Seeking testimony to put Jesus to death...

Mark 14:53,55-56
Then they led Jesus away to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together… Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. For many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent.

It was still night.

 
Word reached the household of the High Priest that Jesus had been captured. The High Priest hastily sent runners to members of the Sanhedrin, the ruling religious council of priests and Pharisees. Those specifically summoned by the High Priest were predictably sympathetic to his desire to see Jesus’ humiliation and death. They also had to awaken those who had expressed willingness to testify against Jesus. In time a group had gathered.

 
The full council was 71 people but only 23 were considered a quorum. For the Sanhedrin to meet at night, without adequate notice to all members, at the High Priest’s residence (where there was almost certainly not enough room for all the members), in the early morning before the Sabbath were all illegal. But ironically and despite their allegations against Jesus, strict adherence to God’s Law and their traditions were not their highest priorities.

 
The false testimony included charges that Jesus had spoken against the Temple. “We ourselves heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this sanctuary made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands’” (14:58). But it was apparent to all that the testimonies of the various “witnesses” were inconsistent and certainly not sufficient to condemn Jesus.

 
The High Priest took a different tact.

He questioned Jesus directly, asking Him specifically, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (14:61). He asked the same question that John the Baptist had sent His disciples to inquire of Jesus months earlier: “Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for someone else?” (Matthew 11:3).

Retired Pastor, Missionary and Evangelist Dick Landis summed up the question that all must eventually confront and answer, in this world or the next: “Who is Jesus to you?”

Jesus answered John’s disciples: “The blind receive sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who does stumble over Me” (Matthew 11: 5,6).

 
The Sanhedrin had stumbled.

Imprisoned by the system they enjoyed, infected by the power structure and prestige they relished, deaf to Jesus’ words, they were impoverished spirits, blind to the One standing before them and dead to the truth He proclaimed.

 
As we consider the last day of Jesus’ life and the trials He endured, we must at least ask whether we are carrying convictions and conclusions about Jesus the Messiah, His words and what He asks of us that have left us hard of hearing with clouded vision. 

Let us not stumble, too.