Mark 14:53-6553And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. 54And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire. 55And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none. 56For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. 57And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, 58We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. 59But neither so did their witness agree together. 60And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? 61But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? 62And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 63Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? 64Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. 65And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands. (Mark 14:53‑65)
The soldiers took Jesus to the palace of the high priest, the leader of the Jewish people; his house was near or a part of the Temple. It was night, but there were priests, scribes, and others waiting, as had been planned to question and witness against Jesus. They wanted to ‘luny through a trial of Jesus when most of the people would not see or know what they did.
These men gathered in the palace, knew the laws given to Moses to direct them how to give any accused person a fair trial with witnesses. They would know the words by the prophet,
“O, man, what is good, and what loth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”
They did not do justly or love mercy; they had before tried to puzzle Jesus with questions, and have Him speak wrongly. They were so angry because He had told them God’s words and shown their wrong ways, that they were determined to condemn Him to death, although He had done no wrong.
There were men for witnesses, but they did not speak truly, and they did not agree in what they said. At last the high priest asked Jesus,
“Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”
The Lord answered plainly, “I am,” and told them of His coming with power.
The high priest called His answer blasphemy,” words against God. Then they all agreed Jesus deserved to die.
There were certain things people of those days did to show their feelings to others they “rent”, or tore their clothes to show great grief or shame. But the high priest was not to do so (Lev. 21:1010And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes; (Leviticus 21:10)), yet the high priest that night rent his clothes, to show he thought the words of the Lord Jesus were shameful.
Some of the men spit in the face of Jesus to show their contempt of Him; others covered His eyes, then struck Him with their hands (called “buffeting”), and said for Him to name who struck Him.
Yet Jesus did not answer or resist: He proved the words written long before of the Holy One to come:
“I hid not My face from shame and spitting.” Is: 50:6. It was also written of Him,
However, those men had no right to punish anyone by death: all they could do was to accuse and witness against Jesus, and send Him to the Roman ruler for another trial. They hurried to do this early in the morning.
Do you know what time of the year this was? It was the time of the passover feast, also called the feast of unleavened bread, because they then ate only unleavened bread (without yeast) for seven days. This was in their month Abid, the same as late March or early April to us. (see Exo. 13:3,4,63And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten. 4This day came ye out in the month Abib. (Exodus 13:3‑4)
6Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. (Exodus 13:6); Luke 22:11Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. (Luke 22:1)).
ML 08/06/1944