Jesus was too dangerous to be allowed to continue his ministry. As we saw last week he was dangerous to the Sadducees because he did not respect the Temple. He was dangerous to the Pharisees because he was not a diligent follower of the law. He was dangerous to the political authorities because people wanted to name him the messianic king. The Biblical accounts tell us that the religious leaders decided that because he was dangerous, Jesus needed to be arrested, tried and executed. It is at this point in the story that things become a bit unclear. I say unclear because the Gospel accounts do not concur in terms of the exact details of what happened next. However there are two series of three steps each which appear to link all of the stories together.
The first series entails the trial before the Jewish authorities. Step one (according to the Gospel of John) is that Jesus is brought before Annas, the former high priest. While it may appear odd that Jesus would stand before a former high priest (the Romans removed Annas from his office in 15 CE) historians have discovered that Annas continued to be a significant power broker within the Jewish establishment. Annas evidently gave his approval to the arrest and trial thus facilitating Jesus being sent to then high-priest Caiaphas. In step two Caiaphas examined Jesus and determined that an official trial before the Sanhedrin be held. The Sanhedrin was what we might describe as the Jewish Supreme Court. It was composed of about 70 members from the competing religious sects (Sadducees, Pharisees, and Herodians). Their task was to enforce religious adherence among the Jews.
The charge against Jesus was blasphemy. The problem was that there was no consensus among the witnesses as to Jesus' guilt. Ultimately the leaders take a single statement of Jesus (that he saw himself as the Son of God…which could actually be taken in any number of ways) as proof of his guilt, thus giving them cause to send Jesus to the Romans for a hoped for execution (though in that trial they would charge Jesus with political crimes since the Romans had little interest in Jewish religious arguments).
The second series consists of Jesus' trial before the Romans. The first step was to send Jesus to Pontius Pilate. Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea. It was his task to maintain control of the area, administer justice and collect taxes. Pilate was not overly impressed with Jesus and even though the charges against him were severe (inciting the people to riot, forbidding people from paying taxes and claiming to be King) Pilate decided to pass the political hot potato to Herod Antipas. Pilate was able to do so because he believed that Jesus was from the area of the nation ruled by Herod (Galilee). In step two Herod, also found that Jesus has done nothing deserving of either imprisonment or death and so sent him back to Pilate to do with as he pleased. The final step in this trial is that Pilate desired to let Jesus go (why antagonize the people at a major festival) but the religious leaders press him to execute Jesus. The leaders made it clear that unless Pilate gave in they would cause trouble, which would not play well in Rome. Pilate acquiesced and had Jesus prepared for crucifixion.
There are three things we ought to note from these stories. The first is that we should not be surprised that the Jewish authorities wanted to rid themselves of Jesus. He was teaching a way of life which was inconsistent with First Century Judaism and was thus a heretic. The second thing we should note is that Rome was not only complicit in Jesus' death but actually carried it out. Rome nailed Jesus to the cross. Finally we should see clearly that Jesus not only did not defend himself (as the Apostle Paul would later do) but willingly went to the cross. Jesus believed that he was the suffering servant of Isaiah and that in his death the power of sin would be broken once and for all, thus ushering in God's kingdom.
In First Century Judea Jesus was the most dangerous man in the world…maybe it is time for us to un-tame him and let him be dangerous again? What do you think?
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