Matthew 26:57-68

 

In our call to worship we read about the praise that people lavished on Jesus when he entered Jerusalem. When we compare that passage to the passage before us, from Matthew 27, it is hard to believe that it is the same person. The praise and popularity of Jesus on the day we call “Palm Sunday” turned to humiliation and condemnation later that same week.

 

There are many reminders in life that popularity is fleeting. But perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in the treatment of Jesus during last days on earth before his crucifixion. Who could have imagined that this same Jesus would be scorned, ridiculed, mocked, and crucified within a handful of passing days? Why did the people turn against him?

 

One reason is that they were looking for a political king. They were tired of Roman rule. How they longed to have freedom as a separate nation of Israel! And here was one whom they thought would establish that earthly kingdom.

 

The common conception of the long-awaited Messiah was that he would be a political ruler. But as the days progressed it became increasingly obvious that Jesus would not be that political king whom the people longed for. He would not be the one to liberate them from Roman rule.

 

Another reason why the large crowd praised Jesus as he entered Jerusalem on the day we call “Palm Sunday” is because they had heard of his amazing power. After all, Jesus fed four thousand men one time and five thousand another time with just a few loaves of bread and fish. What a wonderful king he would be! He could wipe out poverty, hunger, all the social ills, not to mention diseases; he had astonishing power to heal! He could end disease and sickness, heal accident victims, give sight to the blind, and even raise the dead!

    

No wonder the people wanted him to be their earthly king, their great political leader! Yet, within the span of several days the multitudes who praised Jesus turned against him. They saw that he had no intention of living up to their expectations of him.

 

Every year we have a special service on a Friday evening. We call it “Good Friday” because we remember that Jesus had a far greater mission than to liberate the Jews from Roman rule. His mission was to offer himself as the only sacrifice that can save sinners. He came to bear the curse we deserve. The purpose of his birth was defined by death, death on the cross of Calvary. 

 

But in order for that death to come about there needed to be a guilty verdict. Jesus would have to be indicted, not only by the Jews, but also by the Romans. The Jews did not have the power to crucify. Only the Romans did. Thus he needed to be tried by both the Jews and the Romans.

 

The way the crucifixion came about is recorded, in part, by the Scripture we read this morning. Verse 57 describes how “Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled.”

 

You have heard of a “kangaroo court.” It means the court is a mockery of justice, it draws the wrong conclusion; it releases the guilty and condemns the innocent. That’s what happened to Jesus six times.  If you read a harmony of the gospels, where all the parts are put together in chronological order you will see where Jesus was tried both by the Jews (ecclesiastical trial) and the Romans (civil trial). Each trial had three parts. 

 

In this first trial false evidence was sought. Verse 59 and 60: “The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.”

 

False evidence was crucial for the Jewish religious leaders. It was crucial to find false evidence because there was no real evidence that would convict Jesus. What type of crime do you bring against someone whose life is defined by love? By compassion? By healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, cleansing the leprous, even raising the dead? What type of charge can you bring to convict God Himself, in human flesh?

 

Obviously, it has to be a false charge. Even Pilate would state the innocence of Jesus by declaring, three times over, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.” And, in a dramatic gesture before all the people he washed his hands, in a vain effort to be innocent in allowing Jesus to be crucified. As verse 60 declares, they could not find any evidence “though many false witnesses came forward.”

 

Finally, two false witnesses came forward and twisted Jesus’ words. They said, in verse 61, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’” The statement they refer to is the one made by Jesus in John 2:19. He had cleansed the temple, the first time, early in his ministry. He had thrown out the money changers and those who were selling animals and birds for sacrifices. He had said, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” (John 2:16)

     

Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” 

     

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:18, 19).

 

He didn’t say, as these two false witnesses accused him of saying, “I am able to destroy this temple of God and rebuild it in three days.” And as John goes on to say, in John 2:21, “But the temple he had spoken of was his body.” The statement that was changed and twisted by the false witnesses was a clear statement regarding the reality of the resurrection. Using the analogy of the temple, Jesus was teaching that he would die and be buried three days, but would rise again victorious over death.

 

John concludes his treatment of the statement of Jesus by writing in John 2:22: “After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”

 

A third way that this trial under Caiaphas was corrupt, a sham, is that Jesus was asked to incriminate himself. In verses 62 and 63 we read: “Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, ‘Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?’ But Jesus remained silent.”

     

The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

 

Caiaphas was corrupt, but he was also shrewd. In demanding Jesus to give an answer he worded the question in such a way that its affirmative answer would incriminate Jesus. If he had asked just if Jesus was the Messiah, then Jesus could have responded affirmatively and not been charged. As we have seen, the people expected the Messiah to be a political leader. To claim oneself to be the Messiah would be tested by time. It was not a capital offense to say that you were the Messiah, the deliverer who would liberate Israel from Roman rule.

 

However, by combining the question “Are you the Christ – the Messiah” – with the definition, “the Son of God,” would make an affirmative answer grounds for blasphemy. It would give Caiaphas and his corrupt court the verdict they desired. And when Jesus responded, “Yes, it is as you say,” Caiphas tore his robes and accused Jesus of blasphemy.

 

 

And his reply leads us to our first application. The willingness of Jesus Christ to be condemned in our place is seen in both his silence and his refusal to defend himself. The silence of Jesus is noteworthy as it is the fulfillment of many Old Testament Scriptures, the best-known being Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

 

But also his silence is noteworthy in that he had every opportunity to defend himself. Consider that the trial was being held at night, between the hours of one to three in the morning. Yet Jewish law prohibited any trial at night. The trial was being held at the time of the Passover feast, even though no trial was to be held on the special feast days of Israel. And the arrest of Jesus was initiated by a bribe – the sum of thirsty coins given to Judas. That in itself is grounds for a mistrial. Furthermore, in cases of capital punishment the sentence for the crime could not be announced until one day after the conviction was pronounced.

 

In all these ways and more, the high priest of the trial, Caiaphas, was breaking judicial procedures. He was not even supposed to cast a vote until all the others had voted but instead, he made a dramatic scene, recorded in verse 65: “Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.’”

 

So as Jesus finally breaks his silence and speaks, you might expect that he would speak up and defend himself.  He could say, “You are breaking your own judicial rules by having me here. Caiaphas is out of line in asking me to swear an oath. You are trying me at night which is against your own rules. You arrested me because of a bribe; it was a false arrest.”

 

There were many other irregularities to this whole trial before Caiaphas, as well as all the other trials Jesus underwent. If ever there was a mistrial, if ever there were grounds to dismiss the court, this was it. And Jesus could have gone point by point by point in defending himself from this sham of a trial. But instead of defending himself, he makes a statement that he certainly knew would rile Caiaphas and the other religious leaders to charge him with blasphemy. 

 

Why is that? Why didn’t he defend himself as he was tried by the most corrupt people imaginable? It was because of his willingness to die on the cross for people like you and like me. Such is the greatness of the love of God, that he would offer himself to the ridicule, the abasement, the totally false charges of wicked and sinful hardened sinners, in order to save hardened sinners like you and like me.

 

 

A second application is in the last part of verse 64 where Jesus says, “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

 

That statement of Jesus has its roots in the prophecy of Daniel. Centuries before this mock trial, Daniel had written, in Daniel 7:13-14: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

 

Daniel’s prophecy points to the return of Jesus when he will judge all humanity – “the living and the dead.” At that time, every knee will bow before him and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11). Jesus will not be on trial. All humanity will be on trial.

 

Caiaphas along with the other Jewish religious leaders thought they were putting Jesus on trial. Instead, he was simply allowing them to fulfill his Father’s purpose for him. Jesus knew the will of his Father was the burden of the cross. He had his time of agony in the Garden, but he accepted his Father’s will; it was the will which he had already accepted before the world was created. And now, this trial before Caiaphas was simply another step toward the cross. Another step toward making atonement for the sins of the elect. It was another step in being that propitiation which would satisfy the perfect sense of justice of our holy and pure triune God.

 

But as Jesus reminded Caiaphas and those with him, the real judgment is the one that Daniel and so many other writers of Scripture foretell. The day is coming, says Jesus, “When you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

 

In his trilogy on the Heidelberg catechism, Herman Hoeksema wrote: “What was historically, as men view the events of this world, the trial and condemnation of Jesus by the world, was in reality, and according to the purpose of God, the trial and judgment of the world.”  (Triple Knowledge, Vol. 1, pg.  647)

 

 

When the Son of Man comes on the clouds of heaven to usher in the final Day of Judgment it will be evident that there are only two responses to the true identity of Christ: Either you reject him or, by his grace and Spirit’s power, you have true saving faith in him alone.

 

Caiaphas, along with the teachers of the law and the elders, rejected the truth. They rejected the truth even though they knew what Jesus was telling them was true about his analogy of the temple being destroyed and raised in three days. We know that from Matthew 27:62-64: “The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’  So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’”

 

They sinned against light. They sinned against the clear teaching that Jesus had given. And because of that, their judgment will be all the more severe. What a terrible judgment they face! “They spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, ‘Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?’”  Unless they repented, and from the book of Acts we know some of them did, what a terrible judgment is in store for them. And the same is true for you and for me and for all humanity. Unless you and I repent, what a terrible judgment is in store for us.

 

The only other alternative is to receive, by God’s grace through saving faith, Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin and the Lord of your life. Did you notice how in verse 58 it says, “But Peter followed him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.”

 

And we all know the outcome for Peter. It is written in the last section of Matthew 26. We all know that three times before the rooster crowed Peter denied knowing His Lord, just as Jesus had predicted. But the Lord restored Peter. Peter was forgiven and given a place of service in the kingdom of the very One whom he had denied. And the reason why is that by God’s grace he believed with true saving faith in the very one whom he, in a time of weakness and fear, denied.

 

We read of Peter’s faith ten chapters earlier, in Matthew 16, which describes how when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

 

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

 

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

    

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” (Matt 16:13-17).

 

Although Peter fell, he did not fall completely away. He did not fall away completely because by God’s grace the identity of Jesus as the Messiah – the Son of God – was made clear to him with the gift of saving faith.

 

May the same be true for you and for me. Amen.

 

 

bulletin outline:

 

 

                                        Matthew 26:57-68

 

I.  When Jesus entered Jerusalem, on the day we know as Palm Sunday,

     the people praised Him as their future king (Matt. 21:1-11), but later

     that same week He was arrested (Matthew 26:50, 57)

 

 

 

II. Jesus was tried both by the Jews (ecclesiastical trial) and the Romans

    (civil trial).  Each trial had three parts. In this first trial:

      1) False evidence was sought (59-60)

 

 

 

      2) Jesus’ words were changed and used against Him (60b-61)

 

 

 

      3) He was told to incriminate Himself (63-64)

 

 

 

III. Applications:

      1) His willingness to be condemned in our place is seen in both His

          silence (Isaiah 53:7; 63a) and His refusal to defend Himself (64)

 

 

 

      2) The trial of Jesus will result in the trial of all humanity (64b)

 

 

 

      3) There are only two responses to the true identity of Christ:

           rejection (66-68), or saving faith in Him alone (Matthew 16:15-16)