According to precedent established throughout Roman rule, before any pretender to the throne was killed, he had to be brought before Caesar in Rome. That had been the case for Herod’s three sons and even his wife, Meriamne, who by intrigue were considered guilty of sedition against King Herod the Great.
Jesus went before the chief priests and the Sanhedrin, then to Pilate, then to Herod Antipas, and then back to Pilate. None of the leaders wanted the blood of the Messiah on their hands, and finally Pilate washed his hands of the blood of Jesus. Somehow, they all knew what they were doing, and Jesus knew that they knew what they were doing. The only ones that did not know, according to Jesus, were those who performed their job, which was assigned by Almighty God as nothing could happen unless allowed by the Father (Rom 8:32).
Thus, those who were the instruments of death were cleared by Jesus who judged them ignorant of what they were doing. They had no idea that they were killing God Himself. Jesus took umbrage at those who knew what they were doing.
Herod Antipas was playing the role of king of Judaea but was only a tetrarch, meaning that he shared power with the other Herods. He had no authority over Jesus and seemed to realize it. Those who killed Jesus were the “Church” of that time who was a government itself. The ecclesia killed their own God who they claimed to worship. Never had the chosen ones killed their own god, so that makes the Sanhedrin the exception, and Christianity exceptional. But even they were weak because God killed God. Like Judas down below in Gehenna, Jesus on Calvary sacrificed Himself. The big difference is that Judas with Lucifer in him pretended to be God, but Jesus was the real deal.
Judas’s self-sacrifice had no efficacy, but the Self-sacrifice of God redeemed all mankind. What was the difference? Judas sacrificed himself because he was guilty of all charges, but Jesus was innocent of all of which he was accused. That He is God is the only truthful thing of which He was charged. Judas was not God but had the pretender to the throne of God in him. His sin was even greater than the chief priests.
If the law had been just, then Jesus would have been taken to Caesar just as Paul was years later. After going through many of the same mock trials of Jesus, Paul appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen. It was his birthright because of where he was born. Paul was subject to the laws of Caesar but Jesus to Jewish, or Mosaic Law. The Law of Moses was responsible for the death of Jesus, and God knew that when He made the Law.
To this day, Mosaic Law continues to “crucify” Christ over and over, if it was possible, just as Paul suggested to the Hebrews (Heb 6:6). God used His own Law as a means of justifying Himself dying for the sins of mankind.
Up to this time, Caesars had been fair and friendly to Jews and Jewish Law. Jews had always appealed to Caesar for impartiality. Herod the Great always appealed to Octavian for impartial judgment. When Jesus was accused, Tiberias Nero was Caesar, and at that time, he was kind to the Jews.
Given his demeanor then, Jesus would have been judged impartially by Roman law in Rome. That would not happen because it had to be the Law of the religion of Yahweh for the sacrifice to be acceptable. It could not be an unclean Gentile but a ritually washed chief priest that made the sacrifice himself for it to be pleasing to God. That was the ritual from the Law of Moses.
Two could not be chief priests in Mosaic Law. It had to be one. The legitimate chief priest was Caiaphas. He had to be the one to make the sacrifice, and it had to be in the Holy of Holies.
The Most Holy Place is where God IS. It was once under the Tree of Life, then in the Tabernacle of God wherever in the wilderness, and finally in the Temple itself. By then, it had been made unholy by merchants. Therefore, the Most Holy Place was Calvary. It was there that the Presence of Yahweh appeared to witness His own Flesh perishing.
God was there on the Cross, not just His Person (Jesus) but His Mind and Spirit. Jesus asked His Father why He had forsaken Him (Mat 27:46). The crucifixion was an anti-transfiguration. On the Mount of Transfiguration, the Presence of the Father had entered the Son, and at the baptism of Jesus, the Holy Ghost had done the same. God in three substances was on the Cross. Yahweh felt pain and showed His Face and His Innermost Being all at the same time on Calvary.
Both the Father and the Holy Ghost removed themselves from Jesus. That isolation was perhaps the Man Jesus experiencing Hell for mankind for all of Adam’s kind.
What would have Nero done to Jesus at that time? Administered Roman law fairly and impartially. Perhaps, he would have asked, Why do you foolish people desire to kill your own God? Pilate washed his hands of the matter; and he represented Caesar. What would have Caesar done? The same thing! He would have sent Jesus back to the Sanhedrin for them to kill their own God. He had no authority over Jesus because Caesar allowed the Jews to live under their own laws unless it countered Roman law.
After leaving Judas, perhaps Satan entered Caiaphas. Satan had to be in Caiaphas for him to knowingly kill his own God. As it turns out, Caiaphas may have considered himself to be God. From an ancient inscription, ruled authentic, his granddaughter’s ossuary read, “Miriam, daughter of Yeshua, son of Caiaphas, Priest of Ma’ aziah from Beth ‘Imri” (Wikiepdia, “Caiaphas”).
Caiaphas named his son “Jesus” and Jesus, son of Caiaphas named his daughter “Mary.” Certainly, he was not honoring Jesus but mocking Him. He appears to be Antichrist after Judas.
By the time Paul appeared to Nero, the nature of Tiberius changed, and he became Nero. His name changed from Tiberias (“Good Vision” in the Hebrew) to Nero (“Black”). As biblical custom goes, his nature changed from good to black, and many theologians believe that Nero was Antichrist when Paul was killed, Christians were persecuted, Rome burned and blamed on Christians, and Paul was beheaded. Tiberias would have been a “familiar friend” of Jesus just as Psalm 41:9 implies about Antichrists, Lucifer and Judas, and as it turns out, about Nero Caesar.
Throughout this commentary, I have stated that they knew who they were about to kill. When they came to take Jesus away, they asked Jesus His identity, and Jesus responded truthfully. “As soon then as He had said unto them, “I am He,” they went backward, and fell to the ground” (John 18:6).
Something is not so obvious in English. His exact words in Greek were Ego Eimi. In the Hebrew that is JHWH, or as written in the English, the “Great I AM.”
Jesus identified Himself to the chief priests, Judas, and the others, as God Himself! No wonder they fell to the ground; they were marveling because they believed that He was who He claimed to be. If they had not believed, they would have laughed and called him “crazy” as some had done before! They knew that they were about to kill their own God!
With that explained, it sheds light on Jesus’s Words, “Marvel not; ye must be born again” (John 3:7). They marveled, were not born again, but were accomplices in killing God.
What is the process of rebirth? Jesus had foretold of this event when He said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). They were about to lift up the “Son of Man” indeed. As they lifted the Cross of Jesus, down below the son of man (Adam) was lifted on his tree by the hands of himself. Rebirth is looking at the two trees, the two sacrificial deaths, and choosing the right “Tree” just as with Adam and Eve.
Because the Jews had chosen the Serpent on his pole, King Hezekiah had that “tree” destroyed. When Jesus made the acceptable sacrifice on the Tree of Life, it withered the Tree of Knowledge and the limb broke, Judas fell, and Lucifer was exposed as the “worm” he was.
When Jesus died, that is what happened to Satan in Judas, as the pole of Moses was the symbol of the Judas Tree. Many forget the sacrifice of Judas by his own hands, and still try to redeem themselves by the Tree of Knowledge. It is not what anyone knows, but what they believe and who they trust! Trusting over time is faith whereas knowing may be believing but doing nothing with that belief.
(picture credit: Everyday Catholic; "Repay to Caesar What is Caesar's)
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