The great tragedy moves rapidly on. The chief priests, members of the Sanhedrim, and Jewish leaders, had prepared their plans well; so well that Pilate, with all his well-meant endeavors, found himself unable to frustrate them. A great crowd of their creatures surrounded his palace and met every expostulation against the injustice of murdering Jesus with hoarse remonstrances, loud cries and ferocious threats. Accustomed to the inflammatory temper of the Jewish population he feared an uprising at a time when the passover had brought two or three millions of people to the city and when it would be easy to overwhelm the little Roman garrison of 600 men. He feared still more the accusations against him that they proposed to despatch to Cæsar, for he had already learned by their victory over him in a former collision that they were not without influence at Rome. Hence, rather than sacrifice himself, he begins to yield to demands to which he is bitterly opposed and knows to be cruel and unjust. His attempt to relieve himself of responsibility by sending the prisoners to Herod had failed.

      1. Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. Scourging was the usual preliminary of the Romans to an execution, but Pilate still hoped to appease the Jews by the suffering and humiliation of Jesus, without his death. The Roman scourging was terribly cruel. The word used for scourging implies that it was done, not with rods, for Pilate had no lictors, but with what Horace calls the "horribile flagellum," of which the Russian knout is the only modern representative. The person to be scourged was bound to a low pillar, that, bending over, the blows might be better inflicted. The scourge was made of several thongs with a handle; the thongs were made rough with bits of iron or bone, for tearing the flesh, and thus fitted, it was called a scorpion. See Psalm 129:3; Isaiah 53:5. It was our sins that made Christ suffer thus. Paul was scourged also more than once. See 2 Cor. 11:24.

      2, 3. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns. The crown of thorns was probably a wreath of thorny leaves something like the common cactus. While presenting the appearance of a crown it would be an instrument of torture. To this emblem of royalty was added a purple, or scarlet robe (both colors are named and with the ancients differed little), which was thrown around him as a royal mantle. Matthew adds that a reed was placed in his hand as a scepter. Then, when they had thus arrayed their torn and bleeding victim, the brutal soldiers began to mockingly salute him and to cry, "Hail, King of the Jews!" Their whole conduct was designed to render his claims of kingly power contemptible. In order to make the humiliation greater they would approach him, as they saluted him as King, extending their hands as if to offer him royal tribute, and then strike him a blow. Whenever I think of one that could have called twelve legions of angels to his rescue, enduring these things, I am amazed beyond expression. Mark adds that they spit on him. In that vast hall were hundreds of ferocious soldiers and they would vie with each other in efforts to insult the prisoner whom they, in their ignorance, supposed to be a rebel seeking royal power.

      4. Pilate went forth again. He went out of his palace to the crowd upon the street, preceding Jesus, and again affirming that he found no fault with him, although he had scourged him. From Luke 23:16, we learn that he had proposed to scourge him and then let him go. He seems now to hope that the pitiable condition of the torn and bloody prisoner, as well as his humiliation, will appeal to the better feelings of his enemies. As Jesus, wearing the painful crown and the mocking robe, is led out he exclaims, Behold the man! His own heart is touched. He no longer speaks of him as King, but points to him as a human sufferer. Pilate, unconsciously, described the sufferer aright. That mocked and despised prisoner, with the thorny crown and the streams of blood trickling down from his brow, humiliated, beaten and insulted, was THE MAN, the one perfect man of the human race, the type of ideal manhood. To him all ages point and exclaim, Ecce homo! Behold the man!

      6. When the chief priests and officers saw him, etc. If Pilate had hoped to excite [232] pity he was doomed to disappointment. Even his hard, heathen heart could not fathom the depths of Jewish hate. His repeated declaration that Jesus was guilty of no crime against Roman law, and the appearance on the porch, of the prisoner in so wretched a state, only provoked the cry, "Crucify him, crucify him!" This cry was evidently tumultuous and threatening. Pilate replies, "Take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault;" not a permission to crucify him, but an angry answer: "If you want him crucified do it yourselves; I will not, for he has done nothing." This they had no power to do. Pilate's reply is both a taunt and an accusation of the priests of a wish to crucify an innocent man.

      7. We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, etc. We is emphatic. Pilate has decided that Christ is guilty of no crime against Roman law. Then they assert that he has merited death by the violation of their law. They refer to the law against blasphemy in Lev. 24:16. Let it not be forgotten that the Sanhedrim condemned Jesus to death because he declared that he was the Son of God, and now when other means had failed they make the same charge before the Roman tribunal. Jesus died for the "good confession."

      8, 9. When Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid. The calmness and majesty of the prisoner had profoundly moved the stern Roman. Man had never endured with such patience and kingly dignity. Now when he heard the statement that he had said that he was the Son of God, he thought at once of all those stories in his heathen mythology, of the gods taking human form. What if this marvelous prisoner was the son of one the gods? He was alarmed. He retired into the judgment hall with Jesus for a fresh examination. He asks, Whence art thou? Art thou of earth or of heaven, human or divine? No answer was returned. The motive of the question was not to know his claims that he might worship him, but to got some knowledge that would relieve his perplexity. Christ gave no answer that would tend to save himself.

      10. Knowest thou not . . . that I have power to release thee? Pilate was baffled and piqued by Christ's calm silence. To extort an answer he boasted of his power and appealed to the motive of fear. He had power to crucify or release. The prisoner would do well to seek to please him.

      11. Thou couldest have no power against me, etc. Jesus breaks the silence and at [233] once assumes the position of Pilate's judge. His language shows that Pilate was the poor, powerless victim of his environment. He could have no power over himself unless it were given him. The divine majesty could blaze forth and smite at once Jew and Roman. Christ submitted because it was the Father's will that he should drink the cup. Poor, helpless Pilate was not so great a sinner as the Jews who might have known better, who were filled with devilish hate, who were now forcing Pilate to the crime. The words of Christ are really words of compassion. The prisoner to be crucified pities the judge that sends him to the cross!

      12. From thenceforth Pilate sought to release him. He continued his efforts, which John passes over with the statement. That they were persistent is indicated by the threatening reply of the Jews: If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend. This means that he will be accused before Cæsar's tribunal of overlooking treason. The Cæsar then on the throne was Tiberius, dark, suspicious, cruel in character. Such a charge from the representatives of the Jewish nation at Rome would probably prove fatal to Pilate; would certainly end his career as a public man. The risk is too great. He would rather sacrifice an innocent man than himself. Hence he at once surrenders. The struggle is over.

      13. Sat down in the judgment seat. He had sat in the judgment seat before and had acquitted Jesus. Now he is brought forth again and Pilate takes the judgment seat in order to condemn him. The judgment seat was a raised platform, a kind of throne, from whence judicial decisions were rendered. John marks the spot where this, the most momentous of earthly decisions, was rendered. It was a spot called the Pavement, probably a square with mosaic pavement in front of the tower of Antonia. Here the seat of judgment was placed.

      14. It was the preparation of the passover, and the sixth hour. John marks the exact time when this remarkable judgment was rendered. It was about six o'clock in the morning, on Friday, the day of preparation for the passover. Mark says that the crucifixion began at the third hour, nine o'clock, as the Hebrews began to count at six. John wrote many years later, after Jerusalem had fallen, among people who began to count at midnight, as did all the Roman world, and he therefore used their language and called six o'clock the sixth hour, as we do, rather than the first hour as the Hebrews did.

      Another difficulty occurs in the preparation for the passover. Christ and his apostles had eaten the passover already. How then could it be that that was the [234] preparation day? Amid conflicting views I can only give what seems to me the best solution: 1. It is certain that Christ ate a meal the evening before in the Upper Room which was called a passover. 2. It is certain from John 18:28, that the Jews had not eaten the passover at that time. 3. It seems clear to me that Christ, anxious to eat this passover (see Luke 22:15), ate it in advance of the usual time, in order that he, the true Paschal Lamb, "Our Passover," might be offered on the same day that the passover was eaten. The priests hurried the trial and execution of Jesus so that they might proceed to the preparation for the passover that evening. As the Lord's supper was anticipatory of the suffering on the cross, so was the Lord's last passover.

      15. Shall I crucify your King? Pilate had yielded. His decision was made, but he was full of resentment against the Jews and the words with which he presented Jesus, prepared for crucifixion, were designed to taunt them. "Behold your King!" When they reply with the cruel shout, "Crucify him, crucify him!" he asks with a sneer, "Shall I crucify your King?" To this they reply: We have no king but Cæsar. They had not now. They had rejected the divine King, had chosen Barabbas instead, for life, and now make choice of Cæsar as their king instead of the Lord's Anointed. To Cæsar's tender mercies they commit themselves, and in about a generation Cæsar will trample them in the wine press of wrath.

      16. Then delivered he him . . . to be crucified. He gave to the Jewish leaders a guard of Roman soldiers ordered to take charge of the prisoner and to execute the sentence. The mob had triumphed, and the Roman had been forced to yield. Thus had been fulfilled the declaration of the prophet that his condemnation should be extorted (Isaiah 53:8).

      1. The servant is not better than the Master. Why should the servant complain if sometimes called on to suffer?

      2. The best and most heavenly persons and truths are sometimes despised and crowned with thorns.

      3. Think of the love of Him who endured these things from those he came to save, and when he had the power to destroy them in a moment if he would!

      4. While thou pourest down thy drunken carouses, thou givest thy Savior a portion of gall; while thou despisest his poor servants, thou spittest in his face; while thou puttest on thy proud dresses, and liftest up thy vain heart with high conceits, thou settest a crown of thorns on his head; while thou wringest and oppressest his poor children, thou whippest him and drawest blood from his hands and feet.--Bishop Hall. [235]

      5. The sons of those Christ died to save still weave for him a crown of thorns. Every one of our sins is a thorn. The thorns might with justice have been turned into instruments of our torture, for they are emblems of our earthly lusts and cares, growing and flourishing in our heart, and choking there so many noble grains of seed; but now they torture him--and to us the crown of glory is given, the crown of life and righteousness.

      6. They put a reed in his hands as a mock sceptre. Even in the midst of the mockery the truth made itself felt. Herod recognizes his innocence by a white robe, the Roman soldiery his royalty by the sceptre and crown of thorns; and that has become the highest of all crowns.--Cook.

      7. Pilate consented to do a deed of injustice rather than suffer the loss of an office and perhaps of his life. Three years later he lost the office and was sent into exile. He tried to "save his life and lost it." For 1800 years he has been pilloried in the estimation of the world. But the prisoner he scourged, suffered to be mocked and crucified, has become the King of men, and rules over a world-wide and eternal empire. "I came to be a king," said he, and he is King for ever.

[CLC01 231-236]