One Slap, One Answer

Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?” John 18:23

At some places during His trial, the Lord Jesus was silent before His accusers. John recalls some times that Jesus spoke though, and one such was in response to the officer of the Jews during the trial before Annas. After our Lord's response to a question, the officer struck Jesus with the palm of his hand. Much worse would be done to Jesus as we know from the gospels, but as a believer in the Son of God we might well gasp in surprise that anyone would do such a thing. Jesus, always ready to teach, took this moment to ask the officer our verse for today.

The first part of our Lord's response is a challenge to the officer. If I have spoken evil - tell the court, tell everyone - bear witness. Of course Jesus did not speak evil, and so the second part ended in the question, why did you do that? Though on trial for His life, Jesus took the time to instruct this man. It comes again in the life of the sinner even today. One of the more powerful incentives to repent is to be asked by the Lord's Spirit just after the committing of the sin, "Why did you do that?" Like the officer, we probably don't have a good answer, and then confession and repentance follow for those who will believe. I like to think the officer did that and came to follow Jesus, but scripture is silent on that.

Great is the teaching of our Lord Jesus!

Bucky