The Illegal Jewish Trial of Jesus
Good Friday, 21 March, 2008, By David J. Brown

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." So goes the opening of A Tale of Two Cities (1859), the second historical novel by Charles Dickens. The plot centres on the years leading up to the French Revolution, and the two cities are London and Paris. Charles Darnay was a romantic French aristocrat from Paris, the kind that the mobs were sending to the guillotine. Sydney Carton was a cynical English barrister from London who drank a lot. The amazing thing is that the two, though very different in their personalities, look almost identical. Their lives come together, and unfortunately both fall deeply in love with the same woman, Lucie Manette. Lucie loved Darnay.

At the end, the mobs have caught the aristocrat, Charles Darnay. He is imprisoned in the Bastille and facing the guillotine in the morning. Sydney Carton, a lawyer, visits Darnay, drugs him and then exchanges clothes with him. Telling the guards that the lawyer passed out, Carton, for the love of Lucie Mannette, goes to the guillotine in the place of her fiancé. Before he died, he uttered these last words: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

One man dying for another. An innocent man laying down his life for another. It is an element in some of the greatest stories ever written. Jesus himself said, "Greater love hath no man than this, than that a man should lay down his life for his friend." But no story of the voluntary sacrifice of the innocent outweighs the meaning and impact of Jesus' own sacrifice for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21.

READING: JOHN 11:45-50, 53

Why would people execute a sinless and innocent man? Jealousy and fear of losing significance. If Jesus was the Messiah, that would mean a change in the government, and throwing off Roman rule. These men would lose the cushy position and wealth that they had. They had to get rid of him. Now the Jewish legal and trial system is the basis for how we handle crimes and trials in the West. It was a brilliant system.

But the trial of Jesus Christ was totally illegal under Jewish law - illegal in thirteen different ways according to the law of his day. Then he was turned over to Pilate who had him executed even though he found Jesus innocent!

1. There was no legal basis for Jesus' arrest because no one had presented a formal charge of any crime; He simply was arrested by the Temple guard with commanding officers - as many as 300 men with clubs and swords. Moreover, those who went with Judas to have Jesus arrested included the priests and elders - His judges! (Luke 22:52) and some of them were the ones who bribed Judas!

2. Jesus was subjected to a secret interrogation at night at the home of Annas the former high priest, and father-in-law of Caiaphas, the existing high priest (John 18:12-14, 19-23). The legal process was being charged with a crime, then an arrest warrant, then an arrest, then an arraignment in the Hall of Judgment, trial with witnesses in that Hall, then a verdict, then two days later a sentence of judgment. Jesus wasn't taken by day to the judgment hall, but to Annas' home at night. Jewish law permitted only daylight proceedings. Annas asked general questions about Jesus' movement in an attempt to uncover a crime. He already had a sentence; he just needed a crime to match it. Jesus' answer shows that he knew this was an illegal interrogation. He got slapped by an officer for exposing Annas.

3. In the dark of night, Jesus was transported from the house of Annas to the large home of Caiaphas, which was located near the temple. This is where Peter and John sat in the courtyard. The scribes and elders had been gathering together at Caiaphas' place while Jesus was at the house of Annas (except for Joseph and Nicodemus). The indictment against Jesus was illegal because the judges, the members of the Sanhedrin themselves, brought up the charge without any prior testimony by witnesses. It's bad when the judge is your prosecutor. The Jewish court (the Sanhedrin) by law was not allowed to originate charges.

4. The court illegally held its trial of Jesus in the middle of the night, before sunrise so no one would be available to testify on His behalf. Jewish law required only daytime trials. Several gospels make mention of the scribes, elders, and chief priests meeting first thing in the morning - this may have been some lame attempt at saying they tried Jesus at dawn.

5. Jewish law required that all trials were to be public. The place for this was the Hall of Judgment. This one was held in secret.

6. They looked around in the middle of the night for people to testify against Jesus. Two false witnesses charged Jesus with saying He would destroy the temple made with hands, and build another one in three days (Mark 14:58). There was no testimony of a bad act, so the Sanhedrin disregarded it.

7. Jesus ended up being condemned by the court for blasphemy - claiming to be the Messiah. He was condemned on His own testimony (Luke 22:67-71). But according to Jewish law, a person could not be condemned on his own testimony.

8. If a man was found guilty under Jewish law, the judges would not announce the sentence until the third day. During the intermediate day, they could not be occupied with anything but the case, and they abstained from eating. On a Jewish Feast Day, you're supposed to feast, and therefore the Sanhedrin developed a rule that they would never hold a trial the day before a feast began or before a Sabbath, otherwise they would be fasting during a feast, thus violating Jewish law. Jesus' trial began on the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread (John 18:28). Jesus' trial was completed in less than nine hours!

9. Jewish law provided that the accused was to be protected in his person until a verdict was reached. Jesus was struck, spat upon, yelled at, blindfolded and beaten at his trial by the priests (judges!), and the temple officers.

10. No death penalty could be passed unanimously - there had to be a dissenter. Those who would have voted against condemnation were not at Jesus' trial. Joseph of Arimathaea was a member of the court, yet he was not there (Luke 23:50-51). Jesus' opponents had made sure that only those who hated Him would be there.

11. The sentence was pronounced in a place forbidden by law. The trial took place at the high priest's house (Luke 22:54). According to the law, a death sentence could be pronounced only in the court's appointed place, which in Jesus' day was the Judgment Hall up in the temple area.

12. Most of the judges were legally disqualified to try Jesus. Some had bought their way into office, according to Josephus. Also, since they were known enemies of Jesus, Jewish law required that they recuse or disqualify themselves so he could be tried by impartial judges.

13. The court illegally switched the charges from blasphemy against God to treason when they went before Pilate. Jesus' opponents wanted Him killed, but as Jews under Roman domination, they could not do it themselves. So they charged Him with treason (Luke 23:2), a Roman crime, so the Romans would be responsible for His death. No evidence was presented (John 18:29-30). Pilate, after a brief interview, saw that Jesus was not guilty (John 18:38, 19; Matt. 27:18). Fearing the crowd, however, he allowed the crucifixion of an innocent man. Pilate did not even pronounce Him guilty; he merely turned Him over to the soldiers.

Conclusions:
1. Jesus didn't do much to claim his legal rights because he had a higher purpose - He knew where all of this was headed
2. Jesus' trial is another example of religion hating true spirituality - like when Cain killed Abel
3. Jesus is a model to us of not emotionally fighting back when we're accused
4. Jesus is a source of great thankfulness for us since He went through this for us - redeeming us by dying as our sinless substitute

"One of America's great preachers was called the Great Illustrator, he never lacked for a story until his wife died. His little girl came to him and said "Daddy you told me that because Jesus died for us we don't have to die, because Jesus died for us we are rescued from death, if Jesus died for us why did Mommy still have to die." A good question, and the Great Illustrator did not know how to deal with the little girls context, he says give me a little time to think about it and the day of the funeral they were driving in the car to the cemetery. It was bright sunny day and shining on the road there and in front of the funereal car was that long tractor-trailer truck and a traffic light. The sun was shining on the truck and a long shadow was being cast on the sidewalk and he looked at her and he said "Honey if you had to be run over today, would you rather be run over by the truck or by the shadow." And she looked at him in her wisdom and said "Daddy naturally over the shadow, I rather the shadow went over me, it wouldn't hurt as much as the truck," and he said "Dear that's what Jesus has done for us when He died on the cross - the truck of God's judgment went over Him, only the shadow goes you and me now." Ravi Zacharias - The Questions of a Man in Agony.