The Trials of Jesus

Gospel: Mark 12: 18-27

In the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus is in Jerusalem he is put through a series of trials by various groups.  Yesterday, it was the Herodians and Pharisees who seek to find fault with Jesus.  Today, it is the Sadducees who come to interrogate Jesus and find something wanting in him.  Jesus affirms the resurrection of the dead, a direct contradiction to the teaching of the Sadducees.  They concocted an elaborate thought experiment in an attempt to trap him, but Jesus was forthright and openly rejected their teaching.

The Herodians had found fault with Jesus because he had not openly come out to support the Roman occupation.  The Pharisees find fault with Jesus for various interpretations of the law, as well as in not openly condemning the Romans.  The Sadducees now find fault with Jesus for his views on the resurrection.  In a few days Jesus will come before the chief priests and Pilate who will find a way to put him to death.  

How often do we put others on trial in this same way, seeking any and every occasion to condemn someone? We often engage in this activity with public figures and people in the news, but also entire groups of people - foreigners, migrants, refugees, immigrants, and entire nations of peoples.  Our advanced degrees at Social Media University make us experts in every subject and thus entitled to our judgments of others.  We sit in judgment of Jesus a thousand times a day, executing him in countless ways.