was the Eternal One himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jewish leaders gathered to discuss what to do. It\u2019s here that Caiaphas speaks, making a political calculation. John 11:49-50:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of them, named Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, said: \u2018You don\u2019t know anything at all; you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Caiaphas was saying was that it\u2019s a good idea to use Jesus as a scapegoat and let him be punished in order to spare the nation. That\u2019s the plain meaning of his words. But the text goes on (John 11:51-52):
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe (Caiphas) did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He speaks the truth but not in the way he imagines. Here we see an example of how in the Gospel of John there are layers of meaning to what is said. Caiaphas\u2019 prophecy has the opposite meaning from what he intended: Jesus is the Savior. Jesus is the one who, by his death, saves his own!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This shows us the difficulty in seeing how we understand what was going on. The same is true with Pilate, the Roman governor, who is spelled out one way in John and another way in Matthew and parallels. We get the idea that Pilate is deeply troubled psychologically, yet we know he was a ruthless Roman governor. It seems very unlikely that this account is the way it was. (It surely wasn\u2019t the way it is in Mel Gibson\u2019s movie.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gospel of John has striking polarities: the contrasts between light and darkness, between blindness and sight, between those of this world and those of the world above, the Jews against Jesus and the Jews for Jesus (John uses simply \u201cJews\u201d instead of \u201cJews against Jesus\u201d and that creates a basic confusion. The Gospel of John is not anti-Jewish [anti-Semitic]. Jesus was a Jew). What\u2019s the main polarity in the Gospel of John?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main thing is election. The Lord rescues us from our lostness and helpless and gives us real freedom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n