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for Novelty ShopGood evening! Allow me to introduce myself. You see, my name is Caiaphas. I was the high priest in the land of Palestine when the man you call Jesus was arrested and then put on trial. But I'm getting ahead of myself. How about if I go back to the beginning of my story?
My beloved Palestine was living through times which were filled with turmoil. Rome had been ruling over us as a captive people for over 50 years, and opinions were varied as to what should be done to resolve this impossible situation. One group believed in guerrilla warfare, and wholesale armed rebellion would have suited them fine. Another group, known as the Essenes had struggled for years and used the devout life and careful allegiance to the Scriptures to somehow deal with the menace of Rome. But they had finally given up and retired to the Dead Sea caves. The party to which I belonged was known as the Sadducees. For me, there were two reasons for my having high hopes of bringing some sanity to our desperate plight as a nation.
First of all, you should know that the Sadducees were in control over all activities at the temple. As part of our Sabbath worship services the sacrifice of a variety of animals was very important. Well, every animal could be had for a price, and all such funds went into our coffers. This was one of the ways that we Sadducees hoped that we might make some headway with Rome. True, they might laugh at our religion with its one God, but they rarely laughed at hard cash. A second thing was the fact that my father-in-law, Annias, was head of our highest legal council in the nation. It would be a group much like your supreme court, and in Israel it was called the Sanhedrin. I was counting heavily on Annias to help me and all Israel to somehow find a way to deal with the hated Romans.
Well, one day I was at the temple when an informer came with bad news. It seems that there was some self-appointed Galilean who was acting like he was a new Moses or Solomon. He went about preaching, teaching and even healing. He was very critical of those of us who served the people as rabbis. Such a report put me on alert, and I immediately assigned several spies to keep their eyes on such a suspicious character.
As far as the stories about healing and miracles, like feeding the 5,000 with some fish and a few loaves, well, we had heard that kind of nonsense before. You probably remember those phony stories from the desert when the Israelites were supposed to have eaten the quail and the manna. Only women and half-breed Samaritans would ever think of believing such bilge.
Early on I was greatly concerned about this Galilean named Jesus. But I must tell you that the proverbial straw which broke the camel's back was the time that this Jesus came into the temple acting like some roaring lion, and with no warning literally began throwing out those selling the sacrifices and burnt offerings. Preaching and teaching was questionable, though they might be overlooked , but when he began to mess around in the business affairs of the most powerful group in all Palestine, well that was the sign that our Sadducees must step forward and do something. At any rate, one thing was clear, this mad man must be stopped at all costs.
It was Tuesday of Passover week, and all of a sudden this Jesus comes riding into town on a donkey as big as you please. You should know that our great prophet, Zechariah, had given us a word, that one day our Messiah King would come into Jerusalem, but he would be riding on a donkey. You see, our Israelite kings would often ride in a processional parade in this way, and by doing this they accomplished two things. First, they said loud and clear "I am the King of all of Israel." Secondly, they made it clear that they came in peace. Oh yes, I could see what hand Jesus was playing by making his dramatic entrance in this fashion. He was saying, "Look I am Jesus, your new king, and all allegiance should be given to me." Believe me, I was furious, and right then I knew we would have to deal with this Jesus in some kind of forceful way. He was causing far too much uproar for us to merely ignore him.
Later that same day I called an emergency meeting of all the religious leaders of the city. This was one time when the Pharisees, usually one group which opposed us in every way, agreed to join us for consultation, because they, too, were wanting to see Jesus put down in some way. We all knew that something had to be done, and fast! Although Pilate had brought extra troops to enforce the peace while the Passover mobs flooded the city, we knew if the Nazarene called for open rebellion, Rome would very likely not be able to control the outcome.
Discussion went just as I had thought. Others were reticent to take any kind of definite stand. By now Jesus was very popular with the crowds, so no one knew what could happen if steps were taken to have him arrested. The last thing we wanted was for Rome to find some excuse to step in, and perhaps in the end, destroy us all. Well, this kind of discussion went on for some time, and finally I motioned for an end to debate. And I said, "There can be no compromise with the Nazarene any longer. It's either him or us. If we want to save our beloved Palestine, we must destroy this slick operator. It's a dangerous step, I know, but I'm convinced that we can find a way to bring him into our power." As I sat down, I felt good because I could tell that most everyone there had swung over to my side. We all agreed, Jesus the Nazarene must die.
But how were we going to accomplish the arrest? That was the real stickler! During the day he would preach at the temple and generally mill around with the crowds, but then at sundown he would disappear. My informers couldn't seem to trace him.
One day I had a surprise visit from Judas from Iscariot, one of the Nazarene's disciples. It seems that he had been doing a lot of reflection about his Master. He was beginning to have second thoughts. In fact, he had reached a point where he felt perhaps the best thing for his Master would be if he were arrested!!
Unbelievable!! One moment we were wringing our hands, racking our brains for possible ways to place the Nazarene under arrest, and not a day or two later, here was a person who was willing to set him up and betray him. I knew that this offer from Judas had to be from God in heaven.
I quickly arranged for a written order from Pilate; this way the arrest would be strictly legal in the eyes of Rome. Then Thursday evening a large contingent of soldiers followed Judas to the west edge of town, on a raised piece of ground known as the Mount of Olives.
It was very late that same Thursday when I was first told of the arrest. I had already alerted all members of the Sanhedrin to be ready for a quick meeting to decide the best course to take, which would most readily convince Pilate to put Jesus to death. There was no need for us to have a formal trial, after all, we did not have the power to put a prisoner to death. This kind of jurisdiction was only handled by Pontius Pilate. All I hoped to accomplish at our trial was to firm up the charges against this Jesus in such a way that it would force Pilate to go with a sentence of death. I knew from experience that Pilate would be a hard customer to deal with. However, in past years he had made some serious errors, and when we reported him to Emperor Tiberius, he came around to our kind of thinking real quick. I knew if we lodged such a threat again, that he would most likely knuckle under.
Well, the hearing I scheduled didn't go very well. I had lined up a number of witnesses. Yes, I did give each of them some payola, and with a couple of them I did offer some well rehearsed stories about the Nazarene which they were to divulge when they were on the stand. But there was trouble.
All They did was to stammer and stutter, and completely contradict one another. In fact, their stories so contradicted one another that Jesus really never was pressed to respond to any of the testimony. Before long, it became so hopeless that I stood up and interrupted the proceedings, and I, the High Priest, addressed the prisoner myself. "Are you the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Son of God?" Then the Nazarene broke his silence with an astounding reply. "I am, Yes, and I tell you that in the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." (Phillips' Translation)
I was astounded! Clearly, he was making himself divine, and his words indicated that condemnation was much in order. I jumped up and said, "we don't need more witnesses. This man has uttered a most heinous blasphemy. What is the verdict of this Sanhedrin? The vote was unanimous--death to the Nazarene, Jesus.
Though we had risked the anger of the people, most of them didn't find out about the death sentence until it was too late. The Nazarene's disciples were so shocked, that all of them just disappeared. They made no attempts to stir up the Passover mobs against us. We had put out an executive order that anyone found supporting the Nazarene would be liable to death by crucifixion. This pretty much stopped anyone with a yen to any thoughts of rebellion.
Later that night I got to thinking about all of this, and I might as well admit that I felt good. After all, I, Caiaphas, had acted decisively, and as a result headed off any possible violence from either our people or from Rome. I knew that soon as we could get this verdict of death confirmed by Pilate, that Jesus would soon be forgotten.
Then too, I, Caiaphas, the High Priest, had headed up an investigation which had resulted in the gathering of evidence, the arrest, the trial and then the verdict of death. I was also quite sure that Pilate would follow our lead, and once for all we would be rid of this cursed Galilean named Jesus. As a result I felt quite assured that I, Caiaphas, would go down in the pages of history as an inspired, forceful leader who saw to it that one Jesus, a hothead, and cause of dissension and disharmony would once for all be stopped, and passed on into the forgotten pages of history.
Tell me friends, wouldn't you agree that Jesus is rightfully placed in the dusty pages of history, and I, Caiaphas, will be always a great hero? At any rate, thank you for hearing my story this evening.
Gene Sikkink
Oakes, N. D.
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