Dignity despite the outrage

"Jesus answered [the guard] : If I have spoken evil, bear witness of what is evil ; But if I have spoken well, why do you strike me ?" Read John 18: 19-24

"All the day they twist my words; All their thoughts are against me in evil." Psalm 56. 5

The resurrection of Lazarus and its repercussions on the Jews of Bethany and Jerusalem irritated "the chief priests and the Pharisees." This leads them quickly to decide to kill the Lord (John 11: 53). However, the Sanhedrin does not have the right to pronounce a sentence of death. He needs strong arguments to convince Pilate, the Roman governor, to do so ; But Jesus committed no offense punishable by death, the task of the Sanhedrin is therefore singularly complicated. Then, not being able to accuse Jesus of any crime, the high priest asks him "about his disciples and his doctrine" in the hope that he himself will incriminate himself.

The insolence of the high priest is shocking : he claims to trap the Lord in his words, he who "knows the secrets of the heart" (Ps 44:21). The answer of Jesus is not long in coming : "Why do you ask me ?" On the one hand, as Jesus experienced throughout his ministry, he knows that all his words will be twisted. On the other hand, his teaching having been rejected, it is no longer time for him to speak. Jesus therefore returns the high priest to those who know what he has said "openly ... in the synagogue" (John 18:20, 21).

No outrage is spared to the Lord. He must suffer the slap of a bailiff of the high priest ; "Oppressed and afflicted ... he did not open his mouth" (Isa.53: 7), not being able to lend himself to the mock judgment he had against him. The high priest must admonish him "by the living God" to declare that he is "the Christ, the Son of God" so that he may answer : "Thou hast said it" (Matt 26: 63, 64).

We are amazed at the dignity of the Lord! Although bound and humiliated by the tricks of which he knows the baseness and the intentions, he dominates the whole scene by his nobility ; It will be the same in his appearances before Pilate and Herod.

A poet has well known how to express it : "He is great and magnificent, let us praise the Lord !"

Source (To pleasing the Lord)