Amy C Walters

Jesus’ Trial | Luke 22:66-23:12

Luke’s account of Jesus’ trial spans two chapters, and yet it’s comparatively short. He’s making a point–the trial was a sham. It was rushed through, full of lies, and didn’t follow the law. When we dig through all that nonsense, we see that Jesus is innocent.

Luke’s retelling of Jesus’ trial spans two chapters. It starts at the end of Luke 22 and goes about halfway through Luke 23. But his account is quite condensed compared to the other gospel writers.

It’s no accident that Luke keeps it short. He’s making a point: Jesus’ trial was a total sham. 

First of all, this trial happens during a major holiday, the Passover. Jesus has been arrested and the trial starts in the middle of the night. So already, things look rather fishy. 

Next, we read in Luke 22:63-64 that the men who were guarding Jesus beat him up and mocked him. They’re roughing him up before his trial. 

Then, we come to daybreak. The whole large council gathers. This includes the chief priests and the teachers of the law. Their investigation of Jesus is pretty short: two questions. 

“If you are the Christ, tell us.” This isn’t even actually a question, is it? It’s a command. They want to know, does Jesus claim to be God’s chosen one sent to save his people? 

Are they sincerely asking this? Are they truly curious to know? No! Jesus even points that out. “If I told you, you would not believe. And if I asked you, you wouldn’t answer.” 

They’re not asking Jesus this in order to believe in him, but to condemn him. And since they don’t get a straight answer from Jesus, they ask another question.

“Are you the son of God, then?” Here Jesus is a little bit more direct. He says, “You say that I am.” 

It’s weird phrasing, and we’ll get into why in tomorrow’s blog post. But notice that he does say, “You say that I am.” “I am” is the name of God, which he revealed to Moses in the book of Exodus. 

So when Jesus says, “You say that I am,” this is enough for the council to decide his guilt and his fate. They even say, “What further testimony do we need?” 

Actually, legally, they do need the testimony of witnesses (Deut 19:15). But this council is not concerned with the truth. They just want results. 

And they want the death penalty which they could not carry out under Roman law. So they take Jesus to Pilate. 

Pilate is the governor of the region. And suddenly, when they bring Jesus before Pilate, they start throwing all kinds of accusations at him. 

First, they say, “We have found this man.” It’s like they were just out wandering around, and they happen to see him doing these things. The truth is that they’ve been laying traps for him, trying to get him into trouble. And they haven’t succeeded.

Then rapid fire, they unleash all of the charges. “He’s misleading the nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is the Christ, a King.” 

Is Jesus misleading the nation? He is teaching things that are contrary to what the religious leaders were teaching. But the religious leaders had been trying to trick him into saying something wrong. But every time, Jesus confounded them with his wisdom, his knowledge, his authority. So he was not misleading the nation. They were. 

The thing about “forbidding them to pay taxes to Caesar,” that’s also a blatant lie. This was another time that they tried to trick him in Luke 20:20-26 by asking him if they should pay taxes. 

And his answer again leaves them unable to set the trap. 

Now, Pilate, he doesn’t care about these first two charges, but he picks up on the claim to be king. He asks Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” And again, Jesus’ answer is a bit roundabout. “It is as you say.” 

Pilate’s conclusion then is that he finds no basis for a charge against Jesus. But this riles up the priests and the teachers of the law. Luke tells us that they were urgent, and they begin to hurl new accusations at him. “He stirs up the people all over Judea with his teaching!”

Isn’t it funny that they accused Jesus of stirring up people with his teaching when they are stirring up the crowds against Jesus? And they’re trying to stir up the Roman officials to condemn him. 

In fact, there’s a big emphasis in this passage on just how passionately and ferociously these religious leaders go after Jesus. When Jesus is being questioned by Herod, we’re told that the chief priests and the teachers of the law were “standing by vehemently accusing him.” 

Pilate ends up sending Jesus to Herod because he’s under Herod’s jurisdiction. And Herod has a few more questions for Jesus than the council and Pilate did. In fact, we’re told that he “plied Jesus with questions.” 

But is Herod really concerned with this trial, with finding the truth? No. We’re told that he wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle. He’s trying to provoke him into doing something miraculous. 

How does Jesus respond to this? He doesn’t. We’re told he makes no answer. 

Have you ever experienced injustice or heard untrue rumors spreading about you? What did you do? You probably tried to stop those rumors and the lies. You wanted people to know the truth. 

Jesus here, he does not speak up in his defense. He remains silent. Jesus doesn’t even call down the power of God to get him out of this situation. Jesus endures this injustice. 

You see, with all of the religious leaders’ efforts, they had a weak case. They’re trying so hard, and yet all they can come up with are lies and no witnesses. That’s because in all of this, Jesus is innocent.

That’s our key truth for today. Jesus is innocent. He’s done nothing wrong. And these religious leaders are just trying to push through a sham of a trial in order to get rid of him. 

That’s why Luke condenses his account of the trial. He’s making the point that the trial is absurd and the religious leaders had no right to kill him. 

They were trying so hard. But with all their efforts and lies, they only condemn themselves.

You and I are not innocent either. We’ve messed up. We’ve all done things we regret. We’ve done things that we knew were wrong. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That’s you. That’s me. We have all sinned. 

And Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death.” We deserve death because of our sins. 

But 1 Peter 3:18 tells us, “For Christ,” that’s Jesus, “also suffered once for sins, the righteous, for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” He is righteous, we are not. He died so that we can come to God. 

Do you believe that Jesus was innocent but died in your place? Do you trust him to give you access to God, or are you trying to earn God’s favor yourself? As a sinner, you cannot, but Jesus has done it for you.