ALIVE: 179 Unnatural Law
/Peter watched in horror as the Sanhedrin lead Jesus away from the compound, bloody and bruised, hands tied, surrounded by guards,. The people who had been sitting in the cold all night formed an entourage to go where they were taking Him.
It was dawn of the sixth day, Friday, the day of preparation for the Sabbath. On this day, there was a lot of work to be done to be rid of Jesus, before the day when no work could be done.
Runners had gone ahead to notify Pilate, the Roman governor of the region, to expect the Jewish prisoner whom the chief priests had condemned, but were not permitted by their law to kill. Turning Jesus over to Rome was a stroke of genius. The oppression of Rome turned into a gift.
Having received the message of the impending arrival of the famous prisoner, the chief of staff relayed it to Pilate. Pilate decided to greet them outside because he had been told that the crowd was large. Besides, Pilate knew that the Jews would not enter the headquarters to avoid ritual defilement which would disqualify them from partaking of the Passover meal. He knew his subjects well enough.
“Okay, let’s go.” said Pilate while mentally preparing himself. He had heard much about this man Jesus and looked forward to meeting Him. Pilate positioned himself on the wide marble porch, 10 steps above the ground, waiting. It was early in the morning, about the first hour, 6 am.
Pilate hadn’t waited long before he saw in the distance the priests followed by their well guarded prisoner who was followed by the crowd. He watched them bring the Prisoner to him. The man that Pilate saw, tied and beaten was not the person he expected to see. He had heard about a bold young rabbi, a miracle worker, but he saw a disheveled man. Pilate quickly processed the contrast in his mind, and was determined to treat Him as the Person he heard about and not the Person he saw. Soon, the Prisoner was standing beneath Pilate.
Pilate looked down at Jesus and then over at the priests and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?”
The boldest priest handed Pilate the list of accusations, then stepped back and replied for all of them, “If this Man were not a criminal, we would not have handed Him over to you.”
Pilate glanced at the list and said, “Take Him yourselves and judge Him according to your law.”
The same brash priest said, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death.”
Pilate said to his guard, “Bring the prisoner inside.” then he turned and entered his headquarters with Jesus, his guards and the priests climbing the steps to follow.
In this more private setting Pilate began the interrogation by saying loud enough for the priests and elders to hear, “Are you king of the Jews?” He waited patiently for a reply.
Jesus looked at Pilate.
Pilate was alarmed to see His face beaming. There was something about the Man that was unusual. Strong, but humble. His eyes penetrated him as if reading into Pilate’s heart.
Jesus simply replied, “It is as you say.”
Pilate waited to hear more, but only heard the chief priests and elder grumble.
Giving up waiting for Jesus to say any more, Pilate added, “Don’t you know how many accusations they have against you?”
Jesus said nothing.
Pilate looked down at the list of accusations again and didn’t see anything that would indicate the man was a threat to society and should be done away with. He didn’t care at all that the Man offended their God by blaspheming. What was that to Rome? Or that He threatened to raise the temple. On the other hand, it was important to Rome that they maintain decent relations with their local subjects, the priests and elders being in the hierarchy. He was stuck. Pilate did not appreciate the situation presented to him.
Pilate said to Jesus, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done? So are you a king?”
Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about Me? My kingdom does not belong to this world. If My kingdom belonged to this world, My followers would be fighting to keep Me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, My kingdom is not from here.You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”
Pilate asked rhetorically, “What is truth?”
A chief priest uncomfortable with the way the conversation was going chimed in with a reading of the written accusations.
Look at Jesus for a response and not getting one, Pilate finally said, “Do you answer nothing?See how many things they testify against you?”
Still no reply.
Pilate marveled. He never met a convict who didn’t defend himself, even to lie about it.
A clever elder filled in the silence waiting for Jesus to defend Himself, to come to the rescue of his associates. He said to Pilate,”We found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar saying that he Himself is a king.”
Pilate asked again, “Are you king of the Jews?”
Finally Jesus spoke up to reply, “It is as you say.”
Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no fault in this Man.”
Hearing that, the priests became irate. In fierce unison they exclaimed, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee to this place.”
Pilate heard that and found an out, thinking that if He was from Galilee, then He belonged to Herod who just happened to be in Jerusalem for the Passover. Pilate ordered the guards, “Take this Man to Herod. Find him!”
One of the soldiers who had escorted Herod into the city knew where to find him. He led the way, and was the one to knock on his door and apprise him of the situation. Herod looked behind the soldier at Jesus, disheveled and hands tied. He couldn’t even move the hair away from his eye lashes.
Peter, shielded by others, followed Jesus to Herod, but he couldn’t stand it any more and peeled away. It was too horrible. They were setting Him up and He didn’t even defend Himself! Peter walked to Mary’s home dumbfounded. They let Him in, but Peter couldn’t even bring himself to tell them what had happened. Their Master was treated worse than a sacrificial lamb. The malice, the rancor. The lamb is treated with remorse. Where did those people come from? Were they hired? Peter was fully aware of the enmity of the religious, but here, God’s Son was the target of pure hatred. It must have been satanic. They made it political; the priests used Rome like they used God, to serve their egos. Why was he surprised? Peter asked Mary if he could to lie down. He was paralyzed with grief and confusion. He had been up all night and needed the refuge of sleep.
When Herod saw Jesus, he was glad because he had been wanting to meet Him for a long time. He hoped to see a miracle.
The chief priest and scribes, one after another and sometimes talking over each other vehemently accused Him of all sorts of crimes against the temple and Rome.
Herod, with his men of war, questioned Him, but he didn’t answer. And the chief priests and the scribes stood, continuing to vehemently accuse Him. Herod with his soldiers ended the interrogation by arraying him in gorgeous apparel, then mocking Him and sending Him back to Pilate. Herod too found no penalty that fit any of the offenses he had heard from the angry clergy.
…
Meanwhile, Pilate was sitting quietly in his chambers, relieved but contemplating the intense situation of the morning. He knew that Jesus was sent to him out of envy, that wasn’t a crime against Rome, certainly not deserving the ultimate punishment that the priests and people demanded. He was being pushed from below and despised the predicament these locals put him in. Suddenly Pilate’s thoughts were interrupted by a runner who barged into the room to let him know that the prisoner was returning and had to be dealt with by Pilate because Herod found no fault in him either; besides, they were in Pilate’s territory, it was his problem.
Pilate was disappointed and distressed, but he didn’t blame Herod since they agreed on this one thing. The enmity they had been nurturing for each other was dissolved by sharing this problem.
Bewildered, Pilate stood up and went back outside to see the familiar angry crowd which had just arrived. He shouted to the priests, rulers, and people announcing with all the sound of authority that the frazzled governor could muster “I tell you that I find no fault in this Man. Neither did Herod. He has done nothing deserving death, I will therefore chastise Him and release Him.” Suddenly, Pilate thought of an out and said, “Wait! You have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?”
That didn’t work. What made him think it would with this crowd? The chief priests and elders circulated through the large crowd to persuade the people to ask for Barabbas who was a notorious man who had recently been captured and chained with other murderous rebels.
Three men, who had been waiting all night in the cold for this moment nodded to the priests, happy to have a role and shouted in unison as loud as they could the dictated reply, “Not this man but Barabbas!”
Pilate’s wife who had been watching the scene behind a curtain emerged and approached her husband. He noticed her and gave her permission to speak to him. She approached and said quietly close to his ear, “Have nothing to do with that just man, because I suffered many things in a dream this morning because of Him.” Pilate nodded in agreement, but conceded that he was stuck. He couldn’t enrage the priests and elders, and now the crowd as well.
Pilate shouted in desperation, “What should I do with Jesus called the Messiah and now you call Him king of the Jews?
The crowd shouted, “Let Him be crucified!” Pilate looked over at his wife in desperation, looked back at the crowd and said, “What evil has He done?”
Their response was louder and angrier, “Crucify Him!” So thoroughly had the people bought into the anger of the jealous priests, for no reason of their own, without an original rational thought in their own minds, nothing but raw passion. They demanded death to Jesus for their drunken sense of power over the Roman authority.
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere with the people, and in fact a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, glancing at sorrowful Jesus and said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person. You see to it!”
The people answered, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” Centuries later, a German named Hitler and to be frank, others to this day complied. What other ethnic group in history has been the target of such vicious hatred? Why?
Pilate said again, why? What evil has He done? I find no reason for death, I will chastise Him and let Him go!”
This response provoked them to shout the simple two words, that became the eardrum shattering mantra of the mob, “Crucify Him!”
Pilate looked over at his soldiers and said, “Release Barabbas.”
Pilate turned and went inside his home and collapsed on the divan in the arms of his fretful wife.
Outside, the guards and soldiers did their violent duty and flogged Jesus in front of the angry mob. Pilate and his wife inside could hear the jeering crowd, and His scream of pain. After all, the Man was human too.
The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. Soldier and civilian alike joined in the satanic dance and took turns approaching Jesus saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking Him on the face.
Jesus absorbed the violence, as he often accepted evil, by recalling the prophets. Isaiah turned His pain and shame into reason when he said, “I gave my back to scourges and my cheeks to blows; and I turned not away my face from the shame of spitting.” The prophecies also described His ultimate victory. Who cannot endure the worst with faith that its passing will evolve onto victory?
When Pilate thought he could stand it no more, he tried again, walked outside and seeing the pathetic Jesus wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe said, “Behold the man!” As if to say, “Look what you are doing to this man! Have you no sympathy? You are worse than raging animals!”
When the chief priests and their police saw Pilate, they shouted again, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Pilate one last time tried to separate himself from the crime of crucifying an innocent man. He repeated, “Take Him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against Him.”
The Jews answered Pilate, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.”
Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. Pilate looked at Jesus and asked, “Where are you from?”
Jesus did not answer.
Pilate barked in frustration, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and power to crucify you?”
Jesus replied, “You would have no power over Me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
Enough was enough! Jesus was right, Pilate had no power at all to release Jesus and he knew it. The Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against Caesar.”
Now they were getting personal. Pilate thought to himself, ‘What would Caesar do to me, if I released a Jewish man, a subject, who called himself a king?’ Following that thought, Pilate walked over and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. By now it was about noon.
He said to the Jews, “See, your King!”
They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!”
Pilate pleaded with them, “Shall I crucify your King?”
The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
Pilate looking away from Jesus and to his soldiers gave up. He was a broken man. The Jews won. Hatred won that battle. Pilate mumbled, “Take Him to be crucified.” And then with head bowed in disgust walked inside and collapsed on his bed. His wife’s face was drenched in tears.