Walking With Christ

Matthew 26:57  Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered.(ESV)

Yesterday, I talked about the inner circle in the garden of Gethsemane.  This was right before Judas identified Jesus as part of the betrayal.  Most people understand that the trial was just for show.  Most people are taught that the verdict had already been decided before Judas took the coins.  The Pharisees and other elders were already looking for a way to have Jesus put to death (verse 4 and verse 59).  This wasn’t a trial.  This was an execution in search of justification.  They didn’t just stumble into injustice—they orchestrated it.  The system was corrupted at its core, run by men who feared losing their grip on religious and political power.

We already know that Jesus is the sacrificial lamb.  We also know that, historically, only the high priest could offer a blood sacrifice for the sins of the people.

Caiaphas, the high priest, was unknowingly fulfilling a prophetic role when he offered up Jesus.  In this case, he wasn’t offering the sacrifice up to Yahweh.  He handed over the Lamb of God to the gentiles, who could go on to sacrifice Him on a Roman alter.  This was a grotesque inversion of the system God had ordained.

John 19:15  They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!”  Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”  The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”(ESV)

Caesar, like the Pharaoh in Egypt, was considered a god (little g).  In essence, the chief priest offered Jesus as a sacrifice to the god of this world.  Jesus called this out much earlier in the book of John.

John 8:44  You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.(ESV)

The Pharisees weren’t merely confused.  They were enslaved by pride—the same root that corrupted Lucifer.  Pride twists worship, perverts justice, and ultimately blinds people to the presence of God even when He’s standing in front of them.

Pride is the first sin.  Pride caused the fall of Satan (Isaiah 14:12–15).  Pride consumed the religious leaders—not ignorance—and opened them up to become instruments of Satan.  “You can only serve one master…” (Matthew 6:24).

They thought they were serving God.  But when truth stood before them, they chose murder over repentance.  That was the fruit of the twisted weeds the enemy had sown into the vineyard of Israel.  When the high priest handed Jesus over to Pilate, it wasn’t just a betrayal of a man.  It was a ritual rejection of God.  And when they said, “We have no king but Caesar”, they sealed it.  They crowned a false god king over Israel—again, just like in the Old Testament, when Israel begged for a human king to rule them instead of Yahweh (1 Samuel 8).  Same mistake.  Same pride.  Same enemy whispering in the background.

To summarize, the high priest was the only one who could perform the blood sacrifice on the Holy of Holies.  Satan had twisted the hearts of the high priests so that they would offer Jesus as a blood sacrifice to him instead.  The high priest performed his role unknowingly fulfilling the Eden prophecy.

Come back tomorrow when I show that this was part of the plan from the beginning.