Thursday
Thursday
The Trial before Pilate
Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor…. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
John 18:28–29
Rome had a worldwide reputation for the justice of its law courts. It is in keeping with its impartial legal procedures that the session began. Pilate asked what charges Jesus’s accusers were bringing against their prisoner. In reply the Jewish leaders accused Jesus of three offenses: of “subverting our nation,” of forbidding the payment of taxes to Caesar, and of claiming to be “Christ, a king” (Luke 23:2). The first two charges seemed somewhat imprecise, but the third was a serious indictment of treason. It also raised Pilate’s suspicions. The prisoner did not look like a king. What sort of a king was he? His kingly rule, Jesus explained, was to bear witness to the truth.
One of the striking features of the evangelists’ narrative is Pilate’s repeated declaration of Jesus’s innocence. After the preliminary hearing, for example, Pilate said, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.” Next, after Herod had sent Jesus back to Pilate, Pilate affirmed: “I … have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod” (Luke 23:14–15). Then when the crowd demanded his death, Pilate responded to them, “I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty” (Luke 23:22). Pilate’s wife then created a dramatic diversion by sending him a message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man” (Matt. 27:19). Her reason was that she had had a bad dream about him. Finally, Pilate took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood” (Matt. 27:24).
Thus on five distinct occasions Pilate is recorded as having declared Jesus innocent. This was, of course, deliberate. While Christianity remained a religio illicita in the Roman Empire, it was important to establish the innocence of Jesus. The evangelists did it by quoting no less a person than Pontius Pilate, the procurator of the Roman province of Judea.
For further reading: John 18:28–38