Chapter III: Jesus at the Pretorium and before Herod
John xviii. 28-40; Matt. xxvii. 2, 11-25; Mark xv. 1-14; Luke xxiii. 1-25.
The Sanhedrin, as we have seen, had determined to deliver Jesus to the jurisdiction of Pilate; the priests, however, because their presence was demanded at the Temple for the morning sacrifice, could not accompany Him; but the rest of the assembly formed a lengthy retinue around Jesus, which, after crossing the town, conducted the Prisoner within the precincts of the Pretorium.
The Roman Governors were accustomed to take up their residence in the palaces of the princes whom they had supplanted, and, generally speaking, the Procurators occupied Herod's royal seat on Mount Sion; but during the Paschaltide, Pilate resided in Antonia, the fortress erected north of the Temple and overlooking the porches. From the steep heights of this citadel, he could beat down any tumult of revolt, while at the same time he enjoyed its large and kingly appointments, its lofty galleries and baths, with the immense courts where his legionaries could all comfortably be encamped.
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| Jesus before Pilate. J-J Tissot. |
Borne along into one of these halls, Jesus stood at last in Pilate's presence. He was not altogether a stranger to the Governor, for although Galilee and Perea, the usual field of His Ministry, were not subject to the Roman jurisdiction, yet his preaching had so deeply stirred Jerusalem that reports of these events must have reached Caesarea long before now.
Besides this, Pilate's wife had come to be secretly drawn to the worship of Jehovah, and thereafter, touched by the virtue of Him Whom she called "The Just," she had often conversed with the Procurator concerning Him. Accordingly we see him fully informed as to everything concerning Jesus, – His title of Christ, the relentless spite of the Sanhedrin, and the bitter fanaticism which had hunted Him down.
The Captive was alone; His accusers, despite their animosity, could not venture to cross the threshold of the Pretorium. The dread of being contaminated, and thereby debarred from participating in the Passover, could even overmaster the longings which now filled their breasts to support their denunciations in person. However, if only by the shackles which pinioned Jesus' arms, Pilate would easily understand that the Sanhedrin desired His death, it being their usage to deliver up in this condition such condemned felons as they judged worthy of the extremest penalty of the law.
At sight of Jesus, the first feeling of the judge was one of pity; there was nothing in His attitude which could be attributed to the pride of a seditious brawler, nothing which in any way invited punishment. Naturally endowed with the keenness common to all Roman politicians, Pilate suspected some plot and began to think that perhaps he would find occasion to revise rather than to confirm the Sanhedrin's sentence. Nevertheless, out of respect for the Jews' scruples who refused to enter within the house, he went forth and met them in the outer court.
"What accusation," he enquired, "do you bring against this man?"
The Sanhedrin had hoped that their eagerness and the moment at which they presented themselves would have prevailed with Pilate. Their disappointment found is utterance in better terms.
"If this man were not a malefactor we would not have delivered him up to you."
This arrogant answer pricked the Governor's temper, and he responded in turn with an accent of irony and disdain.
"Take him yourselves," he said, "and judge him according to your laws."
Would not excommunication, with thirty-nine lashes from the whip, administered in the synagogue, be enough to punish any infringement of their rights?
" We no longer have the power of putting any one to death," replied the Jews, disclosing in this manner how far they wished to proceed. Mysterious disposition of Providence! God had deprived them of all power over human life only that they might not stone the Christ, according to the Law, but that Rome should lift Him up upon the Cross, " whereby He shall draw all men unto Him."1 Thus it was necessary that the saying of Jesus wherein He foretold by what death He was to die should be fulfilled.
Evidently Pilate up was not inclined to ratify the condemnation of Jesus, but intended to review the whole procedure and judge the case for himself. Summoned to produce the leading points in their accusation, the Sanhedrin resigned themselves to necessity. The title, "the Son of God," which the Saviour had attributed to Himself, though the real cause of His ruin, was left unnoticed; but since by declaring Himself the Christ He thereby proclaimed Himself King of Israel, the latter claim was urged against Him, as of itself crime enough; and the accusation, reduced to these three charges, was so framed in order to stir Pilate up to a vengeance most surely.
" We have found him," they said, "exciting the people, forbidding to pay tribute to Caesar, and calling himself the Christ-King."
But Pilate knew the Jews too well to be duped by their sudden zeal to avenge the wrongs of Rome. And besides this, his officers had not informed him of any signs of an incipient conspiracy, nor of any refusal to submit to the taxes. Hence he lent scanty credence to rumours of a sedition which would have given him little trouble to repress; but the word Christ caught his attention. What was the significance of this title, which seemed to involve at once a civil and a religious dignity? What royalty could the Prisoner now in his hands lay claim to? Determined upon getting some light upon this question, Pilate re-entered the Pretorium and summoned Jesus.
Thus, then, the Saviour was left alone with His judge,— far removed from the Jews whose distant cries of "Death to the Nazarene!" still reached His ears. Pilate, by screening Him from their furious clamour, had already let it be seen that his heart was not indifferent to the spectacle of such misfortunes. Jesus, far from profiting by this to plead His own interests, was altogether absorbed in the cause of eternal Truth, and sought only to make it to descend within the soul of this man now standing before Him, – puzzled and uncertain, still in the darkness, yet just catching a glimpse of some celestial radiance meanwhile. Pilate was the first to speak.
"Are you truly King of the Jews?" He asked Jesus.
Always more attentive to the thought than to the words of His questioners, the Saviour answered him:—
" Do you say this of yourself, or have others told you this of Me?"
Surprise at finding his mind so easily penetrated, the Governor responded, brusquely:—
"Am I a Jew, forsooth? Your nation and your Pontiffs have delivered you up to me. What have you done?"
This question drew forth no reply. Altogether intent upon the inward struggle which was now agitating Pilate, Jesus beheld with infinite compassion that he was trying to crush down the movements of grace which were calling him to the truth, his conscience besetting him ever more with that persistent question:—
"What, then, is this kingdom of his?"
Accordingly it was rather to this unspoken and secret question that the Christ made the answer,—
"My Kingdom is not of this world. If My Kingdom were of this world, My Ministers would strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews." But—as you may see from My fetters, from My forsaken state—"My Kingdom is not from hence."
"Then you are a king?" exclaimed Pilate.
"Thou hast said it," answered Jesus; and He added words which Saint John has not recorded at length, but certainly they were sufficient to confirm this declaration:
" I was born and I came into the world in order to render homage unto the Truth. Whosoever is of the Truth heareth My voice!"
"What is truth?" queried Pilate, and then at once turned away, to escape the ascendancy which Jesus was exerting over him.
And with this thought he went out to the Jews and bespoke them again, with the assertion,—
"I find nothing worthy of death in this man."
At this answer to their appeals, the cries of rage burst out more wildly than before. The priests and ancients persisted with great violence, besieging the Governor's ears with accusations which grew ever vaguer, more contradictory and often entirely incomprehensible to him. He had Jesus brought forth. His very presence excited a new fury of abuse; indeed it would seem, from Saint Matthew's text, that the Sanhedrin-Councillors began to cross-question Him directly, but all to no purpose.
"Do you not hear," Pilate said, turning toward Him, "of how many things they accuse you?"
Still Jesus answered not a word. This silence, this peaceful calm in the midst of a raging rabble, filled the Governor with admiration.
He was now casting about for some escape from his predicament, while still the Jews pleaded with fiercer persistency; this time asserting,—
" He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judaea, beginning from Galilee to this place."
The name " Galilee" was a ray of light,—thrown out with the design of reminding the judge of the uneasy character of that province and the blood of its conspirators lately shed in the Temple; but on the contrary, it only suggested an expedient whereby he might extricate himself from all responsibility in the affair. Immediately Pilate demanded whether Jesus was a Galilean, and having learned that He belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he remanded Him to the Tetrarch forthwith.
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