Matthew 26:57-75 - Homiletics

The palace of Caiaphas.

I. THE PRELIMINARY TRIAL .

1. The meeting of the Sanhedrin. St. John tells us that our Lord was led first before Annas, for a hasty informal examination. Perhaps it was thought that the astute Annas, with that snake-like cunning which was attributed to him, might elicit something which might tell against the Prisoner. But the craft of the old high priest and the brutality of his officers were alike unavailing; and the Lord was sent to Caiaphas. The Sanhedrin had assembled at his house. In their haste and malice they violated the rules of their court. They met in the night; they assigned no counsel to the Prisoner; they called no witnesses in his favour; they passed judgment of death at once.

2 . The witnesses. In their intense wickedness they deliberately sought false witness to destroy the Innocent; they could not find it. Even the perversion of the Lord's words, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," could not be sustained. "Neither so," says St. Mark, "did their witness agree together." The Lord preserved a calm and holy silence amid this falsehood and calumny. We flash into indignation when we are unjustly accused. Let us learn meekness of our Lord.

II. THE INTERVENTION OF CAIAPHAS .

1 . His questions. He started up in fierce excitement. He urged the Lord to speak. And when Christ still answered nothing, he put him upon his oath, and addressed to him directly the awful question, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" It was a flagrant violation of all the rules of judicial procedure. The judge constitutes himself the accuser; he tries to force the Accused to acknowledge the charge. He had, at a previous meeting of the Sanhedrin ( John 11:49-52 ), maintained the necessity of putting Jesus to death. Did he think that Jesus was indeed the Christ; and, thinking this, did he seek to slay him? Was his guilt like the guilt of Herod, who sought to destroy the young Child that was born King of the Jews? Certainly Caiaphas had "prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation." But probably that prophecy was unconscious; probably he did not understand the full meaning of his words. If he understood it, his guilt would be too awful to contemplate; it would be beyond the limits of human guilt; it would be hellish, Satanic.

2 . The Lord ' s answer. When he was adjured by the living God, put upon his oath solemnly by the high priest, the Lord kept silence no longer. "Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said;" or, in the equivalent words of St. Mark, "Jesus said, I am." Standing bound before his judge, knowing that he was pronouncing his own death warrant, he asserted in simple majesty the tremendous truth. He was the Son of God. Caiaphas should one day know it—in that day when "he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him." Caiaphas should see him then, the Son of God, but manifested as the Son of man (for it is as the Son of man that he shall execute judgment, Matthew 25:31 ; John 5:27 ; Daniel 7:13 ), "sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."

3 . The condemnation. Caiaphas had gained his point now. He rent his clothes (an action forbidden to the high priest, Le 21:10) in affectation of horror. There was no further need of witnesses, he said; for the Sanhedria had heard the awful words—awful words, which he called blasphemy; which we know were the truth of God. Caiaphas at once put the question to the council; and at once, without hesitation, and, it appears from St. Mark, unanimously, they condemned him to be guilty of death. He was condemned to death who is the Lord of life—the Life of the world. He was condemned who is the All-holy One, who knew no sin. He was judged who is the Judge of all; before whose judgment seat quick and dead must one day stand; who shall say to some, "Come, ye blessed;" and, alas! to others, "Depart from me."

4 . The mocking. They spat on his face; they buffeted him; they derided his sacred office; they bade him prophesy; they called him "Christ" in bitter mockery. Fearful guilt, horrible brutality, Satanic cruelty. We shudder as we read the words; we feel shame for our fellow creatures, for our common human nature. They covered that face which is the light of the world; they spat upon him whom all the angels of God worship; they buffeted him who had gone about doing good; they scoffed at him whose holy soul was filled with sacred. love, who had come down from heaven for them, who was ready to die for them that they might live. What a contrast!—their rough, savage brutality, and his sweet, heavenly dignity; their violence, and his meekness; their noisy clamour, and his calm holy silence. May we learn of him the lesson which he taught, "Blessed are the meek"!

III. THE DENIALS OF ST . PETER .

1 . The first denial. He had followed afar off when the disciples fled. He had been vehement, as usual, in his protestations of fidelity and steadfastness. For a time he had stood true to his words; he only had attempted resistance; he only had drawn the sword, and struck a bold blow in defence of his Lord. It was a daring action. Resistance was evidently useless. The Lord interfered; he saved his apostle from the consequences of his rashness. But he yielded himself to his enemies. And then at once St. Peter's courage failed him. He shared the panic fear of the disciples; he fled like the rest. But he soon turned from his flight. He deeply loved the Lord, and he was full of anxiety for him; he followed afar off. St. John, it seems, was able to procure his admission into the hall of the high priest's palace. He sat there with the servants, warming himself at the fire (small details like this give a human interest to the narrative, and evince its simple truthfulness), anxious to see the end. He had thrown himself into danger, as he had done once before on the Sea of Galilee; and again the event proved that he had miscalculated his courage, his endurance. A damsel came to him, saying, "Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee." It was not a soldier, only a damsel; and she seems to have addressed him out of curiosity. He was in no more danger than St. John, whom, it seems, the damsel knew as a disciple of Jesus. But at once he lost courage. He denied before them all, saying, "I know not what thou sayest." His first words, as reported by St. Matthew and St. Mark, are not a direct falsehood. He begins by equivocating, shuffling, pretending not to understand words which were plain to any one. His fall shows us how dangerous it is to tamper with the truth; an evasion soon leads to falsehood, to a wicked oath; it shows us the need of watchfulness and prayer, the danger of self-confidence. It is a sad picture of vacillation, cowardice, falsehood. Very strange too it would be, were it not that we find the like instability in our own weak, wavering, sinful hearts. It was sad for Peter that he overestimated his firmness, and went into the high priest's palace; but his weakness has turned to the good of the Church. This precious episode is full of sacred lessons. It tells us of our utter weakness, of the need of constant watchfulness and constant prayer. And it tells of the blessed love of Christ, of the constraining power of his loving, mournful look fixed upon the faithless disciple.

2 . The second denial. Peter went into the porch; he feared to linger among the crowd of servants round the fire; he was anxious to escape from those inquiring eyes, from those busy tongues. But he had thrust himself into temptation, and the temptation thickened around him. He was not left alone in the porch. Another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, "This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth." And now he sinned more deeply than before. He denied with an oath, "I do not know the Man." And this was Peter, the rock-like apostle, to whom the Lord had entrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven; Peter, who a few hours before had said, "Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee;" Peter, who had drawn the sword in his Lord's defence! The trembling self-distrustful question, "Lord, is it I?" is more becoming in a Christian than that proud self-confidence which so often goes before a fall.

3 . The third denial. Satan had desired to have him, and Satan would not easily let him go. He still lingered about the door. He had sinned exceedingly, but his sin had not wholly driven his love for his Master out of his heart. He trembled for his life; and yet a strange fascination kept him in that dangerous place. An hour longer, St. Luke tells us, he remained there—a most miserable hour it must have been. But he was to fall more deeply yet. He talked, it seems, to hide his terror. His provincial accent showed the Galilaean. "Surely thou also art one of them," they said again; "for thy speech bewrayeth thee." Then, alas! for our poor human nature, Peter "began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the Man." This was the climax of his guilt—first the evasion, then the false oath, then this awful result of the first equivocation, cursing and swearing.

4 . His repentance. Peter swore, "I know not the Man." But the Lord knoweth them that are his; he knew his sinful follower still. "The Lord turned and looked upon Peter." We may well be thankful to the Evangelist St. Luke for having recorded, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that touching fact. The Lord was in the hands of his enemies, condemned to death, mocked, buffeted; but he thought of his apostle. He had saved him from the swords of the soldiers; now he saved him from Satan. That holy, loving, mournful look went straight to Peter's heart. The crowing of the cock, heard at the same time, brought to his remembrance the warning words of Christ; "and he went out, and wept bitterly." Oh that we might have faith to know and feel that that loving, mournful look is now fixed upon us! Still the Lord looks round about upon all things. He reads the hearts. How often does he even now see sins like St. Peter's—cowardice, falsehood, blasphemy—and that among men who are called by his Name, who have been baptized into his Church! How often do men even now deny the Lord that bought them, sometimes in words, still more commonly by their life and conduct] He sees us out of heaven. Oh that we could realize that look of mournful tenderness, of yearning, compassionate love! The consciousness that that look is seeking us out, that it has found us, that it is fixed upon us in longing affection, must surely bring us to our knees, to true repentance, to those blessed tears which are precious in the sight of the angels of God; for they tell of a sinner that repenteth. "The Lord turned, and looked upon Peter." Look on us, O Lord; and by the power of that holy look win our souls from sin unto God, from selfishness to thine own most blessed love.

LESSONS .

1 . "Rend your heart, and not your garments." Caiaphas rent his clothes; it was mere affectation. Let us come to God with a penitent heart, confessing our sin.

2 . The Lord was cruelly mocked and derided. Let us learn of him the blessedness of Christian meekness.

3 . Peter denied the Lord, and that thrice. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."