Written by Mohrael Mikhael
8 April, 2023
Mohrael Mikhael is a high school senior at Hinsdale Central High School and looks forward to joining the OCCM family
“What is this, O Redeemer? What has caused You to consent to this? Shall the Great One be despised? Shall the Glorified One be afflicted? Shall the Exalted One be humbled? Oh! The Greatness of Your Love.” - Fraction to the Son: “Oh Only begotten Son…”
Hands tied, a reed at His side, we behold a Man who looks like He belongs in a slave market and yet the church looks and sings “Thine is the Power: Ⲑⲱⲕ ⲧⲉ ϯϫⲟⲙ.” This is our Savior.
Our Good Savior. The One Who governs the universe, was brought forth to be governed. The One Who bound the seas of the earth, was now bound and taken to Caiaphas’s house (John 18:24). Our Lord, to Him be all glory, was arrested and kept overnight at the house of Caiaphas the high priest after His first trial. If you want to see the extent of His love, start at the manger (Luke 2:16) and work your way towards the prison…except He wasn’t even given a prison. We all know the manger scene, but do you know the prison scene? The manger was for animals…and so was the prison.
Quick history lesson: rich jews like Caiaphas owned cattle (clean according to jewish tradition of course). If you were very rich–also like Caiaphas–you had a pit with a hole on the top where you could lower an animal that was misbehaving. This was essentially solitary confinement for any animal that misbehaved; they would be lowered into this pit with no food, no water, no light, no communication so they could “learn their lesson.” This was also a form of putting away a “dangerous”
animal from the herd. Separation.
Now look at Psalms 88.
⁜ Verse 4 “I am counted with those who go down to the pit”
⁜ Verse 6 “You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths”
⁜ Verse 8 ”You have put away my acquaintances far from me; you have made me an abomination to them; I am shut up, and I cannot get out”
⁜ Verse 18 “Loved one and friend You have put far from me, and my acquaintances into darkness.”
Christ was not even put into a criminal prison. He was lowered into the pit which was intended as a punishment for animals. The Most Honorable was not even punished like the blasphemer they accused Him as, but an animal. He humbled Himself to the level of animals to show the catastrophe of sin in our humanity. He was separated like an animal so that we, having tarnished our human nature to that of animals through sin, may wash ourselves in the ointments of His passion and become human again.
“Save Yourself, and come down from the cross!” (Mark 15:30). He could, but He chose not to. And that is Love. Love that while His hands held power beyond comprehension, He accepted them to be tied by ropes. He chose to restrain Himself for the sake of Love because He is Love. Love consuming, Love emulating, Love Being. This is a Man who restrains Himself when he has the full capabilities to free Himself. It is through this that the whole world past, present, and future finds freedom.
“He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers” (Isaiah 53:7). He entered the world in a manger surrounded by His creation who witnessed the light of His incarnation in the night and likewise, He chose the same road of suffering. A sacrifice of, in, and for darkness so that all may be enlightened as it once was…so that all creation may come to order; rightly.
He being Love chose the least in every detail of His incarnation, we pray in this time that through His grace we may become the love that He is. Lovers of the human race.
Ps. all photos above were taken February 2023 where anyone can go visit Caiaphas’s house in present day Gallicantu (Jerusalem), Israel.
