A trial or a circus?

Mark
What a joke!  That's what the supposed 'trial' at the Sanhedrin was that Jesus had to go through.  I was reading in William Barclay's commentary on Mark 14:53-65 that the Jews had very specific rules about how to conduct a trial in the Sanhedrin, which is the supreme court of the Jews.  For one thing, they were supposed to meet in their own building, allow one night to pass before delivering a judgment, question the witnesses separately and take their testimony only if they all agreed.  Well, upon reading the passage in Mark, we can see that the Sanhedrin met in secret in the middle of the night, the false witnesses couldn't agree on the testimony to bring against Jesus, and the court pronounced a judgment almost instantly.  Indeed, they had really decided beforehand what verdict they would come to.
These people were so intent on calling Jesus a law-breaker and a sinner that they themselves were breaking laws to condemn him!  The truth was clearly on Jesus's side.

Stephen the martyr

This is a picture of Stephen being martyred (a bit ahead of today's scripture reading).  I can see how the Sanhedrin (court of Jewish judges) were up in arms over Stephen and his testimony before them.  Here was a Greek Jew, having grown up outside of Palestine, teaching these judges about Jewish history and how it points to Jesus being the Christ.  It's always a bit humiliating (if we let it) when we claim to be experts on a topic, but someone else comes along and provides a different point of view that holds up under scrutiny.  There are a number of ways that we could react.  We could get angry, like the Sanhedrin, and shun this person and his new ideas (or go to the extreme and actually kill him...), or we could lose our pride and, with a humble spirit, listen to what they have to say.  I think we know what the better option is - conducting ourselves with integrity and humility.  So, let's go out and do it!