TRIAL BY THE SANHEDRIN

Posted by Admin on 25 May 2006, 12:00 am

Crowded to capacity the columned hall
seethes with Levites, temple vendors,
hand-picked, bribed, and filled with gall.
Circumscribed by unsheathed steel, and
seated crescent-wise, one and twenty
judges, learned Sadducees, the
ancient tractates waive, resolved no
technicalities the captive Christ shall
save. Caiaphas’s biased priests who
one obsession share, intent to end
the threat implied by John the Baptist’s
heir.
So He stands before them, swollen-
faced and bruised, chafed by rough
rope fibres on the choking halter used;
facing accusations, all of them untrue –
blasphemy and sacrilege, and mob
incitement too, reported by false
witnesses, rehearsed with priestly
guile to vow His presence fearful –
His miracles revile.
Quiescent, Nicodemus sits, his gaze
aimed at the wall, while daring not to
utter the finer points of law.
Silent too, and precognosced, our
foredoomed Lord can see the Via
Dolorosa and the cross at Calvary.