Jesus Before Pilate

15 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate. 2 “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate. “You have said so,” Jesus replied. 3 The chief priests accused him of many things. 4 So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.” 5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed. 6 Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. 9 “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. 12 “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them. 13 “Crucify him!” they shouted. 14 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” 15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

Reflection:
Today, we see two very important themes. First, the absolute hatred the Jewish leaders had for Jesus, and their willingness to do just about anything to get him killed. So fearing were they that he would take their power away, that they were willing to go to any lengths to get rid of him. They still were afraid of what he might do as it says, "they bound Jesus and led him away and handed him over to Pilate."

Then, we see Pilate, who is quite an interesting character. Pilate tries to get Jesus to defend himself against the various charges the chief priests have brought down on Jesus, to which Jesus does not reply. I know I tend to get defensive when someone tries to make a commentary on my character, but Jesus gives us a good example of a non-anxious presence, even when his character is being questioned. So Pilate figures he can get out of this by invoking an exception, where at the Jewish festival one prisoner is released. Barabbas was in prison for an uprising he participated in to overthrow the government, so Pilate figures this might satisfy them. It says that he and the mob even shed blood. Pilate seeing that Jesus was not guilty and Barabbas was, naturally assumed that he could release Jesus. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd even more, as they all shouted "crucify him!" At that point, Pilate had a choice. He could either free the man he saw no reason to crucify, or not risk the mob getting out of hand and causing a further uprising. Of course, he chose the latter.

While we might not identify with those who shouted "crucify him", I wonder if by application we would not be much different if we were there. And we also know that it was our sins as well that sent Jesus to the cross. Paul says in Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

We sing he song, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Where you there when they crucified my Lord?" In some sense, we might say "no", but we could also say, "Yes I was there!" And the question for us to consider today is, "Does it cause us to tremble?" Does what Jesus did for us in submitting to the crucifixion, drive us to serve and give up our lives? May God's great love, which was demonstrated in Jesus' death for us, inspire us to be a living sacrifice and offer our lives back to Him! Amen.

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