19. JESUS IMPRISONED
The prison cell into which Jesus was introduced lay under the judgment hall of Caiaphas. It was a small, circular vault. A part of it, I see in existence even now. Only two of the four executioners remained with Jesus. After a short interval they exchanged places with two others, and these again were soon relieved. They had not given the Lord His own garments again. He was clothed with only the filthy mantle of mockery, and His hands were still bound.
When the Lord entered the prison, He prayed His Heavenly Father to accept all the scorn and ill-treatment that He had endured up to that moment and all that He had still to suffer in atonement for the sins of His executioners and for all those that, in future ages, might be in danger of sinning through impatience and anger.
Even in this prison, the executioners allowed Jesus no rest. They bound Him to a low pillar that stood in the centre of the prison, though they would not permit Him to lean against it. He was obliged to stagger from side to side on His tired feet, which were wounded and swollen from frequent falls and the strokes of the chain that hung to His knees. They ceased not to mock and outrage Him, and when the two executioners in charge were wearied, two others replaced them, and new scenes of villainy were enacted.
It is not possible for me to repeat all the acts of wickedness performed against the Purest and the Holiest. I am too sick. I am almost dying from compassion. Ah, how ashamed we should be that through effeminacy and fastidiousness we cannot bear to talk of or to listen to the details of all that the innocent Redeemer patiently suffered for us. Horror seizes upon us on such occasions, similar to that of a murderer forced to lay his hands upon the wounds of his victim. Jesus endured all without opening His lips; and it was man, sinful man, who thus raged against His Brother, His Redeemer, and His God. I too am a poor, sinful creature, and it was for my sake that all this suffering fell upon Him. On the Day of Judgment, all things will be laid open. Then shall we see how, in the ill-treatment of the Son of God, when as the Son of Man He appeared in time, we have had a share by the sins we so frequently commit, and which are indeed a kind of continuation of and participation in the outrages offered to Jesus by those diabolical miscreants. Ah! If we rightly reflected upon this, we should more earnestly than ever repeat the words found in so many of our prayer books: “Lord, let me rather die than ever outrage Thee again by sin!”
Standing in His prison, Jesus prayed uninterruptedly for His tormentors. When at last they grew tired of their cruel sport and became somewhat quiet, I saw Jesus leaning against the pillar and surrounded by light. Day was dawning, the day of His infinite sufferings and atonement. The day of our Redemption glanced faintly through an opening overhead in the prison wall and shone upon our holy, ill-used Paschal Lamb, who had taken upon Himself all the sins of the world. Jesus raised His manacled hands to greet the dawning light and clearly and audibly pronounced a most touching prayer to His Father in Heaven. In it He thanked Him for sending this day after which the Patriarchs had sighed, after which He too, since His coming upon earth, had longed so ardently as to break forth into the cry: “I have a Baptism wherewith I am to be baptized, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished!” How touchingly the Lord thanked for this day, which was to accomplish the aim of His life, our salvation; which was to unlock Heaven, subdue Hell, open the source of blessings to mankind, and fulfil the will of His Father!
I repeated that prayer after Jesus, but I cannot now recall it. I was so sick from compassion, and I had to weep over His pains. As He continued to thank for all the terrible sufferings which He bore for me, I desisted not from imploring: “Ah, give me, give me Thy pains! They are mine by right, they are all for my crimes!” In streamed the light, and Jesus greeted the day in a prayer of thanksgiving so touching that, quite overcome with love and compassion, I repeated His words after Him like a child. It was a scene indescribably sad, sacred, and solemn, a scene full of love—to see Jesus after the horrible turmoil of the night standing radiant with light by that low pillar in the centre of His narrow prison cell, and hailing with thanksgiving the first ray of dawn on that great day of His propitiatory sacrifice. Ah! That ray of light came to Jesus as a judge might visit a criminal in prison to be reconciled to him before the execution of the sentence. Jesus thanked it so lovingly. The executioners, worn out, appeared to be dozing. Suddenly they looked up in wonder, but did not disturb Jesus. They appeared frightened and amazed. Jesus may have been something over an hour in this prison.
20. JUDAS AT THE JUDGMENT HALL
While Jesus was in prison, Judas, who until then—like one in despair and driven by the demon—was wandering around the Vale of Hinnom, on the steep southern side of Jerusalem, where lay naught but refuse, bones, and carrion, approached the precincts of Caiaphas’s judgment hall. He stole around with the bundle of silver pieces, the price of his treachery, still hanging to the girdle at his side. The pieces were linked together by a little chain. All was silent. Judas, unrecognized, asked the guard what was going to happen to the Galilean. They replied: “He has been condemned to death, and He will be crucified.” He heard some persons telling one another how dreadfully Jesus had been treated and how patient He was, while others said that at daybreak He was to appear again before the High Council to receive solemn condemnation. While the traitor, in order to escape recognition, gathered up this news here and there, day dawned and things began to be astir both in and around the hall. Judas, to escape being seen, slipped off behind the house. Like Cain, he fled the sight of men. Despair was taking possession of his soul. But what did he meet here? This was the place where the Cross had been put together. The several pieces lay in order side by side, and the workmen, wrapped in their mantles, were lying asleep. The sky glistened with a white light above the Mount of Olives, as if shuddering at sight of the instrument of our Redemption. Judas glanced at it in horror, and fled. He had seen the gibbet to which he had sold the Lord! He fled from the spot and hid, resolved to await the result of the morning trial.
21. THE MORNING TRIAL
As soon as it was clear daylight, Caiaphas, Annas, the Ancients and Scribes assembled in the great hall to hold a trial perfectly lawful. Trial by night was not legal. That of the preceding night had been held only because time pressed on account of the feast, and that some of the preparatory attestations might be taken. Most of the members had passed the rest of the night in side chambers in Caiaphas’s house, or on couches prepared for them above the judgment hall; but many, such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, went away and returned at daybreak. It was a large assembly, and business was conducted in a very hurried manner. When now they held council against Jesus in order to condemn Him to death, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and a few others opposed His enemies. They demanded that the case should be postponed till after the festival in order not to give rise to a tumult among the people. They argued also that no just sentence could be rendered upon the charges as yet brought forward, since all the witnesses had contradicted one another. The High Priests and their large party became exasperated by this opposition, and they told their opponents in plain terms that they understood clearly why this trial was so repugnant to them since, perhaps, they themselves were not quite innocent of having taken part in the doctrines of the Galilean. The High Priests even went so far as to exclude from the Council all those that were in any way well-disposed toward Jesus. These members protested against taking any part in its proceedings, left the judgment hall, and betook themselves to the Temple. From that time forward they never sat in the Council. Caiaphas now ordered poor, abused Jesus, who was consumed from want of rest, to be brought from the prison and presented before the Council, so that after the sentence He might without delay be taken to Pilate. The servants hurried tumultuously into the prison, overwhelmed Jesus with words of abuse, loosened His hands, dragged the old tattered mantle from His shoulders, put on Him His own long, woven robe, which was still covered with all kinds of filth, fastened the ropes again around His waist, and led Him forth from the prison. All this was accompanied with blows, by way of hastening the operation, for now as before all took place with violent hurry and horrible barbarity. Like a poor animal for sacrifice, with blows and mockery, Jesus was dragged by the executioners into the judgment hall through the rows of soldiers assembled in front of the house. And as through ill-treatment and exhaustion He presented so unsightly an appearance, His only covering being His torn and soiled undergarment, the disgust of His enemies filled them with still greater rage. Compassion found no place in any one of those hardened Jewish hearts.
Caiaphas, full of scorn and fury for Jesus standing before him in so miserable a plight, thus addressed Him: “If Thou be the Anointed of the Lord, the Messiah, tell us!” Then Jesus raised His head and with divine forbearance and solemn dignity said: “If I shall tell you, you will not believe Me. And if I shall also ask you, you will not answer Me, nor let Me go. But hereafter the Son of Man shall be sitting on the right hand of the power of God.” The members of the Council glanced from one to another and, smiling scornfully, said to Jesus with disdain: “So then, Thou! Thou art the Son of God?” With the voice of Eternal Truth, Jesus answered: “Yes, it is as ye say. I am He!” At this word of the Lord all looked at one another, saying: “What need we any further testimony? For we ourselves have heard it from His own mouth.”
Then all rose up with abusive words against Jesus, “the poor, wandering, miserable, destitute creature of low degree, who was their Messiah, and who would one day sit upon the right hand of God!” They ordered the executioners to bind Him anew, to place the chain around His neck, and to lead Him as a condemned criminal to Pilate. A messenger had already been despatched to notify Pilate to hold himself in readiness to judge a malefactor at an early hour, because on account of the coming festival, there was no time to be lost. Some words of dissatisfaction passed among them with regard to the Roman Governor; they were vexed at having to send Jesus first to him. But they dared not themselves pronounce sentence of death in cases that concerned other than their religious laws and those of the Temple; and as they wanted to bring Jesus to death with a greater appearance of justice, they desired that He should be judged as an offender against the Emperor, and that the condemnation should come principally from the Roman Governor. Soldiers were ranged in the outer court and in front of the house, and many of Jesus’ enemies and others of the rabble were already gathered outside. The High Priest and some other members of the Council walked first, then followed the poor Saviour among the executioners and a crowd of soldiers, and lastly came the mob. In this order they descended Sion into the lower city, and proceeded to Pilate’s palace. Many of the priests that had assisted at the late trial now went to the Temple, where there was much to be done today.
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