Life of Christ 171
It is Wednesday morning.
Caiaphas and his bunch have finished their illegal trials. They have convicted
Jesus of blasphemy and sentenced Him to death. But they have no actual
authority to put a man to death; only the Roman Empire does. Thus it is that
Jesus just after sunrise is ushered into presence of Judea's Roman governor,
Pontius Pilate.
As the Sanhedrin delivers
their prisoner to Pilate he asks them what indictment they bring against Him.
(John 18.29) Their initial response is laughable. They simply said that He was
a bad man as if their word alone was enough to crucify a man. (John 18.30)
Pilate, perceiving that the Sanhedrin had no valid political or criminal case
against the prisoner, assumed all they had was a religious case. (He was
correct about this, of course.) He tells them that religion is their
jurisdiction and their problem. (John 18.31)
The Sanhedrin then moves
on to Plan B. They inform Pilate that the indictment is indeed political, and
that Jesus was guilty of sedition and treason. (Luke 23.2) Pilate has been
standing outside of the Praetorium, his judgment hall, discussing this with the
Sanhedrin. (They refused to enter on the grounds that entering a Gentile
dwelling would make them unclean and thus unfit to observe Passover in just a
few hours. Curious, isn't it, how they were so concerned about being ritually
clean while committing murder?)
Pilate turns and goes back inside to question the
prisoner. Pilate asks Him if He does indeed claim to be the king of the Jews.
(John 18.33) Jesus' response is that yes, He does claim to be the king of the
Jews, but it is not a worldly kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom. The proof is
the evident fact that His followers are not seeking to break Him out of jail,
so to speak. (John 18.36) Accepting this as sensible, and mindful of his first
inclination that this was a religious question after all, Pilate returns to the
Sanhedrin and formally pronounced Jesus innocent. (John 18.38).
Pilate wants out from under this situation. He is
being pressured to sentence a man to capital punishment that he thinks is
innocent. But at the same time the last thing he needs is to make the Sanhedrin
and thus the Jews mad at him. To Caesar, a governor's job was well done when
his province was quiet, peaceful, paying taxes, and producing wealth for the
Empire. Pilate, who had as his unhappy lot the province of the troublesome Jews,
was already on thin ice with Caesar in this respect.
Despite the Jews well known abhorrence of graven
images, respected by his predecessors, Pilate upon initial acceptance of his
charge had a cohort of Roman soldiers take possession of the Temple Mount and
Fortress Antonia with banners flying. These banners were emblazoned with
Caesar's image. The resulting near riot lasted six days, and only ended when
the Jewish leaders willingly submitted to threatened death. Pilate had to
recant and take down the banners.
Some time later, Pilate, sensing the need for more and
better water in Jerusalem, proposed a new aqueduct. So far, so good. But he
proposed paying for it with Temple money. Not good. Pilate, anticipating
resistance, had plain clothes men mingle with the Jewish group who came to
argue with him about it. At a nod from him they fell upon the crowd with clubs,
perhaps with more energy than he intended, and many died from the beatings and
the resulting crowd stampede.
Additionally, only recently, Pilate had instructed his
soldiers to kill a number of rebellious Jews on the grounds of the Temple
itself, and the resulting butchery mingled the blood of the Jews with the blood
of the sacrifices.
The current Caesar ,Tiberius, was a paranoid,
suspicious, sick, and increasingly bloodthirsty man. Think Josef Stalin here.
The last thing Pilate needed was for the Sanhedrin to lead the Jews in a fuss
which would draw the negative attention of Rome's ailing emperor. The Sanhedrin
understand the political calculations going through Pilate's mind all too well.
Remorselessly, they press home their attack, demanding that Pilate execute
Jesus, asserting that He had spread sedition from Galilee to Judea. (Luke 23.5)
The word 'Galilee' is like a straw tossed to a
drowning man. Pilate has jurisdiction only of Judea. If the prisoner is from
Galilee this is Herod's problem, not his. Herod is in town for Passover and
Pilate promptly ships Jesus to Herod. He hopes thus to get out from underneath
the maddening situation. (Luke 23.6-7)
Herod had long wanted to meet Jesus, not out of any
spiritual desire, but because he had heard that Jesus was a miracle worker.
Jesus completely ignores Herod (Luke 23.6-12) and refuses to dignify his
foolishness with any response whatsoever. Herod quickly gets bored with the
whole thing, and ships Jesus back to Pilate.
While Jesus had been with Herod Pilate's wife came to
him and begged him to let Jesus go. (Matthew 27.19) He already thought Jesus
was innocent and this only adds to his desire to get out of what the Sanhedrin
wants him to do. Sending Jesus to Herod did not work so he tries something
else. Perhaps a little shed blood, via a scourging, will suffice to please
them. (Luke 23.13-16) No, that is also unacceptable. Undeterred, Pilate tries
something else. It was his custom to pardon one Jew every Passover. He decides
to frame the opportunity this time as a choice between a clearly innocent man
and a clearly guilty one. (Mark 15.7-9) After all, who wants a murderer
released back into the general population? The Sanhedrin, though, quickly
quashes the idea and whips the people to an emotional fervor demanding, of all
things, that Barabbas be released. (Mark 15.11)
Pilate, still resisting but running out of ideas,
begins to transition from trying to get out sentencing Jesus to death to
finding a way to make himself look good while doing it. To that end, he gets
the people to verbalize their blood-thirsty intent thus supposedly getting him
off the hook. (Mark 15.12-14) They oblige him by issuing a full throated demand
for Jesus' death.
In this whole scene we see two contrasting desires - Pilate
to let Jesus go and the Sanhedrin to kill Him. Pilate pushes back saying it is
a religious question. The Sanhedrin pushes back saying it is a political
question. Pilate pushes back with a legal declaration of innocence. The
Sanhedrin pushes back saying Jesus is fomenting rebellion in Galilee. Pilate
pushes back by sending Jesus to Herod. Herod pushes back by sending Jesus back
to Pilate. Pilate pushes back by offering instead to scourge Jesus. The
Sanhedrin refuses and insists on capital punishment. Pilate pushes back by
framing the traditional release to be between Jesus and Barabbas. The Sanhedrin
pushes back by asking for Barabbas. Pilate pushes back by asking them to
specifically verbalize their intent for the record. The Sanhedrin pushes back
by whipping the crowd into a fever and demanding crucifixion.
Like a skilled boxer, the Sanhedrin has Pilate up
against the ropes. Now they deliver the knockout blow. If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh
himself a king speaketh against Caesar. (John 19.12) Pilate is deathly
afraid of the autocratic paranoid Tiberius. Pilate knows full well he governs
an unruly people. He has repeatedly antagonized those unruly people. He does
not need brought to the negative attention of Tiberius and the Jews are
promising him that he will be if he does not issue the ruling they demand. Like
a deflated balloon, he collapses to the mat. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. (Luke
23.24)
Pitifully attempting to robe himself in the tattered
remains of his conscience and his dignity he calls for a bowl of water. He
proceeds to symbolically wash his hands clean from the blood of a prisoner he
knows is completely innocent. The demonically inspired blood lust of the crowd
throws this back in his face with spine chilling cry, His blood be on us, and on our children. (Matthew 27.25)
With this cry Judaism was, in
the person of its representatives, guilty of denial of God, of blasphemy, of
apostasy. It committed suicide; and, ever since, has its dead body been carried
in show from land to land, and from century to century: to be dead, and to
remain dead, till He come a second time, Who is the Resurrection and the Life!
- Edersheim
No greater travesty of
justice ever occurred. No greater consequences ever grew for those involved in
an injustice. And no greater blessing ever flowed from such an injustice.
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