"He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter."--_Isaiah 53:7._
AS soon as it was light, all the chief men of the Jews met in the
council chamber in the Temple, and had our Lord brought before them.
But no one could prove that He had broken the law; and whenever a story
was brought against Him, it turned out not to be true.
[Illustration: PETER DENYING JESUS.--Luke 22:60, 61.]
At last the high priest stood up and commanded Him to say whether He
were the Christ or not. He answered, "Thou hast said: nevertheless,
I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the
right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."
At this answer, Caiaphas and all the other enemies made a great outcry,
as if they were very much shocked, at His speaking of Himself as the
great Judge of all--namely, as God.
They all cried, "He is guilty of death;" and they began to beat Him
and strike Him; and they blindfolded Him, and struck Him on the face,
and bade Him say whose blow it was. And all the time He stood gentle
and patient, and said not one word of complaint or anger.
Since the reign of the great wicked Herod, the Romans had not allowed
the Jews to put anybody to death without their leave; so the chief
priests were obliged to take JESUS before the Roman governor, Pontius
Pilate. But it was not possible to find anything that a Roman would
think He deserved to be put to death for.
When the chief priests said that "by our law He ought to die, because
He made Himself the Son of God," Pilate only feared to do anything
against Him; for he saw that there was no fault in JESUS, but that the
chief priests were spiteful, and hated Him.
Then the chief priests said that He called Himself King of the Jews.
This made Pilate more anxious, for to set up to be an earthly king
would have been rebelling against the Romans; but still he wanted to
let JESUS go, because he saw that He was innocent; yet he did not
like to offend the priests, who might have accused him to the Emperor
of Rome. Pilate saw what was just; but he was afraid, and cared for
himself more than for his duty.