Jesus’ Appearances before Unjust Judges

Although Jesus was never proven guilty of any wrongdoing in any religious or civil court, He was unjustly flogged and condemned to die by Roman crucifixion.

It was a terrible, mixed-up night. The perfect, pure, innocent Son of God appeared before sinful men in trial after trial. After the mob of soldiers and religious leaders arrested Jesus and bound Him, they took Him to Annas, the great patriarch of the high priestly family. He and his five sons had been high priest and now his son-in-law had that position, but Annas was the de facto authority. He questioned Jesus and sent Him to his son-in-law, Caiaphas, the acting high priest.

The whole Sanhedrin was there trying to get people to lie about Jesus so they could kill Him, but none of them could agree. Finally, they got two people to say the same thing. Caiaphas said to Jesus, “I ask you, in God’s name, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

Jesus answered simply, “You said it.” But then He added, “Listen, from now on, you will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds seated at God’s right hand.” Jesus was claiming to be the Son of Man (the Messiah) described in Daniel 7, at which they were outraged!

Caiaphas tore his clothes, yelling, “He speaks blasphemy! Why do we need any other witnesses? You all heard His blasphemy!” Then he called for a vote. While they spit on Him, struck, and slapped Him, the vote came in: “He deserves death.”

But they couldn’t kill Jesus legally, so the entire group brought Him to the governor of the Roman province of Judea, Pontius Pilate. There, needing a civil or political accusation for which Rome might put someone to death, they accused Him of misleading the nation, forbidding the Jews to give tribute to Caesar, and claiming that He was king instead of Caesar. Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you king of the Jews?” Like before, Jesus answered, “You said it.”

But Pilate told them, “I find no guilt in this man.” Frantically, they replied, “He stirs up the people with His teaching all over Judea, from Galilee to here.” When Pilate learned that Jesus was from Galilee (Herod’s jurisdiction), he sent Him off to be judged by Herod, who was visiting Jerusalem at the time.

Now since Herod had wanted to see Jesus for a long time, he was delighted that Pilate sent Him over. He was hoping Jesus would do something spectacular. He fired question after question at Jesus, but He didn’t answer even a word. All the while, the Jewish leaders multiplied their words with harsh accusations. Herod was offended at Jesus’ lack of answers, so he mocked Him. His soldiers joined in and contemptuously dressed Jesus in elaborate, kingly clothing and sent Him back to Pilate for Jesus’ fifth trial that night.

Pilate called Jesus’ accusers before him and said, “You said this man disturbed the peace. In your presence, I examined Him and found your charge untrue, as did Herod, who sent Him back to me. It is clear to me that He is innocent and certainly does not deserve to die. I’ll just warn Him with a good whipping and let Him go.”

The accusers went crazy: “Get rid of Him! Give us Barabbas!”(Barabbas had been imprisoned for rioting and murder.) Pilate couldn’t understand this crowd and tried to release Jesus again.

“Crucify! Crucify him!” the mob shouted back at Pilate.

“But for what crime? He doesn’t deserve to die. I’m warning Him and letting Him go,” Pilate tried the third time. But the mob, not to be quieted, kept demanding crucifixion and finally wore Pilate down. He saw he was getting nowhere and that a riot was imminent, so he gave them what they wanted: a murdering insurrectionist on the loose and an innocent man at their disposal. (Pilate pardoned Barabbas and had Jesus whipped and handed over for crucifixion.) Then, he symbolically washed his hands in view of the crowd, saying, “The responsibility of this man’s death is not on me; it’s totally on you.”

The crowd responded, “We take the blame for His blood, as will our children.”