バイブルクラスがおこなわれました

Bible class on Saturday May 16,2015

この日の聖書の箇所は、マタイによる福音書26章の52節から75節です。この26章は同福音書の中で特にボリュームが大きく、今回を含め3回に分けて学びました。この日は他教会の方や当教会の神学生も参加し、5名の出席で、神の子キリストが罪に定められ、十字架刑に渡される過程での重要な出来事とイエスの教えを学ぶことができました。

前回の続きの場面で、イエスを捕えようとする一団に対し、剣をもって抵抗しようとするペテロ。その行為を諌めるイエスは、次のように語ります。

"Put your sword back where it belongs. 　All who use swords are destroyed by
sword

「劔をもとの鞘に納めなさい。劔を用いる者は全て劔で滅びる。」

これは、有名な聖句で在るのみならず、世界中に知られる普遍の格言です。

この後、イエスは自分が捉えられ十字架につけられることを、「聖書の預言が成就するためである。」と云って、捕らえられます。（イザヤ書53章、詩篇22）

False Charges（不正な罪状）

しかし祭司長、律法学者そして長老たちは、イエスを捕えながらも、死罪に匹敵する証拠が見つからず苦労する様が描かれています。そしてついに二人の偽証人にこう云わせたのでした。

^60-61 Finally two men came forward with this: "He said, 'I can tear down
this Temple of God and after three days rebuild it.'"

最後に2人の男がこれを申し出た。「イエスは、『私は神の神殿を取りこわし、3日の

後にそれを再び立て直すことができる。』と言いました。」

当時のユダヤの裁判では「二人の証言」は正当とされたそうです。そしてこの偽証がきっかけとなり、その後の大祭司とのやり取りの後、いよいよ次章は「ピラトに引き渡され」、そしてゴルゴタの丘での十字架へと、イエスは聖書の預言を成就するために突き進んでいきます。

今日の出席の皆さんとの話し合いの中で、大祭司が偽証人に云わせた『私は神の神殿を取りこわし、3日の後にそれを再び立て直すことができる。』は、とても意味深い福音書の理解へと展開することができました。

イエス　キリストこそ活ける神殿であり。その十字架の死から3日目に復活することを、偽証人の口を通して先立って言わしめたところに大変大きな意義を見出すことができました。

^52-54 Jesus said, "Put your sword back where it belongs. All who use
swords are destroyed by swords. Don't you realize
that I am able right now to call to my Father, and twelve companies--more, if I
want them--of fighting angels would be here, battle-ready? But if I did that,
how would the Scriptures come true that say this is the way it has to be?"

^55-56 Then Jesus addressed the mob: "What is this--coming out after me with
swords and clubs as if I were a dangerous criminal? Day after day I have been
sitting in the Temple teaching, and you never so much as lifted a hand against
me. You've done it this way to confirm and fulfill the prophetic writings."

Then all the disciples cut and ran.

False Charges

^57-58 The gang that had seized Jesus led him before Caiaphas the Chief
Priest, where the religion scholars and leaders had assembled. Peter followed
at a safe distance until they got to the Chief Priest's courtyard. Then he
slipped in and mingled with the servants, watching to see how things would turn
out.

^59-60 The high priests, conspiring with the Jewish Council, tried to cook
up charges against Jesus in order to sentence him to death. But even though
many stepped up, making up one false accusation after another, nothing was
believable.

^60-61 Finally two men came forward with this: "He said, 'I can tear down
this Temple of God and after three days rebuild it.'"

⁶² The
Chief Priest stood up and said, "What do you have to say to the accusation?"

⁶³ Jesus
kept silent.

Then the Chief Priest said, "I command you
by the authority of the living God to say if you are the Messiah, the Son of
God."

⁶⁴ Jesus
was curt: "You yourself said it. And that's not all. Soon you'll see it for
yourself:

The Son of Man seated at the right hand of
the Mighty One,
Arriving on the clouds of heaven."

^65-66 At that, the Chief Priest lost his temper, ripping his robes,
yelling, "He blasphemed! Why do we need witnesses to accuse him? You all heard
him blaspheme! Are you going to stand for such blasphemy?"

They all said, "Death! That seals his death
sentence."

^67-68 Then they were spitting in his face and banging him around. They
jeered as they slapped him: "Prophesy, Messiah: Who hit you that time?"

Denial in the Courtyard

⁶⁹ All
this time, Peter was sitting out in the courtyard. One servant girl came up to
him and said, "You were with Jesus the Galilean."

⁷⁰ In
front of everybody there, he denied it. "I don't know what you're talking
about."

⁷¹ As
he moved over toward the gate, someone else said to the people there, "This man
was with Jesus the Nazarene."

⁷² Again
he denied it, salting his denial with an oath: "I swear, I never laid eyes on
the man."

⁷³ Shortly
after that, some bystanders approached Peter. "You've got to be one of them.
Your accent gives you away."

^74-75 Then he got really nervous and swore. "I don't know the man!"

Just then a rooster crowed. Peter
remembered what Jesus had said: "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me
three times." He went out and cried and cried and cried.