Ch. 64, The Trial Before Pilate

“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition

The Trial Before Pilate

A few minutes after six o’clock Friday morning, April 7, A.D. 30 Jesus was brought before Pilate—Caesar’s representative governing Judea, Samaria, and Idumea who himself was under the immediate command of the Roman forces in Syria. Jesus still had his hands tied behind his back. Also present in the room were the Apostle John, Judas Iscariot, the temple guards, about fifty accusers, Caiaphas the high priest, and the Sadducees that made up the Sanhedrin court. Annas was not present.

Pilate knew that they were coming and was ready when they arrived. Much of the trial took place inside the walls of the Antonia fortress where Pilate and his wife resided when in Jerusalem. But the public portion of the trial was held on the steps outside as a concession to the Jews: they refused to enter any gentile building where they might be using yeast in the bread, which was not allowed on the day they prepared for the Passover. If they had they would have been ceremonially unclean, not allowed to join the afternoon thanksgiving feast, and not able to eat the Passover supper until they had undergone purification rites after sundown. It did not bother the Jews’ conscience to plot and murder Jesus, but they were scrupulous about anything to do with ceremonial cleanness and traditional regularity. Unfortunately, they have not been alone in failing to recognize the high and holy obligations of a divine nature while paying meticulous attention to things that are of little importance to humanity’s welfare in both time and eternity.

Pontius Pilate

If Pontius Pilate had not been a reasonably good governor of the minor provinces, Tiberius would not have suffered him in Judea for ten years. Although he was a fairly good administrator, he was a moral coward. He was not a big enough person to understand his task as the Jew’s governor. He failed to realize that the Hebrews had a real religion—one for which they were willing to die—and that millions of them scattered here and there throughout the empire looked to Jerusalem as the shrine of their faith. They also held the Sanhedrin in respect as the highest court on Earth.

Pilate had no love for the Jews, and his deep-seated hatred had begun to show itself from the start. Of all the Roman provinces none was more difficult to govern than Judea. Pilate never understood the problems involved in managing the Jews, and early in his reign as governor he had made a series of almost fatal, virtually suicidal, blunders. It was these mistakes that gave the Jews so much power over him. When they wanted to influence his decisions, all they had to do was threaten an uprising and Pilate would quickly concede. His indecisiveness and lack of moral courage was because the Jews had gotten the better of him several times. They knew that Pilate was afraid of them and that he feared for his position under Tiberius, and they used this knowledge to their advantage and his immense disadvantage many times.

Pilate’s problems with the Jews resulted from a number of unfortunate encounters. First, he did not honor their deep-seated prejudice against all images as symbols of idol worship, and he let his soldiers enter Jerusalem without removing the images of Caesar from their banners like the soldiers had done under his predecessor. A large delegation of Jews had waited on Pilate for five days begging him to have these images removed from the military standards. He flatly refused to grant their demand and threatened them with instant death. Pilate, himself being a skeptic, did not understand that people with strong religious feelings will not hesitate to die for their beliefs. He was shocked when these Jews defiantly drew themselves up before his palace, bowed their faces to the ground, and sent word that they were ready to die. Pilate realized he had made a threat that he was not willing to carry out. He surrendered, ordered the images removed from the standards, and found himself from that day on to a large extent subject to the whims of the Jewish leaders. They had discovered his weakness.

Later, Pilate tried to regain his lost prestige by having the emperor’s shields, which were commonly used to worship Caesar, put up on the walls of Herod’s palace in Jerusalem. When the Jews protested he refused to take them down; then they promptly appealed to Rome and the emperor just as quickly ordered the offending shields removed. After that Pilate was held in even lower esteem.

Another issue that brought Pilate problems was daring to take money from the temple’s treasury to pay for a new aqueduct that was needed to provide water for the millions of visitors who came to Jerusalem for the religious feasts. The Jews believed that only the Sanhedrin could use the temple funds, and they never ceased to complain to Pilate about this ruling. No less than twenty riots and much bloodshed had resulted from this decision. In the last of these serious outbreaks a large company of Galileans was slaughtered as they worshiped at the altar.

What is significant is that this indecisive Roman administrator sacrificed Jesus because he was afraid of the Jews and he wanted to safeguard his power. But he was eventually replaced after a needless slaughter of Samaritans when, because of a false messiah, he led troops to Mount Gerizim where he said the temple vessels were buried. When he failed to reveal as promised where these sacred vessels were hidden, fierce riots broke out. The Roman ruler in Syria ordered Pilate back to Rome, but on his way there Tiberius died. Pilate was not liked by the new emperor and was not sent back to his post in Judea. He never recovered from his regretful decision to crucify Jesus, and later he retired to Lausanne where he eventually killed himself.

Pilate’s blunders gave the Jews the power to demand things from him—like forcing him get up at six o’clock in the morning to try Jesus—and they did not hesitate to blackmail him with treason if he refused to confirm Jesus’ death. A worthy Roman governor would never have allowed these bloodthirsty religious fanatics to kill a man that he himself had declared to be innocent. Rome made a huge mistake, a far-reaching error in earthly affairs, when the second-rate Pilate was sent to govern Palestine. Tiberius would have done better by sending the Jews the best governor in the empire.

Jesus Appears before Pilate

After Jesus and those accusing him had gathered in Pilate’s judgment hall, the Roman governor came out and asked “What accusation do you bring against this fellow?”

The Sadducees and the others who had taken it on themselves to kill Jesus had decided to just ask Pilate to confirm the death sentence without stating any formal charges. So all that their spokesman replied was “If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have brought him to you.”

Pilate saw that they were hesitant to state their charges against Jesus, yet he knew that they had been up all night discussing his guilt. He asked “Since you have not agreed on any definite charges, why do you not take this man and pass judgment on him according to your own laws?”

The spokesman replied “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death, but this man who is disturbing our nation is worthy to die for the things that he has said and done. Because of that we have come before you to confirm this death sentence.”

Approaching the Roman governor as they did by trying to evade formal charges showed both their ill will for Jesus as well as their lack of respect for Pilate’s honor, dignity, and fairness. What nerve for these subjects to come before their provincial governor and demand a death sentence against a man before he had a fair trial, much less without even bringing definite criminal charges against him! Pilate knew something about Jesus’ work among the Jews, and he thought that the charges they might bring against him had to do with breaking Jewish religious law. Because of that he tried to refer the case back to their own court. Again Pilate took delight in making them publicly confess that they were powerless to pronounce and execute the death sentence on even a member of their own race, one that they bitterly hated and despised.

A few hours before at almost midnight and after he had granted permission for the Jews to use Roman soldiers to secretly arrest Jesus, Pilate learned more about Jesus and his teachings from his wife Claudia. She had heard much about Jesus from her maid-in-waiting who was a Phoenician believer in the gospel. After Pilate’s death Claudia became well known in the efforts to spread the good news.

Pilate would have preferred to put off this hearing but he saw that the Jews were determined to go forward with the case. He knew that this was not only the morning to prepare for the Passover, but that today, being Friday, was also the day to prepare for the Jewish Sabbath. Pilate was keenly sensitive to the Jew’s disrespect. He was not willing to go along with their demands that Jesus be sentenced to death without a trial. After he had waited a few moments for them to present their charges against Jesus, he turned to them and said “I will not sentence this man to death without a trial, nor will I agree to question him until you have presented your charges against him in writing.”

The high priest signaled to the court clerk who then handed Pilate the written charges against Jesus. They were, “We in the Sanhedrin court find that this man is an evildoer and a disturber of our nation because he is guilty of forbidding the people to pay tribute to Caesar, perverting our nation and stirring up our people to rebellion, and calling himself the king of the Jews and founding a new kingdom.”

Jesus had not been regularly tried or legally convicted on any of these charges: he did not even hear these charges when they were first stated. So Pilate had him brought from where the guards were holding him and he insisted that the charges be repeated so Jesus could hear them. When Jesus heard them, he as well as John Zebedee and his accusers knew that he had not been tried on these matters before the Jewish court. But Jesus made no reply to their false charges. Even when Pilate asked him to answer his accusers, he said nothing. Pilate was so astonished at the unfairness of the whole proceeding and so impressed by Jesus’ silent and masterly bearing that he decided to take the prisoner inside the hall and question him privately. Pilate’s mind was confused, and in his heart he was afraid of the Jews. But he was also hugely impressed by the majestic sight of Jesus standing there before his bloodthirsty accusers and gazing down on them not in silent contempt, but with genuine pity and love.

The Private Questioning by Pilate

Pilate took Jesus and John Zebedee into a private room leaving the guards outside in the hall. He asked Jesus to sit down, and then Pilate sat by his side and asked him several questions. Pilate began by assuring Jesus that he did not believe that he was perverting the nation and inciting rebellion. Then he asked “Did you ever teach that the people should refuse to pay Caesar’s tax?”

Jesus, nodding to John said “Ask him or any other man who has heard my teaching.”

Pilate questioned John about them paying taxes, and John testified that Jesus and his apostles paid taxes to both Caesar and to the temple. After Pilate had questioned John he said “See that you tell no man that I talked with you,” and John never did tell anyone about this conversation.

Pilate then turned back around to question Jesus again, and said “And now about the third accusation against you, are you the king of the Jews?”

Since Pilate’s tone indicated that he was possibly sincere, Jesus smiled and said “Pilate do you ask this for yourself or do you take this question from these others, my accusers?”

Indignant, the governor said “Am I a Jew? Your own people and the chief priests had you arrested and asked me to sentence you to death. I question the validity of their charges and I am only trying to find out for myself what you have done. Tell me, have you said that you are the king of the Jews and have you tried to found a new kingdom?”

Jesus replied “Do you not see that my kingdom is not of this world? If my kingdom were of this world surely my disciples would fight so that I would not be given into the Jew’s hands. My presence here before you, tied up like I am, is enough evidence to show all people that my kingdom is spiritual: the brotherhood of humanity who by love and through faith have become the sons of God. This salvation is for the gentile as well as for the Jew.”

Pilate asked “Then you are a king after all?”

Jesus replied “Yes, I am such a king and my kingdom is the family of the faith sons of my Father who is in heaven. For this purpose I was born into this world so that I could show all people my Father and bear witness to the truth of God. Even now I declare to you that everyone who loves the truth hears my voice.”

Then Pilate said, half in sincerity and half-jokingly, “Truth, what is truth—who knows?”

Pilate could not understand Jesus or the nature of his spiritual kingdom, but now he was certain that Jesus had done nothing worthy of death. One look at him, face to face, was enough to convince even Pilate that this weary and gentle but upright and majestic man was no wild and dangerous revolutionary who wanted to establish himself on the material throne of Israel. Pilate thought he understood something of what Jesus meant when he called himself a king because he was familiar with the Stoics who declared that the wise person is king. Pilate was thoroughly convinced that instead of being a dangerous trouble maker, Jesus was nothing more than a harmless visionary—an innocent fanatic.

After talking with Jesus, Pilate went back to the accusers and said “I have questioned this man and I find no fault in him. I do not think he is guilty of the charges you have brought against him; I think he should be set free.”

When the Jews heard Pilate’s decision they became so angry they started wildly shouting that Jesus should die. Then one of the members of the Sanhedrin boldly stepped up to Pilate’s side and said “This man stirs up the people, beginning in Galilee and continuing throughout all Judea. He is an evildoer and a mischief-maker. You will regret it for a long time if you let this wicked man go free.”

Pilate was stuck and he did not know what to do with Jesus. But when he heard them say that Jesus had begun his work in Galilee, Pilate decided to try and get out of the responsibility of deciding Jesus’ fate, or at least gain some time to think, by sending him to Herod who was right then in the city attending the Passover. Pilate also thought that by extending this offer to Herod he would smooth over some of the bitter feelings between the two of them that had resulted from numerous problems over jurisdiction. Calling the guards, Pilate said “This man is a Galilean. Take him right now to Herod and when he has questioned him, report his findings to me.”

Jesus before Herod

When Herod Antipas was in Jerusalem he stayed in the old Maccabean palace of the former king, Herod the Great. This was where the temple guards took Jesus followed by his accusers and a growing crowd of watchers. Herod had long heard of Jesus and he was curious about him. On this Friday morning when looking at the Son of Man the wicked Idumean never remembered him pleading for justice and the money due his father who had been killed in an accident when working on one of his Herod’s public buildings. As far as Herod knew he had never before seen Jesus, although he had often worried about him when his work had been centered in Galilee. Now that Jesus was in Pilate’s custody, Herod felt safe from bringing on any trouble in the future and he wanted to see him: he had heard much about Jesus’ miracles and hoped he would perform some kind of wonder.

When they brought Jesus before Herod the governor was startled by his calm composure and stately appearance. For some fifteen minutes Herod asked Jesus questions, but he would not respond. Herod taunted him and dared him to perform a miracle, but Jesus ignored his abuse. Then Herod turned to the members of the Sanhedrin, and from them he heard all and more that Pilate had listened to about the alleged evil doings of the Son of Man. Finally convinced that Jesus would not speak or perform a miracle for him, Herod, after making fun of Jesus for a little while longer had the servants put an old but kingly purple robe on him and promptly sent him back to Pilate. Herod knew that he had no jurisdiction over Jesus in Judea. Though he was glad to think that he was finally rid of Jesus in Galilee, he was thankful that it was Pilate who had the responsibility for putting him to death. Herod had never recovered from his guilt for killing John the Baptist, and at times he had even feared that Jesus was John arisen from the dead. Now he no longer had that fear because he could see that Jesus was a different type of person than the fiery and outspoken prophet who had dared to expose and denounce his private life.

Jesus Returns to Pilate

After the guards returned with Jesus, Pilate went out on to the front steps of the court where his chair had been placed and calling together the members of the Sanhedrin, he said “You brought this man before me with charges that he perverts the people, forbids paying taxes, and claims to be king of the Jews. I questioned him and I failed to find him guilty of these charges. In fact, I found no fault in him. Then I sent him to Herod, and the governor must have reached the same conclusion because he sent him back to us. Certainly nothing worthy of death has been done by this man. If you still think he needs to be disciplined, I am willing to chastise him before I release him.”

Just as the Jews were about to start shouting in protest, a large crowd came marching up to the steps of the palace. For some time it had been the Roman governors’ practice to let the people choose a condemned person to pardon at the Passover feast, and these people had come to make that request. Since Jesus had so recently been in the people’s favor, Pilate thought that maybe he could get himself out of his predicament by suggesting that since Jesus was now a prisoner he could release this Galilean as his token of good will for the Passover. As the crowd pressed up higher on the palace steps Pilate heard them calling out the name Barabbas, the son of a priest and a well-known political agitator who had recently been caught robbing and murdering a man on the Jericho road. Barabbas was sentenced to die as soon as the Passover was over.

Pilate stood up and told the crowd that Jesus had been brought to him by the Sanhedrin who wanted to put him to death. But that he, Pilate, did not think that they had charges worthy of the death sentence. Pilate asked “Which person then do you want me to release to you? This Barabbas the murderer, or this Jesus of Galilee?”

The Sanhedrin and their cohorts all shouted at the top of their voices, “Barabbas, Barabbas!” And when the people saw that the Sanhedrin was intent on having Jesus put to death, they quickly joined in yelling for his life while they loudly shouted for Barabbas’ release. A few days before, the crowd had stood in awe of Jesus but the mob did not look up to one who, having claimed to be the Son of God, now found himself in the custody of the Sanhedrin and on trial before Pilate. Jesus was a hero in the people’s eyes when he was driving the traders and money-changers out of the temple, but not when he was a non-resisting prisoner in his enemies’ hands and on trial for his life.

It angered Pilate to see the Sanhedrin yelling to pardon a notorious murderer while they shouted for Jesus’ blood. He saw their malice and hatred; their envy and prejudice. Pilate asked “How can you choose the life of a murderer over this man whose worst crime is that he figuratively calls himself the king of the Jews?”

But that was stupid for Pilate to say: the Jews were a proud people. Right then they may have been subject to the Roman yoke, but they also hoped for a messiah who would deliver them from gentile bondage with a majestic show of power and glory. They resented—more than Pilate could ever know—the idea that this meek-mannered teacher of strange ideas now under arrest and charged with crimes worthy of death should be called the king of the Jews. They looked on such a remark as an insult to everything that they held sacred and honorable in their national existence, so they all let loose with mighty shouts for Jesus’ death and Barabbas’ release.

Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, and if he had been a just and courageous judge he would have released him. But he was afraid to defy these angry Jews, and while he stood there hesitating to do his duty a servant arrived with a sealed message from his wife, Claudia. Pilate told everyone that he wanted to read it first before deciding anything. It said, “I pray that you have nothing to do with this just and innocent man that they call Jesus: I have suffered many things in a dream tonight because of him.”

Claudia’s note not only upset Pilate and delayed his decision about Jesus, but it also gave the Sanhedrin time to work the crowd and urge them to call for Jesus’ death and Barabbas’ freedom. Finally Pilate asked the crowd and the Sanhedrin, “What will I do with him who is called the king of the Jews?”

They all shouted with one voice, “Kill him! Crucify him!” The complete agreement of the mixed crowd alarmed the unjust and fearful Pilate.

Then once more Pilate asked “Why would you crucify this man? What evil has he done? Who will come forward to testify against him?”

But when the crowd heard Pilate speak in Jesus’ defense they only cried out all the more, “Kill him! Crucify him!”

Again Pilate appealed to them about the release of the Passover prisoner and said “Once more I ask you, which of these prisoners will I release to you at this, your Passover time?”

And again the crowd shouted “Give us Barabbas!”

Pilate said “If I release the murderer Barabbas, what will I do with Jesus?”

Once more the crowd shouted with one voice, “Kill him! Crucify him!”

Pilate was terrorized by the insistence of the mob acting under the direct leadership of the members of the Sanhedrin. Still, he decided on at least one more attempt to appease the crowd and save Jesus.

Pilate’s Last Appeal

In all that occurred this early Friday morning before Pilate, only Jesus’ sworn enemies and the easily led and unthinking people participated. His many friends either did not yet know of his arrest or early morning trial, or else they were in hiding in case they would be arrested and sentenced to death along with Jesus.

Pilate made one last appeal to their pity. Afraid to defy this misled mob crying for Jesus’ blood, he ordered the Jewish guards and the Roman soldiers to take Jesus and whip him. This was in itself an unjust and illegal act because Roman law stated that only those people condemned to be crucified should be whipped. The guards took Jesus into the palace’s open courtyard for this ordeal. Though his enemies did not witness the whipping, Pilate did. The guards had put the purple robe back on him, and after weaving together a crown made from a thorny vine they embedded it on his head. Then they put a stick in his hand as a mock scepter, and kneeled before him like servants scornfully greeting him as the king of the Jews. They spit on Jesus and slapped him in the face, and before returning Jesus to Pilate one of them took the rod from his hand and hit him over the head. Pilate then led the battered and bleeding prisoner outside and presented him to the mixed crowd saying “Behold the man! Again I declare to you that I find no crime in him, and having whipped him I would release him.”

There stood Jesus of Nazareth, clothed in a stately old purple robe with a crown of thorns embedded in his head. His face was bloodied and he was bowed down with grief and suffering. But nothing can appeal to the unfeeling hearts of those who are victims of intense hatred and slaves to religious prejudice. This sight sent a mighty shudder through the realms of a vast universe, but it did not affect those who had their minds set to destroy Jesus. When the crowd had recovered from the first shock of seeing the Master’s plight, they only shouted harder and longer yelling “Kill him! Crucify him!”

Pilate now realized that it was useless to appeal to the people’s supposed pity. He stepped forward and said “I see that you are determined that this man will die, but what has he done to deserve death? Who will declare his crime?”

In anger the high priest went up to Pilate and said “We have a sacred law and by that law this man should die because he made himself out to be the Son of God.”

Pilate was now even more afraid—and not only of the Jews: he recalled his wife’s note and the Greek mythology of the gods coming down to Earth and he trembled at the thought that Jesus was possibly a divine person. He waved to the crowd to hold its peace while he took Jesus by the arm and again led him inside the building to question him further. Pilate was confused by fear, bewildered by superstition, and harassed by the stubborn attitude of the mob.

Pilate’s Last Interview

As Pilate, trembling with fear sat down by Jesus’ side he asked “Where do you come from? Really, who are you? What is this they say that you are the Son of God?”

But Jesus could hardly answer such questions when asked by a weak, man-fearing, and vacillating judge who was so unjust as to subject him to whipping even after he had declared him innocent of all crime and before he had been duly sentenced to die. Jesus looked Pilate straight in the face but he did not answer him. Then Pilate said “Do you refuse to talk with me? Do you not realize that I still have the power to crucify you or to release you?”

Jesus replied “You could have no power over me except if it was permitted from above. You could exercise no authority over the Son of Man unless the Father in heaven allowed it. But you are not so guilty since you are ignorant of the gospel. He who betrayed me and those who delivered me to you, they have the heavier sin.”

This last exchange with Jesus thoroughly frightened Pilate. This moral coward and judicial weakling was now under the double weight of the superstitious fear of Jesus and mortal dread of the Jewish leaders. Again Pilate appeared before the crowd and said “I am certain this man is only a religious offender. You should take him and judge him by your own law. Why should you expect that I would consent to his death because he has clashed with your traditions?”

Pilate was just about ready to release Jesus when Caiaphas stepped up to the cowardly Roman judge and shaking an avenging finger in Pilate’s face said so loudly that all of the crowd could hear, “If you release this man you are not Caesar’s friend, and I will see that the emperor knows everything.”

This public threat was too much for Pilate. Fear for his personal fortune now took precedence over all other considerations and the cowardly governor ordered Jesus to be brought out before the judgment seat. As the Master stood there before them all, Pilate pointed at him and taunting the Jews said “Behold your king.”

The Jews replied “Away with him. Crucify him!”

Pilate, with much irony and sarcasm said “Will I crucify your king?”

The Jews replied “Yes, crucify him! We have no king but Caesar.” Pilate then realized that there was no hope for saving Jesus because he was unwilling to defy the Jews.

Pilate’s Tragic Surrender

Here stood the Son of God in the body of the Son of Man. He was accused without evidence; judged without witnesses; arrested without formal charges; punished without a verdict, and now he was soon to be condemned to die by an unfair judge who confessed that he could find no guilt in him. If Pilate thought that he had appealed to the Jew’s patriotism when he referred to Jesus as the king of the Jews, he utterly failed. The Jews were not expecting that kind of a king. The declaration by the Sadducees and chief priests that “We have no king but Caesar” shocked even the unthinking crowd, but it was too late now to save Jesus even if the mob dared to support him.

Pilate was afraid of a riot and he did not dare to risk one during the Passover. He had recently received a reprimand from Caesar and he would not risk another. The mob cheered when he ordered Barabbas’ release. Then he ordered a basin and some water, and there before the crowd he washed his hands saying “I am innocent of this man’s blood. You are determined that he will die, but I have found no guilt in him. You see to it. The soldiers will lead him out.”

Then the mob cheered and shouted “His blood be on us, and on our children.”