<p>15:3 <i>And the chief priests accused him of many things</i>- The accusations were of course false (as Pilate himself pointed out, Lk. 23:14), making the chief priests and Jewish system the 'devil', the false accuser. In my <i>The Real Devil</i> I demonstrated at length that the terms 'satan' and 'devil' often refer specifically to the Jewish system in the first century. The paradox was that it was those very Jews who were standing in the dock before God, accused by the writings of Moses (Jn. 5:45). And yet we must give Jn. 12:42 its due weight- many of the chief rulers believed in Jesus as Christ but were fearful of the Pharisees and exclusion from the synagogue. So it has so often been- fear of religious excommunication leads believers to crucify their Christ brethren. Their behaviour is explained by the repeated descriptions of the Jews &lsquo;gathering together&rsquo; to take their decisions about killing the Lord. In company, men adopt positions far beyond those they personally hold, and even strongly against their own personal convictions. Reading the account of Jewish treatment of Jesus, it seems incredible, at first blush, that some or even &ldquo;many&rdquo; of those men &ldquo;believed in Him&rdquo;. But this is the power of group think and the fear of appearing strange to others, or being rejected by others, especially from their religious fellowship.</p><p>Is. 53:7 speaks of the Lord at this time as being uncannily silent: &quot; as a sheep before <i>her </i>shearers is silent&rdquo;. The LXX has: &ldquo;Because of his affliction he opens not his mouth&quot;, as if the silence was from pure fear as well as a reflection of an internal pain that was unspeakable. Job&rsquo;s experience had foretold that the cross would be what the Lord had always &ldquo;greatly feared&quot;. The Passover Lamb, so evidently typical of the Lord as He approached death, was to be <i>male</i>. And yet Is. 53:7 conspicuously speaks of a female sheep. Why such an obvious contradiction? Was it not because the prophet foresaw that in the extraordinary breadth of experience the Lord was passing through, He was made to empathize with both men <i>and </i>women? He felt then, as He as the seed of the woman stood silent before those abusive men, as a woman would feel. This is not the only place where both the Father and Son are described in feminine terms. It doesn't mean, of course, that the Father is a woman; what it means is that He has the ability to appreciate and manifest feelings which a male would not normally be able to. Through His experience and zeal for our redemption, the Lord Jesus came to the same ability as His Father in these areas. Those who have suffered most are the most able to empathize. And yet somehow the Lord exceeded this principle; it was true of Him, but <i>such</i> were His sufferings and such His final empathy that this isn't a fully adequate explanation as to <i>how</i> He got to that point of supreme empathy and identity with us that He did. <i>Exactly</i> how He did it must surely remain a mystery; for God was in Him, reconciling the world unto Himself by that fully and totally representative sacrifice. The female element in Old Testament sacrifice pointed forward to the Lord&rsquo;s sacrifice, as a sheep before her shearers. His identity with both male and female, as the ultimate representative of all humanity, meant that He took upon Himself things that were perceived as specifically feminine. The mother was the story teller of the family; when people heard the Lord tell parables and teach wisdom, it would have struck them that He was doing the work of the matriarch of a family. &ldquo;Typical female behaviour included taking the last place at the table, serving others, forgiving wrongs, having compassion, and attempting to heal wounds&quot;, strife and arguments. And yet the woman was to be silent... as Christ was. All this was done by the Lord Jesus- especially in His time of dying and the lead up to it. He was in many ways the idealized mother / matriarch. His sacrifice for us was very much seen as woman&rsquo;s work. And this is why the example of his mother Mary would have been a particular inspiration for Him in going through the final process of self-surrender and sacrifice for others, to bring about forgiveness and healing of strife between God and men. In a fascinating study, Diane Jacobs-Malina develops the thesis that a psychological analysis of the Gospels shows that the Lord Jesus played his roles like &ldquo;the wife of the absent husband&quot;. And assuming that Joseph disappeared from the scene early in life, His own mother would have been His role model here- for she was indeed the wife of an absent husband. You&rsquo;d have to read Jacobs-Malina&rsquo;s study to be able to judge whether or not you think it&rsquo;s all valid. But if she&rsquo;s right, then it would be yet another tribute to the abiding influence of Mary upon the character of the Son of God.</p>