IN CHAPTER X Judgment in the Jewish Court N the last chapter we had before us the events of the Thursday evening of Passion Week. The Paschal Supper, the Agony, the Betrayal, and Peter's denial, filled up the hours of that night from sunset to cock-crowing, that is, till three o'clock. We now enter on the events of Good Friday. So full are our sacred records of this day, so momentous each of its details, that we must divide our narrative into three portions: two will describe the trials of our Lord, and the third the crucifixion. And first the two trials, if trials they may be called, must occupy us. It is important to keep them distinct one trial in the Jewish court before sunrise, and the other trial in the Roman court after sunrise. These early hours were nothing strange in those times and countries; Roman magistrates not unusually administered justice soon after sunrise. And, besides, we may remember what a strong motive the Jewish rulers had for getting the business finished as early as possible. Beyond all things they feared an uproar among the people. This Friday was the greatest feastday in the year. In the forenoon there would be the great Temple sacrifice, followed by the feast. They must have all over before the forenoon if possible. Therefore the Sanhedrim had been summoned to meet at the first breaking of the day, at five o'clock or thereabouts,—not in the Temple, that would have been hardly legal before sunrise, but in the house of Caiaphas. The false witnesses were in readiness. The priests made sure of being able to convict Jesus of blasphemy. Any attempt, however, to carry out their sentence by stoning Him on the spot, according to the law of Moses (Deut. xii.), would be highly dangerous, and sure to offend the Romans, who reserved to themselves the exclusive right of inflicting capital punishment in all their conquered provinces. The policy of the Pharisees, therefore, was first to procure a condemnation in their own court on the charge of blasphemy, and then to carry the case into the Roman court, expecting that the procurator, Pontius Pilate, would, as a matter of course, execute their sentence. And if the sentence were to be executed by Romans, then it must be, not by stoning, but by crucifixion; for so did the Romans put to death criminals who had not the rights of citizenship. This, then, was their plan of proceeding; and thus did these evil men bring about the fulfilment of all that Christ had foretold concerning the order of the Passion: The Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death; and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles, to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day He shall rise again.' Thus in most exact detail had our Lord predicted all that was to befall Him. He was first to be betrayed to the priestly party; secondly, to be condemned in the Jewish court; thirdly, to be delivered over to the Gentile, i.e. to the Roman power; fourthly, to be mocked, scourged, and crucified. We have seen already how the betrayal took place under cover of the night, while all the Galilean pilgrims were indoors eating their Passover. We are now to see how the condemnation, first in the Jewish, and then in the Roman court, and then the Roman mode of execution, with the preliminary scourging, were all brought about in Divine Providence as the hours of Good Friday went by. And first the condemnation in the Jewish court. The morning light had scarcely streaked the sky above the mountains of Moab, when the Sanhedrim met, and Jesus, who had been kept waiting in the chamber of Annas, was taken across the court-yard to the hall of Caiaphas, and there placed at the bar of the Sanhedrim. But in this first stage of the proceeding their evidence broke down. For many bare false witness against Him, but their witness agreed not together.' Then came two men who remembered what Christ had said at the Passover feast two years before, and thought by a slight perversion of the words to turn it into blasphemy against the Holy Place: 'We heard Him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But neither so did their witness agree together,' for on cross examination doubtless the truth came out that Christ had said 'Destroy,' not 'I will destroy.' Then the high priest, following the custom of the court when evidence failed, put the prisoner upon His oath :-'I adjure Thee by the living God that Thou tell us whether Thou be the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed.' Observe, not the Messiah merely-for to have claimed Messiahship would not have been so certainly a blasphemy, but 'the Son of the Blessed,' that higher title which Jesus was understood to have claimed, and which no mere man could claim without fearful blasphemy. If they could only force Jesus to repeat this claim in open court, His condemnation and death would be certain. One can imagine how hushed the court would be while the high priest put the question; how all eyes would be turned on the mysterious Person at the bar ; how breathless the attention when He who had been hitherto silent accepted the oath, and slowly and distinctly affirmed that He was what the high priest said, -the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed; adding that henceforth they should see Him,—their Messiah, the 'Son of Man' of Daniel's prophecy,-standing on the right hand of God. One more chance they gave Him—their malignity could well afford it-say rather God's Providence chose thus to foreclose for ever any doubt His Church might else have had,—one more chance they gave Him to explain if haply He did not mean all that those words seemed to imply: 'Art Thou, then,' many voices asked, 'the Son of God?' And He said unto them, 'I am.' Then the high priest, rising from his seat, and rending his linen tunic from the neck downwards, after the manner of the Jews when they heard what their religion abhorred, put the question to the court: 'He hath spoken blasphemy, what need we any further witness? Ye have heard the blasphemy, what think ye?' And the verdict came by acclamation, 'He is guilty of death.' Then Jesus seems to have been removed from the hall and exposed to the brutal mockery of the attendants, while the Sanhedrim F adjourned to the Temple1 and deliberated how best they might now insure the execution of their sentence2; and it was agreed to take the case at once before the Procurator, while it was yet early, and before the day's sacrifice should draw together the crowd of Paschal worshippers. So Jesus was again chained3 by the wrist to the Roman soldiers,-for St. John implies that a detachment of the Roman cohort had been placed at the Sanhedrim's service,—and was taken by them to Herod's palace on the Western Hill, which the Roman Governor used as his Pretorium during all these great festivals, his residence at other times being at Cæsarea, on the coast. 1 There Judas found them (Matt. xxvii. 3, 5). |