Who is on Trial?

Scripture Reading: Luke 22:63-65

Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, “Prophesy! Who is the one who struck You?” And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him.

Back in the 60’s an art gallery arranged to have the Mona Lisa brought to the United States and displayed it, allowing people to come by and see it in person. Someone noticed that as the crowds filed by there would be the occasional visitor who would be visibly disappointed. Their expectations, for whatever reason, were not met. Those people would quietly comment to the people by them things like, “What is so great about it?’

What those people didn’t realize or understand is, that in moments like that, it isn’t the art that is on trial, it is the observer that is being judged. When beauty is dismissed as unworthy of our admiration, it says more about us than it does about that which we are looking at.

When the crowds who gathered near Pilate’s Hall spoke against Jesus and blasphemed Him, they were not passing judgment on Him. They were doing a self-assessment.

We might think we are sitting in the juror’s box and God is in the dock (to borrow from C.S. Lewis), but in reality, our judgment of Jesus is only a revealing of the condition of our hearts.

Photo by Mark kassinos on Unsplash