Part 19 (1/2)
The Second Trial before Pilate
”Ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the pa.s.sover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?”--JOHN xviii. 39.
Pilate must have felt mortified when he heard that Herod had sent Jesus back to his tribunal. He had hoped that the Jewish monarch would so settle the matter that there would be no need for him to choose between his conscience and his fear of the Jewish leaders. But it was not to be. It was decreed that he should p.r.o.nounce the judicial sentence on our Lord, and so on himself.
Now was the time for him to act decisively, and to say clearly that he would be no party to the unrighteous deed to which these priests were urging him. To have done so firmly and decisively, and before they could further inflame popular pa.s.sion, the whole matter would have come to an end. Alas! he let the golden moment slip past him unused, and every succeeding moment made it more impossible for him to retrieve it.
Pilate is one of the most notable instances in history of the fatal error of preferring expediency to principle. He wished to do right, but not to do it avowedly because it was right. He wished to do right without seeming to do it, or making a positive stand for it. And in consequence he was finally entrapped into doing the very deed which he had taken the greatest trouble to avoid. Therefore, on the plains of time he stands as a beacon and warning; and to all who do not dare to oppose the stream of public pa.s.sion and practice with the single affirmation of inflexible adherence to righteousness, the voice of inspiration cries aloud, ”Remember Pilate!” However promising a tortuous course may look, it will certainly end in disaster. However discouraging a righteous one may appear, it will at last lead out into the open. And in doing the right thing, be sure to speak out firmly at once. It may be harder for the moment, but it will be always easier afterward. One brave word will put you into a position of moral advantage, from which no power shall avail to shake or dislodge you.
Such a word, however, Pilate failed to speak; and when Jesus was again brought before him, he began to think of some way by which he might do as conscience prompted, without running counter to the Jewish leaders.
He, therefore, summoned around him the chief priests and rulers of the people. The latter are particularly mentioned, as though Pilate thought that his best method of saving Jesus would be by appealing over the heads of the priests to the humanity of the common people. When all were again a.s.sembled he made, as Luke tells us, a short speech to them, reiterating his conviction of His innocence, corroborating his own opinion by Herod's, and closing by a proposal which he hoped would meet the whole case. ”I will therefore chastise Him and release Him.”
Was there ever such a compromise? A little before he had solemnly affirmed that he could find in Him no fault at all, but if that were the case, why chastise Him? And if He were guilty of the charges brought against Him, as chastis.e.m.e.nt might seem to suggest, surely He should not be released. Pilate meant to do the best. The chastis.e.m.e.nt was intended as a sop to the priests, and to win their acquiescence to their victim's release. But it was not straightforward, or strong, or right. And, like all compromises, it miserably failed.
Those keen Jewish eyes saw in a moment that Pilate had left the ground of simple justice. He had s.h.i.+fted from the principle on which Roman law was generally administered, and they saw that it was only a question of bringing sufficient pressure to bear on him, and they could make him a tool for the accomplishment of the fell purpose on which their heart was set. The proposal, therefore, was swept ignominiously away, and Pilate could never regain the position he had renounced.
Pilate then resorted to another expedient for saving Jesus. It was the custom to carry out capital sentences at feast times, which were the occasions of great popular convocations; but it was also customary for the governor to release any one prisoner, condemned to death, whom the mult.i.tude, on the Pa.s.sover week, might agree to name. Pilate recollected this, and also that there was a notorious criminal awaiting execution, who for sedition and murder had been arrested and condemned to die. It occurred to him that, instead of asking the people generally whom they wished him to release, he should narrow the choice and present the alternative between Barabbas and Jesus. They would hardly fail, he thought, to choose the release of this pale Prisoner, who was innocent of crime, and, indeed, had lived a life notable for its benevolence.
Pilate took care to announce his proposal with the greatest effect.
The vast s.p.a.ce before his palace was rapidly filling with excited crowds, who guessed that something unusual was astir, and were pouring in surging volumes into the piazza, although it was still early. That he might be the better seen and heard he ascended a movable rostrum, or judgment-seat, which was placed on the tessellated pavement that ran from end to end of the palace. ”Whom will ye,” he asked, ”that I release unto you--Barabbas, or Jesus which is called the Christ?” And then he suggested the answer: ”Will ye that I release unto you the King of Jews?”
At this moment, and perhaps whilst waiting for their answer, a messenger hurried to speak to him from his wife. It must have been most unusual for her to interfere with his judicial acts; but she had been so impressed by a dream about her husband's connection with Jesus, the unwonted Prisoner who stood before him, that she was impelled to urge him to have nothing to do with Him. It was a remarkable episode, and must have made Pilate more than ever anxious to extricate himself from his dilemma.
It was still not absolutely too late to set himself free by the resolute expression of his will. But his temporizing policy was making it immensely difficult, and he was becoming every moment more entangled in the meshes of the merciless priests.
He had hoped much from his last proposal, but was destined to be bitterly disappointed. The chief priests and elders had been busy amongst the crowds, persuading and moving them. We do not know the arguments they would employ; but we all know how inflammable a mob is, and presently the name of Barabbas began to sound ominously from amid the hubbub and murmur of that sea of human beings. Presently the isolated cries spread into a tumultuous clamor, which rang out in the morning air, ”Not this man, but Barabbas!”
Pilate seems to have been dumbfoundered at this unexpected demand; and said, almost pitifully, ”What then shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?” As though he had said, ”You surely cannot mean that He should suffer the fate prepared for a murderer!” Then they cried out for the first time, To the cross, to the cross! ”Crucify Him! crucify Him!”
Pilate had failed twice; he felt that he was being swept away by a current which already he could not stem, and which was becoming at every moment deeper and swifter. But he was very anxious to release Jesus; and so he tried to reason with them, and said, ”Why, what evil hath He done?” But he might as hopefully have tried to argue with an angry sea, or with a pack of wolves. He felt this, and, mustering a little show of authority, said: ”I have found no cause of death in Him; I will, therefore, chastise Him, and release Him.” But this announcement was met by an infuriated shout of disapproval. ”They were instant with loud voices, requiring that He might be crucified.” ”They cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify Him.” A little before this Pilate had been besieged for six days in his palace at Caesarea by similar crowds, whose persistent fury at last compelled him to give in to them. He dared not provoke similar scenes, lest they should result in a revolution. When he saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he called for water. He said to himself, ”I am very sorry, this Man is innocent, and I should like to save Him.
But I have done my best, and can do no more. I will, at least, relieve myself of the responsibility of His blood. 'Slave, bring me water!'”
As he washed his hands he said, ”I am innocent of the blood of this righteous Man; see ye to it.” ”Yes, yes,” cried those bloodthirsty voices, ”His blood be on us, and on our children.” See how G.o.d sometimes takes men at their word. The blood of Jesus was required of that generation at the sack of Jerusalem, forty years after; and it has been required of their children through all the ages. Why that wandering foot, found in every land, yet homeless in all? Why the hideous tortures, plunderings, and ma.s.sacres of the Middle Ages? Why the modern Jew-hate, disguised under the more refined term _anti-Semitism_? Why the banishment from their holy places for eighteen centuries? All is attributable to that terrible imprecation which attracted to the race the blood of an innocent Victim. It does not exculpate them to say that they did not realize who Jesus was, and that they would not have crucified Him if they had realized His Divine dignity. They are being punished to-day, not because they crucified the Son of G.o.d, knowing Him to be such, but because they crucified One against whom they could allege no crime, and whose life had been full of truth and grace.
After he had washed his hands ”Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required, and released unto them him that for sedition and murder had been cast into prison, whom they desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will.”
Those condemned to die by crucifixion first underwent the hideous torture of the scourge. This, then, was inflicted on Jesus, and it was carried out in the inner courtyard by the Roman soldiery, under Pilate's direction. ”Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him.” Stripped to the waist, and bound in a stooping posture to a low pillar, He was beaten till the officer in charge gave the signal to stop. The plaited leathern thongs, armed at the ends with lead and sharp-pointed bone, cut the back open in all directions, and inflicted such torture that the sufferers generally fainted, and often died.
But the scourging in this case did not satisfy the soldiers, whom scenes of this nature had brutalized. They had been told by their comrades of the mockery of Herod's palace, and they would not lag behind. Had He been robed in mockery as King of the Jews, then He shall pose as mock emperor. They found a purple robe, wove some tough thorns into a mimic crown, placed a long reed in His hand as sceptre, then bowed the knee, as in the imperial court, and cried, ”Hail, King of the Jews!” Finally, tiring of their brutal jests, they tore the reed from His hands, smote Him with it on His thorn-girt brow, and struck Him with their fists. We cannot tell how long it lasted, but Jesus bore it all--silent, uncomplaining, n.o.ble. There was a majesty about Him which these indignities could not suppress or disturb.
Pilate had never seen such elevation of demeanor, and was greatly struck by it. He was more than ever desirous to save Him, and it suddenly occurred to him that perhaps that spectacle of sorrow and majesty might arrest the fury of the rabble. He therefore led Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and, stationing Him where all could see, said, ”Behold the Man! Behold Him and admire!
Behold Him and pity! Behold Him and be content!” But the priests were obdurate. There is no hate so virulent as religious hate, and they raised again the cry, ”Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Pilate was not only annoyed, but provoked. ”Take ye Him,” he said, in surly tones, ”crucify Him as best ye can, my soldiers and I will have nothing to do with the foul deed.”
Then it was that the Jewish leaders, in their eagerness not to lose their prey, brought forward a weapon which they had been reluctant to use. ”We have a law,” they said, ”and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of G.o.d.” We hardly know how much those words meant to Pilate, but they awakened a strange awe. ”He was the more afraid.” He had some knowledge of the old stories of mythology, in which the G.o.ds walked the world in the semblance of men. Could this be the explanation of the strange majesty in the wonderful Sufferer, whose presence raised such extraordinary pa.s.sion and ferment? So he took Jesus apart, and said to Him, ”Whence art Thou?” ”Art Thou of human birth, or more?” But Jesus gave him no answer. This is the fifth time that He had answered nothing; but we can detect the reason.
It would have been useless to explain all to Pilate then. It would not have arrested his action, for he had lost control, but would have increased His condemnation. Yet His silence was itself an answer; for if He had been only of earth, He could never have allowed Pilate to entertain the faintest suspicion that He might be of heaven.
Pilate's pride was touched by that silence. It was at least possible to a.s.sert a power over this defenceless Prisoner, which had been defied by those vindictive Jews. ”Speakest Thou not unto _me_? Knowest Thou not that I have power to release or to crucify Thee?” And Jesus answered, ”Thou wouldst have no power against Me, except it were given thee from above; therefore, he that delivered Me unto thee hath the greater sin.” In these words our Lord seems to refer to the mystery of evil, and specially the power of the prince of this world, who was now venting on Him all his malice. At this moment the serpent was bruising the heel of the Son of Man, who shortly would bruise His head. It would appear as though our Lord were addressing kind and compa.s.sionate words to Pilate. ”Great as your sin is, in abusing your prerogative, given to you from above, it is less than the sin of that Evil Spirit who has cast Me into your power, and is urging you to extreme measures against Me. The devil sinneth from the beginning.” Even in His sore travail, the Lord was tender and pitiful to this weak and craven soul, and spoke to it as though Pilate and not He were arraigned at the bar.