53 And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and there come together with him all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. 54 And Peter had followed him afar off, even within, into the court of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers, and warming himself in the light of the fire. 55 Now the chief priests and the whole council sought witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found it not. 56 For many bare false witness against him, and their witness agreed not together. 57 And there stood up certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, 58 We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands. 59 And not even so did their witness agree together. 60 And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? 61 But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and saith unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? 62 And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. 63 And the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What further need have we of witnesses? 64 Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be worthy of death. 65 And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the officers received him with blows of their hands.
Now Jesus stands alone, becoming almost monosyllabic too. I’m not very good at ‘holding my piece’ and often come back from meetings or conversations wondering why I had to say all I did. And a whole lot of TV just seems noise to fill the schedules, I’m afraid. Perhaps silence, passivity, passion is a pretty scary place to be. Perhaps with reason …
October 9, 2009 at 8:05 pm |
Silence is indeed a difficult place to be. There’s something sinister about it, the command of silence from a teacher, the right of silence taken up by the criminal. It leaves loose ends. And, of course, it is when we withdraw into ourselves, where we can reflect and be at one with God. May be we don’t always like what we see and hear in that silence so we fill the void with sounds. A silence can be a time of realisation, when the truth begins to dawn – I suspect that is why Jesus didn’t have much to say as he began to realise that all he had said about his own end was about to come true. What can any of us say?