Month: November 2015

Before Jesus was crucified, He was put under trial several times in front of several different groups. There were religious and civic charges brought against him. The following is a sketch of the different trials.
Judas left the upper room and notified the chief priests that this night he would lead them to Jesus. Soldiers from the Temple, along with Judas go to the garden and Judas betrays Jesus.
Under the cover of night,, Jesus was arrested and taken to the house of Annas, who was the father in law to Caiaphas the high priest (John 18:12-14). Annas questioned Jesus concerning his disciples and his doctrine. Not happy with Jesus response, He sends Jesus to the house of Caiaphas where the chief priests, scribes and elders were all assembled (Mark 14:53). There were many false witnesses against Jesus, but their stories did not match up. Caiaphas questions Jesus “…tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus finally responds to Caiaphas with “Thou has said.” Caiaphas rends his garments and charges Jesus with blasphemy in the presence of the Council. They wanted Jesus dead, but being under the rule of Rome, they had no authority to carry out the judgment. In the morning, they deliver Jesus to the Governor, Pontius Pilate (Matthew 27:2) for judgment and execution.
Jesus was taken to the palace of Pontius Pilate, the Governor of Judea, serving under Emperor Tiberius, with the idea that they would charge Jesus with the civil act of sedition and turn him over to Rome to carry out their desire for His death (Matthew 27:1-2, 11-14; Mark 15:1-5; Luke 23:1-7; John 18:28-32, 33-38). Pilate interrogated Jesus, but could find no evidence of sedition, nothing worthy of condemning Jesus to death. When Pilate discovered that Jesus was from Galilee, he quickly sent him to King Herod. Herod gladly received Jesus wanting him to perform miracles before his men and himself. Tiring from questions Jesus refused to answer, Herod returned him to Pilate. For the third time, Pilate stated to the crowd that he could find no fault with him, however, being in fear of the reprisals of the religious Jews, Pilate charged Jesus with sedition and commanded that Jesus be crucified.