The Illegal Trial of Jesus

These days, “lawfare” has become a catchword—the idea that one can use the legal system to intimidate, delegitimize, or damage a political opponent. Donald Trump and his supporters claimed that the Democrats used lawfare to keep him from running for President, creating “trumped-up” (pun intended) charges with little legal basis. 

Lawfare is not a new thing. In fact, it was used to convict Jesus Christ in the first century.

Jesus was the enemy of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the two main religious sects of Judaism at the time. Jesus threatened their authority and exposed their hypocrisy. They had to find a way to kill him. Yet Jesus was sinless; He committed no crime. Therefore, they had to invent charges against him in order to get rid of him. And everything they did was completely and totally illegal, according to their own laws.

Here are a few of the ways they did it.

Jesus was arrested without a warrant or charge

While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Matt 26:47

Jesus was arrested at night, in secret, with no charge or warrant presented. That was illegal. Also, his accusers, the chief priests and elders, were present at the arrest, which was also illegal. No formal complaint or warrant was given at the arrest. Jesus was taken into custody for absolutely no reason at all.

Judas took a bribe to betray Jesus, which made him guilty of a crime and therefore illegible to give testimony or to accuse Jesus, according to Rabbinic law. 

The trial was illegally conducted

Jesus’ trial(s) took place all in one day, even though Jewish law stated that trials with a possible death sentence could not be completed in one day.

Jesus’ trial was held at night. The law stated that trials could only be held after the morning sacrifice. A night trial would have been illegal.

Annas, who presided over the first trial, was not high priest at the time. Therefore, he was not legally qualified to indict Jesus. 

No evidence was given at this first so-called trial. That alone should have led to a dismissal. Instead, Annas sent Jesus to the official high priest, Caiaphas, his son-in-law. Caiaphas had previously stated that he wanted Jesus to die, therefore, he was not impartial and should have recused himself.

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” John 11:49-50

The trial was held before Passover

According to Jewish law, a trial that might result in a death sentence could not be held the day before a holiday. Such trials were required to be at least two days long, and they could not be interrupted by a holiday. Jesus’ trial was not only held on the day before Passover, but it was concluded in one day.

The trial was held in private

Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas took place in his house, not in a court of law. This was done because the court building would not have been open until after the morning sacrifices. A sentence of death could only be passed in a legal court, not in a person’s house, according to the Talmud.

The chief priests recruited  false witnesses

Knowingly false witnesses, who had been recruited by the chief priests, testified against Jesus. 

For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’” Yet even about this their testimony did not agree. Mark 14: 56-59

The false witnesses misquoted Jesus. What He had actually said was, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19) John adds, “But he was talking about his body.” He never said he was going to destroy the temple itself.

The charge was changed 

The court did not charge Jesus with threatening to destroy the temple, however. They changed the charge to blasphemy.

And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matt 26: 63b-64)

Jesus, therefore, was charged with a crime that had nothing to do with the witness testimony. The only “evidence” the court had for condemning Jesus for blasphemy were his own words. No witnesses attested to this crime. No other evidence was given.

Note that Jesus did not answer the high priest’s question directly. He referred to the Son of Man in the third person. But even if He had said “Yes, I am the Christ,” it would not have been blasphemy, which referred to cursing or defying God. Jesus never did those things. Everything he did and said pointed to God as Father and Sovereign Lord.

Therefore, the charge of blasphemy was completely false.

Jesus was given no defense

According to Jewish law, one member of the council should have acted as Jesus’ defense counsel. This did not happen. Two members of the council who would have defended Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, were apparently not present at the trial.

The High Priest tore his clothes

“The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes.” Lev 21:10

It would have been grounds for dismissal for the high priest to tear his clothes in court. Imagine a judge in a modern-day trial jumping up, tearing off his robes, and screaming that the defendant is guilty in front of the jury and all the witnesses. He would have been disqualified and maybe even disbarred.

The Sanhedrin excluded Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea

The Sanhedrin, the 70-member “supreme court” of Judea, condemned Jesus by unanimous vote. But Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both members of the council, did not consent. Were their votes not counted? Or were they excluded from voting? Illegal.

The charges were changed again

In order to present Jesus before the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, the Jewish leaders had to change the charge to treason. Luke tells us they claimed Jesus was “misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying he himself is Christ, a king.” (Luke 23:2) This was a blatant lie—Jesus never told anyone to not pay their taxes. He told them the opposite. 

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” Mark 12:17

The Jewish leaders claimed they couldn’t kill Jesus

John tell us that the Jewish leaders sent Jesus to Pilate because they could not legally carry out a death sentence.  “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” (John 18:31) But this wasn’t true. They could have taken Jesus out and stoned him. Stoning was common and quite legal for certain crimes, including blasphemy, according to Jewish law. There are many instances of stoning in the Bible, such as Stephen and the woman caught in adultery. Paul was stoned a couple of times. 

The truth is that the Jewish leaders didn’t need Pilate to kill Jesus. They simply didn’t want to be held responsible for his death. Despite the mob that had been whipped up in Jerusalem, Jesus was still quite popular throughout Judea. They needed a scapegoat. They chose Pilate.

The Roman trial had no witnesses

No witnesses or evidence were provided in the trial before Pontius Pilate. It wasn’t really a trial at all. Pilate questioned Jesus and found His answers perplexing but not incriminating. He tried to pawn Jesus off on Herod, but Herod just sent him back. Pilate tried to weasel out of condemning Jesus, but the mob would have none of it. They actually started threatening Pilate himself. Eventually, he gave up and literally washed his hands of the whole business. “I am innocent of this man’s blood.” 

Jesus was executed without a verdict of guilt

Pilate had Jesus whipped and then delivered him to be crucified without ever giving a verdict. In fact, he said over and over again that Jesus was innocent. Therefore, Jesus was executed without even being pronounced guilty of a crime.

Why did Jesus die?

So it was that the only sinless man ever to live died the horrific death of a common criminal on a Roman cross. 

Which was His plan all along. 

Those two things together don’t seem to make any sense at all. Why did it have to be this way? Why did Jesus have to die? Couldn’t God have forgiven humanity without the death of His Son?

The truth is that all forgiveness involves sacrifice. Someone has to pay. God knew we couldn’t overcome death without His intervention. 

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

Ernest Hemingway once said, “Every true story ends in death.” Maybe that’s so, except for one. This story. This true story ends in Jesus’ glorious resurrection, allowing those who love Him and follow Him to escape death and live forever with Him. Jesus has overturned the rules of storytelling in order to give us a happily ever after.

Jesus endured unspeakable evil to set us free. How could you not love him?

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:5-11)