Matthew 26:66

What think ye? They answered and said, He is worthy of death.

Amazingly, if Christ's claim as the divine Messiah was untrue, that verdict was altogether proper and correct. Thus, at the very beginning of the innumerable confrontations of Christ made by men in all climes and generations, the dreadful dilemma, the frightening "either or" with reference to Christ is apparent.

Without calling further witnesses, not even Christ; without waiting for an instant, let alone the legally required three days, the judge put the question to the court, and the predetermined verdict was promptly given. The failure of justice is always sad; but when such a failure occurs at the highest and most sacred level of judicial responsibility, it is doubly tragic. The highest court of the Hebrews, the sacred and hallowed Sanhedrin, was in this case clearly guilty of judicial murder. The next three trials would move into the courts of the Gentiles, but justice would fail there also. In all history, the Hebrews were the leaders in religious thought, and the Romans were leaders in the fields of law and government. How unspeakably tragic that humanity could so wretchedly fail that Roman justice and Hebrew religion should alike concur in sentencing the Son of God to die for testifying under oath to the truth of that sublime fact that he was actually the Son of God.