Having had the trial before the religious leaders, we now get the trial before Pilate.
The Sanhedrin, having failed to reach a satisfactory outcome, sent Jesus off to Pilate. They hoped Pilate would decide that Jesus was a dangerous revolutionary and have him killed. Note that all this happened very early in the morning, indicating that proper procedures were definitely not being followed.
Pilate asked Jesus if He was the king of the Jews. This was the inscription that Pilate later insisted be placed upon the cross.
The Sanhedrin accused Jesus of many things, but Jesus refused to answer, much to Pilate's amazement.
Pilate did not want trouble, and so did not want to make a decision. In this whole episode everyone is trying to avoid responsibility. So Pilate thought that the crowd would much rather have Jesus released than Barabbas. So he offered them the choice. Pilate knew that the Jews had no real case to present.
Much to Pilate's surprise and consternation the crowd chose to have Barabbas released and wanted Jesus crucified. This same crowd had a few days earlier been praising Jesus. People are very fickle. In debates on homosexual marriage and abortion there is a tendency on some Christians to call for a referendum on the topic. I strongly suspect that this could very well not produce the expected result.
No comments:
Post a Comment