The Sabbath-School

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 9, 1882

The Sabbath-School.

A Review of Jesus's Trial and Condemnation.

The following partial review of the events preceding the crucifixion of Christ is from “Andrews' Life of Christ.” It is well worth a careful reading:—

After Jesus was brought back to Pilate, the latter calls together “the chief priests and the rulers and the people.” (Luke 23:13.) He now designs to pronounce him innocent and end the trial, and therefore seats himself upon his judgment seat. (Matt. 26:19.) There was a custom that at this feast, a prisoner chosen by the people should be released from punishment. As to the origin of this custom nothing definite is known. From the language of the Synoptists, kata eorteen, it has been inferred that at each of the feasts a prisoner was released. John, however, confines it to the Passover, and it might have had some special reference to the release of the people from Egyptian bondage. No traces of it are to be found in later Jewish writings. It may possibly have been established by the Romans as a matter of policy, but more probably it was of Jewish origin, and continued by the Roman governors. Whether Pilate had this custom in mind when he took his seat upon the tribunal, is not certain; but his words (Luke 23:16) strongly imply this, as well as the fact that he had gathered the people together with the chief priests and rulers. Ascending the tribunal, he formally declares that, having examined Jesus, he had found no fault in him, neither had Herod, to whom he had sent him; and after chastising him, he will therefore release him. It seems from the scope of the narrative that he intended to chastise Jesus, thus to propitiate the priests, and then to release him under the custom without further consulting the people. In this way, apparently, Pilate thought to satisfy all: the people by releasing him; the priests and the elders by chastising him; and himself, by delivering him from death. But he satisfied none. The people, reminded of their claim, began to clamor for it, but they did not demand that Jesus should be released. To satisfy the priests and rulers, his chastisement was far too light a punishment. The cry is raised, “Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas.” Pilate, who knew how well affected the people at large had been to Jesus, cannot believe that they will reject him and choose Barabbas; and he therefore accepts the alternative, and leaves them to elect between the two.

Of this Barabbas, son of Abbas, little is known. According to some authorities, the true reading (Matt. 27:16 and 17) is Jesus Barabbas. From the statements of the Evangelists respecting him, it appears that he was one of that numerous and constantly growing party who detested the Roman rule, and who afterward gained such notoriety as the Zealots. In company with others, he had stirred up an insurrection in the city, and had committed murder, (Mark 15:7; Luke 23:19.) John speaks of him as a robber also; but this crime was too common to attract much attention, or bring upon its perpetrator much odium. Josephus, speaking of Florus says that “he did all but proclaim throughout the country that every one was at liberty to rob, provided he might share in the plunder.” It is remarkable that this man was confessedly guilty of the very crime with which the priests and rulers had falsely charged Jesus—that of sedition; and no plainer proof of their hypocrisy could be given to the watchful Pilate than their efforts to release the former and to condemn the latter. And this it was easy for them to effect; for the tide of popular feeling ran very strong in favor of national independence, and one who had risen up against the Romans, and had shed blood in the attempt, was deemed rather a hero and a patriot than a murderer. On the other hand, Jesus, so far from encouraging the rising enmity to Roman rule, had always inculcated obedience and submission—teachings ever unpalatable to a subject nation. It is probable, too, that most of those present were the citizens of Jerusalem, rather than the pilgrims from other parts of the land; and, if there were some from Galilee, that they did dare, in opposition to the rulers, to express openly their wishes.

The Synoptists agree that Pilate made three several attempts to persuade the people to release Jesus, though the order of the attempts is not the same in all. The events may be thus arranged: Pilate presents to the people the two, Jesus and Barabbas, between whom they were to choose. A little interval followed, during which he received his wife's message. He now formally asks the people whom they wished to have released. (Matt. 27:21; Mark 15:9; Luke 23:16-18.) They answer, Barabbas. Pilate, hoping that by changing the form of the question he could obtain an answer more in accordance with his wishes, says, “What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ?” (Matt. 27:22; Mark 15:12. Luke 23:20, does not give the question; but the answer shows that it must have been the same in Matthew and Mark.) To this they reply, “Let him be crucified.” Alexander (on Mark 15:13) suggests that the cry, “Crucify him,” arose from the fact that, as Barabbas, by the Roman law, would have been crucified, Jesus should now stand in his stead and bear his punishment. Bynaeus (iii. 118) explains it on the ground that crucifixion was the usual punishment of sedition, of which he was accused. Pilate now sees that not only do the people reject Jesus, but that they insist upon the most severe and ignominious punishment. They call for crucifixion. He had not anticipated this, and will reason with them. He therefore asks, “Why, what evil hath he done?” (Matt. 27:23; Mark 15:14.) Luke (23:22) adds: “I have found no cause of death in him; I will therefore chastise him and let him go.” This judicial declaration of his innocence, and attempt to substitute the milder punishment, only cause the people to cry out the louder, “Let him be crucified.”

We infer that Pilate, having yielded to the priests and rulers, sent him to be scourged as preliminary to his crucifixion, which was done by the soldiers in their usual cruel way; that beholding him bloody from the scourge, clothed with the purple robe, and wearing the crown of thorns, his own compassion was awakened, and he resolved to make one last effort to deliver him from death. He leads him forth, and after an emphatic declaration for the third time that he finds no fault in him, presents him to the people, saying, “behold the man.” He hoped that the sight of one so meek, so helpless, so wretched, would touch the hearts of all as it had touched his own. Stier gives rightly the meaning of his words: “Is this man a king? An insurgent? A man to be feared, or dangerous? How innocent, and how miserable? Is it not enough?” It is probable, as said by Jones, that as he wore the crown of thorns and purple robe, so he also bore in his hand the reed. But nothing could touch the hearts of his imbittered enemies. As they saw him, the chief priests and officers raised anew the cry, “Crucify him, crucify him.” It is not said that the people at large joined in it; and perhaps for a time, through fear or pity, they were silent.

Angry at the implacable determination of the rulers that Jesus should be crucified, Pilate tauntingly responds to the cry, “Take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.” Lardner (1. 54) paraphrases these words: “You must crucify him, then, yourselves, if you can commit such a villainy, for I cannot. He appears to me innocent, as I have told you already, and I have now punished him as much as he deserves.” The Jews now perceived that Pilate, knowing that the charge of sedition was baseless, and deeply sympathizing with Jesus, would not put him to death; and are compelled to return to the original charge of blasphemy. “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” This mention of the fact that Jesus made himself the Son of God, had a power over Pilate, who now heard of it for the first time, which the Jews little anticipated. Was then his prisoner, whose appearance, words, and conduct had so strangely and so deeply interested him, a divine being? Full of fear he returns to the judgment hall, and commands Jesus to be brought, and demands, “Whence art thou?” His silence at first, and still more his answer afterward, confirmed Pilate in his determination to release him; and he may probably have taken some open step toward it. But the rulers threaten that if he release him he thereby shows that he is Cæsar's enemy, and that they will accuse him before the emperor. Pilate now perceives the danger of his position. Such an accusation he must, at any cost, avoid. His administration would not, in many respects, bear a close scrutiny; and the slightest suspicion that he had shown favor to a claimant of the Jewish throne, falling into the ear of the jealous and irritable Tiberius, would have endangered, not only his office, but his life. Such peril he could not meet. The shrewd elders and priests, who knew the selfish weakness of his character, pressed their advantage, and Pilate dared do no more. Jesus must be crucified. He now prepares to give final sentence. But he will first clear himself of the guilt of shedding innocent blood. He takes the water and washes his hands before all, to show that he is clean. “Then answered all the people, His blood be on us and on our children.” At this moment, about to give sentence, Pilate could not give up the poor satisfaction of mocking the Jews in what he knew well to be a most tender point: their Messianic hopes. He cries out, “Behold your king.” His contemptuous words only bring back the fierce response; “Away with him; crucify him.” Still more bitterly he repeats, “Shall I crucify your king?” The answer of the chief priests, for the people are not said to have joined in it, “We have no king but Cæsar,” was an open renunciation of their allegiance to Jehovah, and of the covenant which He had made with the house of David (2 Sam. 7:12). Thus had the Jews been led, step by step, not only to reject their Messiah, to prefer a robber and murderer before him, to insist mercilessly that he should be put to a most shameful death, but even to accept and openly proclaim the Roman emperor as their king. This was the culminating point of national apostasy.