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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, the text is that gospel reading about the so-called trial before Caiaphas, the high priest. The prophet Isaiah, 700 years before Jesus ever went through this scene, prophesied specifically about what happened in this scene when he wrote, “He was oppressed and he was afflicted, and yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
Now yes, there were a couple of statements that Jesus made. But notice it’s recorded, in fact, three different times that Jesus remained silent. The ultimate silence was not decrying what God had laid upon him. Then Isaiah, when he writes, sometime writes as if Jesus himself is speaking these words. And these are the words that Isaiah writes as if Jesus is saying them: “I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” That he would be so specific to mention that one aspect that we hear in our text about being spit upon—not just a little bit, but a lot.
And so everyone flees from Jesus’ side after the kiss has been given and after the soldiers move forward. No one stays by Jesus. And then they bring about this event: an unindicted man named Jesus who never had a charge listed to him to even need to convene the Sanhedrin. But they go even more dark and covert and black in their actions. Here he is unindicted. They illegally gather people at a time of day when they ought not to have any legally binding court case before the Sanhedrin.
And they gather this illegally gathered court at an illegal time against an unindicted man, and they can’t even get witnesses to agree with one another. You would think that they would have done their homework and said, “Okay, Joe. Okay, James. Make sure you say the same thing.” And even what they accuse him of is so paltry. He said that he could destroy this temple and he would build it again in three days. Nothing at all mentioned that Jesus claimed divinity.
So Caiaphas, in even a more black and dark manner, casts out these inept witnesses and lays out a verdict by divine fiat of his own power and says, “This man is guilty of something.” So he pushes this condemnation of not just guilty, but guilty of death. And as was said by Isaiah, Jesus was silent. But he was silent out of love. Out of love for Caiaphas who falsely accused him and misused his power in a completely unauthorized manner. Out of love for the other Sanhedrin that were gathered there that had already been strong-armed prior to, that they too would voice their opinion for death.
Out of love for anyone in that room, as they heard all of this brought forth, did he remain silent, thereby enraging Caiaphas to lay out the card. Now, this is interesting because Caiaphas and all of them knew from the Old Testament description that whomever would be the Messiah would definitely be the Son of God. That was an understood characteristic of who this person would be as Messiah. He would be anointed by God and he would be God in the flesh.
So Caiaphas throws down that card of truth, because it was true. “Are you the Messiah?” Of course he is. “Are you the Son of the Blessed,” which means the Son of the Father, the Son of the Creator, co-equal with God? Yes. Everything that Jesus did in his ministry, he never denied being God’s Son. Amen. Remember, he told them, “I will be rejected by the chief priests and the elders. I will be brought before the authorities. They will hand me over to death. I will die and I will rise again.” Just as it says in the Scriptures, over and over, did he continue to show himself as what he was, the Messiah.
He died, allowed and confirmed all of those Old Testament prophecies to be fulfilled in himself. And now when he is asked whether he is really this, this is important. He doesn’t answer with a simple yes. He answers with a two-word phrase that cannot fall on your ears without it sinking deeply. Listen. He says, “I am.” Comma. Pause. Let it sink in. “I am.”
What did God, the Father, at the mount where there was the burning bush, when Moses asked him, “Who shall I say sent me?” “You shall say, I am sent you.” For a Jew, the term “I am” always implied deity. When Jesus proclaims himself to be, “I am, I am,” he is saying, not only am I confirming what you said, I’m going to throw down one more card that completely seals the deal that the great testifying phrase of the Old Testament of the deity is, “I am, I am, I am.”
He rips his garment. He does not believe this to be true. And yet, on judgment day, Caiaphas’ knee will be bent. And Caiaphas’ lips will say, “Jesus is Lord,” and Caiaphas will be damned with that confession on his lips. Just as you and I, on that day when he comes with glory, shall see him and too shall bow and too shall confess him, yet we shall be brought into heaven.
God has a very unique, ironic way of revealing things to you. He uses a complete and utter unbeliever, Caiaphas, to tell you and to confirm in you who Jesus is so that you too know Him to be the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed. He used Peter, obviously earlier in the gospel, when Jesus asked, “But who do you say that I am?” And he said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That’s using a believer, but God is so powerful that he will use the lips and the words of an unbeliever to proclaim truth about him that a believer will believe. And an unbeliever remains in coldness and blindness.
So you know that part where it says they spit on him and smacked him and beat him and they said, “Prophesy to us, who hit you?” You know, if you don’t think about this in the right way, that makes no sense. They put a cloth over his head so that he couldn’t see. Then they pummeled him. Then they asked, “Prophesy to me, who hit you?”
But notice it was not the guards yet that buffeted him. That leaves only one other group of people that began the spitting and the buffeting and the mocking, and that’s the Sanhedrin. The sin of the Sanhedrin bled over and infected the guards who said, “If they will do it, then so shall I.” And the text talks about them joining in.
So if you were wondering about the Old Testament reading and its connection to this text, it’s really the last phrase of the text of the Old Testament reading. They were at that area, grumbling against God, grumbling against Moses. And it’s their statement that they ask this question, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Now you may not have heard those words come out of your mouth, but you have had those thoughts flow through your brain. “Is God with me or not? Is God among us or not? Why would this be what is happening to me if He wasn’t?” And here Jesus reveals to us that He is among us, but not in power and glory. He is among us as the one who suffered alone in that garden. He is among us as the one who was beat and spat upon by the Sanhedrin. He is the one among us who has been left all alone by his people. And he tells you, “You’ll never be alone. You’ll never be without me.”
So that psalm, “O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.” It’s easy for us to think in terms of this glorified God in Jesus Christ. Yes, but this is our God who hangs upon the accursed tree. Who was beaten and spit upon? That’s the one whom we kneel before.
While all the others kneel in mockery, we kneel in fidelity. While all the others are saying, “Prophesy to us, Christ,” we say, “We hear you and we obey.” For he is our God, this one who had been beaten and spat upon and has not abandoned us. And we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
