False witnesses did rise up: they laid to my charge things that
I knew not.--Psalm xxxv. 11.
Where shall we find one more unjustly accused, than Jesus. They
falsely declare him to be a blasphemer and seducer of the people.
His enemies, in order to give an appearance of justice to their
proceedings, (for they were determined to destroy him) proceeded
to call witnesses against him; a mock trial ensues before Caiaphas
the High Priest; but, though the witnesses are perjured, their
testimony agrees not together. They indeed _accuse_ him of having
threatened to destroy their temple and build it again in three
days; but they can _prove_ nothing. It is true, that Jesus, when
speaking of his death and resurrection, said, destroy _this_ temple,
and after three days I will raise it up again. But this he spake
of his body, of which their temple was a type.[70] It was the
honoured spot, in which the Lord met with and blessed his people,
and the body of Jesus was honoured as the dwelling place or temple
of the Lord of Glory. God did indeed dwell in an house of clay
which, agreeably to his own prediction, was laid low, even to the
ground, and, after three days, he raised it up again, without human
aid or art. These words are made the subject of their accusation;
but, the charge is so childish and ridiculous, that it deserves to
be treated with contempt. It is a little extraordinary, that they
did not bring against him the prophecy he had delivered of the
utter ruin which, before that generation should have passed away,
he had declared the Romans would bring upon their devoted city and
temple. But they cautiously refrain from speaking on that subject,
and proceed to accuse him of blasphemy, but here again they can
prove nothing. Caiaphas artfully enough, adjures the condemned, by
the living God, to tell him plainly, if he were the Christ, the Son
of God. To which question Jesus replies, by boldly declaring his
Godhead,[71] and saying, that hereafter they should see him coming
in the clouds of Heaven, as their Judge. The High Priest then rent
his mantle, and they pronounced him worthy of death. By the law of
Moses, persons guilty of blasphemy, were to be stoned to death.
The Jews being a conquered people, had not the power to inflict so
severe a punishment, they, therefore, take Jesus before the Roman
Governor, and vehemently accuse him of perverting the nation,
forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying, that, he himself was
Christ a King, and that he stirred up the people, beginning from
Galilee to Jerusalem. But how false and unjust the accusation.
Cæsar, throughout his vast dominions, had not a more honourable or
obedient subject, nor one who by example or precept, better taught
the true interest of the king and nation. He, indeed, preached from
Galilee to Jerusalem, but not with words of sedition and strife,
for he stirred up the people to practise such a refined and exalted
system of ethics, that those of the far-famed heathen moralists
sink into insignificance and contempt, when their sentiments are
compared with the doctrines of morality as taught by Jesus and his
Apostles.--"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you
and persecute you, and whatsoever ye would that men should do unto
you, do ye even so to them." He taught the people throughout all
Jewry, to "render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto
God the things that are God's." He even wrought a miracle to furnish
the means of paying his own and disciples' tribute money. But we
cannot find an instance of his working a miracle to supply his own
necessities, although so poor that he had not where to lay his head.
He ever taught the Jewish nation and his Apostles, and through them
the world, to render unto all men their due, whether of tribute,
custom, or honour. He enjoined them to submit themselves to the
Powers that be, and, to obey the laws of their Sovereigns and civil
Magistrates so far as they might be in unison with the commands
of God. Although he spoke so freely of the duties of the subject,
he treated the great ones of the earth as men accountable to God,
for the talents entrusted to their charge. His Apostles, taught
by their divine Lord and Master, neither flattered the vices, nor
courted the favours of kings or nobles, for they were no sycophants.
Although the doctrine of Jesus was so pure and Godlike, and his life
displayed every virtue, (for in his spirit there was no guile) and,
is the only one amongst Adam's race, who was free from sin, yet
against him was the tongue of the slanderer busy, and calumny dared
to raise her voice. Yea "false witnesses did rise up and lay to his
charge things that he knew not."
[70] John ii. 19-21.
[71] Col. ii. 9.