Questioning Jesus: Delving into the Trial Details

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Here we are, we are here, and welcome to another episode another one of the Bible. Of course, that's assuming that you're not a first time listening that's right. So maybe you are first time listener. And if you are welcome for then congratulations for finding the most amazing average. Yeah, Age, No, that's not proadcast. That's not true, because anytime anybody talks about the Bible immediately classifies it above mediocre. There you go. So today we're going to start off with a segment and Desiree has written this down because Easter is upon us, isn't it, Jeff, Yes it is, And so this one says, and by the way, Easter we're recording this early, so Easter is five weeks away. So I have no idea for us right now, for us right now. But when you listen to this, but this is rate before Easter? Is it okay? Slot to be for Eastern because I was, you know, I was thinking, I was thinking what if it what if it episode? What if it airs after Easter? Yeah? It does race sharp enough to work that out. Awesome. So Easter is this weekend, she says. So let's do a draft list of your favorite things that are Easter related through rock, paper scissors. Who goes first? And then pick five things? Okay, ready read rock papers? One two three? Shoot? Yes, one two three shoot. Both of us got rock yes, one two three shoot. Look at that. I always win, Yes, you always win, So I never I never beat Chris. It right, we do rock rock and then I did scissors and I cut his paper. So that's right, all right, So what are the best five things about Easter? I'm gonna have to go Obviously, if you know me, you'll know what I'm gonna do here. I'm gonna go sa family specifics. We hide Easter baskets and it's pretty epic. So I'm gonna I'm gonna have to pick that. That's my favorite thing Easter. Yeah, it's a whole thing. It is a whole guys. Okay, So mine is super simple. My very favorite thing. I mean, okay, Easter services. Let me say, Easter service is my first favorite thing. Okay, I love Easter services. So this year you and I are in what fourteen fourteen Easter services all identical. Yeah, we have to do Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and we're fitted boy in. It's gonna be super fun. That's probably my favorite thing about Easter. Yeah, okay, all right, well my favorite thing my draft is gonna be Jesus coming out of the tomb. That's number two after hiding. Good job, Chris. I thought that was a given since it is Easter, but okay, I'm gonna stick with that because it's because you know, right after hiding, hide Easter baskets, and then a close second is the Resurrection. I wasn't planning on going to spiritual. I was just doing tradition. You had spiritual, so I'm like, all right, I'm gonna trump them. Oh no, I wasn't trying to do spiritual. I was saying, that's what we do. I mean, it's gonna be no, I know, forty hours and three days. It is gonna be amazing. I was lumping that in with assumptions as well. Right recently. That's the coolest part about Eastern right, okay, okay, well then I'm going to go back super simple. Now. My very favorite thing, and I can't get enough of it, is Rec's Easter. Eggs. Yeah, that's that you've mentioned that before. Those are I don't know why they're better. And I love Reces. I love big cups. Yep, I love the Rece's big cups, the big ones. I love those. I love Rece's. If kids, if my kids are gonna give me surprise, they bring me Rece's. My daughter just came in the in the house the other day after being out with her friends, and she come, so, oh, Dad, I got this for you, and it wass right. I love it. It's it's the love language of my home is Rece's. But reces peanut butter eggs are better. I don't know what they did, but they're better. They're just better. Wow. Yeah, all right. Number three, I'm going to pick. My family traditionally has done egg fights and fights eg fights. So have you ever seen the movie My Big Factory Wedding. Yes, where they walk over and they smash each other's eggs. Yes, okay, that that is a in that movie. That that's what we do, only on steroids. So my family at home in Youngstown, my family would all get together at Chuck's house and they make a bracket and everybody submits their you know, their their egg and they have a name for it and everything else. And by the way, that's the champion that they bring. That's only after their own egg fights. So Chucky and his kids will have like traditional like their egg fights, and then they bring the champions. So that champions of every household get together and we're talking like you know, logos, decorations, songs, they make songs for their eggs. Wow, all these different kinds of things. And so we don't go that intense in the Michigan's oar Ba household, but we do definitely have people over. Everybody prepares for it, and then we have brackets and we have a you know, a huge you know winner and all that stuff. Do you throw eggs at each other fight? Well, you don't know what a nick it is. So so you basically hold your egg and then and then you smash it. And when you actually hit eggs, only one will crack. Oh oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And then then you turn it over and then you smash that side. And then if the two sides, then that loses. But if it's only one each, then the good side can defeat the other good side and then that egg limping a long dinner will go into the next round, next bracket. I see, I see. And so it's just really just as you tap the eggs, only one's going to crack all that. That's not nearly as fun as throwing eggs at each other. That's why I thought you had like an apple fight kind of a thing. No, no, no, not not like full out egg fight. Okay, that'd be sweet. Yeah, the eggs und like you better be wearing a helmet, you better have like goggles on the eggs themselves do the fighting. Okay, yeah, Okay, that's a long answer. Okay. Number three. Number three for me is obviously the Easter dinner, right that my wife loves to have the big family dinner, and yeah, just having family around celebrating. Of course we're both you and I are exhausted on Easter Sunday, yes, but still that's a great, great day. Yeah. So I'm gonna go ahead and say we also do on top of that, we do Easter egg hunt, where my wife would hide plastic eggs, and then we have prizes for our kids. And I'm just gonna go ahead and say this. We do scratch off water tickets. So we buy the scratch offs right, and we just give them to our kids. And so some eggs will have like different you open them up, they have little peeps in them, and sometimes you'll get one with like two and you're like, well I get two and that kind of thing. So we do that too. Sweet all right, I was gonna say Easter egg hunt. So my fourth one probably is the Easter afternoon nap. Oh yeah, yeah, so you come home, you have a big dinner, and they zonk out. Yeah. Well that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Okay. My fifth one, goodness, gracious is I'm gonna say, I like the idea of Easter music. So like in the morning, I'll get up and I'll drive into church and I will play I know this is a blast from the past, but my favorite Easter song to play. No, no, no, it's not that. Well that's a great one. Yeah, as I sing Sandy Patty's was it a morning like this? Oh? Wow? Really? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I do every single Easter. Wow. In fact, I don't think there's been an Easter where I'm not. I shot you were going to do. I turned the radios when you said Sandy Patty. Well, there's there's a lot of different Sandy Patty ones that way. But Easter Easter oriented? Is it a morning like this? Yeah, what's your fifth one? Wow? I don't know that I have a fifth one because I'm already sleeping now at this point. So well, I like the fact that you're running yourself ragged chronological you can back up. So we haven't really stacked a lot of like family tradition on Easter, just because since before Buyden and I got married, it was just all Easter work. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sou Easter doesn't have a ton of them. Obviously. The Easter baskets for the kids were always tons of fun, you know. So that was your first one before the resurrection, but mine, mine after the resurrection is the Easter baskets are a lot of fun with the kids. Oh, I just all the joy and the fun of that. All right, we'll go with that. All right, Well, that's hard time, so let's move on. That's so funny. Okay, So now here's Caiaphas in Matthew chapter twenty six, Mark fourteen, Luke twenty two. Right, these three passages are the only ones, and Jesus leaves Annis's home and they take him to Caiaphas. And it says in verse fifty seven. Then the people who had arrested Jesus led him to the home of Caiaphas, the High Priest, where the teachers of religious law and the elders had gathered. Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and came to the High Priest's courtyard. He went in and sat with the guards and waited to see how it all end. Inside, the leading priests and the entire High council were trying to find witnesses who would lie about Jesus so they could put him to death. But even though they found many who agreed to give false witness, they cannot use anyone's testimony. Finally, two men came forward who declared this man said, I am able to destroy the Temple of God rebuild it in three days. Then the high priests stood up and said to Jesus, well, aren't you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself? But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to him, I demand, in the name of the Living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the son of God. Jesus replied, you have said it, and in the future, you will see the son a man seated in the place of power, at God's right hand, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the High Priest tore his clothing to show as a horror and said, blasphemy. Why do we need other witnesses. You've all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict? Guilty? They shouted, he deserves to die. And then they began to spit in Jesus's face and beat him with their fists, and some slapped him, jeering prophesy to us, you Messiah, who hit you that time? In Mark, chapter fourteen, verse fifty three, it says they took Jesus to the High Priest's home, where the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law had gathered. Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and went right into the priest's courtyard. There he sat with the guards, warming himself by the fire. Inside. The leading priests and the entire High council were trying to find evidence against Jesus so they could put him to death, but they couldn't find any. Many false witnesses, many false witnesses spoke against him, but they contradicted each other, and finally some men stood up and gave him this false testimony. We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another made without human hands. But even then they didn't get their stories straight. Then the high priests stood up before the others and asked Jesus, well, aren't you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself? But Jesus was silent and made no reply. And then the high priest asked him, are you the Messiah, the son of the blessed one? Jesus said, I am, and you will see the son of Man seated in the place of power, at God's right hand, and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, why do we need other witnesses. You've all heard this blasphemy. What's your verdict? Guilty? They all cried, he deserves to die, and then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. Prophesied to us, They jeered, and the guards slapped him as they took him away. Then Luke says, So they arrested him and led him to the high Priest's home. The guards in charge of Jesus began mocking and beating him, and they blindfolded him. That prophesied to us, who hit you that time? And they hurled all sorts of terrible insights at him. So look at Luke, he's just summarizing everything we just read in the other gospels in like three verses. Yes, so wow, he did not include a lot of detail at all. Right, well, we carved out a piece. So what they did is they carved out fifty four through sixty two for the book of Luke. What do you mean, so Luke twenty two is fifty four and then it picks back up in sixty three and sixty five. Where did the other verses go. They're in the next story where Peter denies knowing Jesus. Oh, because it's chronological. Yeah, so they're doing the chronological Oh okay, all right, yep, so how about that. But still they're indicating that these are the only verses that are talking about these other gospel references, right, yes, so this whole story is only Yeah, Luke does not include the trial. Luke concludes that a trial happened, but doesn't tell the trial. But then the other ones here aren't telling the story of Peter's denial. They tell that afterwards, whereas Luke put it in the middle of the trial. I find it interesting that Mark is the only one that says false testimony, isn't he? Yes? Right? Yeah? And he says many false witnesses came and spoke against him, and they gave things that they couldn't get their story straight. Which is that an indicator that the high priests tried to fabricate false witnesses at a trial. Well, absolutely, because it says in Matthew, the leading priests and the entire council, we're trying to find witnesses who would lie about Jesus so they could put him to death. Yeah that's right. Yeah, that's trying to manufacture this thing. Yeah. So in other words, they're trying and they're failing, and somehow it's indicating that they couldn't get their story straight. So if you would imagine how this would play out, almost wondering if everybody there knew that it wasn't good enough, or you know what I mean, or it's a public display of false witnesses that couldn't get their story straight in front of everybody, which is and by the way, that would make sense because because once he got Jesus to confess, and it's almost as if they that wasn't good enough. So the High Priest looks at him and says, just tell us, are you the Messiah? Then Jesus finally comes out that's exactly how it happened. And then he says, why do we need any more witnesses? Right, because we were trying to fabricate witnesses. None of that worked, but now we got them because he said it. And this is the same word and the Book of Mark I am and it's it's capital I or capital A. Right, Oh that's right. It looks smaller though in the print, doesn't it. But yeah, so it's it's the same thing that he said in the garden, which is what is the name God used for himself? With most yes and so and of course they know they would know that that's right, and so yeah, that's that's why the High priest tears his clothes. It's a sign of mourning. So some people would point out that Matthew said when he said, are you the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus replied, you have said it, And then in Mark it says, are you the Messiah, the son of the blessed One? And Jesus said, I am. Those are two different answers. Yes, So some people would point that out going, well, which one's true, and we would say both of them are true. Right, he said, you said it, and I am. That's right, right, right, that's all is, so that that's not a problem in my mind. And then both of them record the fact that he said, you're going to see me sitting at the the right hand of God. Yeah, and we're able to do that. And so many of these comparisons in the gospels where somebody includes, you know, the fact that you know. Just just the other day, we talked about how one gospel included that somebody cut off some high precis that another one said he cut off the ear and he healed it right, And then the other guy said he cut it off and his name was malcous, yes, and the guy who did it was Peter, and the guy it was Peter, right, which means that we know that that's different eyewitness accounts for the same story. And so we use all those details. We'd be sad together and we realize all of that happened. Right where you would question if the Bible was true is if it said then Jesus replied, only you have said it and nothing else, or he replied something different like I am not right. Right, So if it had claimed that he didn't say any other words other than you have said it, then you go, okay, well, now there's a mistake there. There's a contradiction, right, a contradiction. But in this case, he just said you've said it, and I am, and then he goes on and both of them record the next piece, which is saying, you'll see the son of Man seated at the place of honor at God's right hand, which is the offensive statement. Right, So him declaring I am would have been offensive, certainly, But in the Matthew version of it, him saying you said it is not offensive. Right. The declaration I'll be sitting at the power, in a seat of power, at God's right hand, the right hand of the king was the future king, right that in their mind, that's what they were talking about, sitting on the throne. You've got the king of the universe, and that its right hand is the king, right, they both would have been king, yes, And that's the issue that the priests took, you know. The Caiaphas then loses his mind, tears his clothes and says it's blasphemy. And then in Matthew, it doesn't indicate that he was blindfolded, right, But if you think about it, he has to be blindfolded because otherwise it wouldn't make any sense, because this is how side to us, right it said it said some began hitting them with their fists, and they slapped him, jeering prophesy at test Messiah, who hit you that time? But it doesn't include the blindfold, right, Well, without the blindfold, even that explanation doesn't make sense, which means that this tiny little section here is an indicator that you have to have the blindfold in order for that to make sense. That's right, right, which means like there's a piece that fits so nicely right in there. So you know that the blindfold is an insertion in lookes in Matthew's story, right, And so that's the benefit of doing these three. So you hear us read a lot of the same words, you go, he just read the same thing, but in each of these, you know, parallel versions. You pick up little details that button up the story for you in a better way, and you need a complete picture it was happening in that moment. So and so this starts the it's all, it's all it's on at this point because once the high priest says, hey, we don't need anything else. I'm tearing my garment. This is it, everybody cries guilty, and that's the trial from the Sanhedrin. Now they have to get Rome to kill them, right, right, because they were not permitted to put somebody to death. Is that right? That's my understanding, right that they only Rome could do the executions, right, which means so think about it. So there's the Jewish you know, government, the religious governments, right, and they decided that he's deserving of death. But then they have to go to the Roman authorities, who were the you know again, they were the final authority in that time, and they had to convince them that this guy's worthy of death, which is why we're going to see pilots saying, okay, convince me here, don't I don't see any violation here. And there's these conversations, but in their mind they're thinking, okay, here it is he's worthy of death. So then it's all you know what, am I say? The gloves are off right? That's right right? So quite literally, they're just hitting them, they're beating them, and then starts this huge awfulness, which I think is a temptation for people who want to reject Jesus. Is not only do they want to just go, oh, I dismiss him. They could have just dismissed him, but a lot of people they just have to pile on. And I had a guy that was a very local atheist that wanted to engage with me for a while and very interesting, very intelligent, and he just couldn't quit coming after Jesus, and I went man for an atheist, you sure are obsessed with Jesus. I wish most of my Christian friends were as obsessed with Jesus as you are. Right, he just needed the beat Jesus down, that's it. It wasn't that he was just saying I reject the idea of a god. And I believe Jesus was just a man and he could have just left it at that if that's all it was. It seems like that, but it's not. It's a hatred for Jesus. And that's why Jesus says a name another god on the planet that is a curse word, right, right? How often I was watching a show the other day and they used Jesus name, specifically Jesus Christ. They probably used fifteen times in that show, and I'm thinking, what the heck? What They didn't say Mohammed every time they were mad or frustrated. They didn't say Buddha every time they were frustrated. They didn't say Krishna, right, They didn't say any other gods. They didn't even say the devil. Hey, if you want to make a cussword, make the devil be a cussword. But no, they make the name of Jesus a cuss word. There's a hatred, an unnatural from a Christian's perspective, but a perfectly natural hatred from a non believer to just despise the person the claims of Jesus. And so here they couldn't just let it go. They had to punch him, they had to spit him, add him, they had to mock him, they had to take every opportunity they could. They couldn't help themselves. And it's almost irrational except for the fact that you have to understand this is a spiritual battle. This is a battle between light and dark, and then we get sucked into it. And sometimes as Christians, we use Jesus name in a you know, indelicate way or in a cussword way, and when we do that, we're just piling on like they did. So. I had a family member when I was a teenager and I was Christian, and I remember this family member saying, you know, Jesus, you know JC. You know, they kind of said that, and uh and uh and actually, actually, you know what, I think it might have been the GD one. But I just said, I go, can you just not do that? And she said to me and she's like, well, you know, it's not that bad, is it. I'm like, well, it is one of the ten commandments. And then finally, uh, don't take my name in vain, my name in vain. And then finally, after you know, the habit kept on continuing. Here's here's what I said that actually made an impact on her. And I said, I said, okay, how many words are in the English language? Can you tell me? And and uh and and and she's like, I don't know I'm like, well, there's tens of thousands of words in the English language, and you choose the one that God says not to do the one right? Could you just maybe you don't think that there's something spiritual to that? Right? Why is why is that the word right? Right? Why have you developed that it is because the devil did that? The devil hates Jesus. Yeah, yeah, that's that's that's an interesting take. Obviously, that's I would think that intuitively, but to point that out is is actually pretty insightful. You know, that's a spiritual battle that God, that God says not to do it, and somehow we always you know, it's in our society Satan hates. It's amazing to me on a global level, if you do good deeds with governments and you say, oh, we do it because we believe in God, most governments will go, oh okay. But if you do it in Jesus name, a lot of governments go, no, we don't want that. Franklin Graham talks a lot about that with the Samaritans purse that, you know, they do their work in Jesus name, and they'll have governments go no, we don't want your help. But then when none of the other organizations can get in fast enough and Spirits person is sit right there, finally go okay, go ahead. But he wrote a book called I think it's called The Name, and it's about the fact that so much persecution becomes because of Jesus. Lots of people say, oh, I believe in God. They'll talk in this generic way about God. And that's not surprising our offensive or heart to anybody become a Jesus person, talk about Jesus all the time, and next thing you know that persecution will come. And that's what Jesus said. Don't be surprised that they hate you because they hated me. Yeah, that's good. All right. Well, hey, we're going to pick up the story next time and we'll see you then, hopefully on the Bible. Guys,