John 18:15-24

¹⁵Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard, ¹⁶but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the girl on duty there and brought Peter in. ¹⁷"You are not one of his disciples, are you?" the girl at the door asked Peter.
He replied, "I am not." ¹⁸It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself. ¹⁹Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about His disciples and His teaching. ²⁰"I have spoken openly to the world," Jesus replied. "I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. ²¹Why question Me? Ask those who heard Me. Surely they know what I said." ²²When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby struck Him in the face. "Is this the way You answer the high priest?" he demanded. ²³"If I said something wrong," Jesus replied, "testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike Me?" ²⁴Then Annas sent Him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest [Or Now, having sent Him, still bound, to Caiaphas...].

First here, the other disciple is often thought to be John himself, but John was a mere fisherman, not a man with political connections, so in all likelihood, this disciple is not one of the Twelve, but rather a more secret follower of Jesus (Joseph of Arimathea or Nicodemus?). Anyway, that unnamed disciple realizes that Peter didn’t get in with him, so he goes back and gets the servant girl to let Peter in as well. And as Peter walks through the door, the girl asks him (but not the unnamed disciple) the question that makes his heart drop. He was hoping to avoid trouble, but he wanted to see what happened to Jesus. Isn’t it interesting that as soon as Peter denies Jesus for the first time, John recalls that it was cold? And Peter tried to get warm, but his trial was just beginning. He would remain miserably cold for a time.

If this had happened to a young believer, we, in our own away-from-the-battle-courage, might be able to understand it. But Peter had been a disciple of Jesus for 3 years; he had heard all the words that Jesus had preached and taught and words that aren’t even recorded in the Scriptures. He’d sat and listened to the Sermon on the Mount. Peter had seen Jesus perform mighty miracles – healing the sick, the blind, and the lame. He sees, on one occasion, where they break through the roof of the house and lower someone down for Jesus to heal. He’d seen a dead man come to life again after being dead for 3 or 4 days. He’d been taken up to a mountain with two other disciples, including John, and there he had seen things that we can’t imagine. These are Peter’s own words, “We were eye witnesses of His majesty.” He’d seen Jesus’ glory. And yet it happens. Would it happen to us? Really?

The high priest questions Jesus in regard to His doctrinal teaching. The reality was that Jesus had said nothing that remained secretive or conspiring. Jesus spoke the same words to everyone – words of repentance and justice and mercy. Thus Jesus responds, claiming that His own defense is unnecessary and that a better testimony, for the purposes of this mock trial, would come from those who heard Him teach. And then we read that a nearby official, apparently disgusted with Jesus’ reply, struck Him in the face. This event, notably with no recorded rebuke from the high priest, shows how brutishly the trial was conducted.

Jesus responds appropriately to being struck by claiming innocence and demanding evidence against Him. No one is able to testify of any evil that Jesus has done, even though all people know the words He has said and the works He has performed, for He has taught openly, and has not changed any of His doctrine since the beginning of His public ministry. But without any legitimate reason, and, no doubt, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Psalm 69:4, “They hated Me without a cause,” the court dealt an unwarranted blow to an uncondemned Man (a similar thing happened to Paul). Then, having previously (note the verb tense) sent Him to Caiaphas, the assembly now sends Him to Pilate (John 18:28-40; 19:1-16), the Roman Proconsul, so that they can gain for Him the death sentence. A cursory reading of the synoptic gospels reveals a multitude of further ways in which Jesus’ trial was against the law and certainly against justice – but so it had to be, for, if He would be a spotless Lamb and a satisfactory sacrifice, there must be no cause of death found in Him; rather, every cause for His death should be sought in us sinners, even as every cause of our life is found in this unjustly condemned man alone!