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by Sandy Shaw
Once these soldiers and religious leaders escort Jesus Christ across town from the Garden of Gethsemane to Caiaphas the High Priest’s house further wickedness explodes. We are studying in Luke Chapter 22 and we read of what happened at verse 63. Luke 22 is a long chapter. For Jesus Christ it had been a long day and it was going to be a long night.
Inside Caiaphas’s house those whose job it was to guard Jesus mock Jesus. We are reading now of terrible behaviour, and during the Passover, and led by the religious leaders in the house of the High Priest. They mock and strike Jesus.
This is what I find hard to believe in the Bible. Not the miracles. Not the record of creation and the Flood. What I find hard is the appalling behaviour of those who were regarded as religious leaders, as they attack Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This had been going on for some three years but now it reaches a climax.
What would you do if that is how you were treated when you came to worship? Would you come back? Would you continue to love? Would you forgive? Jesus did.
We have a poster from Release International on our door depicting a fellowship being attacked in some Far East country. Some services do not close with a blessing but with a battering, and that is what Jesus endures within the hose of the High Priest.
"Blindfold Him." Now, to prove that you are an impostor, tell us who hit you.
Imagine behaving like this in front of the Son of God, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world; the One Who healed the sick; loved the unlovely, and ministered to the needy and put together those whose lives were broken. This is the Man Who lifted up the downcast, and they lift up their hand against Jesus.
They are out to harm Jesus as much as possible, and the religious leaders allow this inhuman cruelty to continue.
People who try to make you feel small usually realise that you are not!
Verse 66. The Sanhedrin was not allowed to meet at night, so they meet as soon as the sun rises, and within a few hours they have Jesus on the Cross.
This is sheer wickedness at its worst. Desperate men do desperate things.
Verse 67. Are you the Christ? Jesus explains, but what is the use of speaking to you if you do not want the truth. If I am innocent, will you answer me?
Will you release me? Will you stop troubling me?
Jesus knows where he is going. He is going to die and then to the Throne of His Father.
When you are going through a really hard and tough period know that Jesus Christ has gone through a hard a tough period before you, and whatever your circumstances are this day, remember those who are being sorely and severely persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ.
It has been so from the very beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ and it is unlikely to change until Jesus Christ comes again.
Alexander 'Sandy' Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness - on the Moray Firth Coast - not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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