Yesterday, we concluded by saying that during Jesus’ trial before the religious leaders, these men tried to find something they could accuse Jesus of. However, nothing they said could be established, even though many false witnesses were brought against Jesus.
Two came forward and declared, “This fellow said ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’” And Mark gives another detail of it: “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this man-made temple and in three days I will build another not made by man’” (14:58).
That was very interesting, and it was so for two reasons. First of all, it was apparently true, at least parts of it were true. The very fact that this accusation was made by two witnesses testifying presumably independently of one another indicates that it had some substance. They didn’t agree verbally word for word in what Christ had said. This is perhaps the reason why the accusation was later dismissed, but obviously He had said something along these lines.
There’s another indication that it was probably true and that is that this phrase “in three days” or “on the third day” occurs again and again throughout the gospels. Apparently it was a very dominant aspect of Christ’s teaching. The phrase “in three days” occurs ten times in the gospels. The phrase “on the third day” occurs twelve times in Matthew, Mark and Luke and twice more later on in the New Testament.
Having said that, however, I suspect that the real reason why this was so important and the evidence that it was true is that it really did point to the essence of Christ’s claim about Himself. In other words, it’s not only that it was true, it was significant. In what way was it significant? Well it was significant in terms of the trial in that it would be construed as an offense for which the death penalty had been assigned. It would be construed as sorcery, for example, because if Jesus said, “I’m going to tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days,” how could He possibly do that apart from what we would call perhaps black magic?
Or again it could be construed as sacrilege. The temple was the most holy place of Judaism. To tear the temple down would be to desecrate holy things. The penalty for both of those things was death. And yet I wonder as I read that whether even at this point of the trial Caiaphas and others didn’t understand that when Jesus spoke about the third day, what He was really saying was that on the third day, even though you put Me to death, I’m going to rise again and by that resurrection demonstrate that I am indeed the one I claim to be, the Son of God who has come to give His life a ransom for many.
I don’t know if they ever confessed that openly at the time of the trial but I suspect that there’s an indication of it in the way the trial went. First there were the false witnesses and they couldn’t establish their testimony. It was obviously vain testimony, the kind to be thrown out. Then the two witnesses came with their reference to Christ’s claim about doing something to the temple and building it up again in three days, although there was no substance to that; they couldn’t quite establish it as the Jewish law required.
But Caiaphas the high priest who was sitting there and listening to all this seemed to sense what it was about. He knew the nature of Christ’s claim and although they couldn’t establish his guilt judicially, he determined that he was going to establish it anyway. And so in his questioning, which was illegal, he went to the heart of the matter and he asked Jesus whether he was really the Christ, the Son of God.
And of course, that is what He had claimed to be and so when the question was put to Him in that way by the high priest, Christ accepted it. He said, “You’ve spoken the truth, that is precisely the case. And furthermore, you are going to see the Son of Man one day coming in the clouds of heaven with His holy angels.” And at that point Caiaphas tore his garments. He said, “What need do we have of further witnesses? You’ve heard his blasphemy. He’s worthy of death.” Thus, in this little incident that we have at the very end of Matthew 27, we obviously have an indication that these men understood what Christ had been saying.
