The Trial

The Roman guards had control of Jesus and in the ensuing hours of the night they took liberties to amuse themselves and further enhance His torment. Our blessed Lord was repeatedly struck with sticks and clubs; stones were hurled at Him from a distance. During His transit of more than two miles, the Son of God was spat upon and treated with disgust.

He was blindfolded and the soldiers mockingly asked Him to play God and identify who it was that struck Him. Jesus was fatigued, weary, and thirsty from His interrogation. Pilate's main concern was to maintain his position in authority and to avoid a serious uprising among the Jews who had assembled for the Passover. His wife sent him a message: "Do not interfere in the case of that holy man, I had a dream about Him today which has greatly upset me.”

Pilate mistakenly thought a violent scourging would be sufficient to quiet the unruly crowd. In truth, this bloodthirsty mob became all the wilder when they saw the suffering that Jesus experienced with the scourging; they were not willing to accept anything less than the ultimate sentence.

The Sanhedrin was a Jewish body, composed of priests, scribes, and elders. It was allowed to pass the sentence of death on Jews, but such sentence had to be reviewed by the Roman procurator. They told Pontus Pilate he would be no friend of Caesar if he released Jesus. Pilate realized he was trapped. The violent crowd cried out in a loud voice, "Crucify Him!, Crucify Him!"

Pilate knew he could not risk denying their demands. He washed his hands declaring, "I am innocent of the blood of this just man. The responsibility is yours." The Jews responded, "Let this blood be on us and on our children.”

Pilot’s decision to give into the crowd and wash his hands of the decision to crucify Jesus is exactly what many of us do today.  How often do we let the world make our decisions instead of following the truth through Jesus Christ?