Reflection #3

Before Annas, Ciaphas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate and Herod

Jesus was led about a lot once he was arrested. He was tied up and ushered in front of different people. It struck me that when he later says to Peter "When you were young you were able to do as you liked...you went wherever you wanted to go, but when you are old..others will take you where you don't want to go", he was speaking from the heart; to lose your liberty, to no longer be independent, but to be forced by others, to do what you don't want to. Jesus had experienced that very thing. He had been compelled to stand in front of all these men.

And as I pictured scene after scene where Jesus is led into the presence of these people it struck me how much they would want to display their power. They would be there in their robes of office, seated on their thrones or whatever the equivalent thing was, surrounded by servants, all the trappings of power and privilege and authority. They would want him to see how important they were, how what they said went. How dare he, who does he think he is unsettling their rules and structures. Overturning their tables. Questioning the things that they had decreed. We'll show him who knows best.

And as I looked I became aware of Jesus beginning to grow in stature. He grew and grew and grew until I could see the universe contained in him, stars and planets and galaxies. Annas became smaller and smaller until he resembled a "grasshopper". I heard God's words to Job

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? What supports its foundations and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?...Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east?...Can you direct the movement of the stars - binding the cluster of Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion?...Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?"

All authority over everything has been given to me.

But Jesus opened not his mouth.