SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/22/2024 11:17 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “The
Illegal and Unjust Convening of the Sanhedrin”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 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.”
As I begin looking at the end of this section it may
be that this SD will be a bit shorter than the other ones on these verses. The first thing that I want to do is to look
forward to Acts 23:1-5 “1 Paul, looking intently at the Council, said,
"Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before
God up to this day." 2 The high priest Ananias commanded those standing
beside him to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, "God is
going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to try me according to
the Law, and in violation of the Law order me to be struck?" 4 But the bystanders
said, "Do you revile God’s high priest?" 5 And Paul said, "I was
not aware, brethren, that he was high priest; for it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT
SPEAK EVIL OF A RULER OF YOUR PEOPLE.’"
Like Jesus Paul was in a trial with the Sanhedrin and was struck in the
face, but Paul became angry and vehemently rebuked the presiding officer for
his illegal treatment as seen in these verses.
It was only when he learned that he was addressing the high priest did
he apologized as seen in verse five.
Jesus
did not lose His composure, accepting His abuse with perfect calmness. Jesus simply said to the officer who struck
Him, “If I have spoken wrongly bear witness of the wrong; but if rightly, who
do you strike Me? “John 18:23)
MacArthur writes “In complete exasperation and
having no other recourse, ‘Annas therefore sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high
priest’ (24). It was the middle of the
night, perhaps shortly after midnight, because cock crowing, which normally
began about 3:00 A.M., had not yet started (see Matt. 26:74).
“Jesus
was then brought before Caiaphas, the high priest, at whose house the scribes
and the elders were illegally gathered together as the supreme Jewish Council
(see v. 59). Contrary to expectations,
however, no charge had yet been brought against Him. The high court of Judaism had been illegally
convened at night to illegally try a man who had not even been indicted.
“Though
not as clever as his father-in-law; Caiaphas was equally devious and
corrupt. He, too, despised Jesus’
truthfulness and righteousness because they were a judgment on his own wretched
ungodliness.
“During
the time, Peter also was following Jesus at a distance, first to the house of
Annas and then as far as the courtyard of the high priest Caiaphas. Out of a
conflicting mixture of cowardice and commitment, Peter tried to be as near his
Lord as prudence permitted without being discovered, and he sat down with the
officers to see the outcome.
“The fact that Peter and others were sitting in the
courtyard of the high priest reveals still another infraction of Jewish legal
protocol. As previously noted, the
Sanhedrin was permitted to hold a trial involving capital punishment only in
the Temple and only in public. The
private meeting at Caiaphas’s house clearly violated both stipulations.”
6/22/2024 11:47 AM
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