Day 42~ One Man's Bravery

Imagine this; you are overlooking a trial at the house of a high priest; a trial where people who are seen as God's messengers are trying to find false evidence against an innocent man. 
Many people come forward and tell lies about the man, yet they can find no fault with him. 
Then, two men step up and says, 'This man said, "I am able to tear down God's Temple and three days later build it back up."
When asked if he denied it, the accused makes no response. 
Then, they put him under oath and asked him the one question that they were dying to ask, "Tell us if you are the Messiah, the son of God."
He responded, "So you say. But I tell all of you: from this time on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right side of the Almighty and coming on the clouds of heaven."
They had finally caught him, "Blasphemy!" They shouted and all the witnesses answered, "He is guilty and must die."

So Jesus was tried and found guilty. 'Guilty of what', you ask? Guilty of being the son of God.

So today we'll be looking at Jesus' trial as accoding to the Gospel of Matthew, of course, the other Gospels may have information not mentioned in Matthew's account so feel free to read them.

The introduction to this reflection was written from a scene taken from Matthew chapter 26:57-66, entitled; 'Jesus before the Council.'
Now we'll be moving forward to 'Jesus is taken to Pilate', and then up to the point where he is sent to be crucified. These passages can be found in Matthew chapter 27 verses 1-2, then verses 11-26.

I'll just summarize the events.
Jesus was placed in chains and taken to Pilate, the Roman governer. Pilate questioned Jesus and asked him if he was the king of the Jews but Jesus did not respond, in fact, Jesus refused to say a single word, and this surprised Pilate.

According to Matthew, it is written that Pilate knew that the Jewish authorities had handed Jesus over to him because they were Jealous of him.
Now every Passover, the Governor would set free any prisoner the crowd wished so he gave them the choice between a man called Jesus Barabbas and Jesus the Messiah. The people chose Barabbas.
Now Pilate knew Jesus to be innocent, however, the people insisted that Jesus was crucified.
So Pilate washed his hands and told them that he was not responsible for the death of this man, that it was there doing. And after sending Jesus to be whipped, he was sent to be crucified.

Once again I say, surely, we must remember that all this had to happen, because if it did not, we would still be offering sacrifices on an alter for sins we comitted. We must thank God every day that Jesus was brave enough to offer himself up as a sacrifice for us, as unworthy as we are.