Matthew 26:62-68 (MSG)
“62 The Chief Priest stood up and said, “What do you have to say to the accusation?” 63 Jesus kept silent. Then the Chief Priest said, “I command you by the authority of the living God to say if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” 64 Jesus was curt: “You yourself said it. And that’s not all. Soon you’ll see it for yourself: The Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Mighty One, Arriving on the clouds of heaven.” 65-66 At that, the Chief Priest lost his temper, ripping his robes, yelling, “He blasphemed! Why do we need witnesses to accuse him? You all heard him blaspheme! Are you going to stand for such blasphemy?” They all said, “Death! That seals his death sentence.” 67-68 Then they were spitting in his face and banging him around. They jeered as they slapped him: “Prophesy, Messiah: Who hit you that time?”

Imagine what it would be like if you had a chance to spit in O’Hilarump’s face. You’d be taken down by the secret service so quick – you’d be roughed up, you’d be locked up, you’d be evaluated, blah, blah, blah.  And that’d be for spitting on a corrupt politician. Yet, here are the religious power leaders, the top dogs, going nuts over Christ’s claim that He is God. They are inciting the crowd, going through a long line of false accusers until they hit a truth – Jesus could, and did, tear down the temple walls and rebuild them in three days. Over the top with self-righteousness, going nuts, tearing his ornate robes, the Chief Priest lost it.

So sure of his self-righteousness, backed up by centuries of studying and creating, the Chief Priest must have been pretty confident in his knowledge.

But, Christ knew more. Christ knew the truth.

When you want to be the Chief Priest, secure in your knowledge, when you want to sentence God to death, to spit in His face, bang Him around, jeer at Him, call Him a blasphemer, you’re in good company.  Be careful in your associations, like in everything else in life, when it comes to Christ. You can hang with the Chief Priests and others who have, and continue to, wildly miss the point – or you can lean into His words, lean into The Way.

Jeremiah 33:2-3 (MSG)
“2-3 This is God’s Message, the God who made earth, made it livable and lasting, known everywhere as God: ‘Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.’”

Spitting in God’s face and jeering who He is, a God of perfect love, compassion, boundaries, truth, is a sad state of affairs, but it’s not new, and it’s not old either. It is and always has been. There’s the battle.

Are you carrying on the tradition of the Chief Priest?