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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 3
together, and were afraid. When Judas had betrayed his Master to
the priests, he had repeated to them the declaration which Jesus had
privately made to his disciples while on their way to the city. He had
said, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and 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 him; and the third day he shall rise
again.” They remembered many things which he had said, that they
now recognized as plain prophecies of the events which had taken
place. They did not desire to think of these things, but they could not
shut them from their understanding. Like their father, the devil, they
believed and trembled.
Now that the frenzy of excitement was passed, the image of Christ
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would intrude upon their minds, as he stood serene and uncomplaining
before his enemies, suffering their taunts and abuse without a murmur.
They remembered the prayer for forgiveness, offered in behalf of those
who nailed him to the cross, his forgetfulness of his own suffering,
and his merciful response to the prayer of the dying thief, the darkness
which covered the earth, its sudden lifting, and his triumphant cry,
“It is finished,” which seemed to resound through the universe, his
immediate death, the quaking of the earth and the shivering of the
rocks, the opening of the graves and the rending of the vail of the
temple. All these remarkable circumstances pressed upon their minds
the overpowering evidence that Jesus was the Son of God.
When Judas had reported to the priests the words of Jesus in
regard to his approaching death, they had ridiculed the idea of his
foreknowledge of events. All his predictions had been so far fulfilled,
and they felt no surety that his entire prediction would not come to
pass. If Jesus rose from the dead, they feared that their lives would
pay the penalty of their crime. They could not sleep, for they were
more troubled about Jesus in death than they had been during his life.
They had then thought that their only hope of prosperity and influence
was in silencing his reproving voice; now they trembled in view of the
miraculous power he had possessed.
They rested but little upon the Sabbath. Though they would not
step over a Gentile’s threshold for fear of defilement, yet they held a
council concerning the body of Christ. They knew that the disciples
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would not attempt to remove him until after the Sabbath; but they were