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Illegal Trial of Jesus
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As if reading the inmost soul of His questioner, Christ denied that
He gathered His followers secretly and in the darkness to conceal
His plans. “I spoke openly to the world,” He answered. “I always
taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always meet,
and in secret I have said nothing.”
The Savior contrasted His manner of work with the methods
of His accusers. They had hunted Him to bring Him before a se-
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cret tribunal, where they might use perjury to obtain what it was
impossible to gain by fair means. The midnight arrest by a mob,
the mockery and abuse before He was even accused—this was their
manner of work, not His. Their action was in violation of the law.
Their own rules declared that everyone should be treated as innocent
until proved guilty.
Turning upon His questioner, Jesus said, “Why do you ask Me?”
Had not spies been present at every gathering of the people and
carried information to the priests about all His sayings and doings?
“Ask those who have heard Me what I said to them. Indeed they
know what I said.”
Annas was silenced. One of his officers, filled with anger, struck
Jesus on the face, saying, “Do You answer the high priest like that?”
Christ calmly replied, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil;
but if well, why do you strike Me?” His calm answer came from a
heart sinless, patient, and gentle, that would not be provoked.
Christ received every indignity from the hands of the beings
for whom He was making an infinite sacrifice. And He suffered in
proportion to His holiness and hatred of sin. His trial by men who
acted as demons was a perpetual sacrifice for Him. To be surrounded
by human beings under the control of Satan was revolting. And He
knew that by flashing out His divine power, He could lay His cruel
tormentors in the dust. This made the trial harder to bear.
The Jews expected a Messiah to change the current of peo-
ple’s thoughts by one flash of overmastering will and force them
to acknowledge His supremacy. So when Christ was treated with
contempt, a strong temptation came to Him to show His divine char-
acter, to make His persecutors confess that He was Lord above kings
and rulers, priests and temple. It was difficult to keep the position
He had chosen as one with humanity.