65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?”
“He is worthy of death,” they answered.
67 Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him 68 and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?”
Christ was the perfect example of patient submission under unjust suffering. How He kept from zapping His adversaries indeed demonstrated His supreme omnipotence under divine control. Humanly speaking, the provocation to blast forth in retaliation had to have been extreme. Yet He continued to entrust Himself to God and remained silent – like a Sheep led to slaughter. Thankfully for us, He focused on the “joy set before Him” – bringing many men to glory - rather than on easing the pain of the present moment. Both Isaiah and Peter’s words come to mind regarding the suffering Servant:
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3 (NIV)
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:23-24 (NIV)
Jesus had just told these religious leaders that He was the Christ yet obviously the darkness would have nothing to do with the Light. Indeed, the high priest was carrying on - screaming blasphemy, tearing his clothes and shouting the death sentence. I am sure it had to have been quite the scene. No surprises here, darkness hates the Light. Our Lord had told Nicodemus – one their own – when he had come to meet privately with Jesus - the following in the Gospel of John:
19 “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” John 3:19-21 (NIV)
“Luther was right: the root behind all other manifestations of sin is compulsive unbelief—our voluntary darkness concerning God, ourselves, his relationship to the fallen world and his redemption purpose...If the fall occurred through embracing lies, the recovery process of salvation must center on faith in truth, reversing this condition.” Richard Lovelace
Jesus came speaking truth – He was the Truth for heaven’s sake! Seventy-eight times in the New Testament Christ began what He is going to say with “I tell you the truth”. He was clearly giving His hearers a heads-up to have ears prepared to hear. The Prophet Isaiah tells us the following regarding the reliability of the truthfulness of God’s Word – we can trust Him:
19 I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob's descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right. Isaiah 45:19 (NIV)
Contrast the high priest’s reactions to Jesus’ proclamation of Messiah-ship in our verses for today with the Samaritan woman at the well when she hears this Truth from the Lord’s lips. Unlike the religious elite’s actions of seeking to rid themselves of the Lord, she became quite the evangelist and sought to bring others to Him. Good news is to be shared:
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.” John 4:25-26 (NIV)
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. John 4:28-30 (NIV)
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” John 4:39-42 (NIV)
“The Christian’s task is to make the Lord Jesus visible, intelligible, and desirable.” Leon Jones
“If he has faith, the believer cannot be restrained.” Martin Luther