Friends,
Bernard
Ebbers is probably a name you do not know.
As the founder and CEO telecommunications giant, WorldCom, Ebbers was
sitting pretty – until he brought down his own company thanks to his own
corrupt practices and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. WorldCom went deeply into debt after the
company made a series of acquisitions that made it financially insolvent. Ebbers was convicted of committing accounting
fraud to the tune of $11 billion dollars, lying to his investors to keep the
struggling company afloat. He also had the distinction of making TIME’s list of
crooked CEOs…not exactly a glorious designation. TIME also stated that the Securities Exchange
Commission investigated $400 million that WorldCom had loaned to Ebbers. This is a sad story, and it just goes to show
that there are people in this world who are willing to get rich, get popular,
and get status through any means necessary.
It would be nice if this was some late-breaking news story concerning
something that just doesn’t happen very often…unfortunately, there are a dozen
former CEOs just like Ebbers who tried to swindle the public. But, as Solomon says, there is nothing new
under the sun, and so we come to another corrupt CEO from the time of
Christ…and this person was worse, because he was also a religious leader. And we could just as easily pull up a list of
corrupt religious leaders from recent to distant history as well, but we will
save it for another day…you’re welcome. Annas
is probably the most respected and powerful of the Jewish authorities at this
time, even though he is no longer high priest. He had been the high priest
(A.D. 6-15) until he was removed from office by the Romans…and now, his
son-in-law, Caiaphas, is the high priest.
God had originally ordained that one man serve as high priest for a
lifetime, so it easy to see that the Jewish religious establishment is a mess
to say the least. We will talk more about this as we go.
As
we noted in a previous message, Jesus deliberately gives Himself over to the
enemy. Now, they bind Him and lead Him to the
house of Annas, the former high priest who still has political and religious
clout (John 18:12-27) . The “trial” before Annas is more
like an informal hearing. It is plainly
illegal and brutal. It is hard to
imagine a guard today being allowed to strike a prisoner, or a man who does not
hold any kind of office interrogating a prisoner. Annas is looking for some kind of evidence on
which to base an accusation that would lead to a verdict of capital
punishment. What kind of teaching has
Jesus been doing? What about His
disciples…what are they up to? Didn’t one of them use a sword to cut off
Caiaphas’ servant’s ear?
Jewish
law demands that witnesses be called before a prisoner is questioned. Annas defies
the law on several fronts. At least a
half-dozen points of order are ignored in the proceedings…among them -- the
trial takes place at night, during the week of Passover, behind closed doors,
and away from the temple, and so on. Jesus
knows His rights, but He does not insist on them. He is an example to us when we suffer
unjustly. (1 Peter 2:19-25)
At
the same time that this is taking place, there is drama concerning Peter that
is unfolding. Jesus has already
predicted that his close disciple would deny Him three times (John 13:38,
etc.) He also shares that Peter will be
restored to fellowship and service. (Luke 22:32) Peter follows the crowd when he should have
been taking a flight on SW Airlines and getting away (18:8). Had he done so, he…in all likelihood…would
not have denied the Lord. While we
certainly admire Peter’s love and courage, we cannot agree with his actions…for
he walks right into the temptation that Jesus warned him about while they were
in the Garden. “Watch and pray that you
may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is
weak," Jesus said. (Matthew 16:41)
We
do not know who the other disciple is that is with Peter in the courtyard of
the home of the high priest. And, we
don’t really even know how they have access to be there. Nonetheless, the other disciple is likely
John. Peter gradually moves into the
place of temptation and sin. He is
already in the courtyard, but he comes to stand with the enemy by the fire, and
before long, he sits down with them. It
is now too late…and within a short period of time, he will deny that he has
known Jesus three times. A servant girl
is the first to ask him if he is one of Jesus’ disciples. The original Greek
text indicates that she expects a negative answer, and this is precisely what
she receives – Peter tells her “no”. Peter
stays by the fire…which is amazing, and ironic, given the cold that is entering
his heart. And another servant girl asks him the same question. The pronoun “they” suggests that others are
getting on board with the line of questioning. Once again, Peter denies knowing
Jesus. The third question comes from one
of Malchus’ relatives. As we remember,
Malchus is the guy whose ear Peter lopped off – so, this is surely an awkward
situation. Here the original Greek
indicates that he expects an affirmative answer. This guy would probably know the guy who
wielded the ear removing sword, as he was likely standing near Malchus when
Peter did it. At this point, Peter’s
resistance breaks down completely, and he begins to curse and swear. (Matthew
26:74) This doesn’t mean that Peter lets
loose a bunch of expletives like a sailor (or a fisherman), but that he put
himself under a curse in order to emphasize his statement. He is on trial, so to speak, and so he puts
himself under an oath to convince his accusers that he is telling the
truth. It is at this point that the
rooster begins to crow, just as Jesus had predicted. The crowing of the rooster
reminds Peter of the Lord’s words, and he goes out and weeps bitterly. The crowing rooster also indicates, once
again, that Jesus is in control. It will
also serve as an invitation for Peter to come to repentance, which we will come
back to later.
Chuck
Swindoll shares this -- Jesus was the only person to live His entire life
without doing anything wrong. Yet, He was arrested, tried, convicted, and
condemned to suffer a punishment normally reserved for the Roman Empire’s worst
criminals. His arrest was a betrayal and His trials a farce, His convictions
illegal and His punishment a travesty of justice. Yet through it all, He
remained calm, He answered questions honestly, He spoke the truth with dignity,
and He calmly resolved to allow the Father to vindicate Him at the proper time.
We would do well to imitate Christ in our response to the injustices we
experience in our lives.
How
do we respond when we are under fire?
How do we deal with stress and difficulties? It is certainly a growth process. I know from
my own life that there have been times when I did not deal with such matters as
well as I would have liked, and this is primarily because I was not in the
spiritual place that I should have been at the time. Peter certainly made a number of mistakes,
because he was not in a proper spiritual place, nor was he thinking clearly…so,
when temptation came knocking on the door of his heart, he gave in and sinned. We all have choices to make…usually every
day…as to how we are going to process matters, as it relates to trials and
temptations. I hope and pray that we
continue to grow in how it is that we respond to negative situations and
circumstances, and that we will not give in to pride, but seek to do the Lord’s
will. To quote the inimitable Mr. Rogers
-- “In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen
with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as
important as our answers.” (Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers:
Important Things to Remember) Good words
to live by.
Blessings,
Don
