Monday, March 25, 2013
Holy Week
Mark 14:60-61a, 60 And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, "Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?" But he remained silent and made no answer.
SILENT STRENGTH ... SILENT PURPOSE
The false witnesses at Jesus trial before the Sanhedrin, were they, like Judas, paid off? Or were they simply convinced that perjury was a necessary evil -- if the land was to be freed of the threat that Rome's legions would wipe out the nation if Jesus of Nazareth was not done away with?
Jesus did not speak up to defend himself against the lies spoken against him. After all, who would you convince and of what? How do you answer lies before a jury who commissioned those very lies? The vast majority of the members of the Jewish High Court had made up their minds about Jesus long before He was ever arrested. Months earlier, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, they began plotting to put him to death (John 11:53).
But while the minds of Jesus' enemies were made up in advance of His trial -- so was His. Long before those religious leaders plotted His death, Jesus had determined to lay down His life as a sacrifice for dying sinners. In fact, he told one of the Sanhedrin's members:
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3:14-15).
And when Jesus told Nicodemus that -- some three years before His crucifixion -- He was revealing a plan of action already decided in eternity. Therefore, when he came into the world, he said,
"A body you have prepared for Me ...
Behold, I have come to do Your will. O God"
(Hebrews 10:5, 7)
