Judas Iscariot had gone to the chief priests and asked “what will you give me if I betray Jesus to you? They gave him 30 silver pieces.
The reasons why Judas had betrayed Jesus could be that basically he was evil and greedy and when he realised that He could make money out the arrest of Jesus that he decided to exploit his closeness with Jesus in order to have him successfully arrested. Though I myself doubt that because when He realised that Jesus had been condemned to death he gave the money back and took his own life as repentance.
Another reason may be that Judas was jealous of Jesus situation or that he wanted to test Jesus’ powers to see if he really was the messiah.
It may also be that Judas had, had enough of the priests and Jesus constantly squabbling so he thought bringing them together would solve their differences and he took the money to give in charity, this is a fair point but an unlikely one.
I think the reason why Judas betrayed Jesus was because It was God’s will for Jesus to die for mankind and Judas involuntarily helped the process along. Basically it was set up by God and Judas was Just one of the pieces that made up the puzzle and when Judas become in control of himself again and realised what he had done he killed himself (maybe out of shame or maybe it was repentance) thinking he was to blame.
THE TRIAL BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN
The Sanhedrin were the supreme Jewish council and there seventy one members, they were the court of justice and supported by the law of Moses and the power behind the priests.
Many of them were Sadducees. The Sadducees were a very powerful and traditional group (against change), who had made their headquarters in the Jerusalem temple, they were also remote from the common people and were willing to work with the Romans up to a point but I think the most important thing was that they did not believe in the messiah.
The trial actually took place in the middle of the night; a trial at this time with no members of the public present shows that this is illegal and held in secret for that reason.
Most of the Sanhedrin were asleep and had to be woken for the trial, they all realised the seriousness of the situation and were all willing enough to attend, also they knew that they could get Jesus at last and they knew the only way to do that was to breach the law, seeing as he was innocent.
After Jesus was arrested he was taken to the house of Caiaphas the high priest where he was questioned. The chief priests and the whole council tried to find some false evidence against Jesus to put him to death but they could not find any, even though many people came and told lies about him. Finally two men stepped up and said, “this man said, ‘I am able to tear down God’s temple and three days later build it up again.’ ” The high priest asked Jesus “have you no answer to give to this accusation against you?” But Jesus kept quiet so he was asked “...tell us if you are the messiah, the Son of God,” Jesus then answered “so you say. But I tell all of you: from this time on you will see the son of man sitting on the right of the almighty and coming on the clouds of heaven! ”
At that point the high priest accused him of blasphemy, finally the high priest had made a break-through, as what Jesus said was controversial and a good enough reason to be sentenced. The high priest asked what the council thought and they answered, “he is guilty and must die.”
Now the whole point of this trial was to try and sentence Jesus to death and before the trial had even begun Jesus was skating on thin ice. The court wanted him dead, and his vague answers didn’t help him at all but when he said “... you will see the son of man...” this was a perfectly good reason to put him to death. Blasphemy was a great crime and it would be punished no matter who committed it, the only question being did Jesus really commit blasphemy. Blasphemy is usually defined as a sin against God and religion, e.g. was a modern Christian to speak out against Jesus or say bad things about him then that would be seeing as blasphemy (by Christians).
JESUS RESPONSE AND WHY TRIAL WAS ILLEGAL
Jesus knew before anyone else that he was going to die, that is why he went to Gethsemane in the dark with only three men that is why he never resisted arrest and admonished his own men for defending him against the enemy and that is why the answers he gave to the questions were incriminating and negative answers.
Jesus’ answers were ambiguous e.g. “so you say” these type of answers could be taken both to be a yes and a no, he’s answers neither confirmed or denied the question he was being asked. Also seeing as the Sanhedrin were against him they were all too willing to interpret the answers to their own benefits.
The trial is illegal because he is arrested in the middle of the night, though he visits the temple in the day he isn’t arrested then because the public would protest his innocence.
The trial too takes place in the middle of the night because yet again was Jesus somehow arrested without his supporters knowing, when they did hear about the trial and went to see it take place they would instantly defend Jesus and expose the trial as a farce.
The Sanhedrin knows the trial is wrong and that's why they hold it in secret.
The Sanhedrin are against Jesus, they went to court that night not to judge fairly and see that justice was carried out but to sentence Jesus to death.
Other reasons why the trial was illegal was because it was biased there was a prosecutor but no one defending Jesus.
Jesus was asked leading questions that would be very difficult to worm his way out of but seeing as Jesus wasn’t attempting to even avoid the traps that were being set out for him the Sanhedrin didn’t need to try that hard.
Also the term “conflict of interest” applies to this trial, as the Sanhedrin very much wanted Jesus to die
A trial is fair when it is exposed and common knowledge, when there are prosecutors and defendants present and there are unbiased judges.
THE TRIAL BEFORE PILATE AND PILATES ATTEMPTS TO RELEASE JESUS
Pilate was the Roman governor and he was in charge of Jerusalem, and because the Romans occupied Jewish land and ruled it then it was The Romans decision whether someone was killed or not. That is why the Sanhedrin took Jesus to Pilate so he would give them permission to kill Jesus.
Jesus’ enemies really wanted him dead and the reason they sentenced him was because they said he was guilty of blasphemy. Another thing about blasphemy is that it applies only to your own religion (e.g. if a person was to speak out against Christianity then he would have committed blasphemy from a Christian point of view but if you brought him before a group of Jewish people they would say that he is innocent of blasphemy and that he would only be guilty of blasphemy when he spoke out against Judaism.)
The Jewish leaders realised this so in order to convince Pilate who had no interest in Judaism; they brought new charges against Jesus.
The Jewish leaders told Pilate that Jesus had been misleading the people, telling them not to pay taxes to the emperor and claiming that he himself is the messiah, a king.
These accusations were meant to make Pilate think that Jesus would incite rebellions and threaten the rule of the Romans in Jerusalem on a serious scale, and that he was better off dead both for the Jews and the Romans sake.
Pilate said to Jesus “are you the king of the Jews? ”
Jesus answer was “so you say”.
Pilate knew Jesus was innocent so he gave him a chance, as it was the day of the Passover the custom of releasing a prisoner once a year at Passover was allowed by the Romans, this was so that the Jews stayed content and cooperated with the Roman.
Barabas was a murderer who killed Romans.
Pilate in a bid to save Jesus and keep Barabas from being set free offered the crowd to either save Jesus or Barabas. When the crowd gathered he asked them “which one do you want me to set free for you? Jesus Barabas or Jesus called the messiah?”
“Barabas” answered the crowd so Pilate asked them “what, then, shall I do with Jesus called the messiah?” The crowds answer was “crucify him! ”
Pilate still trying to save Jesus asks the crowd “what crime has he committed? ”
“Crucify him! ” Was the crowds answer and Pilate fearing a riot took some water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, “I am not responsible for the death of this man! This is your doing! ” The whole crowed answered, “let the responsibility for his death fall on us and our children! ”
The reasons for the crowd being against Jesus could be that though his supporters were present amongst the crowd, they never spoke out to save him because his supporters feared the crowd. Other reasons could be that they were disappointed that Jesus wasn’t defending himself, or that they did shout for Jesus to be freed but the mob was to loud and drowned out their voices and lastly it could be that Jesus had to die for mankind so God intervened.
AN OUTLINE OF HOW JESUS WAS PUNISHED AND PUT TO DEATH
The Roman soldiers stripped him off and put a scarlet robe on him. Then they made a crown out of thorny branches and placed it on his head and put a stick in his right hand.
After that they knelt before him and mocked him by saying “long live the king of the Jews .”
They then spat on him and took the stick and hit him over the head, they took the robe of him and put his clothes back on him and took him out to be crucified.
As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon, and the soldiers forced him to carry the cross To Golgotha (i.e. the place of the skull) where Jesus was to be crucified.
Crucified means to be beaten with a vicious ‘cat-o-nine-tails’ whip, which had small metal weights, attached to the ends of thongs. Then you would be made to walk the streets to the crucifixion site carrying the cross-beam, which later would be fixed, to the ground.
A sign would be put on the cross above your head saying what crime you committed.
At the site, the prisoner was stripped and fixed to the cross. His arms would be lashed to the beam with ropes, often with nails hammered through the wrists, and his feet were nailed upright.
The prisoner was allowed drugged wine, as a kind of anaesthetic against the pain.
Death was usually by suffocation, because of the full weight of the prisoners body pulling down from his arms made it difficult to breathe, and he would gradually become too weak to push his body weight up from his nailed feet.
Jesus was crucified and above his head they placed a sign, which said, “this is Jesus, the king of the Jews.” Then they crucified two bandits with Jesus, one on either side of him.
People passing by shook their heads and hurled insults at Jesus. The reasons why people insulted Jesus could’ve been that they didn't like him or that they felt they had to insult him maybe because the crowd was against him and they didn’t want to seem to contradict the crowd by supporting him, also maybe they lost faith in Jesus and thought he was a fake or weak. Here are some of the things they said “you were going to tear down the temple and build it up again in three days! Save yourself if you are God’s son! Come on down from the cross! ” The teachers of law and the elders mocked him as well “.... Isn’t he the king of Israel? If he comes down off the cross now, we will believe in him...! ”
Even the bandits beside insulted him.
One of the bandits said to him “aren’t you the messiah? Save yourself and us! ”
The other robber rebuked him, saying “don’t you fear God? You received the same sentence he did. Ours, however, is only right, because we are getting what we deserve for what we did; but he has done no wrong.”
He then said to Jesus, “remember me, Jesus, when you come as king! ”
Jesus said to him, “I promise you that today you will be in paradise with me.”
In Marks Gospel just before Jesus takes his last breath he says “Eloi, Eloi” but in Matthew’s gospel he says “Eli, Eli,” apart from this minor difference both gospels agree on the rest of Jesus’ words which are “lema sabachthani”. The English interpretation of both texts is “my God, My god, why did you abandon me? ”
In Luke’s gospel though Jesus says “Father! In your hands I place my spirit! ”
Jesus dies following these words and the land becomes dark and sad.
