Series: “Encounters With Christ”
“First They Led Him To Annas”

Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. It’s there that Judas betrays Him.
“So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons” (John 18:3).

According to the gospel writer John, Jesus is then led to Annas: “So the soldiers, their officers, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him. First they took him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year” (John 18:12-13).

Who is Annas? Annas had once been the high priest. In earlier Jewish history, the high priest was chosen high priest for life. But when Palestine was conquered and occupied by Rome, the office of high priest became political. And around that position swirled a lot of intrigue and corruption. The office usually went to the highest bidder, or to the person most willing to toe the line with the Roman governor. High priests were chosen from a group known as the Sadducees. Though they were a religious sect, they were wealthy aristocrats and people of influence.

Annas, a Sadducee, had gained a tremendous amount of wealth and power. He himself had been high priest from 6 A.D. to 15 A.D. While he was in office, he came under suspicion of Rome, and was dismissed. But Annas was so wealthy and powerful that he was able to pull strings and let his money talk, and kept the high priesthood within his own family.

After he left as high priest, each of his 5 sons took a turn. And when Annas had gone the rounds with his sons, he used his influence to see that his son-in-law, Caiaphas, became the high priest. Annas, in a sense, was a first century “godfather”, heading a religious mafia in Jerusalem.

The Sadducees, and priests, and family of Annas watched with interest, then increasing agitation, this young carpenter-turned rabbi named Jesus. They became progressively alarmed as Jesus captivated the crowds and even performed miracles. Would people think Jesus to be the Messiah and start a revolt against Rome? If so, their cozy little world of wealth would be wiped out.

Perhaps, though, the lid blew off because of something Jesus did in the temple. Annas and his family also controlled the temple market. The law required that people sacrifice animals, but they had to be animals without blemish. Animals brought from outside the temple courts were usually inspected and judged unfit for sacrifice. So people had to purchase animals from inside the temple area. But the animals bought inside the temple courts were sold for a much higher price. Annas, and his clan, pocketed the excess and added to their wealth.

Jesus saw all of this, and one day He went into the temple full of anger. He took a whip and overturned the money tables, and quoting the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, He said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations…but you have made it a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17). Can you imagine the hostility this must have generated in Annas and his family? Their whole system of greed and corruption was being challenged by Jesus!

It’s not surprising that right after Jesus does this, it says, “And the chief priests and the scribes sought a way to destroy him; for they feared him” (Mark 11:18). And so they waited for an opportunity to nab Jesus. With some help from Judas, that moment came in the Garden of Gethsemane. They seized Him, bound Him, and hauled Him off to Annas.

Having heard these things about Annas and his son-in-law Caiaphas, the high priest, do you think Jesus had a ghost of a chance? He never got a fair trial. Bible scholars have pointed out a number of ways that Jesus’ trial was a mockery of justice. So John writes, “First they led him to Annas” John 18:3. Annas, the power behind the scenes, wanted to be the first to get a shot at Jesus – to gloat over this prized prisoner.

John 18:19 says, “Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.” This in itself was illegal. Jewish law prohibited that kind of direct questioning which might incriminate a suspect. Jesus knew that. This is reflected in Jesus’ response: “Jesus answered, ‘I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said” (John 18:20-21).

With that, one of the officers slaps Jesus and scolds, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” (verse 22). Jesus responds, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” (verse 23).

Annas’ encounter with Jesus ends, as he sends Jesus on to his son-in-law Caiaphas, the current high priest.

Jesus and Annas….I’ve thought a lot about this encounter between Annas and Jesus, and what implications it may have for us. Somebody has remarked that both were religious men. Both claimed to be servants of God, and the people. But the difference in them is like night and day.

Annas represented organized religion. He had been the high priest. Not just some local rabbi in a little hick village, but the high priest in Jerusalem. The spiritual head of Israel!
Yet, instead of serving the people, Annas controlled a religious organization filled with greed and vice, intent on maintaining the status-quo. He headed a religious system so decadent and off-course that it assumed prime responsibility for lynching and killing the Son of God!

It’s hard (for me at least) to look at Annas, and not get nervous about what organized religion can become. There are a lot of people who are against organized religion. Some people say, “Well, I believe, but I don’t go to church. I don’t believe in organized religion.” But what’s the alternative to organized religion? Disorganized religion? Do-it-yourself faith? Biblical
faith is never just a scattered group of individuals holding to their own beliefs! It’s being organized around a community of faith – Israel in the Old Testament, the Church in the New Testament.

I’m not against organized religion. I’ve made my living at it for almost 43 years! But organized religion can sometimes turn sour! I’ve seen organized religion and the
institutional church at times promote a patriotism that borders on idolatry, bless questionable wars, justify racism,, restrict the ordained ministry to males, quietly acquiesce to consumerism and materialism, demean the status of women in the home and the workplace, and deny the civil rights and humanity of gay people

Here are some questions worth pondering: Is the church like Annas, or like Jesus? The religion of Annas, out of self-interest, blessed things as they were. The religion of Jesus opposed injustices that needed to be changed.

Is the church an agent for change? Or does it preserve and bless the status quo? Does organized religion help preserve the good life for a few, or help bring about a just life for all? Is the Jesus we worship a cultural Jesus, or the Biblical Jesus? World Vision magazine had an article by Tony Campolo called, “Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?” As usual, Tony Campolo’s words are penetrating as he writes about the cultural Jesus verses the Biblical Jesus: “Our society has taken Jesus and recreated him in our own cultural image. When I hear Jesus being proclaimed from the television stations across our country, from pulpits hither and yon, he comes across not as the biblical Jesus, but as a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Republican….a Jesus who incarnates only what we are, rather than a Jesus who incarnates the God of eternity, is not the Jesus who can save.”

He goes on to relate how the biblical Jesus says, “Come, learn of me. And then be like me…to follow the biblical Jesus is to do exactly what he would do in your circumstances.” He continues: “Nothing is more controversial than to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Nothing is more dangerous than to live out the will of God in today’s world. It changes your whole monetary lifestyle…you’ve got to buy what Jesus would buy, you’ve got to dress the way Jesus would dress…our culture has conditioned us to want more and more stuff we don’t need. It’s time to repent of our affluence.”

The religion of Annas loved wealth and power and the good life and wanted to keep it all for themselves. The religion of Jesus wanted to change things so that all people could have access to material and spiritual blessing.

Jesus confronted evil and injustice head-on. When we say “Jesus came to save souls”, at best this is a half-truth and distorts the real Jesus! James D. Smart wrote a provocative book called The Cultural Subversion of the Biblical Faith. In that book he refers to something that happened during the Vietnam War. One prominent pastor publicly urged Billy Graham, as the minister closest to President Nixon, to confront the President regarding the bombing of Hanoi. Billy Graham answered that he was called to be a New Testament evangelist with a commission to save souls, not an Old Testament prophet intervening in political matters, that his ministry to the President was a private, pastoral one, not open to public observation. Dr. Smart says that Billy Graham’s response represents a deeply entrenched feature of American Protestantism - that so much preaching today limits itself to what is termed the “spiritual side of life, the inner life, the qualities of Christian character, the availability of spiritual resources for living”. These are important, he notes, but “when they monopolize our concern and leave no room for the more dangerous kind of preaching in which we spell out the implications of the Christian faith for the controversial issues that confront our members as citizens of the community, they… produce a defective, corrupt and unbiblical gospel.” He says that the marks of a prophet are all over Jesus’ ministry – and if Jesus had confined Himself just to “saving souls” he probably could have gone on with it for years and never would have been condemned to die on a cross. I agree with Dr. Smart. See, it was when Jesus confronted the evil embodied in the religious-political dynasty of Annas that a price was put on Jesus’ head!

I know myself well enough to realize that my natural style of ministry and preaching is to focus on personal salvation, the inner life, helping people to grow spiritually, overcoming personal problems, and the like. And I need to be reminded again and again that this represents only part of the ministry and message of Jesus – and if we’re going to be like Jesus we have to address the public issues – the social and moral problems that affect society as a whole.

Frankly, I’ve gotten very little criticism and flak over the years when I’ve preached personal salvation and spiritual growth. But times when I’ve tried to relate the gospel to some of the public issues that are tearing the world apart, I’ve often taken some heat. For
instance, during the years when nations were building up a tremendous arsenal of nuclear weapons, I spoke out against this in one church, and a man got angry and left the church as a result. Another time I joined other pastors in the local ministerium for a vigil in front of the courthouse in Media, PA. President Reagan was meeting for peace talks, and we clergy were just standing there praying as a public witness. During the hour or so I was there, people walked by and made hostile remarks, or were rude and abrasive. And we were just there praying!

Truthfully, I wish I had done more during my time here in Lititz to address some of the burning social issues facing our communities and the world.

Tony Campolo, in the article I mentioned, lays it on the line: “The cultural Jesus will
create a church very different from the biblical Jesus. The kind of church generated by the cultural deity…is a static institution headed by an honorary chairperson. The biblical Jesus, on the other hand, is the leader of a revolutionary movement destined to challenge this world. If you get involved with this Jesus, you are going to become a dangerous person…because the biblical Jesus is committed to Justice.”

Jesus confronted that old slick politician-priest Annas, and lost His life as a result. He didn’t have much of a chance when He took on the self-serving religious system entrenched in Jerusalem. Annas won by a knockout. For Jesus it was on to Caiaphas, then Pilate, then Herod, then back to Pilate, then to a cross. And He was executed.

So much for confronting the powers of this world…

Oh, by the way, Annas is mentioned one more time in the Bible. Do you know where?

Check out what it says in Acts 4:5-7. “The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assempled in Jerusalem, with Annas, the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or by what name did you do this?’”

What’s going on here? Well, there were a bunch of Jesus’ followers running loose all over Jerusalem with a newly found explosion of power and joy! They were performing miracles and excitedly shouting to the world that Jesus was alive again!

See, Annas got rid of this meddler Jesus. But Jesus just sprang back to life, ascended to heaven, and gave all of His power to His followers. And now….Annas had to deal with that!

Harry L. Kaufhold, Jr.
Sermon preached at Lititz United Methodist Church
March 9, 2008

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