Continuing on with the theme of the Holy week, we will now discuss the events that changed the world and displayed the great love, mercy and grace that God bestowed upon all humanity.
Subsequent to Jesus being handed over to His enemies, Jesus was led to the Sanhedrin in chains bound up like a common criminal. The sheer magnificence of this event should immediately be evident to us all, here we have the Creator, King of glory and the indescribably powerful Son of God bound up in chains, being mocked and beaten by the very same people whom were previously promised eternal glory and salvation. He was being spat on (in a Semitic context this is possibly more degrading than being beaten), beaten and humiliated in front of people whom He knit together whilst they were in their mothers womb. The immense act of humility and self restraint displayed by Jesus should always be a reminder in such times where our ego and pride tend to determine our course of action,
Being confronted by the elders, Jesus was questioned and no fault could initially be found in Him, that is until He was asked "are you the Messiah, the Son of the living God?" Then in an apparent act of self-righteousness the Pharisees began to tear their clothes and scream "blasphemy!", we read in Matthew 26 -
57 Those who had seized Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together. 58 But Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and entered in, and sat down with the officers to see the outcome.
59 Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death. 60 They did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. But later on two came forward, 61 and said, “This man stated, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.’” 62 The high priest stood up and said to Him, “Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?” 63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, “I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.” 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”
65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy; 66 what do you think?” They answered, “He deserves death!”
67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, 68 and said, “Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?”
Again, what hypocrisy, what sheer arrogance displayed by those very same people whom God had continually tried to teach that "God desires mercy", was mercy displayed here? Did the pharisees attempt to stop the beatings? No, they condoned it and scoffed at Him.
We also see that Jesus was left alone, many of the disciples promised to die with Him, but with divine foresight we read what Jesus previously stated in Matthew 26:31 -
Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of Me this night, for
it is written, 'I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK
SHALL BE SCATTERED.'
Simon Peter, the 'brave' disciple was warming himself at a fire with those who accused Jesus, three times he was questioned were you not with Him also?" three times he denied his Messiah, three times he turned his back on Jesus, three times he saved himself, three times he failed to deny himself, three times did the apostle to whom the keys were given to forget that Jesus raised the dead to life, three times did Peter forget his own words “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away”. Peter, it seemed, was concerned about keeping warm and ensuring that he would not be entangled in the brutality on display.
Jesus, we then read, was taken to Pilate to receive judgement, again the spiritual significance of this event is worthy of discussion. So distant were the hearts of the 'chosen' people from God that they delivered Him to foreigners, symbolising that they wanted nothing to do with their Lord, symbolising that they wilfully chose to reject the Messiah because He failed to fit their presuppositions of Him. Their mind's were fixated on worldly aspects of the faith, they were spiritually blind and could not recognise Him nor the prophecies concerning Him, so they cast Him out of the vineyard, we read in Luke 20 -
9And He began to tell the people this parable: “A
man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey
for a long time. 10“At the harvest time he sent a slave to
the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of the
vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11“And he proceeded to send another slave; and
they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed.
12“And he proceeded to send a third; and this one
also they wounded and cast out. 13“The owner
of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they
will respect him.’ 14“But when the vine-growers saw him, they
reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that
the inheritance will be ours.’ 15“So they
threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the
vineyard do to them? 16“He will
come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” When
they heard it, they said, “May it never be!”
May it never be indeed, this is exactly what they did as foretold by our Lord and Savior, many instances previously occured in Israel's past where prophets were treated scornfully and with contempt, finally God sent His Son in an attempt to soften their hearts and lead them to a life of repentance.
We will continue on with this series of the Holy week, and we shall discuss the spiritual significance of the other events that ultimately lead to our salvation.
Amen
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