"If you don't hand me the keys, I'm going to pull the trigger!"
     "The jury has determined that you are guilty of all charges."
     "Sir, we could not find your child."
    
     Those have to be some of the very worst statements ever uttered.  Here's a worse one I read today: "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." 

     Let's unpack this a bit.  We have the following:
          The High Priest
          Invoking God's name (he's basically swearing by God's name)
          Talking forcefully to a prisoner
          His forceful talk is an attempt to get information:
          He's asking if this prisoner is the long-awaited Messiah
          That arrested, chained, innocent man is the very God that the High Priest is supposed to serve.

     Wow.  The arrogance, the insult to God, the betrayal of his role for Israel, the injustice!  What terrible scandal that God would be imprisoned by his own creation and then be subject to the insults of the same!  I would not have handled that very well.  The cruelty, injustice and discourtesy are hard enough to read, much less bearing it in person!  Jesus, however, humbles himself, bears the insult, and even responds to the man's question!

"You have said so.  But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven."
    
     Here is one of the biggest examples of Jesus humbling himself to bear our sin.  With a nod, he could have destroyed the man, sending him to Pluto or whatever.  He could have sealed his mouth closed before he uttered another syllable!  Jesus said, himself, that he could have asked and the Father sent "legions of angels" to put a halt to all this nonsense.  But he didn't.  Jesus didn't halt it, he bore it.  He is so patient here, isn't he?
      I remember this though, Jesus wasn't new to patience in this moment.  No, God has been bearing with the sins of many people since our history began.  Indeed, even now, he bears with our sins.  God bears it every time you or I entertain thoughts of ingratitude, grumbling, blasphemy, lust, greed, or any vice.  God patiently bears it when his very own creations deny Him by their words and their works!

Isn't the Lord amazing?!  There's a hard part yet to come.

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