Jesus's Arrest and Trial (John 18–19:15)
The Jewish religious leaders of Jesus';s time didn';t like his teaching and interpretations of the Scriptures and their religious traditions. For that reason, he represented a threat to their authority and long-held power structure.
The way they saw it, something had to be done and now the time was right to do it.
After Jesus had finished his final prayer — for himself, for his disciples, and for others who would believe in him — he took his disciples and headed for a nearby olive grove, which we know from other gospel accounts is the garden of Gethsemane.
It was here where Jesus was arrested and taken into custody. While the other three gospels include Jesus';s prayers just before he was arrested, John tells us only that Judas showed up guiding some soldiers as well as some representatives sent by the religious leadership. Jesus was taken into custody after a small scuffle that resulted in the wounding of Malchus, a servant of the chief priest. (In Luke';s gospel, Jesus healed Malchus.)
Jesus was first taken to a man named Annas, who interviewed him about the things he had been teaching. Jesus declined to defend himself or explain himself, instead only telling Annas that he had spoken and taught openly and that there should be plenty of witnesses to anything he said worthy of death.
John';s gospel is the only one to mention Jesus';s meeting with Annas following his arrest. Annas was the former Jewish high priest and the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest at the time of Jesus';s arrest. The Roman government of that time had, for purely political reasons, removed Annas from office and replaced him with Caiaphas.
John tells us that Annas sent Jesus away, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest who then sent him away to Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. The idea was to accuse Jesus of subversion against the Roman government, a crime the Romans took very seriously and dealt with very harshly.
At first Pilate probably believed that Jesus was no different than a lot of the troublemakers he had faced in his position of authority. But some of the things Jesus said troubled Pilate, and he had a difficult time deciding what to do with him. In truth, Jesus hadn';t done anything to deserve the death penalty, and he even said as much to the assembled crowd. In the end, however, after pleading with those who wanted Jesus dead, Pilate gave him over to be crucified.
Study Questions
Read Luke';s account of Jesus';s trial. What additional information does Luke provide to this part of the story?
According to John';s account, what happened to Peter while this scene was developing?
