Friday, June 21, 2024

PT-2 "The Illegal and Unjust Convening of the Sanhedrin" (Matt. 26:57-58)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/21/2024 8:25 AM

 

My Worship Time                  Focus:  PT-2 “The Illegal and Unjust Convening of the Sanhedrin”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:57-58

 

            Message of the verses:  57 Those who had seized Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together. 58 But Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and entered in, and sat down with the officers to see the outcome.”

 

            I want to look at the 18th chapter of John’s gospel to see what happened before happened as seen in the gospel of Matthew:  13 and led Him to Annas first; for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year” (John 18:13).  After this we see that the Roman soldiers who had seized Jesus then led Him away to Caiaphas. 

 

            Now in MacArthur’s commentary he talks at length about Annas as “some twenty years earlier Annas had served as high priest for a period of four or five years.  But although he had been replaced as ruling high priest, he not only continued to carry the title but also continued to wield great influence in Temple affairs, largely through the five sons who succeeded him and not through Caiaphas, his son-in-law.”

 

            When one looks at the Old Testament that speaks of the high priests they will find out that it was God’s design for high priests to serve for life.  But the position had become so politicized that some of the served only a few years or even at sometimes even just months, and this was because they came into disfavor with a king or a Roman official.  There are some scholars who believe that it is likely that Annas had been removed from office by Rome because they feared too much power was being amassed by one man.

 

            Annas was the racketeering boss behind the priesthood.  He was the guy who was really behind the scenes in charge of everything, though he had been set down as high priest by the Romans because he was getting too powerful, and Caiaphas was in his place.  He still maintained the title high priest, which you kept for life, and he was still the power behind the scenes.  He ran all the bazaars in the temple, the buying and the selling and the money changing” (MacArthur’s sermon.) 

 

            During this time in Jewish history we can see that a Jew never came to the temple empty-handed.  He always brought either a gift of money or a sacrifice to offer it to the Lord. One of the things that a Jew could not offer was Gentile coins for they had pictures of the Roman emperors and thus in the Jewish eyes they were idols.  So they had to exchange them for Jewish money and of course the one who had these Roman coins would get taken advantage by those in the Temple, something that Annas had a part of.  The same took place with when a Jew brought an offering to be sacrificed, say an offering of a lamb which had to be without blemish, and of course the same thing happened as with the money.  Is it any wonder that Jesus cleansed the temple two times, once at the first part of His ministry as seen in John’s gospel and then in Matthew’s gospel He did it at the end of His ministry as we saw in a previous SD.

            “Jesus was a persistent threat to Annas’s power, prestige, security, and prosperity, for which He was bitterly despised by the high priest.  In addition to that, Annas resented Jesus for His holiness, truth, and righteousness, because those virtues were a judgment on his own vile character.  Everything Jesus said and did angered Annas, because, like Judas, his absolute rejection of Christ had placed him utterly in the hands of Satan, the great choreographer who was staging this heinous travesty against God’s Son.  Annas was one of a large cast of characters who were manipulated by hell” (MacArthur’s commentary.)

 

            I want to look at Isaiah 53:7 which has to do with much of the unjust trial that our Lord went through “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.”

 

            “Annas was embarrassed, infuriated and frustrated.  Because of their complicity, the entire assemblage was also angered, and ‘one of the officers,’ perhaps to help his superior save face, ‘gave Jesus a blow, saying ‘Is that the way You answer the high priest?’’ (John 18:22).

 

            6/21/2024 9:05 AM

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