A Worship Leader Kills Jesus

Jesus had just spent His last meal with His disciples, wrestled with God’s will in the garden of Gethsemane, been betrayed by Judas and arrested. Now Jesus was brought before a gathering of religious leaders and put on trial.

We’re told that the high priest, Caiaphas, was presiding over the trial (Matt. 26:57).

Caiaphas came from a long line of priests. The position of priest had been set up for more than 1500 years. It began in the time of Moses when Aaron and his sons were designated as the first of a long line of select men to govern the sacrifices at the temple—the primary form of public worship for Israel.

By all accounts, Caiaphas was the chief worship leader in all of Israel. His primary and most base role was to highlight the WORTH of God and lead his people to honor, revere, obey, delight and love their Almighty God, YHWH, with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. 

The high priest was to be a holy man (Lev. 21:8), set apart by a holy God to mediate between Heaven and earth. He was to represent God to the nation of Israel and beyond—a signpost to God for the world to see.

He was also the one who should have known God the best, perpetually saturated with the Torah and the only one who could enter the holy of holies each year on the day of atonement (Heb. 9:7).

And yet, as the very Son of Heaven stands before him, here’s what happens next…

Matthew 26:63-66 | NIV

The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

“You have said so,” Jesus replied…

Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”

“He is worthy of death,” they answered.

Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, “Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?”

Put yourself in Jesus’ worn and dusty sandals for a moment—You are the Light of the world. You were with God in the beginning. Without You, nothing was made that has been made. You formed Caiaphas in his mother’s womb. You knit him together and created his inmost being. You put breath in his lungs. You told his heart when to start beating and, even now, sustain its rhythm. You gifted him his very life.

And yet, the eyes which You gave color are staring back at You now filled with hate, fear, pride and scorn.

Let this sink in…

The chief dispenser of God’s supreme worth spat in the face of God and told Him He wasn’t worthy of life.

The one whose lungs were purposed for praise is now pouring curses on the Prince of Peace.

The creation mocked the Creator.

How on earth did this happen? How did the one who was supposed to be the most familiar with God fail to recognize Him when He actually showed up?

And then it hit me—Would I recognize God if He walked into the room?

Before I get all judgy, this isn’t a danger unique to the religious leaders of the first century. As a worship leader 2000 years later, I, too, can put blinders up. I’m still in danger of choosing power, influence, religiosity, tradition and peer pressure over honor, awe, devotion and pure praise.

When the real Jesus actually shows up—not the politicized, Americanized, commercialized, popularized version we so often form Him into—would I spit in His face or fall at His feet?

It is said—familiarity breeds contempt.

It happened then and it can happen now. To fight against it we must resiliently dismantle our false assumptions of who Jesus is and develop an insatiable hunger for the truth behind all the lies that have fogged our lenses. We must, with Paul, yearn so much for communion with the real God that we’d say,

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:10-11 | NIV

Worship leaders and team members—seek Jesus. Crave Jesus. Yearn for Jesus. Pray that your eyes will be opened, consume the Word with holy desire, be always unsatisfied with your current relationship, long for more, press on to know Him, to really know Him. And then use that beating heart and the borrowed breath in your lungs to boldly declare to the world that Jesus is worthy of LIFE.