The Pulpit Commentary on John 7:45-52

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The meeting of the Sanhedrin.

The position of the official guides of the people was becoming every hour more gravely compromised by the movement in favour of Jesus.

I. THE EXTRAORDINARY REPORT OF THE OFFICERS TO THE SANHEDRIN. "Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spake like this Man."

1. This report was delivered on the holy sabbath. The exigency of the moment may have seemed to justify the Sanhedrin in sitting on that day.

2. The leaders' indignant question marks their disappointment that Jesus is not a prisoner in their hands.

3. The officers' answer is singularly frank and decisive.

(a) with such authority;

(b) with such a grasp of Divine truth;

(d) with such a disregard for the traditional ideas of the Jewish teachers.

II. THE CONTEMPTUOUS REJOINDER OF THE PHARISEES. "Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this multitude that knoweth not the Law is cursed."

1. The evil was growing fast when their very officers, despatched to execute the law, returned with such a tribute to the power of Jesus.

2. The Pharisees see in the words of their officers the evidences of nothing but deception. "Are ye also deceived?" They had already stigmatized Jesus as one who "deceiveth the people." They were all the while ignorant of the deception which shut their own eyes to the truth.

3. They contrast their own hardy unbelief with the too-ready faith of the multitude.

(a) The Pharisees regard them as "ignorant of the Law." Whose fault was that? Was it not the fault of the rulers themselves?

(b) They regard them as "cursed." The multitude was never so near to blessing.

III. THE EFFORT MADE ON CHRIST'S BEHALF BY ONE OF HIS SECRET DISCIPLES. "Nicodemus saith unto them, Doth our Law then judge a man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?"

1. Nicodemus appears first in history as a secret inquirer. "He that came to him by night, being one of them."

2. It is a sign of progress that he makes an effort, however indirect, to turn aside the blow aimed at Jesus.

3. The delusion of the Sanhedrin respecting the real origin of Jesus. "Search, and look: for no prophet has arisen from Galilee."

4. The danger to Jesus was averted. "And every man went to his own house." The Sanhedrin broke up without making any fresh effort to check the progress of Jesus.

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON

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