So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”

“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”

Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”

“But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die. John 18:29-32

The Sanhedrin really come across as pathetic in this short passage.

Pilate asks a very reasonable question: what is the criminal charge? The Jews say that they wouldn’t have brought him to Pilate if he wasn’t a criminal and seem to expect Pilate to work out what these charges are exactly.

Fortunately Pilate is smart enough to not let this discussion go around in a complete circle for 20 minutes and straight away perceives that it’s really ‘a Jewish law thing’. This man, Jesus hasn’t actually done anything wrong at all. They just want to charge him with a crime so that they can kill him.

This explains their response to Pilate which basically amounts to “Sure, there really isn’t any crime but we want him dead so we brought him to you. So think of something, because you have the power to kill him. We don’t.”

It really is stupid stuff.

But this is what happens when the devil gets into people and they open themselves up to his working through them. They become fools.

These are members of the Sanhedrin. These are intelligent people who know God’s laws. They know them all.

But their hearts have never been moved.

I’m sure they could have recited the Torah. But reciting the Torah is not what counts.

I’m sure they had memorised the scrolls. But repetition of the scrolls is not what counts.

I’m sure they knew all the right things to say. But regurgitating long known phrases is not what counts.

What counts is our hearts being right with God.

The Sanhedrin weren’t worried about that but they really should have been.

Are we worried about that?

Are you striving to make sure you heart is in the right place? I ask myself the same question.

Yours working on her heart,

Alison