For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree (Mark 14:59). 

The chief priests knew what they wanted to do. The problem was how to justify it. It didn’t help that the testimonies against Jesus didn’t line up. But that’s the way of false witness. Ultimately, it never agrees, because it is at odds with reality.

Here are a few questions we might ask of abortion advocates:

Are you really concerned for the health of women? Then why oppose abortion clinics being regulated like hospitals? Do you really believe all abortionists care about women, that none are ever careless or in it for the money? That Kermit Gosnell was unique?

Are you really concerned about sexual harassment? Then why oppose parental notification laws? Are you unaware that some girls are pressured into abortion by men who have taken advantage of them? That parents provide their daughters protection?

Do you really “trust women”? If convinced that women are responsible to make their own reproductive choices, then why oppose showing an ultrasound to a woman considering abortion?  Are you afraid women couldn’t handle what they would see?

Do you really believe prolifers engage in a “war on women”? How then is it that women are, statistically speaking, more pro-life then men? Are you suggesting these women are at war with themselves? That they don’t know what is good for them?

Are you really concerned for the rights of all women? Why then insist upon rescinding the Mexico City policy, so that women in poorer countries can have “choice,” and yet remain strangely silent on the plight of women in China, who are told how many children they can bear and whose above-quota children are torn from their wombs?

Do you really want government to stay out of so-called private decisions? Why then insist contraception and abortion be subsidized by the same government you say has no place in such personal decisions?

Do you really believe that the value of a person depends on whether others want him? Or her?

Abortion depends upon false witness.

The corollary? Prolifers must be careful to bear faithful witness: That all people, from the “least” to the “greatest,” are made as the image of God. That God does not pit the interests of women against the interests of men or the interests of parents against those of their children. That God intends sex for marriage and for procreation. And that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that he welcomes the weary, regretful, and sin-laden soul.
And then prolifers must faithfully live out their witness.

In the end, Jesus wasn’t condemned because of false witness. He was condemned for his own words, as he told the high priest exactly who he was. But God can handle the truth, and He will vindicate the one who bears witness to the truth. As He did on that Third Day.