DESPISED AND REJECTED OF MEN.
Jesus was first taken to Annas, the old High-Priest, who sent Him bound
to Caiaphas, who was his son-in-law, and High-Priest that year.
John went in with Jesus to the palace of the High-Priest, but Peter
stood outside the door, shivering with the chill of the night, but more
with fear.
A servant girl at the door said, when John came out to bring him in,
"Art not thou also one of this man's disciples?"
And Peter said, "I am not."
Restless and unhappy, he walked about, or warmed himself by the fire,
until three had accused him of being a follower of Jesus, and three
times he had denied his Lord. Then there came a sound that struck him
through--he heard through the open windows the crowing of a cock. It
had crowed once before, but he did not think then of what the Lord had
said, but now his memory and conscience were wide awake, for, as he
looked over the heads of the people towards Jesus standing bound and
alone before the High-Priest, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter.
That look broke Peter's heart, and he rushed out of the place, and wept
bitterly.
[Illustration: The sin of Peter]
There was a mock trial which would pain the heart of a child to dwell
upon, and which we will not describe at length. It is enough to know
that the Lamb of God, who had come to take away the sins of the world,
was willingly in the power of His enemies, and going down to death. A
wonderful description of the trial and death of the Messiah may be
found in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, which was fulfilled in the
trial and death of Jesus. The hatred of the priests, the scoffings,
the blows, and the cruel words of the people we will not describe. "He
was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He
is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her
shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth." Finally Caiaphas cried,
"I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the
Christ, the Son of God!" Jesus said,
"I am; and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of
power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."
Then the High Priest rent his garments as if shocked at such profanity,
and said,
"Ye have heard the blasphemy; what think ye?" And they all condemned
Him to be guilty of death.
There was another gathering of the priests in the morning as the day
began to dawn. There were more cruel words and blows for the Divine
Man who was bearing the sins of the world, and He was taken away to
Pilate.
And where was the wretched man who had sold his Master into the hands
of His enemies!
He could not have thought that he was bringing death on His Master; but
when at last he saw the Lord coming, pale, suffering and bound, down
the marble steps, and heard "Death! death!" on every side, he became
terrified. He had no one to turn to, for he had not a friend among
men. He ran to the Temple and, finding some priests, begged them take
back the money they had given him, saying, "I have sinned, in that I
have betrayed the innocent blood."
"What is that to us," said the heartless priests. "See thou to that."
Then Judas cast the thirty pieces of silver over the marble floor, and
fled from the place. Afterward he was found outside the city, where he
had hanged himself. The priests could not put the price of blood in
the Lord's treasury, and so they bought with it a field in which to
bury strangers.