Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon Title: I, Caiaphas                               

Sermon Text: Matthew 26:63-66                    Mid-Week Lenten Service

 

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Let us hear the Word of God, as we find it written in St. Matthew’s Gospel, the 26th chapter.

*63 But Jesus remained silent.

The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” 64 “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.

“But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy!

Why do we need any more witnesses?

Look; now you have heard the blasphemy.

66 What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered.*

Let us pray: and now let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, Oh Lord, our strength and our Redeemer.

Amen.

Dear Christian friends, this is the Season of Lent.

It is during this 40 day season that we as Christians focus our attention on the sufferings and death of Jesus.

In this Lenten period, let us not lose track of why our Lord suffered and died upon the cross.

As the prophet Isaiah says, “*Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed*” (Isaiah 53:4-5 ESV).

Tonight, let us consider the story of one of the characters that played a role in our Lord’s suffering and death.

Let us turn our attention to Caiaphas, the high priest of Israel.

A historian of the first century by the name of Josephus calls this man by another name: Joseph Caiaphas.

I wonder if we can really know his story.

I wonder if, in reading the Word of God, we can put our finger on just who this man, Joseph Caiaphas, the High Priest really was?

If it were possible that this biblical figure could come forward in time to us tonight, we may wonder, “What would his story be like if he stood before us and told us just what happened.”

I think it might go something like this.

I am Joseph Caiaphas.

I am the high priest of Israel.

I am the man that represents the people to God.

When I was installed into my office as high priest, I wore a turban upon my head.

Today, you would probably call this turban a miter.

And on this miter was attached a plate of pure gold with the words engraved “Holy to the LORD.”

Yet my story doesn’t run like that my friends.

When you ask yourself, who was really responsible for the death of Jesus Christ?

Who was the real primary and direct cause of his death?

“We are,” you would say, “Because Caiaphas, we just heard the prophet Isaiah tell us that it was for us and our sins that he died.”

Yes my friends, that’s true, but I want to confess at the very beginning, that it was I, Joe Caiaphas.

I am the man that plotted his death.

I am the man that concocted the scheme from the very beginning to its end.

You may say, “Oh no Caiaphas, you were the high priest of God.”

I was.

But when you want to point the finger at any one man and say “who was it, that sent my Lord to the cross,” I want to tell you, it was I, Joseph Caiaphas.*

*Oh I had collaborators,* *but when it really comes down to it, I was the one who hatched the plan from start to finish.

You might find that difficult to believe, but let me tell you my story.

I was reared in a God-fearing home.*

*My parents trained me from early childhood to know the true God.

I decided early on that I wanted to enter the priesthood.

But “How,” you may say, “Caiaphas, how in the world could you be the High Priest of God and concoct such a scheme: to murder the Son of God, the Savior?”

Perhaps it would help if I told you that I belonged to a group of individuals who were called the Sadducees.

That might not mean much to you today, but if you look in the Word of God you will read that the Sadducees were a group of men who were very influential, rather rich, highly cultured, and who did not believe in the resurrection from the dead.

I was a member of this group; I, the high priest of God.

Oh, I believed in God, after a fashion, but I was a rationalist.

There were some things about religion that I just couldn’t reason out for myself and so I refused to believe them.

I didn’t take everything on faith.

Even though I was the high priest, and I represented the people to God, I laughed at the idea of a resurrection from the dead.

To me, the most outrageous thing in the world was that anybody would ever rise from the dead, or that there was life beyond the grave, or that there was hell and damnation awaiting a person.

Friends that’s what you believe, isn’t it?

You say it in your creed, “I believe in… the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting” (Apostles Creed).

Isn’t that what the Messiah did for you?

But to me, that is preposterous.

Why? I’ll tell you.

One day, I heard that a man named Jesus, from Nazareth he had been talking about the resurrection and about a life beyond the grave, and about eternal punishment.

So I sent some of my fellow Sadducees to this Jesus, and I had a whole story ready for him that would show this Jesus just how ridiculous such a belief was.

I told my fellow Sadducees to make sure they had a crowd around when they told Jesus this story.

So one day my associates came to him and said, “*Teacher, Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him*” (Matt.

22:24).

And Jesus listened attentively.

“*Now there were seven brothers among us.

The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother.

The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.

Finally, the woman died*” (Matt.

22:25-27).

Then I had my Sadducees say, “*Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be*?” (Matt.

22:28) I couldn’t think of anything crazier and more absurd than that.

But you know what, say this Jesus, he was right on the ball and he kind of embarrassed me.* *He looked at my fellow Sadducees and said “*First of all, you don’t know the Scriptures, don’t you know that in heaven there will be no marriage and there will be no giving in marriage.

Secondly, haven’t you read in the Scriptures that God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, I am the God of Isaac, I am the God of Jacob*” (Matt.

22:29-32a paraphrased).

He told my fellow Sadducees, “*God didn’t say He was their God, he said I am*” (Matt.

22:32b paraphrased).

He kind of showed up my associates that day, and I didn’t like him very much for that.

That wasn’t all, my friends.

This Jesus of Nazareth was a pain in my side.

Why, because this Jesus of Nazareth was stepping in on my business.

Not only was he making a fool of my associates and by implication, me, but he was also drawing the people away from the temple.

And I just couldn’t have that.

You see, I’ll tell you why I went into the priesthood.*

*I went in to make some money.

I wanna tell you, it was a great racket.

You don’t have any idea how much money you could make when you became high priest.

That’s why I went in.

I wanted to make my fortune.

You may ask me, “How does it become so profitable?”

Well, you’ve heard about it in the Bible, haven’t you?

You’ve heard about how all the people came up to Jerusalem, and how they would all offer sacrifices – a lamb or a goat.

Well, I was in charge, and so we sold lambs and goats right at the temple.

Let me tell you I got the top price for them.

We gouged the people wherever we could, and it was all mine.

If they brought their own lamb or their own goat, we had to inspect it and we charged them as much as we could get for inspecting their own animal.

So that brought us money.

Then we had the money-changers.

We wouldn’t let them pay their temple tax in Roman money; they had to pay it in Jewish money, the shekel.

I’m telling you, my money changers, we were something.