Before Annas and the Court of Caiaphas
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Him in that trying hour were sleeping. He remembered His solemn
charge, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.”
Matthew
26:41
. He witnessed again the scene in the judgment hall. It was
torture to his bleeding heart to know that he had added the heaviest
burden to the Saviour’s humiliation and grief. On the very spot where
Jesus had poured out His soul in agony to His Father, Peter fell upon
his face, and wished that he might die.
It was in sleeping when Jesus bade him watch and pray that Peter
had prepared the way for his great sin. All the disciples, by sleeping
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in that critical hour, sustained a great loss. Christ knew the fiery
ordeal through which they were to pass. He knew how Satan would
work to paralyze their senses that they might be unready for the trial.
Therefore it was that He gave them warning. Had those hours in the
garden been spent in watching and prayer, Peter would not have been
left to depend upon his own feeble strength. He would not have denied
his Lord. Had the disciples watched with Christ in His agony, they
would have been prepared to behold His suffering upon the cross. They
would have understood in some degree the nature of His overpowering
anguish. They would have been able to recall His words that foretold
His sufferings, His death, and His resurrection. Amid the gloom of
the most trying hour, some rays of hope would have lighted up the
darkness and sustained their faith.
As soon as it was day, the Sanhedrin again assembled, and again
Jesus was brought into the council room. He had declared Himself the
Son of God, and they had construed His words into a charge against
Him. But they could not condemn Him on this, for many of them
had not been present at the night session, and they had not heard His
words. And they knew that the Roman tribunal would find in them
nothing worthy of death. But if from His own lips they could all hear
those words repeated, their object might be gained. His claim to the
Messiahship they might construe into a seditious political claim.
“Art Thou the Christ?” they said, “tell us.” But Christ remained
silent. They continued to ply Him with questions. At last in tones of
mournful pathos He answered, “If I tell you, ye will not believe; and if
I also ask you, ye will not answer Me, nor let Me go.” But that they
might be left without excuse He added the solemn warning, “Hereafter
shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God.”