I have loved looking at this text this week. Do you remember the Magic Eye pictures that were popular in the late 90’s? It just looked like a bunch of colors, but when you stared and blurred your eyes, a 3D image would appear? That’s what this passage was like for me this week. Jesus has his first of two trials. This one is in front of the Jewish leadership and the next will be in front of the Roman leadership. 

Now, it can feel hard to read John’s account and the other gospels and put them together. Matthew, Mark, and Luke record Jesus’ trial before the high priest Caiaphus, but John records Jesus’ trial before the high priest Annas. It’s weird because it sounds like there were two high priests…well, there were. Annas was the high priest chosen by the Jews, but later the Romans installed Caiaphus as high priest so they could have someone loyal to them. And Caiaphus was Annas’ son in law which had to make family gatherings awkward. So, since the role of high priest is for life, they had two. So, Jesus went first to Annas, but then to Caiaphus for the true Jewish trial. 

The Jewish leaders won’t hear what Jesus has been saying. There is such a deep disconnect that they can’t connect in their minds or their hearts. I have a friend named Isaac and I went on a few international mission trips with him and he was the opposite of a needle in a haystack. He only knows English so when he would try and talk with people in a different country, he would speak very loudly. And I would always say, “Dude, they aren’t deaf, they just don’t speak English. It doesn’t matter how loud you say it, there is a disconnect here bigger than just volume!” That’s the feeling I have when I read this trial. 

There is a cognitive disconnect and a heart level disconnect that skews the whole trial and that’s what I want to look at this morning. 

1. The Cognitive disconnect

When I say cognitive disconnect, I mean there is a disconnect of logic. The two main cognitive disconnects here are about the temple and Jesus’ divinity. First, the temple. This whole trial was rushed. Judas gave them this opportunity and now they had to scramble to make the most of it so they set out to find credible witnesses in the middle of the night. They apparently had many false witnesses willing to testify, but none of them were saying anything about Jesus that could stick. But then, they found two people who would both testify that Jesus said he was able to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. 

This could have been seen as sacrilege threatening to tear down their precious temple and it could even have been seen as sorcery or black magic to rebuild it in such a short period of time. The high priest asks Jesus how he answers to this and Jesus remains silent. Now, these witnesses are actually right in what they heard Jesus say, but wrong as well because Jesus wasn’t talking about the temple building. He did say these words, but he was talking about himself. His body would be torn down and three days later, it would be restored. 

So, this testimony about Jesus is false because they didn’t understand what Jesus was saying. And you hear this exact kind of thing happening today. People take true words from the Bible, but they disconnect them from their context and then use those words to attack our faith. Jesus said, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” And people say, “See, this is why religion has caused so much violence.” Paul said for slaves to obey their masters and people say, “See, the Bible condones slavery.” Jesus said, “Judge not, that you may not be judged” and people say, “See! No one can challenge the decisions I want to make in my life because Jesus doesn’t allow you to.” All of this is taking real words out of their context and totally skewing their meaning into something that is totally false. DA Carson once said, “If you take a text out of its context, all you have is a pretext to a bad proof text.” That’s what is happening at Jesus’ trial. That’s the cognitive disconnect with the temple. 

Then, you have a cognitive disconnect with Jesus’ divinity. At this point, Jesus is still silent making no response to these claims about the temple and Caiaphus is getting frustrated and he switches gears and asks Jesus with a solemn oath “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” This was a pretty brilliant question actually on the part of Caiaphas. If he only asked Jesus if he was the Christ, that is, the Messiah, that was not a capital offense. If he asked Jesus if he was the Son of God, Jesus could have diffused it the way he did in John 10 by saying that all Jews are sons of the living God. But, by putting these things together, Caiaphus is asking Jesus if he is claiming to be divine himself. 

And this is when Jesus decides to speak. He won’t engage false testimony, but he will engage this question and he adds a quote from Daniel 7. Jesus says, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” He’s quoting Daniel who is describing a divine figure approaching the Ancient of Days to join God in judgement. He could not be more clear that yes, Jesus is himself God. And he very well could have also been saying that his interaction with Caiaphus was the same interaction that the Son of Man and the fourth beast have in Daniel 7. This would make Caiaphyus the one waging war against Jesus the true representative of God’s people. 

This is why they all respond so harshly. They know what Jesus is saying. The high priest tears his robes and cries, ‘Blasphemy!’ This is what they needed to hear to charge Jesus. And I will say that it has always been so interesting to me when people say, “Jesus never actually claimed to be God.” It’s literally the main thing that God him killed. 

But, the cognitive disconnect could not be more clear because they don’t even try to verify whether Jesus is the promised divine Messiah or not. In the Old Testament there are sixty major messianic prophecies and about 270 ramifications that were all fulfilled in one person, Jesus. The apologist Josh McDowell calls this Jesus’ address. If you are given someone’s name and their address, you can find that one person among the eight billion people living on earth. The Old Testament gives a very specific address for the Messiah. 

We are given more information about the address of the Messiah than a name and a location. Beginning in Genesis three we read that a man would come born of the seed of a woman and he will fix everything Satan has done. Genesis 9 and 10 tell us that Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth and that the Messiah would come through Shem. God called Abraham out of Ur and made Jesus’ address even more specific by saying that the Messiah will come from Abraham’s line. Abraham had Isaac and Ishmael and God selected the line of Issac. Isaac had Jacob and Esau and God chose the line of Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons that became the twelve tribes of Israel. God singled out the tribe of Judah for the Messiah. And of all the family lines in Judah, the line of Jesse was chosen for the Messiah. Jesse had eight kids and God chose the line of David. Isaiah seven says that the Messiah will be born of a virgin. Isaiah and the Psalms say that the Messiah will be rejected by his own people. And we knew that there would be a forerunner to prepare the way in John the Baptist. We even knew that the Messiah would be betrayed by a friend for thirty pieces of silver. Micah five says that Bethlehem would be his birthplace. A small town of less than a thousand people. 

These are just a fraction of the pieces of Jesus’ address that point uniquely and clearly to him. In 1976 a man named Peter Stoner wrote that the probability that one man would fulfill just eight of these prophesies is the same statistical probability of laying silver dollars side by side and stacked two feet tall all all across the state of Texas, marking one of those silver dollars, blindfold someone and have them walk around the state and pick one silver dollar and that be the marked one. 

All the evidence is there to fix the cognitive disconnect. They could have searched the scriptures and seen. They knew the scriptures better than anyone in this room. But they didn’t. They didn’t because their disconnect was due to sin. This is called the noetic effect of sin. Sin’s impact on our minds. It’s deeper than not knowing how to fix a washing machine. It’s sinful ignorance to the God of the universe. But, the problem goes beyond the brain and into the hearts. That brings us to the second part. 

1. The Heart Level Disconnect

It wasn’t just that they couldn’t intellectually put the pieces together, it was that they did not want to. I mean, we need look no further that the trial itself to see this. Have you ever seen something that is something that is accepted by everyone in the room and you feel like you’re the only one asking, “Is this legal?” When my kids were younger and we lived in Mississippi, we went to the Union County Fair. And at the fair, they had something called the Barnyard Scramble. They had a large pen and in it they had chickens, pigs, and ducks. Then they would release all the kids and whatever animals they could catch they could take home. These kids were jumping on the ducks, grabbing them by their wings as they flapped to get away, breaking their wings. One kid had each hand around a chicken’s neck walking around as the chicken had already suffocated. No joke, one kid was being pulled around the pen by a pig as he hung on for dear life to that pig's tail because he wanted a pet pig. 

It was crazy! I’m looking at Angela like, “How is this legal in 2011?” But everyone was getting what they wanted. Tickets were sold, kids were having fun, parents were amused. Everyone was having fun… but the animals. No one wanted someone to ask if this was legal. And a similar thing, but on a much more serious level, was happening at this trial. It was illegal to arrest someone at night. It was illegal to use a traitor to identify and secure an arrest. It was illegal to arrest before having any formal charges. It was illegal to rush a one day trial and not give the accused any time to build a defense. It was illegal not to give the accused any kind of defense at all. And it was illegal to move to judgement without a unanimous verdict which they did not have. 

But, that didn’t matter because Caiaphus and the rest were getting what they wanted: Jesus gone. They weren’t asking if this could really be the Savior, they weren’t asking if God was fulfilling thousands of years of prophecy, they weren’t asking if Jesus is the one who would redeem humanity from the curse of the law. They were asking how they could subvert Jesus’ authority. They were asking how they could retain the authority they had. They were asking how they could crush this movement before the Romans crushed them. They knew the outcome they wanted before they ever started. Their hearts were set on killing Jesus. 

And this is true of every one of us as well. Our problem isn’t just cognitive. And if it were, that would actually create real problems in the church because we who believe would be the ones who were smart enough to put the dots together. Or those of us who were moral enough and wise enough to give our lives to Jesus. And this would fly in the face of what Paul wrote to the Ephesians 8 For zby grace you have been saved athrough faith. And this isbnot your own doing; cit is the gift of God, 9 dnot a result of works, eso that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8,9 If we who believe are the ones who are moral enough, wise enough, and spiritual enough, then the logical result is that we are going to boast in ourselves because we had what it takes to put our faith in Jesus. 

We all have the same brain and heart disconnect that Caiaphus had. This is not some kind of niche theological view. It has been orthodox Christian doctrine for two thousand years that sin has so affected every facet of our being, our head, our hearts, our hands,  that none of us has the ability to see Jesus as the answer. Anyone in church history that said otherwise was declared a heretic. The Holy Spirit has to do something to overcome the disconnect in our mind, body, and soul and that is what makes our faith a gift that we can never boast about. Now, I will say that exactly what the Holy Spirit does has been highly debated, but I don't have time today for that. The point is that the Holy Spirit overcomes our inability to desire Jesus. 

But for the grace of God, our hearts would be the same as Caiaphus. We wouldn’t want Jesus to be king over our lives, we want to be in control. We wouldn’t want to submit to the authority of Jesus, we would want to be in charge. We wouldn’t want to bow to a God who asks us to grow into the image of Jesus, we would want a God made in our image who affirms anything we choose to do. Which is the very heart of the expressive individualism sweeping our culture. 

This is why Jesus came. This is why he is enduring this kangaroo court jumping over the truths to get the outcome they want. Jesus knows that there is something more important than him getting a fair trial. Do you know what that is? That we don’t have to have a fair trial. If we go to God when we die and get a fair trial, that will not go well for any of us. A fair trial for us would result in a Holy God condemning us for our sin. In 2014, Michael Bloomberg, then Mayor of New York City, said to the New York Times, “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.” 

This is exactly the kind of moralism that Jesus has been confronting the Jewish religious leaders on. Jesus’ whole point is that no one can earn their way into heaven. That’s what our disconnected hearts want to believe, but all of us fall so far short. All of us have rebelled against a Holy God and none of us can arrogantly walk straight in. Mayor Bloomberg is right to say that it’s not even close, but he’s wrong because it’s not even close in the opposite direction. 

Jesus endured this unfair trial so we don’t have to have to stand trial. All of humanity, according to Revelation, will stand before God on the great day of judgment, but we who have put our faith in Jesus and asked to be judged on his works will be welcomed in. We don’t have to bring some crummy bag of works to God to try and prove ourselves. Jesus went willingly to the cross to take the condemnation we deserve and to give us his righteousness that we could never create on our own. So during this life, God is not an angry overlord, but a loving Father who is with us through every trial. And at the end of this life, there is no fear of a trial, but only the joy of His open arms welcoming us home. 

And if that’s true, and it is, there are four realities that we need to engage. First, are you still Caiaphus? If you’re here today and you have not given your life to Jesus, can you see that it’s not because you’re smarter than all the rest of us or because you’re not smart enough. It’s a heart issue. Can you see the ways you have decided what you want to be true and how you might be twisting the facts to confirm what you already know you want to be true? I’m not trying to be harsh if this is you, but honest. And I simply want to ask you, do you desire Jesus to be real? Do you desire peace in your soul that you cannot create? Do you desire an eternity of joy and satisfaction that only God can give? If you desire that, that’s not a desire you can muster up on your own. That’s a desire the Holy Spirit is giving you and you can respond today by repenting of your sin and putting your faith in Jesus. 

Second, if you are a believer, we should be the most humble of people. Because we realize the gift of grace we have been given, we should not look down on the unbelieving world as if we are smarter, wiser, or more moral because we believe in Jesus and desire to honor him with our lives. So, when the lost world does things that we disagree with and when they oppose us for what we believe, we should look at them the way Jesus looked at lost Jerusalem: with compassion. For us to arrogantly condemn the lost world, is like condemning a blind man for bumping into you when he just couldn’t see. 

That leads me to the third reality. When the world around us is not treating us the way we should be treated, we have a Savior who gets us. He knows how we feel. He feels what we endure. It’s more than just having sympathy, he feels what we feel. Do you remember what Jesus said to Paul on the road to Damascus? Paul had yet to put his faith in Jesus and Jesus said, “Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?” He doesn’t ask why he is persecuting his people. Jesus says it is a persecution of Jesus himself. 

This is a very old doctrine called Christus Totus. It means the whole Christ. It means that Christ is comprised of both the person of Jesus and the Church, which is the body of Jesus. We are actually a part of who Jesus is. Paul wrote to the Ephesians that Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. The context here is marriage and Paul is saying that in the same mysterious way that a husband and wife are one flesh, so is Jesus and his church. Jesus identifies not only with his own immediate story, but with that of all of his body, the church, as well. He will be with you in a way that no one else can when people misunderstand and mistreat you. 

Then, fourth, and last, if this is true, we should be motivated to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those around us. The problem in the lost world is that they are looking for Jesus, but they don’t know it. So they look to their work to save them. They look to their children to save them. They look to their money to save them. They look to their health to save them. They do this because they have the same heart disconnect that we did. And when we look to those things for joy and satisfaction that they can never give, we actually lose joy and satisfaction. There is a reason that people who have acquired all these things can often be more miserable, anxious, and depressed than people who don’t have them. Two of those reasons are that when we get those things, we realize that they didn’t give us the security we wanted AND we are more anxious about potentially losing them. It’s only when we find a deeper source of joy that we can actually enjoy those things when we have them and be ok when we don’t. 

And someone might ask at this point, “But, Jim. You just said lost people can’t see Jesus. What can I do to make a blind person see?” And the beautiful answer is nothing. It’s beautiful because the Holy Spirit can. We don’t have to worry about having the best arguments or being the most eloquent speakers or knowing more theology. We just share the gospel that we believe. We talk about what Jesus has done in our lives. And we share boldly because we know the Holy Spirit is working in others the way He worked in us. This is not our mission, it’s God’s mission and He has graciously called us into it with Him. Maybe just think for one minute about someone in your life that the Holy Spirit might be asking you to step out in faith and share the saving message of grace with. 

Jesus endured this joke of a trial so he could experience the fullness of disconnection from the love of the Father in our place. He experienced the wrath that our disconnection merits so we can be fully connected. So that we can walk through every trial, every loss, every disappointment, and every joy as a child holding the hand of their loving father all the way to the safety and love of home.