The Illegal Trial of Jesus

I will preach this message at Liberty Lodge – April 14, 2024

Even though we are a couple weeks past the Easter Holiday, this morning we’re going to take a look at the events that led up to Jesus being put to death on the Cross.

Specifically, we are going to look at the so-called crime that Jesus committed and why was he found guilty of it?

If you have a Bible, turn with me to Mark 14:53-65.

——- And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire. And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none.

For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.

But neither so did their witness agree together. And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?

And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. ——-

Right before this scene we see that Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples, a man that he was with for three and half years. That man, of course, was Judas Iscariot. And then after these scriptures, we see another one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter, denying that he ever even knew Jesus; and he did so, three times.

So here’s Jesus being hauled into a kangaroo court that was precipitated by a so-called beloved friend, with no one else, out of all his followers, to come to his defense.

That, of course, brings up the question: Why did they even bring Jesus to trial? What did he do? For there to be a trial, there must be a crime, right?

I’ve never had to go before a judge for a crime that I allegedly committed, but I’ve been with friends that have. And I know the prosecuting attorney needs evidence of some sort that bears witness of a crime before they can charge that person. Unless of course you find yourself living in a corrupt country like ancient Palestine…or one that is falling into corruption, like these United States.

Well, two of the chief instigators in having Jesus arrested and put on trial were Annas and Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the high priest that year. According to Luke ch3 and Acts ch4; Annas did serve as high priest, but at this time Caiaphas was in that position. The Scriptures do refer to Annas as High Priest, even though he was not in that office at the time. Some commentators say this is similar to still referring to a former president as, Mr. President.

Annas was however extremely influential over Caiaphas, who was his son-in-law, and also very influential over all Judea. Annas was in essence a political boss; the man behind the scenes, so to speak. You can think of him like a Don Corleone type of character from the movie The GodFather.

Annas, who was an Alexandrian Sadducee, was appointed High Priest in 6 AD, by his friend, Coponious, who was the Roman procurator of that region. He officially served as High Priest for roughly ten years, but at the age of 36 he was deposed by the Roman procurator Gratus ‘for imposing and executing capital sentences which had been forbidden by the [Roman] government.’

Yet while having been officially removed from office, he remained as one of the nation’s most influential political and social leaders. This was aided greatly, of course, by the use of his five sons and his son-in-law who all served as High Priests in the years following. It was like a marriage between the priesthood and the mob.

Since Annas had been removed from the High Priest position for illegally invoking capital punishment, he apparently didn’t want to lose his position of power through Caiaphas by taking that chance with Jesus; hence the need for him to go before Pilot to have Jesus crucified.
The official form of capital punishment for Israel was stoning; which they were no longer allowed to do.

Their ability to sentence people to death was taken away after the removal of Archelaus in 11 AD, who was the son and successor of Herod.

Genesis 49:10 gives an interesting prophecy to the descendants of Judah that speaks about this removal of power.

It says; “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”

Shiloh was another title for the Messiah. The Sceptre (or tribal staff) – represented two things; Tribal Identity and Judicial power and authority. The first visible sign of the beginning of the removal of the scepter from Judah came about when Herod the Great, a non-Jew, (who reigned from 37-4 BC), succeeded the Maccabean princes who were the last Jewish kings to have their reign in Jerusalem (Maccabees, Book 2). They lost judicial power in 11 AD (Josephus, Ant., Book 17, Chap. 13, 1-5).

The Talmud, which is a record of rabbinical discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history (Bab., Sanhedrin, Chap. 4, fol. 37) records the Sanhedrin’s dismay when the Sceptre was lost.

Rabbi Rachmon says, “When the members of the Sanhedrin found themselves deprived of their right over life and death, a general consternation took possession of them; they covered their heads with ashes, and their bodies with sackcloth, exclaiming: ‘Woe unto us, for the scepter has departed from Judah, and the Messiah has not come!’

If you’re unable to back up your own laws with authority, in this case, capital punishment, then you are in essence not a country. You’re a province under someone else’s control. I think we’re starting to learn what that means first hand, don’t you?

Well, even though the Sanhedren at that time thought the prophecy in Genesis chapter 49 was broken, little did they realize that just north of them in the small town of Nazareth, there was a young boy working in a carpenter’s shop that would one day show himself to be the Messiah. The members of the Sanhedrin actually thought the Word of God had been broken (Oh yea of little faith).

In Mark 11:15-18 which occurred just a few days prior to the arrest and trial of Jesus; we see the Lord entering into the Temple to throw out the moneychangers. Today we might call them…Bankers.

This of course angered the Jewish leadership because Jesus was messing with their racketeering operation. Verse 18 says; “And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.”

The racketeering operation that Jesus disrupted was one in which they would profit from the exchange between Jewish and Roman currency, and by the selling of sacrificial animals at extremely high rates.

The people would bring their own animals to sacrifice at the Temple, but first they needed to be inspected to make sure there were no blemishes. Inevitably the inspectors, working for the government (the Sanhedrin), would declare their animal blemished and therefore they could not be used as a sacrifice. But, they would, ever so kindly, sell them an unblemished one for a very steep price.

What were the people to do? It was commanded in the law that they had to bring a sacrifice, but they couldn’t use the one they just brought. So they were forced to pay excessive prices.

Annas and his group in essence had a very lucrative monopoly and it was being threatened by Jesus.

Not only was their source of income being messed with, but their positions of power as well. A day or two before the incident in the Temple when he turned over the money changers, Jesus did something that angered the chief priests and Pharisees greatly.

In John chapter 11 it records Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. The Sanhedrin was made up of both Sadducees and Pharisees, but primarily, it’s ruled by the Sadducees. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection and life after death, but the Sadducees did not.

When Jesus raised Lazarus after 4 days of being in the grave, it completely overturned the Sadducees doctrine, and made them appear to be idiots in the eyes of the people; which greatly angered them and gave them a great deal of fear of what would happen to their power.

Before modern medicine it was sometimes difficult to distinguish between being comatose and being dead, people were occasionally buried alive. Jewish burial practices attempted to eliminate this grisly possibility.

It was assumed that, if they had not revived by the third day then all hope was lost. Jesus, if you remember, waited until the fourth day to make it very clear to everyone that Lazarus was clearly dead. He was even to the point of smelling or stinking.

After the resurrection of Lazarus, it says in John 11:47-48; “Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.”

These of course were not the only incidents that angered the Jewish leadership. Some others were:

• Healing on the Sabbath and performing other activities on that day
• Breaking their traditions, even though their traditions broke God’s commandments.
• The many miracles that Jesus performed which contradicted their traditions and laws
• His proclamations of being equal with God the Father.
• The many Parables spoken against the Jewish leadership.
• His calling them out in public as being devourers of widows houses (meaning they stole from poor women), calling them vipers, hypocrites and even going so far as to call them, sons of the devil.

So to summarize the motives of the Jewish leadership we can see the following:

• They were witnesses to the miracles which testified that Jesus was from God and that he was God, manifest in the flesh.
• They were witness to the fulfillment of the prophecies they knew in the law.
• However, they wanted him gone because:
  • Their false doctrine was being undermined by Jesus.  
  • They foresaw the possibility that they would lose their place of authority because people were being won to his side.
  • They foresaw the possibility that they would lose control over the nation
  • And they were losing their source of great wealth.
• They were however afraid to take action because of the people 
• If they were to take action against him out in the open they would have difficulty arresting him.  Hence the need to do things at night, when no one was watching.

Therefore, this was not a problem over whether or not Jesus was the Son of God.

• There was more than enough proof that Jesus was the Prophesied Messiah.  
• There was the witness from Heaven, when the Father spoke audibly three separate times.  
• There were many Scriptures that testified of his coming.  
• There were genealogical records in the Temple that could verify his lineage that he was from the tribe of Judah, as prophesied. 
• There were countless miracles performed, some that were never performed before in the Old Testament. In fact, there were so many miracles performed by Jesus that the Apostle John said in John 21:25: “…there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”
• And on and on it goes.

So again, this was not a problem over whether or not Jesus was the Son of God. This was not an intellectual problem. This was not a problem with the evidence of who he was. Jesus was not making claims that contradicted his actions or Scripture. He was consistent across the board.

So why did they do this? Why did they have a trial against him when he did not commit any crime?

And the problem lied, not just with those prosecuting him, but also with the crowd that chose to release Barabas over Jesus.

The reason why they did this is very simple. They just didn’t want him.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees loved their power, their control, their authority, their money, and the praise among men far more than they loved God. Basically, they loved themselves more than they loved God.

And the people that supported this corrupt leadership. What was their problem?

They just didn’t want to rock the boat.

They knew that if they accepted Christ over their leaders that they would be put out of the synagogues, no longer allowed to enter the temple.

• Family would reject them
• Friends would reject them
• Their community would reject them.  
• They would be outcasts in their society. 
• They just didn’t want their worlds turned upside down. 
• They, too, didn’t want Jesus because of their selfish ways.

It’s as simple as that.

The leaders in the Sanhedrin were willing to do anything they could to hold onto their power and the people were willing to do anything to hold onto their way of life. Even if that meant putting to death the Son of God.

So keep all of that in mind as we look at the trial against Jesus.

I purchased a book by Earle L. Wingo, who was the past president of the Mississippi State Bar Association. The title of the book is The Illegal Trial of Jesus

He goes through and examines everything from the arrest, to the trial before the Sanhedrin, and the one before Pilot and shows that numerous laws and commandments were broken in order to condemn Jesus to death.

Some of the sources he used were, of course, the Old Testament. He also used the Jewish Talmud and Mishnah; along with other ancient literature such as the works of Josephus.

There are numerous laws that they broke, so I won’t go over all of them, but here are some of them.

1. First off…the arrest was without authority of law, and therefore illegal.   According to their law, you need official papers from the Sanhedrin to make an arrest; which they did not have.  An example of this is in Acts 9:1,2, which mentions Saul (who later became the Apostle Paul) received letters from the High priest to go after the Christians in Damascus.
2. Second…if a man was arrested for a capital crime, he could never be arrested at night. It had to be in broad daylight. Jesus’ arrest took place between 1 and 2 o’clock in the morning.   They did it at night though because they were afraid of the people, as the New Testament accounts repeat often.
3. Also, no one cooperating in the arrest could be in any way connected to the one who is accused; but Judas took part in the arrest. 
4. No arrest for a capital crime could be made based upon information given by a follower or colleague of the accused. Because they felt if the accused was guilty then so were his followers. But the entire plot revolved around Judas, one of the followers. This law was blatantly and openly ignored.
5. Annas, before whom Jesus was first taken for examination, was a mere politician without jurisdiction.  He was a High Priest at one time, but not at this moment.  Scholars believe that due to Annas’ position of power and his hatred for Jesus for disrupting his business in the temple and position of power in Judea, he wanted to personally confront him before the others did.
6. The Sanhedrin was unlawfully assembled because Hebrew laws prohibited such a meeting at night, or during the Feast of the Passover. The law in the Talmud says: “The members of the court may not alertly and intelligently hear the testimony against the accused during the hours of darkness.”  However, both trials before Annas and Caiaphas were held in darkness.
7. Several of the members of the Sanhedrin were disqualified to try Jesus because of their animosity toward the accused.   They actively pursued him in his arrest, therefore they were biased against him. 
8. When Jesus was arrested he was not formally accused of any crime, NONE!  When he was before the Sanhedrin he was accused of blasphemy, but when He was before Pilate, the charge was changed to treason and sedition because they knew that a charge of blasphemy didn’t warrant a cause for death.    In fact, the charge of blasphemy dealt with speaking against God or the name of God.  Jesus only proclaimed that he was the “I AM”, and he MADE make this claim with a mountain of proof.  There was more than enough evidence to prove who he was.
9. Jesus was denied an opportunity to obtain His witnesses, who could have testified on His behalf.  Under Jewish law, no person could be found guilty upon his own confession of guilt alone. At least two witnesses were required to testify in support of a charge against the accused; and their testimony had to agree as to all the material facts involved.  All the witnesses that were brought forward against Jesus could not agree, on anything, in their testimony.
10. It was not lawful to conclude the trial in a single day. The members of the Jewish court, after hearing the testimony of true witnesses in a capital crime, could not immediately act and judge. They were to go home and remain alone and separate from one another for two days thinking about the testimonies they had heard. During that time alone the Talmud says; “Eat like food, drink like wines, sleep well. And once again return and hear the testimony of the accused. Then, and only then, shall you render a vote.” They didn’t do that. The Jewish court never left the presence of Caiaphas!
11. In Mark 14:64 it says they unanimously condemned him to death; but the Romans had long before taken from the Sanhedrin its authority to sentence anyone to death.   In fact, a law specific to the Jews at that time, which we don’t practice today, said that a unanimous verdict of guilt rendered on the same day by the Jewish court had the effect of an acquittal.   In other words, he should have been immediately let go. 
12. In fact, even the method of voting was specified in their laws! They never took an “all in favor say I, all opposed say no” kind of vote. Their vote was supposed to be taken from the youngest to the oldest so that the youngest wouldn’t be intimidated or influenced by the older votes. This never happened.
13. No trial could be held before only one judge, and never without a defense attorney. All of that was overlooked, openly, willfully ignored and disobeyed. Even though they were people of the book, they didn’t follow the book. In the history of jurisprudence, there has never been a more unfounded series of trials.
14. Even though the members of the Sanhedrin were thoroughly versed in the law, they ignored every existing Hebrew law that protected the innocent.

Now, like I said earlier, these are not all the laws that were broken. We haven’t even gotten into the trial that was held under Pontius Pilot. But it’s abundantly clear that everything they did to put him to death was illegal and unlawful.

Some of you might say; “what’s the point of all this, we know it was illegal, but it was prophesied to happen”.

That is true, but what I hope is clear is this; This was not an intellectual problem.

Jesus was not making claims that contradicted his actions or Scripture. He was consistent across the board. There was more than enough evidence to bear witness to who he was.

Therefore when he answered in the affirmative that he was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed; he was not lying.

Therefore the problem was not with Jesus, but with them. They loved their power, control, authority, money, and praise among men, more than they loved the Lord. They did not want what Jesus had to offer.

It’s as simple as that. And they were willing to do anything they could to hold onto that. Even to go so far as to kill God himself.

The point to make also is that they had every opportunity to turn away from this. The deck was stacked in Jesus’ favor.

So in order to put him to death, they had to pull out all the stops. They had to break every rule, every regulation, every law, and every commandment. They had to disregard every prophecy, every Scripture, every witness, every miracle.

Their actions clearly testify that they wanted to do this. When a man wills himself to go against God, there is nothing that will stop him. And this whole event testifies of that.

This trial of Jesus reflects the hearts and minds of those that wanted nothing to do with Him.

You see…no one goes to Hell by accident.

Let me say that again.

No one goes to Hell by accident.

You DO NOT end up in Hell because God didn’t want you.

You end up there because you willfully deny Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

When it comes to the matter of salvation…the deck is stacked in our favor.

Every opportunity is given to us under heaven to receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

The evidence all around us is abundantly clear. So much so that we have no excuse if we deny Him.

Romans 1:18-20 says; “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold (or suppress) the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”

Did you hear that? God has manifested himself to us both within and without.

Therefore, the problem is not with the intellectual mind. It’s not with the rational mind. The problem is with the will.

At the end of the trial when Pilate condemns Jesus to death it says in Luke 23:25; “And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will.”

They…willfully said, “NO, we don’t want him. Give us that murderer, Barabas instead.”

When we look at Judas, we see the same problem.

He walked with Christ for over 3 years, he himself did miracles when they went out two-by-two, he witnessed amazing things, but still he cared more about the things of this world than he did about the things of God.

His will superseded his mind. His love for himself was greater than his love for God.

All the evidence pointed to the contrary, but he decided otherwise; not because of an intellectual problem, but because of a willful problem.

Please don’t misunderstand me. Jesus doesn’t want just your mind. He wants all of you.

In Matthew 22:37-38 when Jesus was replying to the question; “which is the greatest commandment of all”; “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”

Jesus wants all of you. He wants every part of you surrendered to Him.

Even though Peter and the other disciples had forsaken the Lord at his trial, they were not like those on the Sanhedrin nor like that of Judas.

Many of the members on the Sanhedrin were neither remorseful, nor repentant.

Judas was remorseful, but not repentant.

Peter and the others however, were remorseful and repentant.

For Peter and the others, I think their denial came out of fear and a lack of understanding.

They still apparently were thinking that Jesus was going to bring in his kingdom at that moment. They didn’t fully understand what was taking place. It was only until after the resurrection that they realized who he really was.

He was the Lamb of God that came to take away the sins of the world, Amen!

It was then that their faith was renewed and strengthened; especially when they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Therefore, my question to you today is this.

If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, will you be like those of the Sanhedrin, and willfully deny Him, in spite of the evidence to the contrary. Or will you give your life to him completely; your heart, your soul, and your mind?

If you’re like doubting Thomas who said in John 20:25; “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

If you’re like him at this moment, I would encourage you to pray a prayer that I prayed many years ago. I said, “Lord, if you are who you claim to be, please, show me.”

Then watch and see the flood of evidence that the Lord will bring to bear.

But realize this. All of that evidence won’t mean a thing if you put yourself above God.

If you have made “self” your god like the Pharisees did and like the Sadducees did and like the crowds of people, calling for his crucifixion, did, then you will be no different than them.

And it won’t matter to you how much you see, because you won’t have the eyes to see it. You won’t have the ears to hear it, and you won’t have the heart to receive it.

But if you are willing to die to “self”. If you are willing to repent of your sins and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then you will have the eyes to see and the ears to hear and the heart to receive.

Will you repent of your sins today…now…and trust in him as your Lord and Savior?

The choice is up to you. I pray you chose wisely.

Let’s pray.