"Hail, Master!"
Jesus answered, "Well, friend--what have you come to do?"
Then a band of men laid their hands on Jesus, and held him so that he could not escape.
Peter was wide-awake by now. He had brought a sword with him. Pulling it out, he cut off the ear of a man in the crowd.
Jesus said to Peter: "Put your sword away. My Father gave me these things to suffer. He would save me now if I asked him. But that is not the way it is to be."
Then Jesus turned to the crowd of soldiers, and said:
"Have you come to arrest me with swords and clubs, as though I were a robber? Every day I was in the Temple teaching, and you could have taken me then, but you never laid a hand on me. But this is what the Scriptures said would happen to the Messiah."
The disciples could stand no more. They left Jesus standing there, and in terror they fled away.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
14. The Last Day
The soldiers bound Jesus and led him back to Jerusalem. They took him to the palace of the high priest. All the chief priests and rulers were gathered there in a council meeting.
The council had already decided that Jesus would have to die, but it was hard to find a reason for killing him. They had to prove that Jesus had said or done something for which he could be put to death.
They found a great many people who came and told lies about Jesus, but no two of them told the same story.
At last the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, stood up and said to Jesus:
"You hear all the things that are being said about you. Aren"t you going to defend yourself?"
Jesus did not say a word.
The high priest spoke again:
"In the name of the living G.o.d I ask you: Are you the Christ--the Messiah--the Son of G.o.d?"
Jesus answered:
"You have said it."
That was all the council wanted to hear. Caiaphas tore his own clothes in anger, and shouted:
"Why do we need any more witnesses? You have heard him say it with his own mouth. He says he"s G.o.d! What do you think about it?"
And the whole council answered,
"He ought to be put to death."
Then some of them spat in his face. They covered his eyes, and slapped him, and shouted:
"If you were the Messiah, you would know who hit you! Tell us, you Messiah you--tell us who hit you!"
Meanwhile, in another room of the palace, there stood a disciple who was losing whatever faith he had once had. It was Peter. One of the other disciples, who knew the high priest, had gone ahead, and he had told the maid to let Peter in.
The maid looked at Peter and said, "You were with Jesus, weren"t you?"
"I don"t know what you"re talking about," said Peter.
The night was cool, and the servants of the high priest were standing around a fire they had made to keep themselves warm. Peter went over and began to warm himself too. Somebody else said to him,
"You are one of Jesus" disciples."
Peter"s faith was all gone.
"Man," he said, "I certainly am not!"
But after a while another person spoke up and said:
"Of course you are one of Jesus" disciples. You are from Galilee. We can tell from the way you talk."
Peter began to curse and swear, saying, "I don"t even know this Jesus that you are talking about!"
At that moment the rooster began to crow. At the same time Jesus pa.s.sed by the doorway, and looked at Peter.
Peter remembered what Jesus had said, "Before the rooster crows, you will three times say that you do not know me."
Peter went out of the palace, and wept bitterly.
The great council of the Jews might say that a man deserved to die, but they could not put anyone to death. Only the Roman governor could do that.
The Roman governor, whose name was Pontius Pilate, was in Jerusalem for the Pa.s.sover. As soon as it was daylight, the council took Jesus over to Pilate"s palace.
When Judas Iscariot saw what was happening, he suddenly realized what he had done. He came to the chief priests, and brought them back the thirty pieces of silver they had given him for turning traitor. He cried out:
"I have sinned! I betrayed a man who never did any wrong!"
The chief priests shrugged their shoulders.
"That"s nothing to us," they said. "Take your money and go!"
But Judas threw the money down on the floor and ran out. He took a rope, and found a tree, and hanged himself, for, after betraying Jesus, he could not bear to live.
Meanwhile Jesus was standing before Pilate. The council had told Pilate that Jesus was claiming to be the King of the Jews. They said that he was stirring up the whole country against Caesar. They thought that Pilate would put him to death for that, because the Romans would be afraid that Jesus would lead a revolt against the Roman government.