When I was a sophomore in high school, I was required to read Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. It is the classic story of racial prejudice and social justice and it quickly became one of my all time favorite books. Although there are a lot of great moments in it, one of my favorite scenes is the one in which Atticus says that a good lawyer should never ask a witness a question that they don’t already know the answer to.
As a lawyer himself, Atticus Finch knows that an attorney must control the flow of information throughout a trial if they hope to earn a favorable outcome for their client and in order to do this, he or she must know everything a witness is going to say before they say it. They must anticipate all of the questions that are most likely to be asked and ensure that there are no surprise bombshells during testimony that can thwart their carefully laid plan.
I don’t know what the First Century equivalent to the bar exam might have been but I can’t help thinking that Jesus would have made a fantastic trial lawyer. Throughout his ministry Christ often poses questions that cause His witnesses to waffle under pressure, stump the opposing council and spring the trap that is being laid to ensnare Him. Now of course as the all-seeing, all-knowing Son of God who has all of the answers we expect nothing less from Him, but the chief priests, scribes and elders did not know what to make of this comely Nazarene, which leads to the interaction in today’s gospel reading.
To play fair, they’ve been down this road before. Remember, they saw John call the masses to repentance and baptize them in the Jordan River, but when he denied that he was the long-awaited messiah, perhaps they decided to exercise a bit more caution in their future inquiries. These were not stupid men. They were well versed in The Law and like any good attorney; they wanted to make sure they were in control of the flow of information before the message of another itinerant preacher usurped their power.
They weren’t banking on someone like Jesus though. It must have been their worst nightmare when he turned their direct examination into a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. He threw their questions back at them knowing full well that they couldn’t answer them without exposing their deep-seated fears and it is absolutely fascinating to me how Mark describes their huddled “sidebar” in which they weigh out the various possibilities before ultimately taking the path of least resistance.
Their answer –or the lack of one – allows Christ to continue His work a little while longer while his enemies build a stronger case against Him. He knows this and He knows that one day He will have to take the witness stand and when he does, he will have all of the cards stacked against Him. After all, when the trial is over before it starts, there is little chance of a “not guilty” verdict. But as Atticus once said, “real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”
Today’s readings for Mass: JUDE 17, 20B-25; PS 63:2,3-4, 5-6; MK11:27-33
