Leading questions

Date: 06 March 2013 07:37:10

Jesus is Condemned by the Sanhedrin

Forty blogs of Lent

Day 18

Scriptural way of the cross

Station 3

When day came the council of elders of the people met, both chief priests and scribes, and they brought him before their Sanhedrin. They said, "If you are the Messiah, tell us," but he replied to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I question, you will not respond. But from this time on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God." They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied to them, "You say that I am." Then they said, "What further need have we for testimony? We have heard it from his own mouth." Luke 22: 66-71

Have you stopped beating your wife? This is the sort of leading question that is not allowed in a court of law. If you answer "Yes" it means that you once beat your wife. If you answer "No" then you admit that you still beat your wife. This is the sort of question that Jesus is faced with in the reading above. "If you are the Messiah, tell us." If the answer is "Yes" he condemns himself, making himself equal with God he risks being condemned for blasphemy and heresy. If "No" he admits to having no authority for his teaching. Heads you lose, tails you don't win. Fairness does not come into it.