Jesus Was Arrested

Jesus was arrested the day before He was crucified.

(This day is sometimes called Holy or Maundy Thursday.)

 

The Jewish elders and chief priests hated Jesus so they wanted to arrest and kill Him.

They were scheming together to think of a way to capture Him.

They were a little hesitant to do it openly because they knew how popular He was; they didn’t want to stir up an angry crowd, and they didn’t want the crowd to turn against them.*

 

A man named Judas Iscariot was one of Jesus’ disciples.

He knew that the Jewish elders and chief priests were very upset with Jesus and looking for a way to get rid of Him.

Judas went to them and offered to help them apprehend Jesus.

In exchange for 30 pieces of silver, he agreed to lead them to Jesus at a time when there were no crowds around.

 

When the time was right, Judas led the crowd that was sent by the chief priests and elders to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he knew Jesus would be.

Jesus was there praying about what He knew would be happening over the next few days.

 

When he arrived, Judas kissed Jesus on the cheek as the pre-arranged signal that this was the one they were looking for.

The officials in the crowd arrested Jesus.

At this point all of the other disciples abandoned Him.

 

The crowd took Jesus to Caiaphas, the High Priest.

The Jewish elders and teachers of the law had gathered together with him to discuss what to do about Jesus.

The chief priests and the Sanhedrin** were looking for evidence of wrongdoing so they could put Jesus to death.

Several false witnesses came forth and made claims but because their stories didn’t match, their claims weren’t valid.

Then, two came forward and told about how they’d heard Jesus say that He was able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. (He had said this in the temple when He had cleared it of the money changers.- John 2:13-22 NIV).

When the high priest heard this he asked Jesus whether this was true.

Jesus remained silent.

Then the high priest asked Jesus, “Are you the Christ, the Son of God?”

Jesus responded, “Yes, it is as you say,”

The high priest declared this blasphemy and asked the others present what they thought.

All the others agreed Jesus was worthy of death for His statement.

 

At this point, they began to spit in Jesus’ face.

They also blindfolded Him, and began punching and slapping Him.

They mocked Him and said, “Prophecy to us, Christ. Who hit You?”

 

The chief priests and elders decided to hold Jesus until they could take further action.

 

These events happened on a Thursday, and set the events in motion for Jesus to be crucified the next day on what we call Good Friday.

 

To read what happened next, please visit my post, What Is Good Friday?

 

To read the entire story please read Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, or John 18.

 

To learn more about Maundy Thursday, please read my post, What Is Maundy Thursday?

 

*To get a good understanding of why the chief priests and elders wanted to kill Jesus, please read my post, Why Jesus Was Crucified

**Sanhedrin – a group of 21 or 23 Jewish elders who act as a tribunal and decide matters of Jewish law.

 

To learn more about the Easter Season, please visit my Easter page, a compilation of previous Easter and Lent posts.