Jewish law required the Sanhedrin to convene a second
session after an interval of at least a day in order to pass a death sentence. And
for so severe a crime requiring a death sentence, night session was also illegal.
Furthermore, to execute the death sentence, they needed the endorsement of the
Roman authority. Since they wanted to put the Lord to death hurriedly, so they
quickly convened a second session to pass a resolution for the verdict that
they had decided in their first session that night. Once that was done that, they
quickly bundled the Lord to Pilate.
Evidently, had they charged Jesus with blasphemy, the case
would not have held water with Pilate. He would not be interested in their
religious affair. In order to get Pilate to consent to execute the Lord, they
brought the charge of treason against Him. That account for the question Pilate
asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Here Mark only briefly grossed over this
trial. Whereas in John 18:28-37, we find the fuller account of this moment. In
the way Pilate questioned Him, we can surmise that Jesus did not appear even a least
bit like a political king to him. Jesus’ answer to Pilate was, “You have said
so.” John’s account also tells us that
Jesus revealed to Pilate that He was a king not in the political realm but in the
spiritual realm. But the governor apparently would not want to hear anything of
it.
In verse 3 we see the chief priests accused him of many
other things harshly, but the Lord remained silent and refused to answer their
charges. This prompted Pilate to ask if He had no answer to their charges. The Lord
remained silent. That left Pilate wondering. In Pilate’s heart of hearts, he
knew that Jesus was guiltless. From John’s Gospel we learn that he wanted to
release Jesus, but the Jews kept at it. They said to Pilate in John 19:12, “If
you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a
king opposes Caesar.” Pontius Pilate was the only person who could have terminated
the mad saga but he gave in. Why? To him social standing was everything. He did
not want to offend the Jews and was unprepared to put his career on the line
for Jesus.
Perhaps in our days, we still encounter the “Pilate” type of
people. People who are not willing to allow their association with the Lord to jeopardize
their career or social standing. There are also people who are dissuaded from following
Jesus because of some silly sarcasm. For us, we cannot remain silent. We must witness
by words and actions what Roman 1:16-17 say, “I am not shamed of the Gospel,
because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes...For
in this Gospel is the righteousness of God revealed….”
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