With saliva dripping off of the
chin of Jesus, His lips remain sealed. This is the hour for which He came. Man
at his worst meets God at His best. The human race that knocked Him down will
be lifted up by the grace and power of His resurrection. In our text, we see
tiny, finite creatures barking two commands to the Creator and Sustainer of the
universe. The first: “I adjure you in the name of the living God” forcibly
extracted Jesus from His silence and into a verbal confrontation demanded by
His integrity and obedience to the law.
With Jesus’ response, He backs Himself up
against His own deity. When He is accused of blasphemy, He cannot speak in
denial because He is God, and He is making claims that would be worthy of death
were He not the very Son of God. But He is! The command of the high priest
pushes history over the edge of no return. Everything but the nails has been
driven into the inevitable. The task Jesus came to do will soon be completed.
The second demand was leveled in a fit of
meanness and cruelty that sharpens the blades of judgment that must cut into
the root of human depravity: “Tell us who hit You, You Christ!” Man is not
always as bad as he could be, but here in these closing hours of Jesus’
pre-resurrection life, the bottom side of man’s lostness is candidly exposed.
Most of the mockery and abuse is done too far in the historic distance for us
to hear. We are only given fragments. What Jesus endured for us lies beyond our
imagination.
Mankind fell into sin out of a craving to be like God and share in
His knowledge. Locked out of Eden, man wanders through a fog of self-deception
and self-love. Sin has blinded the common man’s eyes from seeing how
desperately in need he truly is. Assuming rights and privileges without
warrant, men presume God has some morbid obligation of duty to hear our
prayers. James tells us that we talk to God too infrequently, and when we
finally do speak, we speak wrongly [James 4:2,3].
The psalmist knocks us to our senses with
the question: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?” We have no “rights”
before God. We have no basis upon which to demand anything from the Almighty.
The concept of request even lies beyond us. Like John the Baptist, we are not worthy
to untie the shoes of Jesus [Lk.3:16]. Like the centurion of Matthew 8:8, we
are not worthy to have God enter our house.
Like the publican of Luke 18:13, we are not worthy to lift our head in
God’s direction. Only after we have recognized our desperate condition can we
ever appreciate the full wonder of His grace.
Caiaphas’ demand is a shovel digging a hole deep enough to
bury him for eternity. Any one who approaches God in a spirit of demand is a
fool in the highest theological sense. He does not understand Who God is and
who we are. God loves the voice of His children, but there must be an adoption
before the vocal chords are exercised. Once we are His, we can enter into His
presence with boldness … not before.
Matthew 26:67,68
I. The imperatives of abuse
a. Unjust
accusations
i. Every
ii. Every
b. Unmerciful mockery
i.
ii.
II. The qualifications of
audience
a. Clean hands
i.
ii.
III. The miracle of access
a. Adoption
i.
ii.
b. Access
i.
ii.