Jesus said to Peter, "Put up the sword into its sheath; the cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? Do you not know that I could call upon my Father, and he would send to me armies upon armies of angels?"
Then he spoke to the crowd: "Let me do this." And he touched the place where the ear had been cut off, and it came on again and was well. Jesus said to the rulers and leaders of the armed men, "Do you come against me with swords and clubs as though I were a robber? I was with you every day in the Temple, and you did not lift your hands against me. But the words in the Scriptures must come to pass; and this is your hour."
When the disciples of Jesus saw that he would not allow them to fight for him, they did not know what to do. In their sudden alarm they all ran away, and left their Master alone with his enemies. These men laid their hands on Jesus, and bound him, and led him away to the house of the high-priest. There were at that time two men called high-priests by the Jews. One was Annas, who had been high-priest until his office had been taken away from him by the Romans, and given to Caiaphas, his son-in-law. But Annas still had great power among the people; and they brought Jesus, all bound as he was, first before Annas.
Simon Peter and John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, had followed after the crowd of those who carried Jesus away, and they came to the door of the high-priest's house. John knew the high-priest and went in, but Peter at first stayed outside, until John went out and brought him in. He came in, but did not dare to go into the room where Jesus stood before the high-priest Annas. In the courtyard of the house they had made a fire of charcoal, and Peter stood among those who were warming themselves at the fire.
Annas, in the inner room, asked Jesus about his disciples and teaching. Jesus answered him, "What I have taught has been open in the synagogues and in the Temple. Why do you ask me? Ask those that heard me; they know what I said."
Then one of the officers struck Jesus on the mouth, saying to him, "Is this the way that you answer the high-priest?"
Jesus answered the officer calmly and quietly, "If I have said anything evil, tell what the evil is; but if I have spoken the truth, why do you strike me?"
While Annas and his men were thus showing their hate toward Jesus, who stood bound and alone among his enemies, Peter was still in the courtyard, warming himself at the fire. A woman, who was a serving-maid in the house, looked at Peter sharply, and finally said to him, "You were one of those men with this Jesus of Nazareth!"
Peter was afraid to tell the truth, and he answered her, "Woman, I do not know the man, and I do not know what you are talking about."
And to get away from her he went out into the porch of the house. There another woman-servant saw him, and said, "This man was one of those with Jesus!"
And Peter swore with an oath that he did not know Jesus at all. Soon a man came by, who was of kin to Malchus, whose ear Peter had cut off. He looked at Peter, and heard him speak, and said, "You are surely one of this man's disciples, for your speech shows that you came from Galilee."
Then Peter began again to curse and to swear, declaring that he did not know the man of whom they were speaking.
Just at that moment the loud, shrill crowing of a cock startled Peter, and at the same time he saw Jesus, who was being dragged through the hall from Annas to the council-room of Caiaphas, the other high-priest. And the Lord turn as he was passing and looked at Peter.
Then there flashed into Peter's mind what Jesus had said on the evening before, "Before the cock crows to-morrow morning, you will three times deny that you have ever known me."
Then Peter went out of the high-priest's house into the street, and he wept bitterly because he had denied his Lord.
PETER WENT OUT AND WEPT BITTERLY
The Crown of Thorns
Matthew xxvi: 57, to xxvii: 26; Mark xv: 1 to 15; Luke xxii: 66, to xxiii: 25; John xviii: 19, to xix: 16.
From the house of Annas the enemies of Jesus led him away bound to the house of Caiaphas, whom the Romans had lately made high-priest. There all the rulers of the Jews were called together, and they tried to find men who would swear that they had heard Jesus say some wicked thing. This would give the rulers an excuse for putting Jesus to death. But they could find nothing. Some men swore one thing, and some swore another; but their words did not agree.
Finally the high-priest stood up, and said to Jesus, who stood bound in the middle of the hall, "Have you nothing to say? What is it that these men are speaking against you?"
But Jesus stood silent, answering nothing. Then the high-priest spoke again, "Are you the Christ, the Son of God?"
And Jesus said, "I am; and the time shall come when you will see the Son of man sitting on the throne of power and coming in the clouds of heaven!"
These words made the high-priest very angry. He said to the rulers, "Do you hear these dreadful words? He says that he is the Son of God. What do you think of words like these?"
They all said, with one voice, "He deserves to be put to death!"
Then the servants of the high-priest and the soldiers that held Jesus began to mock him. They spat on him, and they covered his face, and struck him with their hands, and said, "If you are a prophet, tell who it is that is striking you!"
The rulers of the Jews and the priests and the scribes passed a vote that Jesus should be put to death. But the land of the Jews was then ruled by the Romans, and no man could be put to death unless the Roman governor commanded it. The Roman governor at that time was a man named Pontius Pilate, and he was then in the city. So all the rulers and a great crowd of people came to Pilate's castle, bringing with them Jesus, who was still bound with cords.
Up to this time Judas Iscariot, although he had betrayed Jesus, did not believe that he would be put to death. Perhaps he thought that Jesus would save himself from death, as he had saved others, by some wonderful work. But when he saw Jesus bound and beaten, and doing nothing to protect himself, and when he heard the rulers vote that Jesus should be put to death, Judas knew how wicked was the deed that he had wrought. He brought back the thirty pieces of silver that had been given to him as the reward for betraying his Lord, and he said, "I have sinned in betraying one who has done no wrong!"
JUDAS RETURNS THE SILVER TO THE PRIESTS
But they answered him, "What is that to us? You look after that!"
When Judas saw that they would not take back the money and let Jesus go free, he carried the thirty pieces to the Temple, and threw them down on the floor. Then he went away and hanged himself. And thus the traitor died.
After that the rulers scarcely knew what to do with the money. They said, "We cannot put it into the treasury of the Temple, because it is the price paid for a man's blood."
And when they had talked together, they used it in buying a piece of ground called "the potter's field." This they set apart as a place for burying strangers who died in the city and had no friends. But every one in Jerusalem spoke of that place as "The Field of Blood."
It was very early in the morning when the rulers of the Jews brought Jesus to Pilate. They would not go into Pilate's hall, because Pilate was not of their nation; and Pilate came out to them, and asked them, "What charge do you bring against this man?"
They answered, "If he were not an evil-doer, we would not have brought him to you."
Pilate did not wish to be troubled, and he said, "Take him away, and judge him by your own law!"
The Jews said to Pilate, "We are not allowed to put any man to death, and we have brought him to you. We have found this man teaching evil, and telling men not to pay taxes to the Emperor Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king."