PrintToday's "Moment with Mark" (111)
16 March, 2013
Then the high priest asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the blessed God?" Jesus said, "I am, and you will see me, the Son of Man, sitting at God's right hand in the place of power and coming back on the clouds of heaven." (Mark 14:61-62 NLT)
All eyes are on the pathetic figure of the man standing in the middle of the meeting room. He had been savagely beaten with a whip made of long thongs tipped with metal that would flay the flesh of any man's back. Surely any resistance was now beaten out of Him.
But now the High Priest asks the question and is stunned by the answer and secondly, by the total lack of hesitation in the way the claim was made and accepted. It was enough that Jesus said, "I am...". That, in itself, would secure Him a place front and centre in the queue waiting to be stoned.
Then, Jesus speaks with clarity and authority and describes Himself in terms of the Old Testament Messiah. I can well imagine the murmur - the loud murmur!! - that flooded through that judgment chamber. So far as the established "Church" was concerned, they needed nothing more to secure a guilty verdict and the execution of the prisoner.
Sometimes when I read the New Testament accounts of Jesus' trial, I get frustrated by Jesus' silence when I read, "Jesus made no reply". And this to be at several strategic points in the story. "Defend yourself, Jesus! You know the charges are false! You can answer those charges and blow their case out of the water!"
At other times I get frustrated because He seems to say too much. If He doesn't say anything, they can't incriminate Him. But, as repeatedly, stated in recent "moments with Mark, I see Jesus here taking charge from a place of weakness and initiating every step to the Cross.
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