The Identity of Jesus on Trial (Mark 14:53-65)

Jesus is the most controversial figure in human history. Everyone has an opinion about him, for better or worse. Today we look at the sham trial of Jesus, and all of the irony it contains. The trial of Jesus shows us how people in every generation can get Jesus wrong. Both the religious and irreligious can misjudge the Judge of all. Here’s the question we’ll be answering:

1. How has the world misjudged Jesus?

• Famous atheists (irreligious) who did it:
  • Bertrand Russell (Philosopher and Mathematician): “Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did, we do not know anything about Him.”
  • Christopher Hitchens (Author and Journalist): “The teachings of Jesus are not the Sermon on the Mount, where he behaves in an exalted and wise manner. It’s the idea of the prodigal son, where he says that if you’re really, really sorry, if you’re genuinely sorry, if you really ask for forgiveness, you can be forgiven. It’s a horrible idea.”
  • Richard Dawkins (Biologist and Author): “The alternative to the God hypothesis is not the hypothesis that Jesus was God incarnate. It is the hypothesis that Jesus was a zealot, executed for sedition, whose followers perpetuated his cult by deifying him.”

 Irony: Jesus is the Judge!

• John 5:22-23 (NLT) …the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.

Today we’ll see Jesus on trial. Can you imagine it? The Judge of all, the Creator, in court being judged by his creations!? We’ll see that misjudging Jesus is nothing new. But when it happened 2000 years ago for the first time, it was not a group of atheists making such offensive statements. It was the religious elite themselves. Let’s get to the text…

Mark 14:53-54 (NLT) They took Jesus to the high priest’s home where the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law had gathered. Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and went right into the high priest’s courtyard. There he sat with the guards, warming himself by the fire.

The leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law

• This was the Sanhedrin, the “influencers” in Jesus’ day
• The Sanhedrin was a Jewish council that existed during the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. It was made up of 71 members and served as the highest religious and legal authority among the Jews in ancient Israel. The Sanhedrin was responsible for interpreting Jewish law, settling disputes, and making decisions on religious and legal matters. It played a significant role in the governance of the Jewish people and the preservation of Jewish traditions and customs.

Peter followed him at a distance

• The disciples were supposed to be testifying FOR Jesus: Mark 13:9 (NLT) “When these things begin to happen, watch out! You will be handed over to the local councils and beaten in the synagogues. You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell them about me.”
  • But Peter is following at a distance. (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Peter has forsaken a discipleship of costly following (8:34) for one of safe observation.
  • Peter had even more reason to hide on the fringe.  He had cut off the servant to the high priest’s ear.  Now, as they came to the home of the high priest, the risk of the servant reporting what Peter had done to him was real. Jesus’ healing of the servant’s ear was not only merciful to the servant, it was merciful to Peter as now there would be no evidence against him. 
• As much as we’re disappointed in Peter’s cowardice to deny Jesus, it took courage for him to even be here. We set ourselves up for failure when we follow him at a distance.  We need to be in close, intimate relationship with him to experience his power in our lives.  Are you following Jesus at a distance? Do people know you’re a follower?  Is there evidence in your life?  

Mark 14:55-59 (NLT) Inside, the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find evidence against Jesus, so they could put him to death. But they couldn’t find any. Many false witnesses spoke against him, but they contradicted each other. Finally, some men stood up and gave this false testimony: “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another, made without human hands.’” But even then they didn’t get their stories straight!

The Trial

The religious leaders had constantly accused Jesus of breaking the law. The irony is that they broke the law in nearly every detail of their sham trial. Mark 14:55-59

• • (Pillar New Testament Commentary) According to the Mishnah, 
    • twenty-three members of the Sanhedrin were necessary to judge capital cases, with reasons for acquittal preceding reasons for conviction. 
    • In capital cases, a verdict of guilty required a second sitting the following day. 
    • Both sittings had to take place during daytime, and neither on the eve of Sabbath or a festival (m. Sanh. 4.1). 
    • Witnesses were to be warned against rumor and hearsay (m. Sanh. 4.5). 
    • A charge of blasphemy could not be sustained unless the accused cursed God’s name itself, in which case the punishment prescribed was death by stoning, with the corpse then hung from a tree (m. Sanh. 7.5).

• Compare this to the dirt that is dug up on political leaders running for office.  It’s so easy to find foolish decisions, double talk, and even illegal activity for most, if not all, of our political leaders.

False accusation: ‘I will destroy this Temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another, made without human hands.’”

• Jesus had said he would destroy “this temple”.  He didn’t say, ”this temple made with human hands”.  He was talking about his body. 
  • Morgan on their accusation: “This is the most diabolical form of untruth, because it is an untruth in which there is an element of truth. We remember Tennyson’s words: ‘A lie that is all a lie, may be met and fought outright; But a lie that is partly the truth, is a harder matter to fight.’” 
  • Have you ever been accused of something that wasn’t true?  Did you have anybody stick by your side and say, “That’s a lie!”  or “That’s inaccurate!” None of the disciples defend Jesus.  They’ve all abandoned him.  We know that Peter and another “unnamed” disciple enter the courtyard of the high priest, but there is no indication that either of them gave testimony to support Jesus, and at least in the case of Peter, completely denied they even knew him.  
• Prophecy to David fulfilled: 2 Samuel 7:12-14 (NLT) For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will secure his royal throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son….
  • (Pillar New Testament Commentary) According to 2 Sam 7:12-14, David’s son would build a temple to God’s name. This son receives God’s promise, “‘I will be his father, and he will be my son.'” The builder of God’s house, in other words, will be God’s Son. In a way truer than his accusers could have imagined, Jesus fulfills 2 Sam 7, for he will presently confess himself before the high priest as God’s Son, and his resurrected body will replace the earthly temple.

But for all of their desire to catch Jesus in sin and find real claims against him…

But they couldn’t find any.

• • The perfection of Jesus is essential to the gospel. Without perfection, his sacrifice isn’t enough. 

The truth about Jesus is simple: he lived a perfect, sinless life.

Hebrews 7:26-28 He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven.

Mark 14:60-61 (NLT) Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”

But Jesus was silent and made no reply.

• Jesus remaining silent is a fulfillment of Messianic prophecy.
• Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
• Jesus could have mounted an impressive defense – all of the miracles he had performed, the many people he had healed, lives changed.  Even demons had testified to his deity and he could have forced them to do it again. Jesus knew what needed to happen.  He had settled it in his mind earlier this night in the garden when he prayed, “Not my will, but thy will be done.”  

“Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”

• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) In the original Gk. the wording is put in the form of a statement with a question implied (“‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?'”). The “you” is emphatic, and “the Blessed One,” a Jewish circumlocution for God’s name, means none other than “God’s Son.” The effect is to put a full Christological confession into the mouth of the high priest! In vv. 56 and 59 Mark noted that false witnesses could not agree against Jesus; now, in the question of the high priest, his arch-prosecutor confesses his name! How ironic that in the Gospel of Mark the two most complete Christological confessions from humans occur in the mouths of those responsible for Jesus’ death: the high priest in 14:61, and the centurion at the cross in 15:39!
• “It was a tacit confession that Christ had been proved innocent up till then. The high priest would not have needed to draw something out of the accused one if there had been sufficient material against him elsewhere. The trial had been a dead failure up to that point, and he knew it, and was red with rage. Now he attempts to bully the prisoner that he may extract some declaration from him which may save all further trouble of witnesses, and end the matter.” (Spurgeon)

Mark 14:62 (NLT) Jesus said, “I AM. And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Jesus said, “I AM.” (someone finally makes the right judgment!) Jesus himself finally makes the right judgment about his identity. He’s not just the Messiah, he’s the Son of God.

• Pillar: The testimony that the Sanhedrin seeks against Jesus is in the end not provided by the false witnesses but by Jesus himself in the claim to be God’s Son. 
• One of the common themes in Mark’s gospel up to this point has been Jesus’ attempt to veil that he is the Messiah.  Not only would his claim of being the Messiah escalate the tensions with the religious leaders, as we see it so clearly does here, people had so many misconceptions about what the Messiah was supposed to do.  Would they have listened to his teachings about who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, forgiving their enemies, etc. if he had proclaimed directly, “I am the Messiah.”?  
  • (Pillar New Testament Commentary) In order truly to understand the meaning of his person something has been missing. The missing element has been the necessity of his suffering. Only in the light of suffering can Jesus openly divulge his identity as God’s Son. At the trial the veil is finally removed.
• The High Priest must have thought he hit the jackpot.  Failed accusation after failed accusation hadn’t produced evidence to be able to condemn Jesus.  Now, with one simple straightforward question, the High Priest has all he needs to accuse Jesus of blasphemy.  It wasn’t blasphemy of course, because Jesus is the Messiah.  He is the Son of Man.  
• This claim that Jesus would be seated in the place of power at God’s right hand also represented a place of judgment.  The religious leaders thought they were judging Jesus, but this statement speaks of the time when Jesus will be judging them at the right hand of the father. 

How the trial ends:

Mark 14:63-64 (NLT) Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?”

“Guilty!” they all cried. “He deserves to die!”

• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) It was the claim to be God’s Son (v. 62), not Messiah, that sealed Jesus’ fate before the Sanhedrin. The charge of blasphemy is powerful, if indirect, proof of Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God.
• Above all, it is the high priest, not Jesus, who blasphemes, because Jesus is God’s Son. 

The section ends with mockery and abuse – both signs of judgment:

Mark 14:65 (NLT) Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. “Prophesy to us,” they jeered. And the guards slapped him as they took him away.

“Prophesy to us,” they jeered.

• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Interestingly, the one specific mockery reported is the taunt for Jesus to “‘Prophesy!'” Since the high priestly clan were Sadducees who denied the existence of angels and spirits (Acts 23:6), it is easy to imagine their desire to discredit anyone like Jesus who was believed to possess the spirit of prophecy.

And the guards slapped him

• We talked about how Jesus bore our shame a couple of weeks ago.  How shameful to be spit upon.  He took the brutal beating – the beating we deserved.  The torture he endured culminated on the cross, but it began before it. 

Mockery and abuse – both signs of judgment. Can you imagine it? The Judge of all, the Creator, in court being judged by his creations!?

Close:

Back to the question we started with:

1. How has the world misjudged Jesus?

• There are countless ways to do it, whether you’re coming from a religious lens or an irreligious lens.

Jesus is who he says he is: fully God, perfectly good, and savior of the world. This is what the Bible affirms, and he will judge those who deny it.

• John 5:22-23 (NLT) …the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.
• Acts 10:42 (NLT) And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead.