John 18:28–32 (WEL) Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Judgment Hall. It was early, but they didn’t go into the Judgment Hall themselves, lest they should be defiled and be unable to eat the Passover meal. 29 So Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” 30 They answered and said, “If he weren’t a criminal, we wouldn’t have brought him to you.” 31 Then Pilate said to them, “You take him and judge him according to your law.” Then the Jews answered and said to him, “It isn’t lawful for us to put anyone to death.” 32 So that Jesus’ saying would be fulfilled, which he said, indicating the type of death he would die.
V28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Judgment Hall. It was early, but they didn’t go into the Judgment Hall themselves, lest they should be defiled and be unable to eat the Passover meal.
Caiaphas is the son-in-law of Annas and the active High Priest. Annas was the retired High Priest but retained the title.
The Judgment Hall (Praetorium) is the Roman government court. It was in the official residence of the Praetor (magistrate).
(Easton’s Bible Dictionary) “Pilate’s official residence when he was in Jerusalem was probably a part of the fortress of Antonia.”
Interesting that the religious leaders accept false witness, contrary to Exodus 20:16. They prejudged Him rather than being impartial; they accepted false witnesses rather than truthful witnesses, and made a hurried decision apparently without much consultation.
Jesus’s appearance before the Sanhedrin and possibly Pilate is what is termed a Kangaroo Court. Here is an example of one:
“Imagine you’re a child accused of eating the last cookie from the jar. You’re brought before a ‘court’ in the living room. The judge is your older sibling, who also wanted the cookie. The jury is made up of their best friends. The key piece of evidence—a photo of you near the kitchen—was taken an hour before the cookie went missing, but the judge refuses to look at the time stamp. Before you can even speak, your sibling declares, ‘We all know you did it!’ and sentences you to a week of extra chores. You weren’t given a fair chance to defend yourself, the decision-maker was biased, and the outcome was decided from the start. That, in essence, is a kangaroo court. It’s a proceeding that has the appearance of a fair and just trial but is, in reality, a sham designed to reach a predetermined conclusion, completely ignoring the principles of law and justice. It’s a powerful and frightening concept because it can strip away your rights in situations far more serious than a missing cookie.” Source: https://uslawexplained.com/kangaroo_court
V29 So Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?”
A typical decision maker, a judge, would ask such a question.
V30 They answered and said, “If he weren’t a criminal, we wouldn’t have brought him to you.”
They never gave a truthful answer. Their response was very nebulous.
Warren W. Wiersbe writes: “Luke 23:2 lists three ‘official charges’: (1) He led the nation astray; (2) He opposed paying tribute to Caesar; and (3) He claimed to be the Jewish Messiah and King…When you seriously consider the three accusations against Jesus, you quickly see that they were completely unsupportable. For one thing, He had not ‘subverted’ the nation, either politically or religiously. Of course, He had publicly denounced the Pharisees and their hypocritical religious system, but He was not the first one — or the only one — to do that. Jesus had blessed the nation and brought them new hope. The fact that some of the militant Jews saw in Him a potential King (John 6:15) was not our Lord’s fault, and He fled from all such political demonstrations.
As for opposing paying tribute to Caesar, He taught just the opposite! ‘Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s,’ He said, ‘and unto God the things that are God’s’ (Matthew 22:21).”
V31 Then Pilate said to them, “You take him and judge him according to your law.” Then the Jews answered and said to him, “It isn’t lawful for us to put anyone to death.”
They wanted Jesus dead. The religious leaders had a problem. The motive was envy (Matthew 27:18). Their solution was to kill. Murder is committed for 3 reasons: power, money, and/or sex. In the case of Jesus’s accusers, it was power.
They didn’t want to kill Jesus themselves. Their cheap excuse of not wanting to do it dealt with the fact they didn’t want to make themselves unclean, defiled for the Passover. Using the Jewish method for the death penalty was used in the murder of Stephen in Acts 7:57–60.
This murder is a trait of evil hearts (Matthew 15:19–20).
V32 So that Jesus’ saying would be fulfilled, which he said, indicating the type of death he would die.
John points out Jesus had told them that He would die on a tree. The Jewish method of capital punishment is stoning. Hanging was allowed (Deuteronomy 21:22–23).
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge notes:
“That is, it is the highest degree of reproach that can attach to a man, and proclaims him under the curse of God as much as any external punishment can. They that see him thus hanging between heaven and earth, will conclude him abandoned of both, and unworthy of either. Bp. Patrick observes, that this passage is applied to the death of Christ; not only because he bore our sins and was exposed to shame, as these malefactors were that were accursed of God, but because he was in the evening taken down from the cursed tree and buried (and that by the particular care of the Jews, with an eye to this law, John 19:31), in token, that now the guilt being removed, the law was satisfied, as it was when the malefactors had hanged till sun-set. It demanded no more. Then he, and those that are his, ceased to be a curse. And as the land of Israel was pure and clean when the body was buried, so the church is washed and cleansed by the complete satisfaction which Christ thus made. Deuteronomy 7:26; Numbers 25:4; Joshua 7:12; 2 Samuel 21:6; Romans 9:3; Galatians 3:13; 1 Corinthians 16:22; 2 Corinthians 5:21.”
For God to curse someone is the worst thing that could ever happen to any individual.
Also see Zechariah 12:10, Isaiah 45:22, John 8:28, John 12:32–34, and Psalm 22:16.
We learn:
- How murders at heart who are envious deal with problems.
- How pride leads to murder. The Jewish leaders thought themselves to be right and not God. They wanted the power, the glory, and the kingdom.
Questions:
- Have people ever been envious of you?
- How did you deal with them?
- Have you ever been envious of others?