Dear Christian friends:

About one year ago here in Minneapolis a young man appeared in court and pleaded guilty to a crime which he did not commit, and the judge sentenced him to ninety days in the workhouse. Two weeks later the officer at the workhouse found out that he was the wrong man.

When officers questioned him, he confessed that he was a friend of the guilty man. He told the officers that he had no job, but his friend had a good job, so he agreed to go to court and the workhouse in place of his friend. He agreed to be condemned and suffer the shame and punishment for his friend, and almost succeeded.

Things like this have happened before. In the story, "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens, a man exchanged places with his friend while visiting him in prison. The friend escaped free, but that man lost his head the next day on the guillotine.

In a more wonderful way Jesus volunteered to go to court for us and be condemned. Tonight as we continue to study, The Places In His Passion, we go with Jesus to the palace of the High Priest and watch while He is condemned.

After praying in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was arrested by a mob led by Judas. They bound Jesus and led Him to the palace of the High Priest, Caiaphas. The palace was very large with many apartments. Caiaphas' father-in-law lived in one apartment. While Caiaphas lived in another. Annas before ruled as High Priest and still was honored by that name although he now was not in office, as we still call Truman and Eisenhower, "President." The palace also had other apartments for servants and soldiers.

One of the main rooms of the palace was the courtroom where the High Priest sat with the seventy members of Sanhedrin, ("Council"). Here they made church laws and answered questions concerning them. They also judged those who were accused with breaking of the law and decided on the punishment.

It was about midnight or later when the mob of soldiers brought Jesus to the palace of the High Priest, already Friday morning. It seems that many of the council members had not yet arrived. Since the meeting was not planned and since it was a very unusual hour to call a meeting, 1:00 am many members of the council were still sleeping and had to be aroused, get dressed and walk from their homes to the palace.

While they were waiting for all the members to assemble they decided to let Annas, the retired high priest question Jesus to see if He could catch Jesus saying something wrong. But Jesus did not fall into his trap. When he questioned Jesus about His teaching Jesus answered, "I taught openly to the people. I said nothing in secret. Why do you ask Me? Ask those who heard Me. They know what I said." Then one of the servants slapped Jesus' face saying, "Is that how you answer the High Priest?" Jesus wisely replied, "If I said something wrong prove it. But if I have told the truth, why do you hit Me?" So Annas gave up and sent Jesus to Caiaphas in the courtroom.

Now the council had gathered. And we read in our text that they tried to get false testimony against Jesus in order to kill Him, but didn't find any.

When the High Priest saw that the witnesses did not agree that He could prove anything wrong in Jesus He gave up trying to find witnesses, and like Annas his father-in-law tried to tempt Jesus to talk. But Jesus was silent. Finally, the High Priest asked Jesus, "Are you the promised Savior, the Son of God? Jesus could not remain silent any longer He answered, "I am," and then He added, "one day you will see me coming in the clouds of heaven to judge you."

Then the High Priest tore his robes and declared, "He has blasphemed, you just heard the blasphemy (lies). What's your verdict?" They answered, "He must die."

So we see Jesus standing in court and condemned to die. They say He has blasphemed. Blasphemy means to lie about God's Word. Jesus taught and swore that He was the promised Savior the Son of God. He even said He would come on the last day to judge all people.

We believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the promised Savior. We know that Jesus did not lie, did not blaspheme and mock God and His church. But the High Priest and the council did no believe Jesus so they condemned Him as a liar. They said, "He must die!"

Yes, Jesus must die! Yes, Jesus is guilty. He is a sinner now. Why? Not because of the lies the Jews bring against Him, but because He has accepted our sins, and the sins of all people. We have sinned and should go to court before the judge of all, God. God judges all of us and finds us guilty: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Romans 3:23) “There is none righteous, not even one;" (Romans 3:10) And what is His verdict? Death, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezekiel 18:4) Separated from the holy God forever.

That is why Jesus meekly stands in the court of the High Priest. He is standing there because of us. He is everything they say He is even a blasphemer because we have mocked God and often thought His holy things cheap and worthless. We often prefer bread and butter.

Jesus is guilty because we are guilty. He must die as the court decides, because we deserve to die.

We find great comfort and hope in this sad and terrible story: Because Jesus went to court, we do not have to go there. Because He was condemned by God, we do not have to hear those terrible words: "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." (Matthew 25:41)

As we watch Jesus here in the court accept the shame and blame of our sins, we grow in love and praise to Him because He loved us like that. We can't every repay Him for this great love and kindness, but we can love and give thanks to Him by serving Him and by loving one another more. Surely, we can see how rotten and terrible sin is, and so with His love and power we will try to avoid sinning, jealousy, selfishness and falsely condemning others. We will try to put God first in our thinking and doing and work to spread His Kingdom of grace and truth here in this sinful world.

Amen.