Matthew 26:65, commentary and pictures

When Jesus stood on trial for His life before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, He declared under oath that He is the Christ, the Son of God, who would sit at the right hand of power and come in the clouds of heaven. At that word the high priest tore his robe and lifted his hands as in holy horror, declaring it blasphemy needing no further witnesses, and the council at once answered that He was guilty of death on His own testimony. His outrage was feigned zeal to impress the people and hide inward exultation, for he was convicted that Jesus was akin to God yet in passion and fury refused to rend his heart and confess Him. By rending his priestly garment he broke God's express law that no priest rend his robes, placed himself under condemnation, and ended his priesthood as the last act of a perverted order with no connection to God. Jesus spoke no blasphemy but truth, and at His coming in majesty His divinity will be forever settled, so that the priest who accused Him and all His enemies will be silenced and compelled to bow and confess Him King of Glory.

Trial Setting and Verdict

Matthew 26:65 belongs to Jesus' trial for His life before Annas and Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin council, including His early-morning examination at the palace of Caiaphas where He was accused and questioned and reviled. It was a mock trial with only the appearance of legal process, kept secret so the people could not hear and offer vindicating testimony about His mighty works. Such testimony would have turned indignation against the council, defeated its plans, and led to His release and renewed honor. Amid that mockery the sharper pain to His heart was hearing His beloved disciple deny Him with cursing and swearing.

In the judgment hall Caiaphas presided seated on the throne of judgment with Jesus standing at its foot, judges and those specially interested on either side, Roman soldiers ranged on the platform below the throne, and the multitude watching. Caiaphas stood in gorgeous robe with glittering tiara and costly breastplate upon which the light of God's glory had often flashed in former days, in strong contrast to Jesus in coarse, homely habiliments. Yet the One tried at an earthly throne had formerly reigned in the courts of heaven crowned and clothed in brightness with holy angels attending Him. Jesus stood calm and serene and majestic and dignified with a holy influence emanating from Him while the wildest excitement prevailed around, so that even the hardened multitude questioned whether one of Godlike presence should be sentenced as a common criminal. Caiaphas was struck with admiration and convicted that He was akin to God but banished the thought, spoke in sneering haughty tones demanding a mighty miracle which Jesus ignored as though He heard not, and hastened the trial when he perceived the influence Jesus was gaining.

While the council was being called together Annas and Caiaphas questioned Jesus to provoke a statement they could use to His disadvantage. Two charges were prepared to secure condemnation in different courts, blasphemy to condemn Him among the Jews and being a disturber of the peace and leader of rebellion to condemn Him by the Romans. The chief priests and elders used hired false witnesses and false statements brought against Him from jealousy and fear that He would gain authority, rejecting Him as king and seeking His death, reflecting the spirit of the scribes and Pharisees who opposed Him. The mock trial and hired false testimony show how base and fallen the priesthood had become. Yet the declarations that He was without fault and that innocent blood had been betrayed testified to Christ's innocence and exposed the accusations as false, and God overruled the heinous crime so that Christ's death made Him the Redeemer of mankind and Saviour of the world.

Under solemn oath Jesus openly and voluntarily declared in the most public manner that He is the Christ, the Son of God, the Son of man who would sit at the right hand of power and be seen coming in the clouds of heaven. The high priest fully understood the claim as divine power and Godhead and oneness with the Father so that to see Him is to see the Father. Jesus knew the declaration would secure His condemnation and gave the designing priests exactly the testimony they sought. At that declaration the high priest tore his garments and robe, lifting his hands toward heaven as if in holy horror and speaking in a voice calculated to rouse the excited people to violence, to give the impression of jealousy for the insulted majesty of Heaven. He declared He had spoken blasphemy and that there was no further need of witnesses or preliminaries because the council had heard it directly for itself, making His condemnation rest on His own words rather than on proof of wrongdoing. The judges and council at once answered that He was guilty of death and deserving of death.

Priest's Motive and Downfall

Caiaphas was a Sadducee who denied the resurrection of the dead and judgment and a future life and did not want to face standing at the bar of God to be awarded according to his works. Christ's words about sitting at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds, about resurrection and final judgment, cut him to the quick and brought before his mind as a panorama the scenes of the final judgment. He saw the graves giving up their dead with secrets he had hoped were hidden forever, and himself standing before the eternal Judge whose all-seeing eye reads the soul and brings hidden mysteries to light, to be judged according to his deeds. Maddened by satanic fury that a prisoner should assail his most cherished theories, rather than face that truth he rent his robe so the people would see his pretended horror and demanded without further preliminaries or witnesses that Jesus be condemned for blasphemy.

His outrage and horror were feigned and pretended, an outward show of zeal against blasphemy done to impress the people and to give those present the impression of jealousy for the insulted majesty of Heaven. With hands lifted toward heaven as if in holy horror and with a voice calculated to rouse the excited people to violence, he concealed a heart full of wickedness without vital connection to God. Inwardly the priests and judges exulted in the advantage gained through Jesus' voluntary public confession under solemn oath and hid their malicious satisfaction. The act was driven by conviction mingled with passion and fury with himself for believing Christ's words, so that instead of rending his heart under a deep sense of truth and confessing Jesus as the Messiah he rent his robes in determined resistance.

By that rending in pretended zeal he did the very thing the Lord had commanded should not be done and transgressed the law of the God of heaven. Under no circumstances were priests to remove their turbans or rend their robes on pain of death, because nothing but perfection in dress and attitude, in word and spirit, could acceptably represent the holiness and perfection of God and the sacredness of the heavenly service, while finite man may rend his own heart in contrite humility. So he placed himself under the penalty of death and the condemnation of God and made himself liable to be arraigned before the Sanhedrin. In pronouncing sentence on Christ as a blasphemer he acted as priestly judge and officiating high priest, but not by the appointment of God, acting under the inspiration of Satan and fulfilling the work of the enemy of God beneath a gorgeous priestly dress, in a corrupt and perverted use of priestly authority to accuse the Holy One of Israel of blasphemy, a course done again and again by priests and rulers.

The rent garment ended his priesthood; by his own action he disqualified himself for the priestly office. The rending marked the filling up and end of the priestly service, the last work of an entirely perverted order of priests that had become base and corrupt with no longer any connection with God and with truth and righteousness hateful to them. That baseness was shown in the mock trial hiring men to testify under oath to falsehood so that Jesus might be condemned. After the condemnation of Christ he could not act without showing the most unreasonable passion, scourged by a tortured conscience without the sorrow that leads to repentance.

Vindication and Solemn Warnings

The charge of blasphemy fell upon a truthful claim, for the answer declaring Him the Christ, the Son of God, was a claim to divine power and Godhead and oneness with the Father, so that to see Him is to see the Father. Even under insult and scorn and mockery and rejection and shame He spoke no guile, and His words are truth to be believed and rested in, backed by His giving His divine life as a ransom for many. He was accused as a blasphemer because of His faithfulness to God.

When He was denied and rejected by men and stood as a criminal at Pilate's bar, the high priest in hypocritical horror falsely charged Him with blasphemy. At His coming His divine nature is plainly revealed in majesty and glory, exalted and precious to believers, and the question of His divinity is forever settled. Then the priest who accused Him is confronted with the risen and glorified Christ, his mouth is closed and his mistake is exposed, and with all His enemies and mockers he is compelled to withhold recognition and honor no longer but to bow and confess His divinity as King of Glory.

The rending of the robe was an outward show concealing a heart without vital connection to God, when Caiaphas pretended horror at the declaration of Sonship and accused the Holy One of Israel of blasphemy, and it illustrates the danger of displaying sorrow outwardly without true repentance. As Christ was treated as a blasphemer for faithfulness, so His followers are likewise accused and misrepresented. At Stephen's hearing a priest's similar act of tearing his robe signaled to Stephen that his testimony would soon be stopped, so he recognized it as his final testimony and abruptly ended his sermon.