Tag Archives: high priest

The Plot Thickens

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THE PLOT THICKENS 

“Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

“‘You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?’ she asked Peter. He replied, ‘I am not.’ It was cold and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter was also standing with them, warming himself.'” John 18:15-18 NIV.

Although John did not refer to the scattering of the disciples after Jesus’ arrest, as Jesus had predicted, at this point he and Peter followed as closely as they dared. John mentioned “another disciple” who was “known to the high priest”. As with the “disciple whom Jesus loved”, he was probably referring to himself. He had some sort of connection to the high priest — perhaps he was familiar with a member or members of his household — and gained easy entrance to the courtyard, but Peter had to stay outside the gate until John tipped off one of the servant girls who let him in.

While Jesus was being interrogated by Annas inside the palace, another interrogation was going on in the courtyard — Peter, confronted by a servant girl! What a contrast! Jesus was facing the most powerful man in the Jewish nation and doing it with dignity and control. In spite of being bound and guarded, He was free — free from guilt and fear, free to walk away any time He wanted to as He had done on many occasions in the past; but also free to remain a prisoner facing death because He chose to. He was not the one on trial. Annas was!

Peter was not a prisoner; he was free to walk away from that scene. He had no ropes around his wrists, no soldiers watching his every move, but he might has well have been chained to one of them because he was held captive by his fear. Who was the servant girl anyway? What power or influence did she have? Was Peter on trial before her? Of course not, and yet, in a moment of panic, Peter denied any association with Jesus.

The girl must have known that John was a disciple of Jesus. Perhaps John had visited some of the servants more than once. They knew who he was and who he was following. He was in no danger of being arrested. Peter was his companion, hence the question, “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” Why would Peter think he was in any danger? Yet he weakened and dissociated himself from Jesus rather than risk exposure to any “trigger-happy” soldier!

Perhaps he was not as afraid of the servant girl whose bold question was put to him in the company of people John called “officials”, standing around the fire to warm themselves, but rather the company he was in at that moment. Not a good place to be, Peter! It was difficult for him to remain unnoticed amongst a group who obviously knew each other and were probably talking among themselves about what was going on inside the high priest’s palace. Then the silly servant girl had to go and deliberately draw attention to him.

Just as Jesus had predicted only a few hours before, Peter was being sifted like wheat and he, who thought he had the courage of a lion, crumpled before a servant girl, stung by her contempt in the presence of a few other unnamed people. But John wasn’t finished with Peter yet. There was more to come.

“Meanwhile the high priest questioned Jesus about His disciples and His teaching.” John 18:19 NIV.

In the meantime, while Peter’s ordeal was continuing in the courtyard, inside the palace, Annas was squeezing Jesus even tighter, like an anaconda with its coils around its victim. He was probing for clues to His intention. Was He planning an uprising? How many followers did He have? Judging by the crowd that followed Him when He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, He might have trained a secret army. The Pharisees had said, “Look how the whole world has gone after Him!” John 12:19b NIV. Were the people loyal enough to support Him in a revolt against Rome? What was He teaching them? Was He secretly instructing them on His strategy when He made His move?

 

Why Annas?

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WHY ANNAS?

“Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound Him and brought Him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.” John 18:12-14 NIV.

Why Annas? Who was Annas?

Annas ben Seth was the most powerful and respected of the Jewish authorities of the time. He was appointed high priest by the Roman procurator, Quirinius, when Judea officially became a Roman province in AD 6 and held office until he was deposed by the Roman consul Gratus in 15 AD. He was head of a dynasty of five sons and his son-in-law, Caiaphas through whom he still wielded power and influence although he was no longer officially high priest.

“Throughout John’s story, the world has been judged by the presence of Jesus and the world has in turn judged Him. The whole Gospel is a thus a description of a trial, a theme that reaches a climax as Jesus is brought before the authorities. As He is put on trial we see revealed both His own identity as King and His confident trust in His Father.” http://www.biblegateway.com

Jesus was arrested by both Jewish and Roman authorities and brought to trial before representatives of the Jewish and Gentile worlds. It was clear from the very beginning of this mockery of justice, that the real judge was not Annas, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin or Pilate but Jesus, and the accused, the entire Jewish and  Gentile worlds, which were on trial for their rejection of Jesus, the Son of God and the true representative of the Father.

Annas and Caiaphas, co-conspirators in the plot to rid God’s people of their Messiah! Annas, the power behind the throne, conducted an interrogation of Jesus. This was not a formal trial. There were no witnesses, no jury and no sentence. Rather, Annas was probably probing Jesus for legitimate reasons for sending Him to Caiaphas for a legal hearing. He was seeking to get Jesus to incriminate Himself.

“Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about His disciples and His teaching.” John 18:19 NIV.

Why Jesus’ disciples and His teaching? He questioned Jesus about His disciples because the Jewish authorities were concerned about Jesus’ popularity. Only a few days before He had ridden into Jerusalem on a donkey, raising a frenzy of excitement among the common people. They had hailed Him as their king, and probably saw Him, not as the Old Testament prophets had predicted, as an atoning sacrifice for sin but rather as their deliverer from their oppressors.

This was dangerous because the Jewish religious leaders were in good standing with Rome. They did not want anyone or anything to disturb this relationship which was mutually beneficial. The high priests, from the time of Herod the Great received their appointment from Rome and were expected to keep the Jewish populace in order. Many Jews resented their close relationship with Rome and some even suspected them of taking bribes or being involved in other forms of corruption.

Annas also questioned Jesus about His teaching because he was probably hoping that He would incriminate Himself as a false prophet or a false teacher. Jesus had already completed His public teaching about Himself so He told Annas to check with those who heard Him because He had taught openly. The fact that Jesus had taught openly and that many people had heard Him would have increased Annas’ anxiety.

Was Jesus in a subtle way demanding a fair trial? There were plenty of people who could have borne witness to what He had taught and done, but the only ones who were called told a trumped-up story which did not agree anyway (Mark 14:56-59).

As powerful and influential a figure as Annas was, he must have realised that Jesus was a hot potato and decided to get rid of Him by passing Him on to Caiaphas. What would this puppet of Rome do with Him?

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty Seven

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DAY TWENTY SEVEN

Now there have been many of those priests,

since death prevented them from continuing in office;

but because Jesus lives forever,

He has a permanent priesthood.

Therefore He is able to save completely

those who come to God through Him,

because He always lives to intercede for them.

Such a high priest meets our need —

one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart form sinners,

exalted above the heavens.

Unlike the other high priests,

He does not need to offer sacrifices day and night,

first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people.

He sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered Himself.

For the law appoints as high priest men who are weak;

but the oath, which came after the law,

appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

Hebrews 7:23-28

Oh, how we need to gaze at this Jesus, our high priest.  He’s alive! He’s near.  He wants to be to us everything we need as our advocate and high priest.  He is there at the Father’s right hand, representing you and me to God, presenting His blood as the price for all the debt we owe God, past, present and future.  He calls us to come close to Him and feel His love.

 

 

 

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty Five

Devotion, ,

DAY TWENTY FIVE

Every high priest is selected from among men

and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God,

to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant

and who are going astray,

since he himself is subject to weakness.

This is why he is able to offer sacrifices for his own sins,

as well as for the sins of his people.

No-one takes this honour upon himself;

he must be called by God, just as Aaron was.

So Christ also did not take upon Himself the glory

of becoming a high priest.  But God said to Him,

“You are my Son; Today I have become your Father.”

Hebrews 5:1-5

“…We do not have a high priest who is unable

to sympathise with our weaknesses,

but we have one who has been tempted in every way

just as we are – yet was without sin.”

Hebrews 4:15

We may not understand what it means to have a high priest, but to the Jews it was great comfort to know that he was there to represent them to God.  Jesus is to us what the high priest was to the Jews.  He stands for us in the presence of God and presents His blood as the way of cleansing for all our sin.

 

 

Same Old Story

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SAME OLD STORY

“The next day, determined to get to the root of the trouble and to know for sure what was behind the Jewish accusation, the captain released Paul and ordered a meeting of the high priests and the High Council to see what they could make of it. Paul was led in and took his place before them.

“Paul surveyed the members of the council with a steady gaze, and then said his piece. ‘Friends, I have lived with a clear conscience before God all my life, up to this very moment.’ That set the chief priest Ananias off. He ordered the aides to slap Paul in the face. Paul shot back, ‘God will slap you down! What a fake you are! You sit there and judge me by the Law and then break the Law by ordering me slapped around!'” Acts 22:30-23:3 (The Message).

Paul was in the same position as his Master had been some three decades before, standing before the Jewish Sanhedrin to answer for his life. Unlike Jesus, he at least had the protection of the Roman government as a Roman citizen.

It was obvious that the men of the Sanhedrin were tarred with the same brush as the religious zealots they represented. He had hardly opened his mouth to speak before the high priest, as the highest religious authority in the country, began his physical abuse of Paul. It seems that he was exactly the same as his predecessor, Caiaphas, unreasonable and a bully. He was not prepared to give Paul a fair hearing to satisfy the captain. He was using his position to vent his own spleen on him.

The church had begun in Jerusalem and flourished for more than thirty years in spite of the Sanhedrin’s efforts to stamp it out. Caiaphas had led the charge against Jesus, fully believing that His death would put an end to the movement that was growing up around Him, but instead showing up the character of the men to whom the people looked for spiritual guidance.

Paul had been their most successful partner in this enterprise. He was a Pharisee like many of them, fanatically zealous for the Law they were supposedly upholding. Unfortunately for them, he had turned traitor and was just as zealously proclaiming the very One he had been opposing. It was a golden opportunity to get rid of him and Ananias lost no time in demonstrating his intention. Humiliate him first and then kill him!

Jesus had taught His disciples not to be doormats to anyone. It’s one thing to have an attitude of meekness, choosing to submit to authority even if you don’t like it, but it’s another thing to submit to bullying just because you are a Christian. ‘Turn the other cheek’, Jesus said. What does that mean?

We think it means, ‘Accept abuse because you are a believer,’ but in the culture of Jesus’ day, to be slapped on the right cheek was an insult because the hitter would have to use his left hand which was considered “unclean” because the left had was used for toilet purposes. To offer the other cheek meant that you were insisting that you were an equal and should be treated with dignity.

Was Paul being rude or disrespectful? I don’t think so. Jesus protested when He was slapped in the face during His trial. If the trial was intended to find out what lay behind Paul’s arrest, then the way to find out was to give him an opportunity to speak for himself, not to use him as an object of contempt to be abused at will.

What does this incident say to us? It clearly teaches us that everyone has the right to be treated with human dignity no matter who they are. Colour, culture, social standing, financial position, language or even accent does not disqualify anyone from being treated fairly because everyone has been created in the image of God.