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1. ON the Jews crying out that they did not wish Jesus to be
released unto them all the passover, but Barabbas the robber; not tim
Saviour, but the murderer; not the Giver of life, but the
destroyer, "then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him." We must
believe that Pilate acted thus for no other reason than that the
Jews, glutted with the injuries done to Him, might consider
themselves satisfied, and desist from madly pursuing Him eve, unto
death. With a similar intention was it that, as governor, he also
permitted his cohort to do what follows, or even perhaps ordered them,
although the evangelist is silent on the subject. For he tells us what
the soldiers did thereafter, but not that Pilate ordered it. "And
the soldiers," he says, "platted a crown of thorns, and put it on
His head, and they clothed Him with a purple robe. And they came to
Him and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote Him with
their hands." Thus were fulfilled the very things which Christ had
foretold of Himself; thus were the martyrs moulded for the endurance
of all that their persecutors should be pleased to inflict; thus, by
concealing for a time the terror of His power, He commended to us the
prior imitation of His patience; thus the kingdom which was not of
this world overcame that proud world, not by the ferocity of fighting,
but by the humility of suffering; and thus the grain of corn that was
yet to be multiplied was sown amid the horrors of shame, that it might
come to fruition amid the wonders of glory.
2. "Pilate went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I
bring him forth, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then
came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
And he saith unto them, Behold the man!" Hence it is apparent that
these things were done by the soldiers not without Pilate's
knowledge, whether it was that he ordered them or only permitted them,
namely, for the reason we have stated above, that His enemies might
all the more willingly drink in the sight of such derisive treatment,
and cease to thirst further for His blood. Jesus goes forth to them
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, not resplendent in
kingly power, but laden with reproach; and the words are addressed to
them, Behold the man! If you hate your king, spare him now when you
see him sunk so low; he has been scourged, crowned with thorns,
clothed with the garments of derision, jeered at with the bitterest
insults, struck with the open hand; his ignominy is at the boiling
point, let your ill-will sink to zero. But there is no such cooling
on the part of the latter, but rather a further increase of heat and
vehemence.
3. "When the chief priests, therefore, and attendants saw Him,
they cried out, saying, Crucify, crucify him. Pilate saith unto
them Take ye him and crucify him; for I find no fault in him. The
Jews answered him, We have a law, and by the law he ought to die
because he made himself the Son of God." Behold another and still
greater ground of hatred. The former, indeed, seemed but a small
matter, as that shown towards the usurpation, by an unlawful act of
daring, of the royal power; and yet of neither did Jesus falsely
claim possession, but each of them is truly His as both the
only-begotten Son of God, and by Him appointed King upon His holy
hill of Zion; and both might He now have shown to be His, were it
not that in proportion to the greatness of His power, He preferred to
manifest the corresponding greatness of His patience.
4. "When Pilate, therefore, heard that saying, he was the more
afraid; and entered again into the judgment hall, and saith unto
Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer." It is
found, in comparing the narratives of all the evangelists, that this
silence on the part of our Lord Jesus Christ took place more than
once, both before the chief priests and before. Herod, to whom, as
Luke intimates, Pilate had sent Him for a hearing, and before
Pilate himself; so that it was not in vain that the prophecy regarding
Him had preceded, "As the lamb before its shearer was dumb, so He
opened not His mouth," especially on those occasions when He
answered not His questioners. For although He frequently replied to
questions addressed to Him, yet because of those in regard to which
He declined making any reply, the metaphor of the lamb is supplied,
in order that in His silence He might be accounted not as guilty, but
innocent. When, therefore, He was passing through the process of
judgment, wherever He opened not His mouth it was in the character of
a lamb that He did so; that is, not as one with an evil conscience
who was convicted of his sins, but as one who in His meekness was
sacrificed for the sins of others.
5. "Then saith Pilate unto Him, Speakest thou not unto me?
knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to
release thee? Jesus answered: Thou wouldest have no power against
me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered
me unto thee hath the greater sin." Here, you see, He replied;
and yet wherever He replied not, it is not as one who is criminal or
cunning, but as a lamb; that is, in simplicity and innocence He
opened not His mouth. Accordingly, where He made no answer, He
was silent as a sheep; where He answered, He taught as the
Shepherd. Let us therefore set ourselves to learn what He said,
what He taught also by the apostle, that "there is no power but of
God; " and that he is a greater sinner who maliciously delivereth up
to the power the innocent to be slain, than the power itself, if it
slay him through fear of another power that is greater still. Of such
a sort, indeed, was the power which God had given to Pilate, that
he should also be under the power of Caesar. Wherefore "thou
wouldest have," He says, "no power against me," that is, even
the little measure thou really hast, "except" this very measure,
whatever its amount, "were given thee from above." But knowing as
I do its amount, for it is not so great as to render thee altogether
independent, "therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the
greater sin." He, indeed, delivered me to thy power at the bidding
of envy, whilst thou art to exercise thy power upon me through the
impulse of fear. And yet not even through the impulse of fear ought
one man to slay another, especially the innocent; nevertheless to do
so by an officious zeal is a much greater evil than under the constraint
of fear. And therefore the truth-speaking Teacher saith not, "He
that delivered me to thee," he only hath sin, as if the other had
none; but He saith, "hath the greater sin," letting him understand
that he himself was not exempt from blame. For that of the latter is
not reduced to nothing because the other is greater.
6. "Hence Pilate sought to release Him." What is to be
understood by the word here used, "hence," as if he had not been
seeking to do so before? Read what precedes, and thou wilt find that
he had already for some time been seeking to release Jesus. By the
original word, therefore, we are to understand, on this account,
that is, far this reason, that he might not contract sin by slaying an
innocent man who had been delivered into his hands, even though his sin
would be less than that of the Jews, who delivered Him to him to be
put to death. "From thence," therefore, that is, for this
reason, that he might not commit such a sin, "he sought" not now for
the first time, but from the beginning, "to release Him."
7. "But the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go,
thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king,
speaketh against Caesar." They thought to inspire Pilate with
greater fear by terrifying him about C sar, in order that he might put
Christ to death, than formerly when they said, "We have the law,
and by the law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of
God." It was not their law, indeed, that impelled him through fear
to the deed of murder, but rather it was his fear of the Son of God
that held him back from the crime. But now he could not set C sar,
who was the author of his own power, at nought, in the same way as the
law of another nation.
8. As yet, however, the evangelist proceeds to say: "But when
Pilate heard these sayings, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down
before the tribunal, in a place that is called the Pavement, but in
the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the passover,
and about the sixth hour." The question, at what hour the Lord was
crucified, because of the testimony supplied by another evangelist,
who says, "And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him," we
shall consider as we can, if the Lord please, when we are come to the
passage itself where His crucifixion is recorded. When Pilate,
therefore, had sat down before the tribunal, "he saith unto the
Jews, Behold your king! But they cried out, Away with him, away
with him, crucify him.
Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify your king?" As yet he
tries to overcome the terror with which they had inspired him about C
sar, by seeking to break them from their purpose on the ground of the
ignominy it brought on themselves, with the words, "Shall I crucify
your king?" when he failed to soften them on the ground of the
ignominy done to Christ; but by and by he is overcome by fear.
9. For "the chief priests answered, We have no king but C sar.
Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified." For he
would have every appearance of acting against C sar if, on their
declaration that they had no king hut C sar, he were wishing to impose
on them another king by releasing without punishment one whom for these
very attempts they had delivered unto him to be put to death.
"Therefore he delivered Him unto them to be crucified." But was
it, then, anything different that he had previously desired when he
said, "Take ye him, and crucify him;" or even earlier still,
"Take ye him, and judge him according to your law?" And why did
they show so great reluctance, when they said, "It is not lawful for
us to put any man to death," and were in every way urgent to have Him
slain not by themselves, but by the governor, and therefore refused to
receive Him for the purpose of putting Him to death, if now for the
same purpose they actually do receive Him? Or if such be not the
case, why was it said, "Then delivered he Him therefore unto them
to be crucified?" Or is it of any importance? Plainly it is. For
it was not said, "Then delivered he Him therefore unto them" that
they might crucify Him, but "that He might be crucified," that
is, that He might be crucified by the judicial sentence and power of
the governor. But it is for this reason that the evangelist has said
that He was delivered to them, that he might show that they were
implicated in the crime from which they tried to hold themselves aloof;
for Pilate would have done no such thing, save to implement what he
perceived to be their fixed desire. The words, however, that
follow, "And they took Jesus, and led Him away," may now refer
to the soldiers, the attendants of the governor. For it is more
clearly stated afterwards, "When the soldiers therefore had crucified
Him," although the evangelist properly does so even when he
attributes the whole to the Jews, for they it was that received what
they had with the utmost greediness demanded, and they it was that did
all that they compelled to be done. But the events that follow must be
made the subject of consideration in another discourse.
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