in 1953 Arthur Miller wrote a Tony Award winning drama called The Crucible based on the witch trials of 1692-93 in Salem, Massachusetts. This passage reminds me of this play for two reasons.
First of all the trials themselves were basically a sham. Jesus was not the first, nor the last to be convicted in a fixed trial. It is hard to imagine a more helpless and dispiriting situation than to be innocent but be on trial before a court where you know that you will be convicted without regard to your innocence. This is the situation in which Jesus was placed. The very Son of God allowed Himself to be the victim of a gross injustice. Indeed, as the writer of Hebrews says, we have a High Priest who can sympathize with our weakness.
The other reason this passage reminds me of The Crucible is because there are several places in the play where people have the opportunity to embrace the truth. If they would just do so things would work out, but they refuse.
In this passage the only one who is willing to embrace truth is Jesus. Peter refuses to own up to the truth and the result is bitter shame. The priests and the members of the Sanhedrin refuse to accept truth with the result that they condemned the Son of God to a cruel death. Jesus embraced truth and even though it sent Him to the cross that day the end result was that the grave could not hold Him.
Truth is not always the easy way, but it is always the right way.
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