Responding to Being Treated Unfairly (Matthew 26:47-68)
Being treated unfairly starts early in life, we have all heard 5-year-old screaming “It’s not fair”. Just to be balanced I’ve heard 95-year-olds say it as well. Sometimes it’s about something minor and sometimes it’s about something major. Sometimes it’s flippant and sometimes it can be serious.
When was the last time you felt like you were been treated unfairly? I would guess that if I were to ask in you have been treated unfairly in the last month many listening to this would say yes. This is a very common experience, maybe you’ve been lied to by a slick salesman, or worse still lied about. By someone else. Maybe you didn’t get the recognition or even the promotion you felt you deserved, and on and on and on.
I guess the helpful question to ask is not if being treated unfairly has happen to you, but a better question might be, how should you handle such a thing.? What should be your response Be? That’s what I’d like for us to talk about today, but I want to put in a disclaimer out there first. We’ve being going through the Gospel of Matthew for some time and today we’ve come to the arrest and trial of the Lord. Both of which were unfair and that’s putting it mildly, I want us to look at this and I want us to see how it was unfair and how he responded, but the little disclaimer is that we have to be careful in making universal principles out of something that happened in a particular situation.
So, while I want to glean from this passage some general principles, they don’t all apply in every case. They applied in his case and sometimes he did the very opposite even within this story, so I’m going to mention things we can do when we’re treated unfairly, and it takes wisdom to know when to apply and which rule to apply when similar things happen to us.
This passage shows us first the arrest and then the trial of the Lord, so there are obviously two parts to this.
I want us to survey them rather briefly and see how both the arrest and the trial were not proper or fair we would say in the popular vernacular it was an illegal arrest and a unfair trial.
Let drop back into the text in Matthew chapter 26 and I’m going to begin reading with verse 47.
Betrayal and Arrest in Gethsemane
47 And while He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and elders of the people. 48 Now His betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him.” 49 Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. 50 But Jesus said to him, “Friend, why have you come?” Then they came and laid hands-on Jesus and took Him. 51 And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. 52 But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will [j]perish by the sword. 53 Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? 54 How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?” 55 In that hour Jesus said to the multitudes, “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me? I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not seize Me. 56 But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.
(Matthew 26: 49-56)
We saw at the end of the previous passage that a crowd had shown up and Judas is there. A large crowd has come with swords and clubs sent by the high priest and the elders of the people.
A couple of observations at this point there’s a crowd, that shows up some translations say it was a “great multitude” But based on what John tells us there were probably at least 200 Roman plus a number of other people, furthermore some it says the chief priest and the elders of the people were also there. The other accounts given in the synoptic gospels indicate that these were members of the complete Sanhedrin, so just imagine, it’s late at night, they’re in a garden full of olive and date trees, the garden of Gethsemane and this huge crowd shows up to arrest Jesus. It also tells us that Judas had made an arrangement with them and said whomever I kiss that’s the one, that seems to imply that they did not intend to arrest all of the disciples, so the Roman soldiers needed a signal so we are told that Judas went up to Jesus and said greetings rabbi he didn't call him Lord he called him teacher and he kissed him.
I would like for you to note he already told them whomever I kiss he's the one and in the next verse he kissed him. It’s not immediately obvious in the English text but in the Greek text there are two different words for kiss, the first one simply means a peck the second one that is used here is a fervent kiss not just an affectionate peck. The same one that’s used in Luke 15 of the father who fell upon the prodigal son and welcomed him back home Jesus. But this was a kiss of betrayal, a modern reworking of this idea is found in the famous move Godfather II where Michael Corleone finds out he has been betrayed by his brother Fredo.
The Romans come and lay hands-on Jesus and take him. So that’s the arrest now there is a reaction to this arrest. One of those who was with Jesus drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest. The person who did this was impetuous Pete, most who study this passage imagine that he was aiming for his head that Peter meant to chop his head off and that the servant ducked, and he only chopped off an ear, at any rate, he swung his sword and lopped off an ear. Other passages tell us that Jesus took the ear and healed the man someone has suggested had he not done that would have been four crosses instead of first three. Peter would have crucified been as well. Jesus says to him, put your sword away because he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword. Adding do you think I cannot now pray to my father, and he will provide me more than 12 legions of angels. This remark about the sword is not I believe meant to be taken as a universal principal, obviously not everybody that takes up a sword dies by the sword ,so it’s just obvious on the face of it that he doesn’t mean to make a universal principle out of this. But I believe he is clearly implying two things in this situation Firstly, that in this situation he will die if he tries to take this situation on by force. Furthermore, this who wield violence rashly are headed to destruction. Be that as it may he says to Peter don’t do this, put it away, and besides how could the scripture be fulfilled if we used your method to resist, so put up your sword, this is prophesied that this should happen so put it away. As a matter of fact, they came and arrested him like a thief and Isaiah did prophecy this in Isaiah 53 that he would be numbered among the lawbreakers, so he says look I’m going to fulfil prophecy, so put it away.
At this point Jesus turns to the multitude and he says have you come out to get me like a thief using swords and clubs to take me. What about all those times when I sat with you teaching in the temple and you did not seize me, but then all these things must happen that the scripture might be fulfilled. We then see as predicted the disciples flee. Remember just a few verses before in the garden of ceremony Jesus said all will stumble and they all stumbled alright, they stumbled and fled.
Alright that’s the arrest now I want to pause and make a couple of observations about the arrest of Jesus. To put is simply this was unfair and unjust, he did not break any law and he did not commit any crime worthy of this so this whole thing was unfair. Second thing I want to point out is that Peter in the face of an unfair arrest wanted to retaliate and he took out his sword and said we’ll resist this injustice, this way. I can’t help but ask, isn’t that the way we feel sometimes. When you’re treated unfairly you often just want to get back at that person. If your honest isn’t that exactly the way we usually feel, give me a sword I’ll fix this.Jesus didn’t do that, as a matter of fact, and this is important, he submitted to the whole thing. Why? Because as he said several times it was the fulfilment of prophecy. It was the will of God for him that these things should happen. I think we could say Jesus humbly submitted simply to the will of God. To say that same thing another way, there’s a contrast here between the cup remember he said if it’s possible let this cup pass from me. Peter uses the sword, Jesus chose the cup, before I’m going to simply submit to the will of God.
I said at the begin how we need to be careful taking specific statements and sometimes specific events and making universal principles out of them. In this particular case Jesus said they would take up the sword die by the sword and obviously that's not meant to be a universal principle and I would say the same thing here that it doesn’t mean that you should never protect yourself, pacifism is not being taught in this passage. Sometimes it’s appropriate that you take the sword and defend yourself and other times it’s not so, the real critical issue is the principle of submission to the will of God. What you have to do is figure out what is the will of God in any particular situation in which you find yourself and very frankly that is sometimes difficult. It sometimes takes wisdom and a lot of maturity but what I want you to see is that the one thing Jesus did not do was retaliate the one thing he did do was submit to the will of God. As a matter of fact, many years later when Peter wrote his first epistle he said this.
“Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps, He who committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth, he who when he was reviled did not revile in return and when he suffered, he did not threaten but committed himself to him who judges righteously”.
That’s in first Peter chapter 2 verses 21 through 23. The point is that Jesus said this is the will of God for me and I’m going to submit to that and when you feel that you are being treated unfairly the principle of how to handle it generally is, don’t retaliate, but try to figure out what is the will of God in that situation. Sometimes it’s to stand up for what is right and sometimes it’s to submit even when you’re being treated unfairly. I am also reminded that the apostle Paul was several times arrested and was beaten on several occasions, once he appealed to Caesar because he was a Roman citizen so there’s can be seemingly contradictory reactions to similar example of unfair treatment. Maybe he did this because at the beginning of his Christian experience God had told him he would witness to the kings and those in authority and in this he saw an opportunity to witness the Caesar in Rome and as a Roman citizen he had the right to do so and he opted to exercise that right. However, the consistent thread through all of these varied reactions is Jesus and other were seeking the will of God. Like I said earlier it’s not always easy to determine the will of God, it takes maturity and wisdom to figure it out. In this case Jesus arrest was unfair but in the midst of that Jesus still sought the will of God. That’s the critical point here.
Next, the trial and this is where it gets really interesting.
Jesus Faces the Sanhedrin
57 And those who had laid hold of Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. 58 But Peter followed Him at a distance to the high priest’s courtyard. And he went in and sat with the servants to see the end. 59 Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, 60 but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward 61 and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’ ” 62 And the high priest arose and said to Him, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against you?” 63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” 64 Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 65 Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! 66 What do you think?” They answered and said, “He is deserving of death.” 67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands, 68 saying, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?”
(Matthew 26: 57-68)
I need to begin here by describing the makeup of the court. If you read all four gospels carefully you will discover that there was not one trial but there were several. Some would say 6. This is how people arrive at a total of six.
Three Jewish Trials:
1st Trial — Annas; John 18:12-14
2nd Trial — Caiaphas; Luke 22:54-65 – Both these trials were illegal because they were before day light;
3rd Trial — Sanhedrin after day light to make it legal; Luke 22:66-71
Three Gentile Trials:
4th Trial — Pilate for the first time; Luke 23:1-6
5th Trial — Herod Antipas; Luke 23:8-12
6th Trial — Pilate for the second time; Luke 23:13-25
I need to point out that the one described her is Matthew is the second one before Caiaphas. The first was before Annas, who was the previous high priest was before Caiaphas, but what is significant is this the trial is illegal. It was in the middle of the night, and they were not supposed to do that, as a matter of fact the religious leaders in this crisis situation and all the others violated their own law. For a decision to be valid the Sanhedrin had to meet in its own meeting place, which was in the temple precinct, but they met at Caiaphas’s house and that made this meeting illegal. Furthermore, all criminal cases had to be tried and completed during the daytime and this was at night. Furthermore, they weren’t supposed to do any trials during the Passover season, and this was during the Passover season. In addition to all that if the verdict was guilty in a trial, a night must elapse before the pronouncement of the verdict so the feeling of mercy might have time to arise before the judgement was pronounced but they didn’t wait the prescribed amount of time. This trial was illegal by their own laws and as we would say in the legal vernacular, it was grossly prejudiced. So, it was a kangaroo court with dodgy witnesses. Let’s focus in on the dodgy witnesses for a moment, The text tells us these religious leaders sought false witnesses, but none came forward. In order to have witnesses to convict somebody of something you needed two or three independent witnesses, so the religious leaders went out and tried to find some people who would be witnesses at this religious trial and they couldn’t find two that would agree with each other.
That’s their dilemma, in verse 60 says two false witnesses came forward and said, “What this fellow said was, I’m able to destroy the temple and to build it again in three days, so they had finally got two people to say oh I heard him say he would destroy the temple. This is a reference to something Jesus said years before at the beginning of his ministry in response to his disciples asking for a sign and he said, you know here’s the temple tear it down and in three days I will raise it up. But course John tells us he wasn’t talking about the physical temple he was talking about the temple of his body; he was actually announcing his resurrection. This is not what he said at all, this is a classic case of taking something he said out of context. They were false witnesses and these men testify against him. Interestingly Jesus remains silent. Jesus said, they already made-up their mind we’re going to kill him we’ve been told that abundantly before we get to this point, that’s a foregone conclusion. This judge is biased, this judge is prejudiced, so there’s no sense trying to answer this. In this situation it’s not going to do any good to say anything further. Again, this fulfils prophecy as they have Isaiah 53 says, “As a sheep before his shearers is dumb, he did not open his mouth”. I am not suggesting that this should be our response in every case, but I am suggesting it should be the case in more cases. When you’re treated unfairly figure out what the will of God is and do that and for whatever you do don’t run off at the that is only going to make it worse and though you think you’re getting at them it really makes you look worse than them. On this occasion it tells us Jesus choose silence. At this point this unscrupulous judge said look I'm going to get you one way or the other but look carefully at verse 63 because it said he said, “I put you under earth by the living God, tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”” The purpose of this statement was an obvious manoeuvre to try and get them to incriminate himself. This is nothing more than an unscrupulous trying to get Jesus to trap himself but now Jesus is under oath and he’s being asked specifically are you the Messiah and the son of God. He has been silent up to know, but now he’s under oath and under the law of Moses he’s got to speak in that situation.
There are people today who claim that Jesus is not the Messiah and that he never claimed to be the Messiah, they say that he just told my stories and parables and that later that Christians added to that that he claimed to be the son of God. My response is, clearly, they never read their bibles, did they not ever read verse 64.
“Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
(Matthew 26: 64)
Jesus is clearly claiming to be the Messiah the son of God and there are no two ways around that, this passage demonstrates that and the parallel passages in a sense make it even more clear because he also said he was the Messiah, the son of God and then he adds to that, “Nevertheless I say to you here after you will see the son of man sitting on the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven”. This is a references to the “Son of Man” mentioned in Daniel Ch 7, Jesus is saying, and this is very important, yes, I’m the Messiah but your perception of the Messiah is not what really is ggoing to happen because they wanted a Messiah who would come in power and kick the Romans out of Palestine and set up the Kingdom and what he’s saying is yes I am the Messiah but I need to clarify and say to you that after that’s going to have then I’ll come and set up the Kingdom.
What’s the verdict of this court? we’ve looked at the court, the witnesses the judge, now what’s the verdict.
Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! What do you think?” They answered and said, “He is deserving of death.”
(Matthew 26: 65-66)
They concluded he was guilty of a capital offense because he claimed to be God and that’s blasphemy the verdict was wrong why was it wrong because Jesus was the Messiah the son of God.
One last point, after the verdict came the treatment, they gave him. They spat in his face and mocked him hitting him saying prophecy, who will hit you next and they spat on him. All the externals of justice were forgotten and instead we witnessed the open hostility and prejudice of the religious authorities broke through, from meeting illegally at night through to a frenzy of hatred with no attempt even to maintain even the superficialities of impartial justice. Ok let me summarise. The arrest which was unfair, yet Jesus submitted himself to the will of God and secondly, we’ve looked at the trial it was illegal and unfair and unjust and Jesus chose to be silent and when he spoke he told the truth. So let me sum it all up and suggest when Jesus was unfairly arrested and falsely accused and illegally condemn.
Number one, he did not retaliate.
Number two, he committed himself to the will of God.
Number three, he chose to be silent and when’
Number four, he chose to speak he chose only the truth.
I asked at the beginning have ever been treated unfairly, In response I suggested that along the way that happens to all of us at some point. But our model of how to respond should be Jesus. Jesus said to Peter put away your sword. You and I are meant to respond to every situation of unfair treatment just the same way as Jesus did. You need to seek the will of God, and when you do, follow it, and do it for Him. Sometimes that will mean being silent, and sometimes we should speak but when we do e should only speak the truth. There were times when he was silent and when appropriate he spoke but looking at this passage we can see Jesus was the perfect example of what it means to trust in God, in every circumstance, even when he was treated unfairly to a degree of suffering we can only image.