Adjure

“I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.”  Matthew 26:63

Adjure – Manipulation.  Demands.  Pleadings.  Bartering.  Sometimes we resort to all sorts of tactics in order to force someone to speak.  “Don’t you know what will happen if you don’t say something?”  “Why don’t you just speak up?”  “How can you let this go on without saying anything?”  Those who withhold their words often drive us crazy.  This is exactly the case when Jesus stood before the high priest on the night of his mock trial.  Jesus said nothing and the high priest was beside himself with rage.  Finally, the high priest resorted to a tactics that even Jesus would not refuse.  He involved the living God.

The word translated “adjure” in this verse does not tell us the full story.  The Greek is exorkizo.  Look carefully and you will see our English word “exorcise”.  This word means to bind under oath.  We know it from a once famous movie – binding the power of evil.  But when the high priest used this term, he meant that Jesus was now bound under God to speak the truth.  In our legal system, we have a less animated way of demanding the same thing.  We used to ask people to place a hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  That is the equivalent of binding myself under the living God.  And if I understand the character of the living God, this is a very serious oath.

Jesus understood perfectly what the high priest was demanding.  Only then did Jesus respond, not because of the high priest but because of the living God.  And Jesus spoke the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  The same oath that bound Jesus to speak also bound the high priest to listen.  But the high priest was not ready to hear the truth.  His guilt remained because he was also under exorkizo. 

Followers of Jesus are bound by the same oath.  You and I tell the truth because the living God has redeemed our lives.  That same oath also means that we accept the truth when it is spoken to us.  It is a two-sided binding.  The second side is often more difficult than the first.  We are usually more willing to speak the truth than we are to accept hearing it.  But unless we hear the truth, our guilt remains.

Today:  Father, You always speak the truth.  I bind myself to hear and accept it.  Speak to me today.