Facing Jesus #5 - The Chief Priests
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Words of Jesus are underlined
Correct me if I’m wrong: it’s not the job of a chief priest of the true God to look for ways to kill his competition. How did the chief priests face Jesus? It was after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead that they worried that everyone would believe in Him. Duh! They should have bowed down and worshipped Him. Instead, they worried that they would lose “their place and their nation.”
How do you face Jesus? If you make Him the Lord of your life, you’ll have to surrender that place yourself. Are you o.k. with that?
The Plot to Kill Jesus
So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and were saying, “What are we going to do since this man is doing many signs? If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
One of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You’re not considering that it is to your advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.” He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children of God. So from that day on they plotted to kill him.
The Second Cleansing in the Temple
Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people were looking for a way to kill him, but they could not find a way to do it, because all the people were captivated by what they heard.
Jesus Before the Sanhedrin
First they led him to Annas, since he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it would be better for one man to die for the people.
The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they could not find any. For many were giving false testimony against him, and the testimonies did not agree. Some stood up and gave false testimony against him, stating, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another not made by hands.’” Yet their testimony did not agree even on this.
Then the high priest stood up before them all and questioned Jesus, “Don’t you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you?”
But Jesus kept silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” “I am,” said Jesus, “and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What is your decision?” They all condemned him as deserving death.
Temple Guards Beat Jesus
Then they spat in his face and beat him; After blindfolding him, others slapped him and said, “Prophesy to us, Messiah! Who was it that hit you?” And they were saying many other blasphemous things to him.
The Sanhedrin Condemns Jesus
As soon as it was morning, having held a meeting with the elders, scribes, and the whole Sanhedrin, the chief priests tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, was full of remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said. “What’s that to us?” they said. “See to it yourself!” So he threw the silver into the temple and departed. Then he went and hanged himself.
The chief priests took the silver and said, “It’s not permitted to put it into the temple treasury, since it is blood money.” They conferred together and bought the potter’s field with it as a burial place for foreigners. Therefore that field has been called “Blood Field” to this day. Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him whose price was set by the Israelites, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”
Jesus Before Pilate
They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation, opposing payment of taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.”
So Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
He answered him, “You say so.”
Pilate Hands Jesus Over to be Crucified
Pilate then told the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no grounds for charging this man.”
But they kept insisting, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee where he started even to here.”
Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate addressed them again, but they kept shouting, “Crucify! Crucify him!”
A third time he said to them, “Why? What has this man done wrong? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore, I will have him whipped and then release him.” But they kept shouting all the more, “Crucify him! If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Anyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar!”
When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside. He sat down on the judge’s seat in a place called the Stone Pavement (but in Aramaic, Gabbatha). It was the preparation day for the Passover, and it was about noon. Then he told the Jews, “Here is your king!”
They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Should I crucify your king?”
“We have no king but Caesar!” the chief priests answered.”
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that a riot was starting instead, he took some water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. See to it yourselves!”
All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”
The Crucifixion of Jesus
The chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him and said, “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe.” He trusts in God; let God rescue him now—if he takes pleasure in him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
(John 11:47–53; Luke 19:47–48; John 18:13–14; Mark 14:55–60; Matthew 26:63; Mark 14:62–64; Matthew 26:67; Luke 22:64a; Matthew 26:67–68; Luke 22:65; Mark 15:1; Matthew 27:2-10; Luke 23:2–5, 20–22; Matthew 27:23b; John 19:12b–15; Matthew 27:24–25; John 18:16; Matthew 27:41b–42a; Mark 15:32a; Matthew 27:43 CSB17)
The chief priests were more concerned with “their place” than in actually believing in God and leading people to Him. In what ways have you been afraid of Jesus kicking you off the throne of your life?
“What’s that to us?” they told Judas. Have you ever heard of a more cold-blooded response to a broken heart? What must happen to a church leader to become that hard of heart?
Think about the example the chief priests were giving to Pilate about their role as God’s representatives. Would Pilate would have been moved to believe in God through them?
In what ways have your actions in front of unbelievers drawn people to God or pushed them away?
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