What Were the Circumstances of Jesus Arrest and Crucifixion?
April 7, 2020
Darrell G. Young
The night of Jesus’ arrest, He was brought before Annas, Caiaphas, and an assembly of religious leaders called the Sanhedrin. There were six parts to Jesus’ trial: three stages in a religious court and three stages before a Roman court. Jesus was tried before Annas, the former high priest; Caiaphas, the current high priest; and the Sanhedrin. He was charged in these “ecclesiastical” trials with blasphemy, claiming to be the Son of God, the Messiah.
The Sanhedrin began with an informal examination of Jesus before Annas, the acting high priest, followed by a formal session before the entire Sanhedrin. There the decision was made to turn Jesus over the Roman authorities to be tried and eventually crucified.
The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel, made up of 70 men and the high priest. In the Second Temple period, the Great Sanhedrin met in the Temple in Jerusalem. The court convened every day except festivals and on the Sabbath.
The trials before Jewish authorities, the religious trials, showed the degree to which the Jewish leaders hated Him because they carelessly disregarded many of their own laws. There were several illegalities involved in these trials from the perspective of Jewish law:
(1) No trial was to be held during feast time.
(2) Each member of the court was to vote individually to convict or acquit, but Jesus was convicted by acclamation.
(3) If the death penalty was given, a night must pass before the sentence was carried out; however, only a few hours passed before Jesus was placed on the Cross.
(4) The Jews had no authority to execute anyone.
(5) No trial was to be held at night, but this trial was held overnight, before dawn.
(6) The accused was to be given counsel or representation, but Jesus had none.
(7) The accused was not to be asked self-incriminating questions, but Jesus was asked if He was the Christ.
In Jesus’ time, crucifixion was reserved for the worst of criminals. The torture a person endured on a cross would last for hours, and killing Jesus in t his manner likely appealed to the religious leaders who hated Him so deeply. Remember, they had plotted against him for quite some time. In an effort to hide their move against Jesus from His many supporters, the Jewish leaders arrested and tried Jesus in the middle of the night.
The trials before the Roman authorities started with Pilate (John 18:23) after Jesus was beaten. The charges brought against Him were very different from the charges in His religious trials. He was charged with inciting people to riot, forbidding the people to pay their taxes, and claiming to be a King.
Pilate found no reason whatsoever to kill Jesus so he sent Him to Herod. Herod had Jesus ridiculed but, wanting to avoid the political liability, sent Jesus back to Pilate (Luke 23:11–12). Pilate could not find any fault in Jesus, and he said so three times (Luke 23:4, 14–15, 22). This was the last trial as Pilate tried to appease the animosity of the Jews by having Jesus scourged. The Roman scourge was a terrible whipping designed to remove the flesh from the back of the one being punished.
Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea from AD 26-36, serving under Emperor Tiberius. In the Bible, Pontius Pilate is mentioned solely in connection with the trials and crucifixion of Jesus. Pilate called the charges against Jesus “baseless” (Luke 23:14) and several times declared Jesus to be not guilty: “What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty” (Luke 23:22). John’s Gospel offers some more detail of the trial, including an additional conversation between Pilate and Jesus. Jesus acknowledges Himself as a king and claims to speak directly for the truth. Pilate responded with the famous question, “What is truth?” (John 18:38).
Herein was a situation in which truth was compromised in order to condemn an innocent man. Pilate, who is supposedly seeking the truth, asks the question of the One who is Himself “the truth” what the truth was! So then, a human judge, confused about the truth, condemned the Righteous Truth of the world. He failed to recognize the truth even when Truth was standing right in front of him.
In the end, Pilate sought a compromise. Knowing Jesus had been handed over by the religious leaders out of envy, he appealed to the crowds at the Passover, asking which “criminal” should be set free, Jesus or Barabbas? The leaders convinced the crowd to cry out for Barabbas (Matthew 27:20–21). Giving in to political pressure, Pilate authorized both the flogging and crucifixion of Jesus: “Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He then had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified” (Mark 15:15).
What Pilate may not have known was the extent to which the religious and political leaders hated and opposed Jesus!
The trials of Jesus represent the ultimate mockery of justice. Jesus, the most innocent man in the history of the world, was found guilty of crimes by both Rome and the Jewish Sanhedrin, and sentenced to the most cruel execution slated for the worst criminals, death by crucifixion.
There was both an earthly reason and a heavenly reason Jesus was crucified. Simply put, the earthly reason is that mankind is evil. The heavenly reason is that God is good.
The earthly reason Jesus was crucified was because mankind is evil and in league with Satan. Wicked men conspired against Him, falsely accused Him, and murdered Him. The leaders of Israel had several reasons they wanted Jesus to be executed. They were envious of His following (Matthew 27:18). They were afraid that Jesus would gather too large a following, which might bring the Roman authorities down on the nation, causing them to lose their positions (John 11:48). They hated the fact that Jesus called out their sin publicly (Matthew 23). And they thought He was blaspheming when He claimed to be the Son of God.
The heavenly reason Jesus was crucified is because God is good. God had a plan to save sinners, and Jesus was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Even though the act of crucifying Jesus was evil, the crucifixion was still the plan of God to make atonement for sin.
The crucifixion was not a case of evil getting out of control. Jesus told Pilate, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11). The powers of darkness were given divine permission to act (Luke 22:53). God allowed the hatred, the conspiracy, the false accusations, the sham trials, and the murder of His Son; for a reason! In the crucifixion of Christ, God used the evil desires of evil men to accomplish the greatest good: the provision of salvation for mankind.
In the end, it wasn’t the crowd’s cries of “Crucify Him!” that put Jesus on the cross. Our sin did that. From the very beginning, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the Lord had promised to send a Savior who would crush the reign of sin and death (Genesis 3:15). Throughout the ages God wove His plan to send a Savior, and that plan culminated in the person of Jesus Christ: God’s own Son who became the perfect God-man so He could take upon Himself the punishment for sin.
Although wicked men, under the power of Satan were involved in Jesus’ death on the cross, His sacrifice was ultimately the will of God (Isaiah 53:10; John 10:18). The shedding of Jesus’ blood fulfilled God’s promise to mankind to provide a Savior and sealed the New Covenant (Luke 22:20). Jesus would then defeat the power of death and the grave by rising again three days later and ascending to His Father’s right hand in heaven.
In the final analysis, the reason that GOD allowed Jesus to be crucified is the answer that each of us must come to understand and embrace by faith: Jesus was crucified to pay for my sin so that I can be forgiven and be made right with God.
