B12 - E2 Brought before Pilate
At daybreak, the whole Council gathered together and went to the palace of Pilate. It was the day before the Passover so they stayed outside the building. If they had entered the house of someone who wasn’t Jewish, they would have been considered ritually unclean and wouldn't have been able to eat the Passover meal. Pilate came out to them and said, “Why have you had this man sent to me? What charges are you bringing against him?”
“He is a criminal,” they answered, “otherwise we wouldn't be handing him over to you. He has been subverting the people and has opposed payment of taxes to the Emperor and claimed to be the anointed King of Israel.” Pilate re-entered the court and summoned Jesus to come to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked, to which Jesus replied, “Are you asking me this of your own accord or have others told you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “It is your chief priests and your own people who have handed you over to me. What have you done?”
“If I were a king of this world,” replied Jesus, “my followers would have fought to save me from being handed over to the leaders of my people but my kingdom is not of this world,” to which Pilate said, “So you are a king then.” “Yes, I am a king,” said Jesus, “And I was born for this. I came into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is on the side of truth listens to my voice,” to which Pilate replied wearily, “What is truth?” Meanwhile, the leaders outside were continuing to shout their accusations.
“Can’t you hear all these charges against you?” said Pilate, but this time, to the amazement of his interrogator, Jesus remained silent. Returning to the leaders, he said to them, ”I can find no basis for a case against this man. Take him yourselves and judge him by your own laws,” but, knowing they were unable to pass the death sentence, they insisted, “He is stirring the people up with his teaching. He began in Galilee and has come through the whole country, ending up here in Jerusalem!”
Latching on to the information that Jesus was a Galilean and would therefore come under the jurisdiction of Herod, Pilate immediately ordered that Jesus be sent to Herod’s palace. Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at the time and was delighted to have Jesus brought before him. He had been intrigued by all he’d heard about this man and was hoping to see him perform some sort of miracle. He fired question after question at Jesus to all of which, he made no reply whatsoever.
The leaders had followed Jesus to Herod's palace, continuing to press their charges against him. Finally, Herod gave up his questioning in anger and contempt and, along with his own guards, began to ridicule and mock him. In a final act of indignity against him, he ordered one of his own royal robes to be placed on Jesus, mocking his claim that he was a king, and sent him back to Pilate. From that day on, he and Pilate formed a liaison of sorts, having previously been sworn enemies.
Pilate called the Council and the large crowd of people together and said to them all, “You had this man sent to me, accusing him of subversion. I have examined him in your presence and find him not guilty of any of the charges you have brought against him and neither has Herod which is why he has sent him back to me. It is quite clear that he has done nothing to deserve the death penalty.” It was then that Pilate remembered he had one more card up his sleeve.
It had been his custom, at this particular festival, to release any prisoner the people asked for. A notorious criminal named Barabbas was in prison along with a group of rebels for committing murder during their involvement in an uprising against the Romans. In a last effort to extricate himself from this dilemma, Pilate spoke to the people again and said, “Do you want me to free Barabbas or your King?” hoping that they would choose Jesus rather than Barabbas because he knew it was from jealousy that their leaders had handed Jesus over to him.
The leaders, however, had pre-empted his plan by inciting the crowds to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus. When he asked them, “What should I do with this man you call the Messiah?” they shouted out, “ Crucify him, crucify him!”. “Do you want me to crucify your King?” he said but the leaders shouted back, “We have no king but Caesar! Anyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the Emperor. If you release him, you are no friend of Caesar’s!”
Pilate, fearing the wrath of Caesar, gave in and sent him to be flogged, hoping that he might then be able to release him. The voices of the leaders and the crowd had prevailed and, with great reluctance, guilt and shame, Pilate had Barabbas, a man imprisoned for rebellion and murder, released, while Jesus, the man he knew to be innocent, was dispatched into the courtyard of his palace. There, he was stripped of his clothes, tied to a pillar and flogged in front of the whole cohort of the governor’s men.
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