Before Annas and the Court of Caiaphas
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time. One of his officers, filled with wrath as he saw Annas silenced,
struck Jesus on the face, saying, “Answerest Thou the high priest so?”
Christ calmly replied, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the
evil: but if well, why smitest thou Me?” He spoke no burning words
of retaliation. His calm answer came from a heart sinless, patient, and
gentle, that would not be provoked.
Christ suffered keenly under abuse and insult. At the hands of the
beings whom He had created, and for whom He was making an infinite
sacrifice, He received every indignity. And He suffered in proportion
to the perfection of His holiness and His hatred of sin. His trial by men
who acted as fiends was to Him a perpetual sacrifice. To be surrounded
by human beings under the control of Satan was revolting to Him. And
He knew that in a moment, by the flashing forth of His divine power,
He could lay His cruel tormentors in the dust. This made the trial the
harder to bear.
The Jews were looking for a Messiah to be revealed in outward
show. They expected Him, by one flash of overmastering will, to
change the current of men’s thoughts, and force from them an ac-
knowledgment of His supremacy. Thus, they believed, He was to
secure His own exaltation, and gratify their ambitious hopes. Thus
when Christ was treated with contempt, there came to Him a strong
temptation to manifest His divine character. By a word, by a look, He
could compel His persecutors to confess that He was Lord above kings
and rulers, priests and temple. But it was His difficult task to keep to
the position He had chosen as one with humanity.
The angels of heaven witnessed every movement made against
their loved Commander. They longed to deliver Christ. Under God
the angels are all-powerful. On one occasion, in obedience to the
command of Christ, they slew of the Assyrian army in one night one
hundred and eighty-five thousand men. How easily could the angels,
beholding the shameful scene of the trial of Christ, have testified their
indignation by consuming the adversaries of God! But they were not
commanded to do this. He who could have doomed His enemies to
death bore with their cruelty. His love for His Father, and His pledge,
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made from the foundation of the world, to become the Sin Bearer, led
Him to endure uncomplainingly the coarse treatment of those He came
to save. It was a part of His mission to bear, in His humanity, all the
taunts and abuse that men could heap upon Him. The only hope of