(Continued from p. 361.)
"Thy sorrows, Saviour, we retrace,
And tears of praise Thy griefs compel,
What love and grace illume Thy face,
As Jesus, as IMMANUEL."
Gabbatha (The Pavement), the exact location of which seems rather obscure, appears to have been the last court to which the Holy Sufferer was taken to receive His final sentence from the Roman tribunal.
Amid these hallowed scenes we might well linger with sorrowing, yet adoring, hearts, conscious that "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father" and that the depths of His sorrow no human mind can conceive.
Man's hour had come; for when the rabble crowd approached the Lord, led by the betrayer into the garden, a place well known to Judas (for he had often been a witness to those scenes of holy intimacy which the blessed Lord ever enjoyed with the Father), He, while questioning the priests and elders (Lk. 22:52-53) said, "This is your hour and the power of darkness." Yes, that hour had arrived, when man, energized by Satan, was allowed full liberty to express all the hatred of the human heart against God, pent up for four millenniums. God was manifest in the flesh, and the full tide of man's opposition and hatred poured forth its mighty torrent against the spotless, sinless One. Here no mere creature could stand. In John's Gospel, more than in the synoptic Gospels, we find what was subsequent to the anguish of Gethsemane, the details fully corresponding with the character of the Gospel-"the Gospel of Deity"-and the "burnt offering" aspect of our Lord's voluntary sacrifice.
After the kiss of the betrayer, when the emissaries of the priests and rulers came to seize the Lord, He in quiet dignity anticipated them with the enquiry, "Whom seek ye?" and in answer to their reply, "Jesus of Nazareth," He added, "I am He," but n& hand was laid upon Him. Those words once spoken to Moses, "I am," awed them, and before His glory they "fell to the ground." Who could apprehend Him? Often He had "conveyed Himself away" when His hour had not come, but now the conflict of Gethsemane over, He is about to take the cup from the Father's hand, and give Himself up to death. Again He asks them, "Whom seek ye?" Again they reply, "Jesus of Nazareth." And now His loving care for His poor failing disciples expressed itself in the words, "If ye seek Me, let these go their way," and this, "that the saying might be fulfilled, Of those whom Thou gavest Me have I lost none." The Shepherd must be smitten and the sheep scattered (Zech. 13:18).
Divine power and glory were evident, yet poor Peter with weapons of carnal warfare would ignorantly protect his Master. Who can question his affection? Yet how all this serves to bring out the lack of appreciation of this Holy Sufferer! He could have commanded twelve legions of angels for His protection, or annihilated His persecutors with a word, but, reproving Peter, He says:"The cup which my Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?" In this, His perfect obedience shines out.
Thus the hardness and profanity of the heart (Judas) and the dullness and fleshly energy of man (Peter) were fully manifested. We see too, in His disciples, the weakness of the flesh when tested, and finally the enmity and hatred of man and Satan against the Sinless One. Who can measure the deep sorrow of all this, or enter into the sufferings of the Righteous One?
He allows Himself to be bound, "Led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened He not his mouth" (Acts 8:32). Taken, as John alone tells us, before Annas first, in quiet dignity He referred to the testimony of His words, and when one, more open in his contempt and profanity, struck Him, the Holy Sufferer bears the insult without a murmur; Peter in his epistle bearing witness that when "persecuted He threatened not!" (Oh! that we might drink more deeply into His spirit.)
From Annas He is sent to Caiaphas, the man who had given counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. He would offer Him up at the Roman altar to ensure their peace and favor with Rome. The Holy Spirit, however, turned the words to better account, using it as prophetic of a Saviour, the result of whose work would "gather together in one the children of God scattered abroad" (John 11:5,21).
Before the ecclesiastical court the council sought false witnesses against the Holy Prisoner "to put Him to death." How base and wicked can men be, and yet withal deeply religious and apparently genuinely zealous 1 Here He is charged with "blasphemy"-later, before Pilate, the charge is "rebellion!" The charge before Caiaphas was a real one, "He had made Himself the Son of God" (John 19:7). They had been stung to madness by His words in the parable of the vineyard (Matt. 21) and knew the implication of the words, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize on his inheritance." Now they are carrying out their base purpose, and are ready to swear anything, or do anything, if only He might be put to death. Under oath, He is commanded to reply if He "be the Christ the Son of God." To this He can give but one answer, "Thou hast said." Thus He becomes His own witness maintaining the truth of His previous testimony and adding, "Henceforth shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." This is characteristic of the testimony in Matthew's Gospel, and here we find the heads of the nation lashed to fury against the Saviour, their unrestrained passion surging against Him, while they cry, "He is guilty of death." The high priest-as if in holy horror-rent his robe and declared the trial ended. The farcical trial ended, the Holy One condemned, the full tide of evil passion, which had been the true incentive, flows forth unrestrained. Every possible indignity is offered. In derision "they spit in His face"-no cry comes from the Holy Sufferer-He is buffeted and struck, and still answers not a word. "Despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (Isa. 53), "He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to those who plucked off the hair, He hid not His face from shame and spitting " (Isa. 50:6).
Beloved, He has left us an example that we should follow His steps; not that we ever can know those depths of anguish -no CREATURE could do that -but His beautiful spirit of self-abnegation makes us feel what unworthy disciples we are, and surely creates a desire to be more like Him.
We next see the blessed Lord before Pilate, in perfect calm, and entire submission. Their charge is laid; first, He made Himself the Son of God, for this He should die, but it was not lawful for them to put any man to death; they invoke the aid of the Roman power. Secondly, He claimed to be a King. This for the Roman governor was the more serious, though he made it evident it created no alarm for his Imperial Master.
Into the Praetorium the Jews would not enter "lest they be defiled, that they might eat the passover!" What solemn mockery! Throughout this whole scene it is evident that Pilate sought to quiet the people and to release Jesus, recognizing that "for envy they had delivered Him up." He is evidently conscious that the Prisoner was no ordinary one. His silence made "the Governor marvel greatly." This impression was greatly deepened by the varied happenings; his wife's dream and message, the extreme malice of the Jews, and the unwavering claim of the Holy Prisoner that He was the Son of God-all awakened in the mind of this ambitious ruler alarm and misgiving:but the world had too great a hold, and to be a "friend of Caesar " was more to him than justice and truth. He, however, labored to find a way out of the dilemma, again and again stating he found no fault with Him. But the voices of the scribes and elders prevailed, and when the choice is given, "Barabbas or Jesus," there is no hesitancy on their part, such as evidently Pilate hoped; their decision is made, "Not this Man, but Barabbas." Thus the fatal choice was made, and the decision of the nation finally recorded, "We will not have this Man to reign over us." J. W. H. N.
(To be continued, D. V.)