Dr Keener tells us that "This trial breaks a number of Jewish legal rules, if later documents correctly indicate the state of Jewish law in this period." Many of these same laws hold true today as well. Legality in American and English common law lies in the proper court procedures being followed to the letter of the law. However, the night's proceedings are more like the notorious Star Chamber of English jurisprudence. The Star Chamber was an English civil and criminal court noted for arbitrary procedure and severe treatment. It was finally abolished in 1604, but the memory of that court has continued in its name to mean any oppressive, arbitrary tribunal. Dr Keener notes several areas where the temple procedures are suspended in order to do away with their special prisoner before any legal niceties can get in the way! The following six points in my outline are simply abridgments of several pages of description.

1. The trial was in the home of the High Priest instead of the Chamber of Hewn Stone in the Temple complex where the seventy-one members of the Sanhedrin were accustomed to gather for such court cases.

2. There evidently was no public advance notice of the trial and it was held on a feast day at least, which according to some speculation had the official force of the Sabbath - on which the Jewish court was forbidden to meet.

3. At least the normal cross-examination of witnesses proceeds and the testimony of the witnesses fails to support a conviction and on those grounds alone the whole trial should have been thrown out.

4. According to later rabbinic law, the defendant could not be coerced to convict himself out of his own mouth. But, that concord of legality is blatantly transgressed.

5. Even the words of Jesus, while plain in assenting his Messiahship as well as being the greater One to come, are not technically guilty of blasphemy. To be so, He would have had to call Himself God or command them commit idolatry.

6. Under Jewish law, the high priest is not permitted to judge the case alone, the Sanhedrin was required to vote.

7. Finally the spiteful behavior against the person of Jesus was completely outside the accepted practices of any Jewish court in that time.

A Star Chamber court, this was if there ever was one. These goings on reflect some very dangerous precedents being advocated in the public schools. I once heard a highly paid "professional psychobabbalist" publicly advocate a like minded administration of arbitrary injustice in dealing with any and all students. The only important point of her seminar was the advice not to be afraid of using the public trust and power implicit in the American school setting. Can we really wonder why there is armed rebellion at the worst and increasing frustration of the legal childish inmates of such a system where arbitration has no meaning except what the person wielding the power intends it to mean?

This Sanhedrin is a rogue court, not worthy of its title or its biblical heritage. Winston Churchill was once asked to evaluate the worthiness of a democratic form of government. He observed that it was the worst possible form of government until you considered every other possibility. This sad commentary of Mark's is an example of one of those other possibilities. Like our own High Court's ruling on the humanity of slaves in the 1850's or on the humanity of unborn children in 1973. None of these are lawful edicts within the age old concepts of truth, justice and legal procedures. How easy it is in every generation for self-important judges to make themselves god over issues and persons outside of the scope of their authority. Of course, like the former Soviet system, the Jewish authorities, this night, have already decided on an outcome and have thrown away every limitation of civilized behavior in order to accommodate the decision they have already concluded in their hearts. How else could they have found the Lord of all the earth guilty before a court of law, unless the court was lawless! Josephus, some decades later described the generation who had crucified the Christ as one that would and could stoop to any degradation if it served their purpose.

Now, we have one other set of trials ongoing this night and we have to go back to verse fifty-four to pick up the thread: "But Peter followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire." Dr Keener observes that "Peter's trespassing on private property - that of the high priest himself - required serious commitment." So, we may understand that initially at least Peter is made of sterner stuff than many of the others. Straight into the den of iniquity he has entered. We must realize the danger in this bold act of faithfulness. Yet, we all know from earlier in this evening that Peter's rock hearted affection is to be tested as never before or ever afterwards. Now, in our jaded society too many people have learned to imitate the first liar of the land and thus in so doing, serve the greater and worse Father of Liars, even Satan himself. Yet, lies, little, big, white, dark and blasphemous are too easily allowed and even encouraged by a declining entertainment industry. In such a climate where even the stealing of an election was almost accomplished - few there are who see the sin implicit here in this situation. The sin is evident only to those who know the Lord of all the universe, and having put their hands to the spiritual plow must follow the furrow into the sunset, so to speak.

Peter didn't have to be here in the high priest's house on this evening. Jesus had told him that He would meet them in Galilee. But Peter has a full head of steam up this night of nights and must go on to prove himself before the disciples and before the Lord! Yet, Jesus truly knows Peter's heart, his abilities - weaknesses and strengths better than Peter does. "Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times."

When I was much younger, I was told in elementary school that loosing built character and gave us the incentive to keep trying to do better. I still remember the insult my High School guidance counselor heaped on me when he told me not to waste mine or anyone else's time by going to college. Then, there were the liberal presbyterians who denied that someone like me could receive a call to the ministry. I'll admit that on occasion I acted rashly. In the middle of the anti-war demonstrations I showed up at a Presbytery meeting in full military uniform. Politically, that was not wise. Even more reckless was something else that I did. At that particular meeting, the feminists had just been admitted to the sessions, presbyteries and even the ministry some months before. Right on their heels, the sodomites had come out of the closet. One or more of them had come to that particular meeting and as I stood in the vestibule and watched I saw several rural elders and ministers sit in one pew and then quickly get up and leave. (Some continued right out the door and never came back to any presbytery meeting!)

Some of the known liberals were giggling in a corner at the conservative reaction. One of my friends cautioned me that the sodomite in question was aggressively pawing the representatives of Christ's churches. I must have said too loudly, well just let that pervert tackle me and I'll teach him a lesson! So I marched down the aisle and sat in the pew. Some one came up from behind and whispered into the perverts ear and he got up and left. Unfortunately, I made many more enemies that day than I did friends. Because those who admired my rashness were more likely never to come again. What we didn't know at the time was the fact that day we were not in our Father's house, but in the malignant den of our enemy - Satan himself! It took some years in the wilderness to take the sass out of my heart and teach me to comprehend the theological lay of the land. Like Peter I had to learn that the Lord has His purpose that must be fulfilled and that He will do it in His time, not ours. Fifteen years in the wilderness - my rashness in that matter as well as others cost me in coming into the ministry. And yet, the Lord is sovereign and His timing and purpose are perfect. We must learn His wisdom and will and not our own!

Peter's trial is relatively simple, will he admit to being one of the Lord's men? I got in trouble because I would admit it. Peter, makes the other mistake and denies any personal relationship with and knowledge of the man on trial just a few yards away. The servant girl of the high priest accosts Peter at the fire where he obviously must not belong. "You also were with Jesus of Nazareth." Peter immediately denies any relationship with the teacher of Nazareth. Again, she accosts him on the porch in the hearing of the guards who are waiting for the trial to be over. "This is one of them." Did Peter hear the rooster crow the first time? Obviously not, the warning sign specifically mentioned by the Lord was ignored. And so a third time, he was accosted: "Surely you are one of them; for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it." This time, Peter curses and swears "I do not know this Man of whom you speak!"

My commentators tell us that the cursing and swearing is not the blue language that we might expect, but rather in the most solemn terms he would bring curses upon himself if he were not telling the truth and then swears to that fact. "Stick a needle in my eye and hope to die", rash little children sometimes proclaim when they want to impress their friends with the honesty of what they are saying. Do you see the dichotomy here between what is going on inside and outside? Inside the "supreme" judges of the land are finding a way to destroy the One who claims to be the long expected Messiah. Outside, one of His own and most faithful disciples is vowing on his own sinful grave that He too is just as ignorant as those inside. "I do not know this Man ..!" The rooster crowed a second time and all of a sudden Peter was a broken man. The rock of faith upon which Christ would build His church has taken his hand from the plow and his eyes off of Christ and denied his Lord and his own calling.

In that liberal presbytery so many years ago, members of the candidates committee told me more times than I cared, the fictional story of the farm lad in the field, who seeing some clouds shaped in a likeness of the letters P and C, imagined that he was called to Preach Christ. In the wisdom of the committee they believed that the so called sign from heaven meant that the farmer should continue to plow corn and leave the ministry to those who obviously knew what they were doing.! No! I didn't see any such clouds and couldn't understand why I was not welcome in the church of my fathers!

Now, what I want you to take away with you is this lesson that Peter learned from his trial. Following Jesus is not so simple as saying that you will be with Him to the end. There will be tests to see if you will hold up. Some years ago, a new family was joining the church. A simple procedure they thought. I cautioned them that a lot of us in this congregation had learned the hard way that there was a cost to following Jesus Christ and the seriousness of our calling demanded that we study the Scriptures carefully and be persistent in our prayer life and even in our work and witness. Two years later, after a multitude of problems one of the two, told me that she was mystified at what I had said, but now that the problems were coming to a head - they knew what I meant. The other half of that family took another three years to learn that we don't always pass every single test with flying colors. But in both cases, they learned to trust the Lord in His own strength and that the faith once given to the saints was of their own doing. In it all and through it all - they both had to learn to trust the Lord of all the earth in the good times as well as in the bad.

As we focus on the failing of Peter here in this passage, do indeed realize your own failings as well. But on the good news side of the Gospel of Grace, remember that even as Peter was forgiven and restored - so may we all be found in Christ ever and always because of what He has done and not because of what we propose to do. Amen.