"Christ before the High Priest", c 1617, by Gerrit van Honthorst.
This post is part of a 13 day series, joining other Christian bloggers from around the world, reading together Frederick S. Leahy's classic, "The Cross He Bore".
Matthew 26:62-63a - "And the high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” 63 But Jesus remained silent."
Although we can't see him, Satan is in the room this day. He is once again, perhaps, tempting Christ.
Although this statement sounds counter-intuitive, Satan does not want Christ to go to the Cross. Our Savior, dying on the Cross, and experiencing God's wrath, on our behalf, seals his demise.
Christ certainly could have spoken in his own defense. But here, we see our Savior with his will set on obedience to the Father, and his eminent death on the Cross.
Here is a very eye-opening video, from Dr. John Piper, on this whole suicidal behavior of Satan: Judas Iscariot, the Suicide of Satan, and the Salvation of the World.
There are unfathomable leagues of understandings below the surface of what we can see here.
