I know that you (the readers) may have read this before and got it, but it takes me some time to process things that don’t include the words “Moff” and “Fett”.
With Jesus’ trial, here are some things that I didn’t know (or had forgotten) about Jewish law:
- The judges had to be impartial. Now that seems like a given, but when you look at how many witnesses they tried to get that couldn’t tell the same story, it shows their partiality.
- A capital crime could not be tried on a Friday, a feast day, or after dark. The Friday leads into the Sabbath, so just like a feast day, it would be holy. And, aside from Richard Moll and Harry Anderson, nothing good can come from Night Court.
- Capital verdicts could not be pronounced the same day as the trial. They required two days and two nights for the judges to go home and think about taking a man’s life.
- A unanimous vote would set the accused free. The courts were worried that if everyone said the guy was guilty, there might have been bias or an unfair representation in the trial. At least one judge had to say that the person was innocent. Judges cast their votes individually. The younger judges would pronounce first, and then the older ones. This was to save younger judges from being swayed. The older judges had seen more trials.
- The accused could not testify against his or herself. Much like our fifth ammendment, you would need someone else’s testimony to convict you. The high priest invokes the very name of God (which high priests take seriously, naturally) and Jesus answers. People start yelling after that.
The importance of this is not just that Jesus got ripped off. He could have called 12 legions of angels, roughly 150,000 soldiers, to his side. Can you imagine that? No worries about the mob around him. One angel showed up for Israel and took out the Assyrian army (185,000 men, roughly).
But it’s a perfect demonstration of how we should act when accused. If we had more of an interest in Heaven, we would know that God knows how to do justice. Our justice is short-lived. We’re responsible for mercy. That leads to longer-lasting verdicts.
Semi-related posts: