"Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered." Matthew26:57
(The scene is Golgatha, the hill of crucifixion. Caiaphas the high priest is standing far in the background watching the whole affair unfold, the affair that he had engineered. He turns to us and he speaks)
The Sabbath is drawing near - it will be upon us in just a couple of hours. Why can't they just finish them off now, and get the corpses down before the Sabbath feast begins? Why prolong the suffering of these wretches? Why permit this hideous sight to pollute our Passover Feast? I must send someone immediately to Pilate to make sure he understands the laws surrounding this holiest of all our feast days; make sure he appreciates the sacred traditions that must be observed!
But, I can't complain about Pilate - he did his part rather well throughout this whole affair. Once we made it clear that this deluded fool called himself a king, there was little else Pilate could do! We forced his hand and he had no alternative really, but to put him to death. If the word traveled back to Rome (and we would have made certain it did) that Pilate had ignored such a threat to Roman authority, well Pilate could have found himself on the outside looking in. He could have found himself condemned instead of this peasant preacher!
It worked out even better than we expected! Better to have the charge be treason and insurrection so that his death lies at the Roman's door - and far from our temple door.
The whole thing has been a rather distasteful undertaking - especially the part about those false witnesses - disgusting types. . . unclean. . . and expensive! The whole idea was my colleague Annas's of course! You thought it was all my idea? Come on, give me a break! Many minds came together in conspiracy.
The Galilean, he never gave an inch! One must give credit where credit is due! He never showed the slightest sign of yielding and cracking under the pressure - and I was convinced that he would. I was never more sure about anything - but he didn't! He never cracked!
All I can figure is that his unconscionable arrogance somehow kept him calm and dignified right to the end.
At times. . . at times ( and I must not speak to loud about this). . . at times it almost seemed almost as if he was the one in charge - not us! It almost seemed as if the whole sordid, miserable business was proceeding according to his plan - not ours - and that this heavenly Father of his was close beside him all the way!
Ah, but that cry! How could anyone ever forget that haunting cry; that aching, wondering, despairing cry he uttered just moments ago:
"My God, my God why have you forsaken me?"
That ought to do the trick - with the common folks at least! Those despairing words should finally convince the rabble that his cause was Godless - or at least mistaken and misguided and deluded from the start!
The people will never know (and again I must whisper as to not be heard) The people will never know those words were a quotation from Psalm 22 - and we shall never tell them that Psalm 22 concludes in a song of victory; a song of final triumph over the enemies of God. I must remember to alert the Sanhedrin to make sure that point is never disclosed!
Some of the other things he has said here today are simply amazing in their pompous self-assurance.
Imagine! Imagine praying for ones executioners! And that dreadful piece of nonsense to the robber on his left, about being with him this very day in paradise. Paradise indeed! What utter claptrap! The closest he'll ever find himself to Paradise is to see with his dying eyes the splendor of the great temple on top of the hill.
Such talk about paradise degrades the whole notion of paradise. If rejects and sinners like these are going to be in Paradise, then the High Priest will have to find some other spot in which to spend eternity.
Ah yes, at last it looks as if they're going to finish them off. There go the soldiers with the spear. . .
Is that what I just heard him say? Was that what he cried as he hung his head and appeared to die? If it was he must have meant the jig is up, the plot, the conspiracy has disintegrated into nothing so much as dust! This whole fool-hearty masquerade of posturing as the Messiah has finally reached it's tragic and grim conclusion! That must be what it meant! Although it didn't exactly sound like it.
It sounded more like he meant it as "It is accomplished" - as if everything we have done, the entire shabby process of last night's betrayal and kangaroo court, and this long day's series of brutality has gone according to some plan. What an odd and idiotic idea - and yet I can't get it out of my head - it has occurred to me repeatedly throughout these hours.
It must be the lack of sleep that is clouding my thinking. It must be the shock effect of all of this that I have witnessed.
Well, I need to get my sleep for the celebration of the Passover, this great feast that remembers how God who set us free once Egyptian oppression, will set us free again from our current oppression. It won't take long, a day or two, and things will be back to normal and all of this business about the Galilean preacher will be forgotten forever! In a week nobody will even remember his name! He will be nothing more than an insignificant speck of dust that briefly the stage of history. I have never been more sure of anything.