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Karen Hollis | April 18, 2025 Good Friday
READING 4 – Mark 14:53-65 Before the High Priest (N.T. Wright)
They took Jesus away to the high priest. All the chief priests and the elders and scribes were assembled. Peter followed him at a distance, and came to the courtyard of the high priest’s house, where he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. The chief priests, and all the Sanhedrin, looked for evidence for a capital charge against Jesus, but they didn’t find any. Several people invented fictitious charges against him, but their evidence didn’t agree. Then some stood up with this fabricated charge: ‘We heard him say, “I will destroy this Temple, which human hands have made, and in three days I’ll build another, made without human hands.”’ But even so their evidence didn’t agree. Then the high priest got up in front of them all and interrogated Jesus. ‘Haven’t you got any answer about whatever it is these people are testifying against you?’ Jesus remained silent, and didn’t answer a word. One more high priest questioned him. ‘Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?’ ‘I am,’ replied Jesus, ‘and you will see “the son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with clouds of heaven”.’ ‘Why do we need any more evidence?’ shouted the High Priest, tearing his clothes. ‘You heard the blasphemy! What’s your verdict?’ They all agreed on their judgment: he deserved to die. Some of them began to spit at him. They blindfolded him and hit him, and said, ‘Prophesy!’ And the servants took charge of him and beat him.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be reflections of your word to us today, in Christ’s name we pray. Amen
I wonder what motivates a person to tear their clothes.
The high priest watches as they bring Jesus in. From afar, he’s been following Jesus’ activities through the week. He knows how Jesus rode into town on a donkey, mocking imperial processionals. He heard that Jesus turned over the tables of the money changers and dominated theological discussions. He heard of Jesus’ vision for a new Israel and a new kingdom – one that is safe from Roman reach. At every turn and with every challenger, Jesus seems to be more clever, more astute, and more strategic. In every corner of the city, Jesus calls out the corruption of the empire, and the council who collaborates with them . . . while the people follow him.
As the high priest watches the proceedings, he seems to become more and more agitated. Perhaps his heart begins to race, his anxiety rises, beads of sweat form on his brow, accompanied by the question: what the Romans will do to him if he can’t make an argument against Jesus stick. Will they take his job? Or something else?
In preparation for Holy Week, I picked up the Gospel of Judas. While I wouldn’t carry it close to my heart, it’s an interesting read. The gospel suggests something that stuck with me . . . that Jesus’ very presence draws out our highest selves . . . our clearest selves. The presence of Jesus draws forth that in us which is most aligned with God’s goodness and our own purpose. Our highest selves want to connect with Jesus – there’s a gravity to his presence and our highest selves are drawn in.
And, because we’re human, there can be other stuff in the mix that makes that connection difficult . . . there’s no judgement there . . . it’s just part of how we are as humans. In Jesus’ presence, there’s stuff that comes forward for healing, for transformation . . . or sometimes there’s stuff that resists the light of his presence, altogether. It’s our choice to welcome in our own time the healing he offers . . . or resist it.
In the case of the high priest, his true self appears to be bound by his own entanglement with empire and hidden from view. Perhaps in Jesus’ presence, beneath his fear and anxiety at the Romans, his resistance causes a pressure to build in him. The pressure builds as he hears the witnesses, it builds in him as he questions Jesus himself, daring to get close to the source of his torment. The pressure builds in him until he snaps, tearing his clothes. They make their verdict and the high priest can return to his place of status and safety, far away from the light that calls forth in him something greater and something truer.