98 - Escaping the Trap

When we read the account of what happened to Jesus after He was arrested, we encounter an element that is very hard to explain. It’s the furious hatred some people felt toward Jesus. They hated Him with a ferocity that is just not reasonable. After all, He was a good man, the kind mothers want to have bless their babies. He wasn’t a violent criminal or a thief. He was a rabbi who taught in the synagogues and courts of the temple. He didn’t do things in secret. Anyone could come and watch and listen to Him, and it was a very normal part of His ministry to heal the sick and deliver people who were tormented by demons. So how does a person become uncontrollably angry at someone like that? It doesn’t make sense, at least, not until you look at the situation from a spiritual perspective. All normal people become angry at times. But what is it that causes a person’s temper to flare to the point where they become savage? What makes a person hate someone else so much that they are willing to lay aside all sense of justice, violate the very laws they swore to uphold, and arrange for someone to die as painfully as possible?

As we read the accounts of the pre-dawn trials to which Jesus was subjected, there is a horrible element of cruelty, of hatred that creeps into the picture and grows as the hours pass until we watch people spitting in His face, beating Him with their fists and slapping Him when He’s blindfolded and His hands are tied behind His back. It’s just not normal. Some force has entered in and seems to have taken control of them. And, yes, it shocks us all to read the sort of things that were done to Jesus, but if we’re honest with ourselves, that type of fury is not entirely unfamiliar to us. Human history is filled with examples of it. And if we’re really honest with ourselves, we don’t have to look back into history to find examples of that strange fury. Many of us have been the victim of it, and many of us have felt that fury come over us and propel us to do or say things we never thought we would.

Today we’ll follow Jesus through those pre-dawn trials at the high priest’s residence and watch as that strange fury enters into the situation and takes over. We’ll try to identify that force, and think of examples where we’ve seen it at work. But the main goal of our study will be to consider how that influence gains entry into our lives, and how to stop it from ever coming in again. We want to lock the door on that uninvited spirit.