“Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward” (Mt 26:59-60a).
Last week, I met with a woman who was born in Iran, yet was raised Christian. This is permitted in Iran only if one’s family has been Christian for generations. For this reason, she can return to her homeland to visit friends and family.
She was back a few weeks ago. As soon she landed in Tehran, she was tailed by spies. (Reminds me of East Germany, where some twenty percent of the population snooped on their neighbors and reported their findings to the authorities).
Even though the Iranian regime is openly hostile toward Christians, they knew they couldn’t pin anything on her for her religion because she is immune from persecution for the reasons stated above.
The only way they could have arrested her would be by fabricating charges—claiming, for example, that she might be an Israeli spy. Fortunately, they were unable to manufacture such a case.
The Pharisees used the same approach to convict Jesus, seeking false testimony so they could put him to death (Mt 26:59-60).
In the case of Jesus, the false testimony strategy worked.
And yet that kangaroo court some 2,000 years ago was all part of God’s plan. Because if it had not been for those trumped-up charges, Jesus would not have been convicted. And if He had not been convicted, He would not have been crucified. And if He had not been crucified, you and I would have to pay the price for all our sins, and we would go to hell.
God invisibly directs history according to His good and gracious will, even as He sometimes might allow evil people to seek false testimony against His sheep, whom He might not always save here on earth, but most certainly will at the Last Day
