Shameful Treatment.
Matt. 2:67,68.
I AM sure all will agree with me, if I say, that in the supreme court of any nation—the highest court of the land, where justice is to be had, if it is to be found anywhere on earth—we have a right to expect, decency, sobriety, and dignity becoming such a place, and a treatment even of criminals, worthy of men to whom such an exalted trust is committed.
The council of the Jewish nation, called the Sanhedrim, was the highest court of that most highly favored people, and it was before this court that Jesus of Nazareth was put upon trial for His life. He had done no wrong; He had never done anything but the will of God; He was holy, harmless undefiled, and separated from sinners; the people had rejoiced as they listened to His words of grace; and the multitudes had thronged Him as He wrought miracles of divine power to relieve them in their sorrow and their distress; but the rulers of the nation hated Him, because in His immaculate purity He was unlike themselves, and they feared that if He came into power as Messiah and King, they would lose their places. And so they had condemned Him as guilty of blasphemy and worthy to die.
One would have thought that in such a court such a sentence would have been accompanied with common decency and becoming dignity, to say the least. A judge who has the feelings of an ordinary human being, if called upon to pass sentence of death upon a guilty criminal does so with some pangs of sorrow, at the thought of the wretched creature’s fate. But what shall we say of these wretched judges in Israel’s highest tribunal? They had sat in judgment on Him who had given them being, and who had given them their place of tremendous responsibility in that court of the nation; and without a pang of remorse, they had condemned Him to die. But, not content with this, they proceeded to insult Him in the most shameless way.
Matthew tells us: “Then did they spit in His face, and buffeted Him; and others smote Him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who is it that smote Thee?” And Luke says: “And the men that held Jesus mocked Him, and smote Him. And when they had blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face, and asked Him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote Thee? And many others things blasphemously spoke they against Him.”
Such was the shameful treatment Jesus received at the hands of those who held the place of the highest judges of the land. These were the “Mills of Basham” of whom the Spirit of God speaks in Ps. 22:12, 13. There we hear the voice of Jesus, centuries before, giving utterance to the cruel treatment He was to receive in that Jewish Council. “Many bulls have compassed Me,” He says; “strong bulls of Basham have beset Me round.
They gaped upon Me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.”
Ah! yes, dear reader, they were bent on His destruction; and their hatred was such, that they must also add insult to injury; spitting in His blessed face, buffeting, smiting and mocking. Where is your heart, reader? Does it go with Him? or with these “bulls of Basham”? Are you for Him, or against Him? Have you confessed Him Saviour and Lord? Or do you still reject Him? Oh! how sad if still rejecting that blessed One. Can you go on another day, or hour, without owning Him as the Son of God, your Saviour?
ML 04/29/1906