Jesus was Accused by False Witnesses (Ps. 35:11; ref. Mark 14:57-58)

The ministry of the Messiah was well planned by God the Father even before He sent His Son to this world. Everything that would happen to Christ had been pre-ordained by the Lord. Thus when Jesus Christ came to this world, He was obliged to do what His father had commanded Him. His mission was to please His Father in the things He had planned for the redemption of the wretched man.

The life and death of Jesus had been programmed by God. Everything Jesus did must be acceptable and according to the Father’s wish and nothing could happen to His Son without the foreknowledge of God the Father. In fact when the New Testament books record the life of Jesus Christ, they give strong support to the fact that even the false witnesses against the ministry and works of Jesus was recorded. Mark 14:57-58 said, “And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and with three days I will build another made without hands.”

The content of this verse is not contrary to what Jesus proclaimed during His preaching and teaching sessions. It is true that Jesus did say, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Nevertheless, what Jesus said here refers to His body and not to the temple building or the sanctuary. Jesus never said that He would destroy the Sanctuary. But the unbelieving Jews were blind and could not understand what Jesus had said. To them what Jesus meant was that Jesus would truly destroy the sanctuary and in three days He would rebuild it. However, Mark emphasized in his gospel that what these people had claimed were actually false witnesses against the Messiah.

Although Jesus Christ did nothing wrong, the chief priest and all the members of the council looked for witnesses against Jesus to put him to death (Mark 14:54). After all, they could not find any fault in Him; in fact those false witnesses did not agree with each other (Mark 14:55). The Psalmist said in Ps. 35:11, “False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not.” Everything that had been predicted concerning the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, must be fulfilled as seen in this passage.