Soap Box

The night Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot and arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the Temple guards advanced on Him and the disciples who were with Him, Peter pulled out a sword and slashed off the ear of a servant of the High Priest who was waiting in Jerusalem to try and condemn Him.

Jesus rebuked Peter and touched the ear of the servant and healed it.

I have wondered how this servant, who - to be sent on such a sensitive task - evidently had a place of trust and responsibility in the High Priest’s service, must have perceived this miracle performed by a man he had been sent to escort to his own mock trial and execution.

What must have been his reaction?

This man had been branded a heretic, a blasphemer by the highest religious experts in all Israel, a revolutionary who had called the Pharisees and teachers of the law a brood of vipers and compared them to whitewashed tombs that appeared clean and holy on the outside, but on the inside were rotten and corrupt.

How could there be any good in this man, this blasphemer who had called himself The Son of God, who had defied the very roots of a covenant that had been in place for two thousand years, who the elite religious leaders had accused of performing His many miracles by the power of the devil?

But how could and why would any being who served Satan heal the ear of someone who had been sent to forcefully take Him to a sham trial and ultimately to a horrible death nailed to a Roman cross?

Wonder what thoughts went through the mind of the servant as they lead this quiet young man to the house of the high priest taunting and mistreating him all the way.

The scriptures tell us no more about this servant, but one wonders, how could he remain silent after having his ear totally restored by one touch of this man his masters feared and were determined to destroy.

One would think that, being a man of importance in the High Priests household he would, at the very least have pulled the High Priest aside and told him what had happened and that he had reservations about how the Sanhedrin viewed Jesus, that maybe, just maybe, they should reconsider what they were about to do, this pseudo trial hidden from the eyes of the public in the shadows of night.

If he did anything like that it is not recorded in the scriptures and I can’t help but wonder if this servant lived the rest of his life in regret for letting an innocent man die a terrible death without even a whisper of what he may have felt in his heart.

The Pharisees were jealous of Jesus and they were not interested in finding Him innocent.

One of the cornerstones of their accusations was that the holy scriptures said the Messiah would come from the city of David, Bethlehem. As far as they got in their examination was that Jesus was from Galilee where he lived after Joseph moved his family back from Egypt, where he fled to keep the baby Jesus out of the hands of King Herod.

If they had only asked, He could have told them that He was born in Bethlehem. That and many other pertinent facts could have been exposed, but the Pharisees were so intent on preserving their highly favored place they feverishly hurried the process along and, after saying that he found no fault in Him, Pontius Pilate had Jesus Crucified.

Then the unthinkable happened, Jesus rose from the dead and was seen by hundreds before He ascended to heaven.

The High Priest’s servant must have had a front row seat to all the things that happened in Jerusalem over the course of three days, I would think that he touched that ear quite often and remembered the man who, on the way to an inexpressibly excruciating death had restored it.

In the face of all that happened to him and around him in this short period of time how could the servant not have become a follower of Jesus?

Perhaps he did, we don’t know, but the story should make us stop and think about our own relationship with Christ, that if, or actually when, the situation arises where we are presented with a fork in the road when we defend our faith and our Master or stand by silent, in spite of all the many blessings He has given us.

The day will most likely come when - to one degree or another - we will be faced with that decision.

I pray we will not fail.

From our family, all the folks at CDB and Twin Pines Ranch, we wish you all a happy and joyous Easter, taking comfort and confidence in the fact that;

HE IS RISEN!

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, our police and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

— Charlie Daniels

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