the source of evil and bitching. Paradoxically, the only way to keep relationships warm and working is to find ways of enabling forgiveness, new life and proper growth. Otherwise the huddles for the warmth of intimacy prove to be shifting, short lived and leave us too often exposed in the cold courtyard when all religion and personal values are put on trial.
In our text we have a picture of Peter joining the warming comfort and intimacy of the established approach to religion. At this moment of trial he finds himself denying Jesus and the alternative approach that He has tried to offer.
Individual reflection Take a few moments of quiet to imagine you are Peter standing warming yourself by the fire. What are you thinking and feeling – towards yourself, towards the people you are standing with, and towards Jesus and your fellow disciples? Try to be brutally honest with yourself and consider if you ever think or feel like this when you are in Church or with other Christians. If so; when and why? If not; why? Don’t worry you are not going to be asked to share this with the group!
religious people should, so as to be sure that they know what they were doing.
Read or listen to these thoughts from Bishop Alastair
This trial is also corrupt according to the account in John, because the High Priest says to Jesus “what have you and your disciples been doing, what have you been preaching?” In the procedure of the Sanhedrin it was not permitted to ask the accused to condemn themselves and that is why Jesus replies “why are you asking me, you are not supposed to be asking me, I’m not supposed to condemn myself.”
Jesus is brought to trial at the Sanhedrin. This was a court that had to have at least 23 judges. They sat in a semi-circle and there were two clerks – one to record an acquittal and one to record a judgement of guilty and condemnation. If the judgement was acquittal it was recorded immediately and the person was free. If the judgement was condemnation it was not recorded for 24 hours to give people time to consider the verdict and thus to make sure that they really wanted to record a judgement of guilty. The evidence of our text shows that this trial was corrupt since the court decided that they wanted to condemn Jesus immediately. If he was condemned, they should have gone away and come back in 24 hours having thought and prayed about the verdict, as good
Here we can see a form of religion that is so keen to maintain law and order that in fact breaks its own rules. It does not wait 24 hours for a considered verdict of guilty and condemnation, and it does not observe the right of the defendant not to incriminate themselves so that the case has to be made 6