Volume IV
Incidents at the Trial of our Lord
Vol. IV, p. xvii
After the observance of the Paschal feast and having instituted the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to be observed in commemoration of the Great Sacrifice which was about to be offered, JESUS and His Disciples went together to the first scene of his suffering, at the base of the Mount of Olives (Matt. xxvi. 30; Mark xiv. 26; Luke xxii. 39).
Crossing the brook Kedron, they entered the Garden of Gethsemane (the oil-press). A part of this garden still remains, and the few olive trees which continue to live in it seem to be old enough to have been growing in our Saviour's time. Here JESUS took Peter, James and John to be near Him during the awful scene of His Agony. Thereafter, the traitor and the officers of the temple appeared, and having arrested Him, His alarmed Disciples forsook Him and fled; but the zeal of Peter and the love of John led them to follow at a distance (Matt. xxvi. 36-56; Mark xiv. 32-50; Luke xxii. 39-53; John xviii. 2-11).
§Taken before Annas.
The Divine Prisoner was taken first to the house of Annas, the father-in-law of the High-priest, Caiaphas,, probably to ascertain if it would be safe to risk a public trial. It is obvious that all parties among the rulers desired to go forward, and Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas, who had already publicly advised His death (John xviii. 13, 14, 24).
§Arraigned before Caiaphas.
The examination took place in the house of Caiaphas, and here the melancholy denial of Peter occurred. To understand the scene, it should be remembered that Oriental houses and palaces were erected with an open court-yard in the centre, and the apartments surrounding and opening into it. In the middle of this yard the servants and officers had made a fire, because of the cold of the spring night. Peter and John had entered, and Peter rashly took his place among the soldiers. The Saviour had been led into one of the chambers, and thus both JESUS and John could hear and see all that took place; thus it is obvious that John's testimony, as recorded in his Gospel, is of the utmost value, as he was an eye witness. "The High-priest asked JESUS of His Disciples and of His Doctrine," evidently desiring to ascertain how far His influence had spread (John xii. 42), especially to learn if any members of the Sanhedrim had become His followers, and thus to prepare for dealing with them as well as with Him. On the first point, JESUS gave no information, and on the second He referred to the evidence of those who had been His hearers, whereupon an officer struck Him for contempt of the High-priest (John xvii. 19-24).
§Before the Sanhedrim.
At dawn of day (15th of Nisan, i.e., April 6th) the Council (Sanhedrim) met, and JESUS was arraigned before them (Luke xxii. 66). The first object was to convict Him as a false prophet and a blasphemer, and thus according to the Jewish law bring Him in as worthy of death. Two witnesses were required, but the evidence of all who testified was contradictory. They aimed at proving blasphemy against Him for speaking irreverently about the temple, when He referred to His own death and subsequent resurrection, but their testimony failed to establish their charge (Matt. xxii. 59-63; Mark xiv. 55-61). At length the High-priest reproached Him for His silence, and adjured Him by the LIVING GOD to say whether or not he was the CHRIST, the SON OF GOD. He then plainly said, I AM, and warned them of the time when they should see Him sitting in His Power, at the Right Hand of God and Coming in the Clouds of Heaven. He was forthwith condemned for blasphemy, whereupon the officers covered His face, spat on Him, and buffeted Him, mocking and asking Him to say who it was that struck Him (Matt. xxvi. 63-68; Mark xiv. 61-65; Luke xxii. 67-71 and 63-65; comp. Isa. l. 6; liii. 7). According to Jewish law, he would now have been led out of the city and stoned to death. But "the sceptre had departed from Judah," and the power of life and death did not now rest in Jewish hands. Their national life had ended, and the time must therefore have arrived when the Shiloh had come (Gen. xlix. 10). Hence, they unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy of JESUS respecting His Death. It was effected by the act of Pilate and the consent of Herod, so that the ecclesiastical rulers of the Jews and the civil authority of Rome combined (comp. Ps. i.), and thus that form of death was inflicted which was the most painful, the most ignominious, and being the usual punishment of slaves and the most degraded criminals, attested the depth of that humiliation to which THE SON OF GOD descended for the salvation of man (Gal. iii. 10; vi. 14; Phil. ii. 8; Heb. xii. 2; Col. ii. 14).
§Thence Taken to the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate.
JESUS was then led to the Prætorium, where the Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate had taken his seat early in the morning. The Jews could not enter a court that was inaugurated with heathen sacrifices without being polluted, and therefore unable to keep the feast, so Pilate came out to ascertain the charge against the prisoner. They accused Him at first as a malefactor, and next with the political offence of forbidding the people to pay tribute to Cæsar, and with the desire also of making Himself a King; thus aggravating their guilt (of malevolence) by falsehood, as they knew that they had in vain sought to entrap Him into a political offence, and that He had even by a miracle provided for the payment of the Roman tax. JESUS replied to the interrogation of Pilate that His "Kingdom was not of this world." After further inquiry, Pilate attempted to dismiss Him, but the priests and the elders assailed Him with other charges (Matt. xxvii. 1, 2, 11, 14; Mark xv. 1-5; Luke xxiii. 1-5; John xviii. 28-38; comp. Isa. liii. 7)
§By Pilate Sent to Herod Antipas.
At the mention of Galilee as the scene of His seditious teaching, Pilate resolved to send him to Herod Antipas, who had come to Jerusalem to the Passover—a practice by which he hoped to conciliate the Jews. Herod was pleased by the conduct of Pilate, with whom he had been long at variance, but getting no information from JESUS, he sent Him back again to Pilate, and thus "the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against THE LORD and against His ANOINTED" (Luke xxiii. 4-12; Ps. ii. 1, 2; comp. Acts iv. 25, 26).
§Again before Pilate—Barabbas Preferred to Jesus.
Obliged to decide the case, Pilate tried an appeal from the rulers to the people. Knowing that the envy and malice of the priests had instigated the charge, he proposed to liberate Him whom the populace had lately hailed with such enthusiasm. The cunning of the priests, however, defeated the scheme. They knew that the brigands who opposed the Roman power were favorites with the people, and that one of this class had forfeited his life and was lying under sentence of death. The priests therefore suggested the liberation of Barabbas, and as the people saw that no political change was likely to be effected by JESUS, they took up the cry, "Not this man, but Barabbas!" Again Pilate tried to bring them to reason, being affected by the interference of his wife. To his inquiry, "What will ye then that I shall do to Him, whom ye call king of the Jews?" the vehement outcry of the fickle mob was, "Crucify Him!" The loud cries of the populace prevailed over reason, conscience and justice, and Pilate yielded up JESUS to their will, washing his hands and protesting before the people that he "was innocent of the blood of this just person." They accepted the awful responsibility, exclaiming, "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matt. xxvii. 15-26; Mark xv. 6-15; Luke xxiii. 13-25; John xviii. 39-40).
§The Purple Robe, the Reed Sceptre, the Crown of Thorns.
JESUS was now handed over to the Roman soldiers. Their hatred and contempt of the seditious Jews led them to treat with great indignity a person whom they believed to be a peasant aiming at political power. Scourging always preceded crucifixion, but in addition to this torture, they added the mockery of a royal insignia, crowning His head with thorns, giving Him a reed as a sceptre and assaulting Him with blows and violence (Matt. xxvii. 26-30; Mark xv. 15-19; John xix. 1-3).
§Pilate's Last Weak Effort to Release Jesus.
The scene seems to have incited Pilate to make yet another effort, and if unsuccessful, he would at least insult the Jews. Knowing Him to be innocent, he presented Him in the robes of mockery, but he was still assailed with the cry, "Crucify Him!" "Take you Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him," rejoined Pilate, well knowing that they dared not take him at his word. Leading JESUS back into the hall, he asked Him, "Whence art thou?" and urged the question with the intimation that he had power to crucify Him, or to set Him free. The Saviour assured him that he had no power, unless it were given him from above, and then assured Pilate of the guilt of his wicked betrayers. Alarmed, Pilate determines to release him, but again the weak and unprincipled man yields to fear, for the Jews knew what above all things he dreaded. They knew the character of his administration, and how much he feared an imperial examination into his tyrannical rule; and therefore, "If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend," was their triumphant appeal, and the fear of acquitting a usurper induced the selfish and unjust ruler to condemn to death the innocent and the just ONE. Yielding Him to their fury, he inquired, "Shall I crucify your king?" and the answer was an abjuring of the independence which had been a passion with the Jews: "We have no king but Cæsar!" (Matt. xxvii. 26-30; Mark xv. 15-19; John xix. 1-16).
§God's Punishment of the Participators in the Crime.
The Providence of GOD took the Jews at their word, and their last futile efforts for freedom ended in their dispersion over the world. The retribution which also fell on the chief actors in this greatest of crimes which was ever enacted in the world's history was no less signal. Pilate afterward met the actual fate which he had dreaded, for he was deposed and degraded, and in a far distant land of disgraceful exile closed his life by suicide. Herod deservedly met a similar fate, as he was divested of power and banished for the rapacity and cruelty of his rule. After a miserable life he died in exile. Caiaphas was deposed. There was no delay in the doom of the miserable traitor, Judas. In remorse he carried back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief-priests, acknowledged his sin, encountered their mockery and disdain, and the wretched man, in hopeless despair, went out and hanged himself. The chief-priests, who had perpetrated such iniquity, were yet such religious formalists that they would not return the silver to the treasury, as it had been the price of blood, and so they purchased the potter's field, without the city, as a burial-place for strangers, and thus they fulfilled to the very letter the prophecy of Zechariah (xi. 12, etc.). It may have been the place where Judas committed suicide, and the double memorial of the scene and the price of blood was preserved in its name, Aceldama, the field of blood (Matt. xxvii. 2-10; Acts i. 18, 19), by which it was afterward known.