00:00:00.000 - 00:00:28.720

Your message for the moment was Dr. Bruce W. Thielman, "When the Fountain of Justice Ran Dry," the second in the Via Dolorosa series. Our second scripture reading for this evening is one of the gospel accounts concerning Jesus' trial before Caiaphas, the high priest of Israel. We read from the gospel according

00:00:28.720 - 00:00:56.640

to Matthew chapter 26 beginning at the verse numbered 57. "Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled. But Peter followed him at a distance right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards

00:00:56.640 - 00:01:20.800

to see the outcome. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward and declared, 'This fellow said, "I am able to destroy the temple of God and

00:01:20.800 - 00:01:49.200

rebuild it in three days." Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?" But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God."

00:01:49.200 - 00:02:17.360

"Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you in the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy. Why do we need any more witnesses? Look now, you have heard the

00:02:17.360 - 00:02:57.640

blasphemy. What do you think? He is worthy of death," they answered. Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, "Prophesy to us, Christ, that you have inspired these words. Inspire us as we seek out the meaning in them. Pray with me."

00:03:00.040 - 00:03:35.400

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. One of the first things that strikes you when you visit the tiny nation of Israel is the vast topographical divergences which are there. High mountains, deep valleys, rolling plains, desert areas, verdant areas. It is a country of great

00:03:35.400 - 00:04:02.960

geographical contrast. Valentine Schwobel, one of the great biblical geographers, has said that according to its geographical eccentricities, Israel can be divided into no less than 40 different districts, so crisscrossed and cut up is the land. I remember a number of years ago when I was speaking at our

00:04:02.960 - 00:04:30.960

nation's jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California, and I saw on the wall there a photograph of the Sea of Galilee, which had been taken from one of our space vehicles 272 miles up. Looking down on the nation of Israel from that perspective, it looked very much like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that had just

00:04:30.960 - 00:04:58.640

been poured out of the box and not put into any order. The land is broken in a thousand different ways. So broken that even today, with all the modern technology that is available, it is difficult to achieve a sense of unity within Israel. And if that is difficult today, you can imagine how it must have

00:04:58.640 - 00:05:34.880

been 2,000 years ago when there was no significant highway system, no radio, no telephone, and no telegraph. In those days, the unity of Israel rested principally in reverence for its law. That which tied the tiny nation together, that bridged all the geographical breaks, was a love for and a seeking after justice.

00:05:34.880 - 00:06:07.680

Now, I ask you to remember that tonight, because in the next minute we're going to encounter that moment in Jewish history when the law was not reverent, when justice was violated and trodden underfoot. The Prophet Amos said, "Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing

00:06:07.680 - 00:06:41.960

stream." Tonight, we will go with Jesus to the fountain of Jewish justice, and we will find not an overflowing stream, but rather that the fountains of justice have run dry. After Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was taken to the house of Annas. Annas was a former high priest. At that time, he was about 70

00:06:41.960 - 00:07:04.200

years of age. Now, in those days, a high priest did not usually reign for very long, but Annas was a very clever man, and so when his term was over, he got no fewer than five of his sons to follow him in that high office. He was a man of great power, and he was deeply offended by Jesus, particularly by Jesus' cleansing

00:07:04.200 - 00:07:30.040

of the temple, and so Annas stayed up late on the night of Jesus' arrest to make sure that the Nazarene was successfully captured. They brought Jesus to the house of Annas. Now, we have no record as to what occurred in that house. We know what happened in Gethsemane, for Mark was there to tell us of it later. We know

00:07:30.040 - 00:07:55.040

what happened to Jesus in the palace of Caiaphas, for both Peter and John were there and they could tell us of it later. But there was no one in the house of Annas to bear record. So what transpired in the confrontation between Jesus and Annas is shrouded in silence. That, of course, is true of much of Jesus' earthly

00:07:55.040 - 00:08:16.800

life. When you think of it, we know very little about his experience here on this earth. We know of his birth, we know of an incident when he was twelve years old, we know of his baptism when he was thirty. All of the material in the gospel, encompassed when put together, know more than six months of his life. So really,

00:08:16.800 - 00:08:36.940

we know very little of his incarnate experience. Someone has commented that the Apostles' Creed is quite accurate when it sums up most of Jesus' life with nothing more than a comma. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, comma, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and

00:08:36.940 - 00:08:58.440

buried. Now I don't think it's a mere accident that we know so little of Jesus' earthly experience. It is God's will that it should be so, because he does not want us to build dusty shrines to characters out of yesterday. When we think of Jesus, he does not want us to focus upon some itinerant preacher who

00:08:58.440 - 00:09:26.720

picked berries along the way. He wants us to see a Christ not out of yesterday, but today, an altogether contemporary Jesus. So we are given enough to know of him, but not too much to be looking always into yesterday. Rembrandt, in his paintings, oft times uses darkness and shadow in order to accentuate places

00:09:26.720 - 00:09:52.240

of brilliance and light. Just so in the gospel, there are long silent and dark periods, precisely in order that we might see more clearly those brilliant moments which the Holy Spirit never wants us to forget. And Jesus' appearance before Annas is one of the moments that is covered in darkness. Jesus was next

00:09:52.240 - 00:10:12.920

taken from the house of Annas to the palace of Caiaphas. As they went through the sleepy, narrow streets of Jerusalem, no crowd assembled. They were used to hearing the sound of Roman soldiers in the highways and streets. They came to the house of Caiaphas, and there John and Peter were present. The house was built

00:10:12.920 - 00:10:33.800

about a great courtyard. Along the right-hand side of the courtyard was a room well illuminated. There were tall, stately stone pillars that separated that room from the courtyard. The room was brightly lighted; the courtyard was dark. John and Peter were there in the darkness, but they could see clearly what

00:10:33.800 - 00:10:56.360

transpired in the room. Seated with their backs to John and Peter were a number of men, fifty or more. These were members of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of the Jews. Actually there were seventy-one men on that court, but this trial came up rather suddenly and at night, and so they were not all able to be there. They were

00:10:56.360 - 00:11:17.440

sitting with their backs to the courtyard, looking at the far wall, and against that wall there was a throne, and seated in that throne was Caiaphas, the High Priest. He was, at that time, in the eighteenth year of his holding that position. He did not know it, of course, but he was very near the end of his life.

00:11:17.440 - 00:11:43.760

He also did not know this. The next few hours would constitute the most important hours of his life. You see, Caiaphas was about to miss his big chance. He wants to be confronted with Christ and to have had the opportunity to have knelt before him, but he misses that opportunity. He takes company with Herod

00:11:43.760 - 00:12:05.720

and Felix and the rich young ruler and all those who saw Jesus face to face and then turned away. Have you ever been aboard a ship at night? You're not aware of any other ships on the water. The moon is off in the distance and you're sitting on deck, looking at the moonbeams as they reflect off the water,

00:12:05.720 - 00:12:30.640

coming right to where you're seated. And then, suddenly, out of the darkness, cruising across that patch of liquid light, you see another ship. It's silhouetted for just a moment, and then it disappears into the darkness again. Caiaphas was like that. Caiaphas came out of darkness and went into darkness. If

00:12:30.640 - 00:12:54.760

it were not for what happened to him on this night, none of us would have ever heard his name. But for a moment, he was in the light. For a moment, he was in the light of Jesus, his great opportunity, and he missed it. William Jennings Bryant, who was three times the nominee of his party for

00:12:54.760 - 00:13:14.080

President of the United States, was best known for a speech he made at one of the political conventions of his party. That speech concluded with a line which has been oft quoted, "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." Someone asked him once why it was that that was his best-known speech, when in

00:13:14.080 - 00:13:51.480

fact he had given many other more auspicious addresses. And Bryant responded, "That convention was my opportunity, and I made the most of it. That is all we do in this world. We either lose or use our opportunity." So for Caiaphas, Christ was knocking, as he knocks for each one of us. But who knows if he will

00:13:51.480 - 00:14:15.680

ever hear that knock again. We must not miss our opportunity. The trial begins unjustly. It's unjust in the first place because it's being held in the palace of a high priest, and that was not the place where trials were to be held. And it's unjust in the second place because it is being held under cover of darkness, and

00:14:15.680 - 00:14:36.640

the rules of the Sanhedrin said that every legal action had to be begun before noon. Caiaphas was anxious to have the trial at night because he did not want enough roar amongst the people. In other words, he wanted to try to get away with it in the darkness. We understand that, don't we? We try to get away with a

00:14:36.640 - 00:14:58.640

lot of things in the darkness. Alfred North Whitehead, the great American philosopher, once said, "Religion is what man does in his solitariness. Religion is what man does when he's all alone. Religion is what man does when he's in the dark, when he doesn't think anybody else is looking." O. Henry, one of our

00:14:58.640 - 00:15:17.400

greatest short story writers—his real name was Sidney Porter—was a failure as a man. He was an embezzler, he was a lecher, he was an alcoholic. His total life was spent in a dissolute fashion. When he came to die at a very early age, he cried out, and these were his last words, "Turn up the lights! I don't want to

00:15:17.400 - 00:15:43.840

go home in the dark!" None of us want to go home in the dark, but a lot of us try to live in the dark. Caiaphas was trying to get away with something in the darkness. The truth is, none of us ever get away with anything in the darkness. This might be called the boomerang factor in religion. Ever watch the real pro throw a

00:15:43.840 - 00:16:05.640

boomerang? I stood in Sydney, Australia once and watched him hang and hurl with greater and greater degrees of intensity, and that boomerang would soar out and every time would arrive back landing directly at his feet. Well, that's the way it is with what we do in the darkness. We may do it in the darkness, but it is

00:16:05.640 - 00:16:39.480

revealed in the light. "Beware," Moses said, "your sin will find you out." So here Caiaphas tries to get away with sin in the darkness, and God is standing there in the very midst of that darkness, and as he always does, he saw it all. Caiaphas begins the interrogation. "Tell us of your disciples and of your doctrine."

00:16:39.480 - 00:17:01.120

Now that was an illegal accusation right there. According to the rules of the Sanhedrin, a trial had to begin with a recitation of the charges. But Caiaphas begins with the subtle suggestion that Jesus has been subverting with false doctrines some group described as his disciples. Now, by this time, Caiaphas

00:17:01.120 - 00:17:21.440

knew that Jesus' group was very small. When Jesus had been arrested there in the Garden of Gethsemane, they had fled in fright. There were none there to defend him. Caiaphas knew all of this, and yet he suggests, "Tell us of this group you subverted with your doctrine." Caiaphas is trying to get at Jesus, you see,

00:17:21.440 - 00:17:46.160

through his disciples. That's the way most people attack Jesus, you know, by coming at him through his disciples. George Bernard Shaw said, "Jesus Christ is all right. The only trouble with him is that he had disciples." He was talking about us. Haven't you heard people attack the faith because of a seen

00:17:46.160 - 00:18:12.600

Christian's act? I mean, if you act like that and call yourself a Christian, then please, I don't want any part of it. Have you never heard the name of Jesus ridiculed precisely because of the conduct of those who wear that name? In the first church I served, there was a man, not a member of our church, but in

00:18:12.600 - 00:18:32.080

the King's community, who embezzled some money. He turned himself in, but hid all the papers. He held an office in another church, and when he went back to that church the first Sunday after everything became public, they asked him to resign his office. They asked him and his wife and their two children to leave the

00:18:32.080 - 00:18:52.040

church. And this broken and ashamed man did so. It so happened that some members of our congregation lived next door, and they invited those people to come and worship with us. And they came, and they became part of the life of that congregation, and they still are until this day. But I remember one day, a few

00:18:52.040 - 00:19:17.360

weeks after they had come into our fellowship, that this man, who had committed this crime and then repented of it, said to me, with a kind of cynical edge in his voice, "Well, Christ's love does make a difference, at least in some people's lives." Suggesting of course that somehow Christ's love had not been

00:19:17.360 - 00:19:40.920

adequate to touch the people in the other church, the church that had burned him. And I spoke to him very harshly, even as I speak now. "Do not blame the intransigence, the sin, the narrowness, the bigotry, the hypocrisy, the cruelty, of the disciples of Christ on the Savior. Christ's love is complete. Christ's love

00:19:40.920 - 00:20:10.720

is adequate. Christ's example is pure. Christ's salvation is undefiled. But if a man hardens his heart so that that cannot enter in, then the man does what he does, not because of Jesus, but because of himself. Yet how many there are who see weakness in the disciples of Jesus and use that as the way to attack

00:20:10.720 - 00:20:32.840

him. Just as Caiaphas did. Jesus responds to Caiaphas. He says, "If you want to know what I taught, ask those to whom I spoke. Bring witnesses." Jesus is calling Caiaphas to a correct observance of the law. Witnesses under the law were supposed to be presented before any interrogation began. And when Caiaphas was reminded by

00:20:32.840 - 00:21:05.440

Jesus of what he, Caiaphas, should be doing, Caiaphas blushed, and one of his assistants stepped forward and hit Jesus across the mouth, saying to him, "How dare you speak to the high priest so?" Please turn your cassette to the other side. Little people are always the first to resort to violence. Whenever they are

00:21:05.440 - 00:21:35.200

confronted with the truth, their immediate reaction is to hit. Whenever that happens to you, when you find yourself in some moment or witness, when you find yourself caught up in some act of service, and another reaches out and strikes you, understand that that's the way little people always strike out at

00:21:35.200 - 00:21:57.840

God, the people of God. Howard Lowry, the late and great president of the College of Worcester, was a spelunker, and on one occasion he was in the Carter County cave down in Kentucky, and he got into a very remote section of the cave, and he was somewhat afraid, because it was such a remote section. And as he shined his

00:21:57.840 - 00:22:16.360

light about, it fell upon a stone wall, and on that wall were the names of many people who had been in that part of the cave before. And as he looked over those names, he found the name of his own father. And he wrote later that that immediately brought him comfort and peace. If his father had been there and

00:22:16.360 - 00:22:51.160

made it, if these others had been there and made it, so he, now being there, could make it. When you find people assaulting you and hitting you because you stand for truth, remember that others, including your Savior, have been so assaulted before you. That will give you a deep strength and a deep peace. So they

00:22:51.160 - 00:23:10.960

brought the witnesses. False witnesses they were, they could not agree. That incidentally was illegal too. According to the law, they had to get two to agree in every detail, and they never managed successfully to do that. And so Caiaphas broke the law again. He took a solemn oath upon himself. In a Jewish court, the

00:23:10.960 - 00:23:35.680

defendant was never put under oath. Instead, the chief priest would take upon himself a solemn oath. And when the chief priest took that oath, then any question he addressed to another had to be answered as under that oath. So Caiaphas says to Jesus, "I adjure thee by the living God that thou tellest us whether

00:23:35.680 - 00:24:14.000

thou art the Christ, the Son of God." That's the height of irony, isn't it? Here is Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life, being sworn to tell the truth. And the scriptures say that in all of this he was very composed. Calmly, calmly, he answers Caiaphas, "Yes, I am the Son of God." And then caught up in the majesty of his

00:24:14.000 - 00:24:47.120

own royalty, Jesus goes on to say, "And in the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the very clouds of heaven." He affirmed his deity. And in affirming his deity, sealed his death. It took great courage, you see, to do what Jesus did. He could have lied, he could have tried some clever evasion, but

00:24:47.120 - 00:25:21.200

oh no. He was the truth, so he spoke the truth. And the courage which was his is not the courage of some soldier who goes out and dies for his country. Oh no. It is not that kind of courage. The courage of Jesus is the heroism of the broken hearted. Because you see, Jesus was laying down his life for the very ones who were

00:25:21.200 - 00:25:53.400

killing him. The soldier goes out and fights his nation's enemy to save his land. Jesus lays down his life for the very ones he loved and sought to save. He put himself into their hands. You know, astronomers tell us that sometimes there are heavenly bodies that come closer and closer to one another and then they come

00:25:53.400 - 00:26:16.720

into a moment of greatest approximation and then they pass on and from that time on, every second and every minute and every hour and every day and every week and every month and every year and every eon and every age, they go farther and farther and farther and farther apart, never to come close to one another again.

00:26:16.720 - 00:26:52.920

That's what we see at just this moment. Jesus and the high priest, the highest representative of all Judaism, come face to face and the high priest says, "Are you the Son of God?" And Jesus said, "Yes, I am." And Caiaphas turned away, never to come close for himself or for his nation

00:26:52.920 - 00:27:17.840

again. "Blast from me!" he cried out. "You need to hear anything further? What is your judgment?" And they said, "He must die." When the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church met a few years ago, they were careful to point out that the death of Jesus was not solely the responsibility of the Jews. They were

00:27:17.840 - 00:27:42.840

careful to point out that what killed Jesus was not any nation or group of people, but rather the pride and the hypocrisy and the intolerance and the greed and the deceit and the untruth which exists in all men. And that is very true. When Jesus appeared before Caiaphas and the fountains of Jewish justice ran

00:27:42.840 - 00:28:17.520

dry, at that moment there was no sin in the Jews that does not exist in all those who have gone astray from God's law. There was nothing special about Israel's sin. But there was one thing, one thing about Israel's sin that must be noted and never forgotten, and that is that at that moment when they condemned

00:28:17.520 - 00:28:53.880

him to death, they lost more than any other people who have ever lived. For in that moment they ceased as a nation to be Israel, and God's Israel became his church. Now all restraint was gone, all order was gone, all pretense of justice and dignity and refinement were gone. A sea of hatred swirled down upon Jesus,

00:28:53.880 - 00:29:24.600

and they beat him with sticks, and they spat into his face, and they covered his head and punched him and cried out, "If you're a prophet, tell us who gave you that blow!" Violence. Violence is always entered into by those who are somehow conscious of their own guilt. You ever notice how people that counsel violence,

00:29:24.600 - 00:29:47.600

people who advocate violence, people who cry out for violence, people who always hold to themselves their weapons? These people are the people who are the most afraid. You don't carry a gun unless you're afraid. You don't plead for violence unless you seek to defend, and you're not anxious to defend unless you

00:29:47.600 - 00:30:06.360

are afraid. Jesus carried no weapon in Gethsemane when they arrested him. Jesus carried no weapon into the house of Caiaphas. Why? Because Jesus is not afraid. And when Peter drew his sword and wounded one of the soldiers of the high priest, Jesus immediately healed the wound and said to Peter, "Those who use

00:30:06.360 - 00:30:52.040

the sword will die by the sword." Which is to say, the sword, which is the instrument of fear, kills, because fear kills. And I, Jesus said, am love, and love casts fear away. Oh no. Those who are ready to hit are those who are afraid. And so they hit it, and they hit it, and they hit it, with their jewels, phylacteries, sparkling in

00:30:52.040 - 00:31:27.880

a lantern light. They hit it. Well, it happened a long time ago, you say. Why do you bring such a remote event to us tonight? Why, because it's not remote at all. You see, the fact of the matter is, we sin in the dark. We disdain his holy people and his holy person. We weaken the

00:31:27.880 - 00:32:15.000

gospel's impact in the world with our sin. We put the sovereign God under oath when his will disagrees with ours. We even fear God's goodness sometimes, and hit out against it. Our pride makes us do such awful things, just as it did to Kate. See, the only thing that separates Caiaphas from us is 1950 years.

00:32:15.000 - 00:33:01.080

So we sin, as they led Jesus from the judgment hall of Caiaphas to Pontius Pilate. And as he goes, we say what the Korah says in Bach's St. Matthew Passion. "My natures, my natures, are cast against me, in both form and substance, bis tu gres me." "My Jesus, my Jesus, what have you done? In what crime have you been

00:33:01.080 - 00:33:21.920

involved?" And Jesus turns and looks at us.

00:33:21.920 - 00:34:35.240

Let's pray. O Lord, in the light of that night when for you the fountains of justice ran dry, we dare not plead for justice. For if you dealt with us justly after our sins, we would be condemned and separated from thee forever. Oh God, whatever you do,

00:34:35.240 - 00:35:09.600

don't treat us justly. Offer us instead your grace and your love, one for us by that one who said, "Yes, I am the Son of God,

00:35:09.960 - 00:35:39.480

and you shall see me someday in clouds of glory." Hear us for his sake. And the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and

00:35:39.480 - 00:36:02.440

give to you and to all those whom you love and to all those whom nobody loves his peace. [BLANK_AUDIO]