God on Trial

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This is the Truth Network. Throughout history, how many innocent people have been wrongfully tried and convicted? How many grossly guilty criminals have been set free? Rampant injustice reverberates across history as a blight upon culture and upon our world, yet there's never been a greater miscarriage of justice, quite like the trial of Jesus in A.D. 30 just over 2,000 years ago.

Why? Because he was the only innocent one. He was the spotless Lamb who was tried and condemned in my place. So by his sacrifice, we can be declared innocent before God and we can be saved. Can you imagine God on trial?

God accused of blaspheming against God? Before his execution by crucifixion, Jesus Christ would stand trial six times. Three Jewish trials, three Roman trials, and this is where we find ourselves on Experience Truth in our journey through the Gospel of Luke 22, verses 63 through 71. Welcome to Experience Truth, I'm Stu Epperson and we are journeying through Luke. In this segment, the last segment of Truth Talk, we open God's Word together. Today I have a radio star, National syndicated podcaster, broadcaster, the Christian car guy, Robbie Dilmore, to take us through the Word of God to journey with us. Robbie's got the Scriptures there and some really titillating questions that are going to draw us all in at the trial of Jesus. Robbie, jump on in, man, and thanks for being here, by the way.

How fun. Yeah, Luke 22, 54, 63 through 71. Having arrested him, they led him and brought him into the high priest's house. Now the men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him, and having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, saying, Prophesy.

Who is the one that struck you? And many other things, they blasphemously spoke against him. As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led him into their council, saying, If you are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, If I tell you, you will by no means believe, and if I also ask you, you will by no means answer me or let me go.

Hereafter, the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then they all said, Are you then the Son of God? So he said to them, You say rightly that I am. And they said, What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from his own mouth. So in context, you know, how did the pain of Peter's denial compare to the pain of the beatings? So here you have a lot going on in Christ.

And it's interesting, it starts off a great question there. His lead guy, his kind of alpha choice to be the head of the disciples, Peter, has said, I'm going to stand with you all the way to death. And then just moments later, he's denying him three times. And we spent time on that last time, which is just heartbreaking. And that look, remember? The look. And what that must have been like for the eyes of Jesus Christ to lock with the eyes of Simon Peter, who had just denied the Savior three different times.

The cock crows, there's shame. And then, so there's an emotional pain there on both parts of Simon, which really would change his life, as we know later in the beautiful Restoration, but in the heart of Christ, who is his own followers, who are with him all these years, to deny him like that. So no doubt the pain Christ would endure here through the night and all the way up on the cross, the physical pain would in no way, shape, or form compare to the emotional pain. But look at this word here. It's pretty strong, where it says they are arrested. They arrested him, and it says, in some versions, it actually says they seized him. And that language indicates a strong, violent laying on of hands.

This is not a light episode. This is violent, rough men that are taking Christ. And they bound him. How interesting that they bound the one who came to set men free.

And Caiaphas is leading the charge. He's the corrupt high priest, son-in-law of Annas, the former high priest. They both represented the seat of religious power. We don't have as many details from Luke's Gospel as the other Gospels about these overnight illegal trials, but we do know Christ was dragged back and forth. He was bound, he was paraded before Annas, Caiaphas, and others.

The basic, what we know is the Sanhedrin, the elders and rulers of Israel. And this was all around the same place, this compound there around the temple. Multiple false witnesses would be called. And this next question really is interesting, Robbie, about the legalities, the people that are there to enforce the law. Why would the Jews go to such lengths, even breaking their own laws, in these overnight proceedings?

So you can't even count the number of laws broken. The Jewish law strictly forbade any trial at night. Any trial that's during a feast like Passover, which they're right in the middle of Passover feast. Any trial that was anywhere near or during around about the Sabbath, they forbade those trials.

This wasn't quite the Sabbath yet, but it was right close, you know, knocking on the door. Jewish law was very hard on false witnesses. In fact, the law declares that a false witness—this is in Leviticus and Deuteronomy—false witness, when they were proved to be false, they would be guilty of the same exact thing, the accusation they brought against that person that they were lying about and colluding against.

So really bad. So if they were calling you a murderer and you were executed, they would be executed if their testimony was found false. The motto of the Sanhedrin—this is fascinating—the motto of the Sanhedrin—you ready for this?—was to save life and show mercy. So the Sanhedrin, the only way they could condemn a man to death by stoning, or in this case by crucifixion where the Romans actually were in charge of the capital punishment, was if there was a complete unanimous decision, which meant every member of the 70-plus Sanhedrin court had to rule in favor of execution.

If one person said, no, I'm voting against this person's execution, then the whole group would have to would have to declare him not guilty. Because God Almighty is a God of mercy, and he wanted this court, he wanted the death to be the very last resort. Now a lot of folks don't know this, but this was the absolute opposite of what happened to Jesus, who gave the law, who is the ultimate judge and arbitrator and adjudicator of all justice, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Here he's standing before God's representative judgeship in court on earth, the Sanhedrin, and they are absolutely, you know, erroneous and miscarrying justice, and it's just, it's heartbroken. So this is—keep on going, because it gets worse for Christ in this trial as he goes into these things. Well before I go to the next question, you know, as I was thinking about your question is, you know, why would they?

Why would they? And I couldn't help but reflect on the times that Satan's gotten in my head and gotten me furious at my own kids, you know, and how many laws of my own did I break? You know, I kind of know why, but the terrifying thing inside of that for me is, man, I think I kind of understand, because I've kind of been there. So what's the second question is, what's significant about the all-seeing one in the light of the world being blindfolded and beaten? Yeah, so you have Christ, you know, taking him, it's clear in the text, they mocked him. Verse 63, the men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him, and then having blindfolded him, they struck him in the face and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is the one who struck you? So this is really brutal.

You've got the mocking and the beating, which is extreme physical, verbal, and emotional abuse. You've got the scorning Christ prophetic power. This is blasphemous. Here you have these third shift temple guards that are basically finding Christ Jesus as their entertainment and sport. They're playing this game with him that would have left the Lord completely bloodied, broken, and bruised. And somewhere in this process, by the way, is when Jesus gave that look to Peter. And we talked earlier about the emotional love and pain over his followers that was far greater of pain than the pain than the pain he's receiving being beaten this way.

And this will be a theme throughout the entire journey of his passion. So this is Christ as the all-seeing one, and here he's blindfolded, and here they're playing. And I'll tell you, there's a real powerful, futuristic piece to this, because the ones who were doing this to Christ will bow their knee before him one day, and if they didn't repent, they will be thrown into hell. So you can mock them all you want, you can make fun of him, but the Lord will have his day. You know, you talk about the last laugh, which is a very humanistic way of saying it, but Psalms 2 talks about Christ and God's ultimate vengeance on the earth and how he will laugh the nations. The nations that are raging that are doing this, he will laugh them to derision. But Robbie, let's keep moving through here. We're making good progress, and we're almost out of time on this segment. Yeah, it's a really beautiful thing when I think about it, Stu, that he didn't call their name.

Yeah. He was silent throughout the whole process. I mean, what a scary thing if he had called your name, you know? What does his answer teach us about the hardness of the hearts, and how should we share the truth? Yeah, so this is one of the rare times Jesus ever spoke. They basically, if you are the Christ, verse 67, tell us, but he said to them, if I tell you, you will by no means believe. So he spoke exactly what was in their heart, same as John chapter 2, where they said, hey, we want to make you king, and he said, I know what's in your heart, and he removed himself immediately, and he said, basically, if I ask you, you will by no means answer me or let me go. Hereafter, the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of the Lord, and the Son of Man of God. And then they came out point blank, are you the Son of God?

So he said to them, you rightly say that I am. And then this is ultimately the crime for which Christ was crucified, per the Jews' accusation. That is the crime of blasphemy. And the height of all irony there, Robbie, is that this blasphemous accusation against Jesus, who is God Himself, is just, it's a deep tragic irony, where the one they have been praying for, the Messiah, they have been praying and asking God to deliver them, and come all these hundreds of years, all these prophecies pointed to Him, here He is, and they are murdering Him right there. So, profound, we're out of time for Experience Truth. We're going to come back and talk more about the significance of the right hand of the throne of God, where Jesus Christ will ascend to shortly after His resurrection.

Acts talks about it, too. Very powerful. This is the Gospel of Luke. I'm Stu Everson. This is Experience Truth, the last part of our program, Truth Talk. We're so glad you're with us. We're so grateful to all of our awesome affiliates, and we want to encourage you as we go to read the Word, study the Word, memorize the Word, meditate on the Word of God, because it's God's Word. Get it in you, and watch it work through you, and let it be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. This is the Truth Network.