By His Wounds We Are Healed
Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it would be good if one man died for the people.
(John 18:12-14)
“They bound Him.” Seriously? How do you bind the One who spoke creation into being? How do you bind the great “I AM”? How do you bind the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form? How do you bind Omnipotence in the flesh? “They bound Him” simply because Jesus allowed them to bind Him. He allowed Himself to be a passive sufferer and He allowed His enemies to work their will. He allowed Himself to the object of spite and hatred. He suffered while He served. To free mankind from bondage, He became bound and we owe our liberty to His bondage. The prophet Isaiah tells us:
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:3-5)
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. (Isaiah 53:7-8)
Take It to Heart
“We see the Son of God taken prisoner and led away bound like a malefactor, arraigned before wicked and unjust judges, insulted and treated with contempt. And yet this unresisting prisoner had only to will His deliverance, and He would at once have been free. He had only to command the confusion of His enemies, and they would at once have been confounded. Above all He was One who knew full well that Annas and Caiaphas, and all their companions, would one day stand before His judgment seat and receive an eternal sentence. He knew all these things, and yet condescended to be treated as a malefactor without resisting.” (John Charles Ryle)
Jesus is our great deliverer!