Jesus Versus Religion
Mark 14:53-65
Message #56
When I use the word “religion” today, I am not talking about us having a genuine faith and trust in God, and having a real personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And I am not talking about a commitment to use God’s Word as our only rule and guide of faith.
What I am talking about is a tendency we may have to have more confidence in our religion than in a real, saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
What we see in our text today, is religious leaders using their “religion system” to remove Jesus Christ from having any impact on their lives.
And I think we have to be careful not to say to ourselves, “Well, that was those bad Jewish religious leaders, and they just wanted Jesus dead because they didn’t want to deal with his claims or his teachings.”
But, can we maybe see in ourselves the possibility of us using our religion for us to avoid dealing directly with the claims and teachings of Jesus Christ? That is the subject that is on display in our text today.
We last left Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Temple Guards were arresting Jesus and all of the Disciples were running away. And so, Jesus is alone as he is taking the final steps to conquer sin and death through the cross and resurrection, and as the religious leaders were taking the final steps to remove Jesus from their lives. (Understand how the term “religious leaders” is generic.)
We pick it up just after the arrest.
Mark 14:53 (NLT)
53 They took Jesus to the high priest’s home where the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law had gathered.
This is the Sanhedrin, the High Court of the Jewish religious system, gathered at night in the High Priest’s home, all of which was illegal according to the Law of Moses.
There was a religious judicial system that was developed by God, and given through Moses. But this religious high court did not follow one thing that Moses had commanded for a fair trial. There are so many illegal things about to happen in this farce of a trial that it would take all of my time just to list them. Every single thing these religious leaders are about to do is contrary (contradictory) to God’s written Word, and they are the Supreme Court of the Jewish religious law.
But Jesus didn’t fit into their plans. His claims and his teaching didn’t support their authority or their control, and so, in the name of their religious system they were going to remove Jesus from having any impact on their lives… (or so they thought).
The upper level of the religious system in that day was entirely corrupt, and we get a glimpse of that over in John Chapter 18. Mark focuses on the illegal Sanhedrin trial, but John takes us first to the home of “The Godfather.”
John 18:12–13 (NLT)
12 So the soldiers, their commanding officer, and the Temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up.
13 First they took him to Annas, since he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest at that time.
Is it normal to take a prisoner to the house of the father-in-law of the High Priest in the middle of the night while the Sanhedrin (comprised of seventy-two of the highest leaders in the religious system) is illegally gathering?
No! It is not normal. This is a scene right out of the Godfather movie. Annas was the power behind the throne of the High Priest. He had been High Priest and had started a racketeering system that his family had held onto for five High Priests. That racketeering system was called “The Bazaar of Annas” and it operates within the Temple courts to take truckloads of money from simple worshipers. And Jesus had attacked the religious system that Annas was the Godfather of, and had twice run his goons out of the Temple courts where they were doing their “business.”
And Annas was trying to fabricate an indictment against Jesus so that the religious high court could have something to find Jesus guilty of – worthy of death.
But Annas couldn’t indict Jesus on any charge, so he just sends Jesus on to the house of Caiaphas (current High Priest) where the Sanhedrin (and the mock trial) was waiting knowing they would find a way to “take care” of this little problem named Jesus.
So, back in Mark’s gospel, in verse 54, Mark just wants to place Peter in the middle of all of this.
Mark 14:54 (NLT)
54 Meanwhile, Peter followed him (Jesus) at a distance and went right into the high priest’s courtyard. There he sat with the guards, warming himself by the fire.
We’ll come back to Peter and his denial of the Lord next week because Mark sandwiches it between the two “mock trials.”
So, now we're inside the home of the High Priest with an illegal religious trial about to begin. But, listen please, this is the real point today.
We are about to see these men use their religious system to remove Jesus from having any impact on their lives.
Let me say it another way. We’re about to see a picture of how a religious system is used to remove Jesus from the religious system that is supposed to be all about Jesus. This is God in the Flesh, come to his religious system, and he’s removed by the religious system.
Mark 14:55 (NLT)
55 Inside, the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find evidence against Jesus, so they could put him to death. But they couldn’t find any.
The sentence was already in place. They were going to remove Jesus from their lives and from their religious system because the one thing the religious council knew was that Jesus was bad for the “business of religion.” And they knew that if the people starting actually following Jesus it would mean a loss of both their power over the people and their money.
And believe me when I tell you they are not the last religious system to have that fear. The principles here are happening today. This still happens.
And so, they paid false witnesses with the Temple treasury money for sure (money taken from the worshipers, the same money used to pay Judas Iscariot). But the paid false witnesses didn’t have time to get their stories straight.
Mark 14:56-59 (NLT)
56 Many false witnesses spoke against him, but they contradicted each other.
57 Finally, some men stood up and gave this false testimony:
58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another, made without human hands.’” (a twisting of what Jesus actually said)
59 But even then they didn’t get their stories straight!
Guys, this is just religious theater – the outcome is already decided. They’re going to remove Jesus from having any impact on their religious system and their lives – no matter what. It doesn’t matter if anything is legal – or godly. This has got to be done for the good of the religious system.
Mark 14:60-61(a) (NLT)
60 Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?”
61 But Jesus was silent and made no reply . . .
This was a deafening silence. God Incarnate was about to be killed by the religious system that he was supposed to be the center of. But Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen.
And so, the Word Made Flesh – God in Communication – The Logos – was silent.
Isaiah 53:7 (NLT)
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.
Until the High Priest asked the right question.
Mark 14:61(b) (NLT)
61 . . . Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
This is the first legitimate question. This is not an entrapment question. This is a who are you question.
Jesus knew the intent of the question was to bring a blasphemy charge. But Jesus had already told them numerous times, in numerous ways, and he had proved it over and over again,
That he IS the Messiah
He IS the Son of God
He and the Father are one.
And so, Jesus answers the question, and he answers it with even more of a dramatic impact than his previous silence had.
Mark 14:62(a) (NLT)
62 Jesus said, “I Am . . .”
“I AM” – the “(eggo a-me) EGO EIMI” – the Tetragrammaton. The name that became YAHWEH. The Eternally Existing One – the All-in-All God – “I AM.”
I’m surprised the entire Sanhedrin didn’t fall back on the floor when he said it. Jesus said, “I Am” and then he added to it.
Mark 14:62(b) (NLT)
62 . . . “And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Jesus sees past the cross to his throne at God’s right hand, and to his return to rule and reign on earth for the Millennium. And so, Jesus says, Yes, I AM the Messiah. I AM the Son of God.
And Jesus knew exactly what the response was going to be. He had prophesied it many times, and he had made it perfectly clear to his Disciples.
And it went just as it needed to go in order for Jesus to make his appointment with the cross so that he could pay for our sins and freely offer us his righteousness in exchange so that “by faith in Christ alone” we could have an assured entrance to heaven.
And so, the first “mockery of a trial” ends with the verdict of blasphemy.
Mark 14:63-64 (NLT)
63 Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror (at the supposed blasphemy) and said, “Why do we need other witnesses?
64 You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?” “Guilty!” they all cried. “He deserves to die!”
And all of this has been completely illegal and contrary to the Law of Moses.
But then the blackness of the sin of those who ran this religious system is really exposed.
Mark 14:65 (NLT)
65 Then some of them (the Highest Religious Leaders) began to spit at him (the most demeaning insult), and they (the Sanhedrin) blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. “Prophesy to us,” they jeered. And the guards (who they turned Jesus over to) slapped him as they took him away.
Again, from Isaiah.
Isaiah 53:3–6 (NLT)
3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way (maybe to our religion). He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down . . .
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
For these religious leaders, their religion was treating them well. They didn’t need the radical claims and teachings of Jesus to mess up the good thing they had going with their religion.
Can I tell you this, please? They aren’t the only ones. Some of us feel just fine without religion and we don’t want Jesus coming into our lives with his radical teachings and messing up the good thing we have going with our religion.
But, Hebrews 6:6 says,
Hebrews 6:6 (NLT)
6 . . . by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
Don’t reject the Son of God for the sake of your religion.
Jesus Christ died in your place to pay for your sins. He took the full wrath of God that your sins deserved so that you could freely enter heaven in his righteousness by putting your full faith in him as your Savior and Lord.
Don’t ever trade that for some religious system.
What I am talking about is a tendency we may have to have more confidence in our religion than in a real, saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
What we see in our text today, is religious leaders using their “religion system” to remove Jesus Christ from having any impact on their lives.
And I think we have to be careful not to say to ourselves, “Well, that was those bad Jewish religious leaders, and they just wanted Jesus dead because they didn’t want to deal with his claims or his teachings.”
But, can we maybe see in ourselves the possibility of us using our religion for us to avoid dealing directly with the claims and teachings of Jesus Christ? That is the subject that is on display in our text today.
We last left Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Temple Guards were arresting Jesus and all of the Disciples were running away. And so, Jesus is alone as he is taking the final steps to conquer sin and death through the cross and resurrection, and as the religious leaders were taking the final steps to remove Jesus from their lives. (Understand how the term “religious leaders” is generic.)
We pick it up just after the arrest.
Mark 14:53 (NLT)
53 They took Jesus to the high priest’s home where the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law had gathered.
This is the Sanhedrin, the High Court of the Jewish religious system, gathered at night in the High Priest’s home, all of which was illegal according to the Law of Moses.
There was a religious judicial system that was developed by God, and given through Moses. But this religious high court did not follow one thing that Moses had commanded for a fair trial. There are so many illegal things about to happen in this farce of a trial that it would take all of my time just to list them. Every single thing these religious leaders are about to do is contrary (contradictory) to God’s written Word, and they are the Supreme Court of the Jewish religious law.
But Jesus didn’t fit into their plans. His claims and his teaching didn’t support their authority or their control, and so, in the name of their religious system they were going to remove Jesus from having any impact on their lives… (or so they thought).
The upper level of the religious system in that day was entirely corrupt, and we get a glimpse of that over in John Chapter 18. Mark focuses on the illegal Sanhedrin trial, but John takes us first to the home of “The Godfather.”
John 18:12–13 (NLT)
12 So the soldiers, their commanding officer, and the Temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up.
13 First they took him to Annas, since he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest at that time.
Is it normal to take a prisoner to the house of the father-in-law of the High Priest in the middle of the night while the Sanhedrin (comprised of seventy-two of the highest leaders in the religious system) is illegally gathering?
No! It is not normal. This is a scene right out of the Godfather movie. Annas was the power behind the throne of the High Priest. He had been High Priest and had started a racketeering system that his family had held onto for five High Priests. That racketeering system was called “The Bazaar of Annas” and it operates within the Temple courts to take truckloads of money from simple worshipers. And Jesus had attacked the religious system that Annas was the Godfather of, and had twice run his goons out of the Temple courts where they were doing their “business.”
And Annas was trying to fabricate an indictment against Jesus so that the religious high court could have something to find Jesus guilty of – worthy of death.
But Annas couldn’t indict Jesus on any charge, so he just sends Jesus on to the house of Caiaphas (current High Priest) where the Sanhedrin (and the mock trial) was waiting knowing they would find a way to “take care” of this little problem named Jesus.
So, back in Mark’s gospel, in verse 54, Mark just wants to place Peter in the middle of all of this.
Mark 14:54 (NLT)
54 Meanwhile, Peter followed him (Jesus) at a distance and went right into the high priest’s courtyard. There he sat with the guards, warming himself by the fire.
We’ll come back to Peter and his denial of the Lord next week because Mark sandwiches it between the two “mock trials.”
So, now we're inside the home of the High Priest with an illegal religious trial about to begin. But, listen please, this is the real point today.
We are about to see these men use their religious system to remove Jesus from having any impact on their lives.
Let me say it another way. We’re about to see a picture of how a religious system is used to remove Jesus from the religious system that is supposed to be all about Jesus. This is God in the Flesh, come to his religious system, and he’s removed by the religious system.
Mark 14:55 (NLT)
55 Inside, the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find evidence against Jesus, so they could put him to death. But they couldn’t find any.
The sentence was already in place. They were going to remove Jesus from their lives and from their religious system because the one thing the religious council knew was that Jesus was bad for the “business of religion.” And they knew that if the people starting actually following Jesus it would mean a loss of both their power over the people and their money.
And believe me when I tell you they are not the last religious system to have that fear. The principles here are happening today. This still happens.
And so, they paid false witnesses with the Temple treasury money for sure (money taken from the worshipers, the same money used to pay Judas Iscariot). But the paid false witnesses didn’t have time to get their stories straight.
Mark 14:56-59 (NLT)
56 Many false witnesses spoke against him, but they contradicted each other.
57 Finally, some men stood up and gave this false testimony:
58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another, made without human hands.’” (a twisting of what Jesus actually said)
59 But even then they didn’t get their stories straight!
Guys, this is just religious theater – the outcome is already decided. They’re going to remove Jesus from having any impact on their religious system and their lives – no matter what. It doesn’t matter if anything is legal – or godly. This has got to be done for the good of the religious system.
Mark 14:60-61(a) (NLT)
60 Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?”
61 But Jesus was silent and made no reply . . .
This was a deafening silence. God Incarnate was about to be killed by the religious system that he was supposed to be the center of. But Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen.
And so, the Word Made Flesh – God in Communication – The Logos – was silent.
Isaiah 53:7 (NLT)
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.
Until the High Priest asked the right question.
Mark 14:61(b) (NLT)
61 . . . Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
This is the first legitimate question. This is not an entrapment question. This is a who are you question.
Jesus knew the intent of the question was to bring a blasphemy charge. But Jesus had already told them numerous times, in numerous ways, and he had proved it over and over again,
That he IS the Messiah
He IS the Son of God
He and the Father are one.
And so, Jesus answers the question, and he answers it with even more of a dramatic impact than his previous silence had.
Mark 14:62(a) (NLT)
62 Jesus said, “I Am . . .”
“I AM” – the “(eggo a-me) EGO EIMI” – the Tetragrammaton. The name that became YAHWEH. The Eternally Existing One – the All-in-All God – “I AM.”
I’m surprised the entire Sanhedrin didn’t fall back on the floor when he said it. Jesus said, “I Am” and then he added to it.
Mark 14:62(b) (NLT)
62 . . . “And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Jesus sees past the cross to his throne at God’s right hand, and to his return to rule and reign on earth for the Millennium. And so, Jesus says, Yes, I AM the Messiah. I AM the Son of God.
And Jesus knew exactly what the response was going to be. He had prophesied it many times, and he had made it perfectly clear to his Disciples.
And it went just as it needed to go in order for Jesus to make his appointment with the cross so that he could pay for our sins and freely offer us his righteousness in exchange so that “by faith in Christ alone” we could have an assured entrance to heaven.
And so, the first “mockery of a trial” ends with the verdict of blasphemy.
Mark 14:63-64 (NLT)
63 Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror (at the supposed blasphemy) and said, “Why do we need other witnesses?
64 You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?” “Guilty!” they all cried. “He deserves to die!”
And all of this has been completely illegal and contrary to the Law of Moses.
But then the blackness of the sin of those who ran this religious system is really exposed.
Mark 14:65 (NLT)
65 Then some of them (the Highest Religious Leaders) began to spit at him (the most demeaning insult), and they (the Sanhedrin) blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. “Prophesy to us,” they jeered. And the guards (who they turned Jesus over to) slapped him as they took him away.
Again, from Isaiah.
Isaiah 53:3–6 (NLT)
3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way (maybe to our religion). He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down . . .
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
For these religious leaders, their religion was treating them well. They didn’t need the radical claims and teachings of Jesus to mess up the good thing they had going with their religion.
Can I tell you this, please? They aren’t the only ones. Some of us feel just fine without religion and we don’t want Jesus coming into our lives with his radical teachings and messing up the good thing we have going with our religion.
But, Hebrews 6:6 says,
Hebrews 6:6 (NLT)
6 . . . by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
Don’t reject the Son of God for the sake of your religion.
Jesus Christ died in your place to pay for your sins. He took the full wrath of God that your sins deserved so that you could freely enter heaven in his righteousness by putting your full faith in him as your Savior and Lord.
Don’t ever trade that for some religious system.