The Sham Trial
URING the preliminary examination of Jesus before Annas, the chief I priests had assembled in some building, possibly in some hall in m Caiaphas’ palace where they presumed to sit as a supreme court of the nation. The law of theocracy required the assembling of every member of the Sanhedrim when a vote was to be taken on the findings of the lower courts in cases where judgment of death had been given. We may therefore assume that Jesus had been thus judged by the court of Annas, and that when He was led therefrom He was taken directly before the Sanhedrim. The proceedings, however, were only a matter of form, because there was already a pre-judgment, so that the finding of Annas needed only a formal ratification before handing the prisoner over to Pilate.
The Death Sentence.
In the examination and trial before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrim there was no more mercy or justice shown than the infamous court of Annas had exhibited toward the celestial Prisoner. There was a dearth of prosecuting witnesses; for a while no one would come forward to swear that they had even heard Jesus make a single blasphemous utterance, though a large number had been subpoenaed and brought into court, only to be sent out again because their statements were contradictory. There stood Jesus, meantime, with no counsel, none to speak a word in His defence, the pre-condemned victim of an ecclesiastical, Sanhedric mob. The judges, however, did not see how they could condemn Him without some evidence to support their baseless charges, so at length they secured two witnesses to testify that Jesus had said in their hearing,” I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.” This was the resurrection of an utterance made by Jesus some time before, with material changes of what He had really said, but in no event could it be construed into blasphemy: so in their desperation the judges had to find some other evidence upon which to condemn Him.
Caiaphas was as cunning as he was unprincipled, bigoted and cruel, therefore he began to question Jesus, saying, “Do you have no answer to make to the charge supported by these witnesses?” But his fierce inquiry brought no reply from the lyamb of the world led to the shambles of a murderous court. “Then,”
(495) said Caiaphas,” I will put Him upon an oath and ask Him a question which will convict Him either of blasphemy or of being an impostor.” Caiaphas therefore said to Jesus, “I adjure Thee by the living God that Thou tell us whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of God? “It was a momentous question, upon which hung life or death; to speak truly was to invite the cross; to deny was the avenue of escape. But Jesus answered bravel)’,” I am; nevertheless, I say unto you,
PILATE’S HOUSE IN JERUSALEM AS IT NOW APPEARS.
hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
At this confession Caiaphas flew into such a passion that he tore his clothes, and without awaiting action of the Sanhedrim, he took upon himself the responsibility of pronouncing Jesus guilty of blasphemy. When a vote was taken what should be the punishment, every member voting of that vindictive,” merciless and ribald council favored a death sentence. Where was Nicodemus? Oh, he, like the rich young man and Peter, had lost his sense of justice in the face of danger and sacrifice, or else refused to cast a vote; and Joseph of Arimathea was douptless also afraid to record lii lunust nui,i,nncnt, because the danger from antagonizing that cruel body was very great. It might have caused personal violence, or dismissal in disgrace of the offending member. Conviction and sentence were the signal for the mob to offer indignities to the Lord of heaven. Hell was in temporary triumph, and the prince of dafkness would now visit persecution on the Prince of Light, so the rabble spat on Him, and struck Him with their foul ha,nds, and spurned Him with their filthy feet, all the while mocking and deriding Him; but He bore all, suffered all, in fulfillment of the words of Lsaiah,” He was oppressed, and He was aflSicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.”
The charges against
Jesus were now drawn up,
and being duly attested and
sealed, He was conveyed to
the splendid quarters of the
procurator, in the palace of
Herod, on Zion Hill.
The accusation against thk ixck homo arch, from which pilate exhibited Christ was composed of two J^sus to the mob
principal charges: one that He had blasphemed, claiming to be the Messiah sent from heaven to deliver the nation. This laid Him under the condemnation of the
Sanhedrim. The other was, that He had declared Himself a king who was come to rule over the nation. This made Him answerable to the Roman law, and this latter charge the hierarchal party would press most virulently, because they could not inflict the death penalty for a violation of ecclesiastical law. As the Jews were now Rbman subjects, condemnation of Jesus to death must be made or consented to by the procurator. Pilate hated the Jews, and was domineering to such an extreme, and withal was so fiercely cruel, that he was justly named the “Javelin man.” But his tyranny over and vindictive cruelty to the Jews did not make him forget that it became him to placate the rabbis and high-priests, whose influence, if exerted against him, might result in his deposement from the high office which he held, and these opposing influences made him the capricious creature that he was. But with all his immoralities, he had hardly such bitter prejudices as the Jews themselves, and was more disposed to justice, though he usually measured it out in small quantity and tempered it with expediency.
Jesus Before Pilate.
It was about eight o’clock in the morning — of Thursday — when Jesus was led up the marble stairs of Herod’s palace, across a floor of richest mosaics, and under a ceiling dyed and inlaid with all the splendors of colors, and along snow banks of white and glittering sculpture. Condemned by one court He was now in the hall of another, from which mercy had been driven by frenzied passion, mad prejudice and wild ambition.
To meet Him on the tesselated pavement comes out an unscrupulous, cowardly, time-serving, compromising man, with some few traces of sympathy and fair dealing left in his composition — Governor Pontius Pilate. Did ever two such opposites meet? Luxury and pain, selfishness and generosity, sin and holiness, arrogance and humility, midnight and midnoon, Pilate and Christ. The bloated-lipped governor takes a cushioned seat and leans back at his ease. The Prisoner stands. His wrists manacled. In semicircle around Him are the fiery Sanhedrists, their eyes flashing and their fists brandished, prosecuting the case for the sake of religion; for in all ages religious persecutors are the fiercest of all persecutors, and when the devil does get possession of good men he makes up by intensity for brevity of occupation. And if you have never been in an ecclesiastical court where they had some one on trial, you cannot understand the foaming infernalism of those old Jewish Sanhedrists. Governor Pilate begins to cross-question the Prisoner, and finds Him innocent, and wants to let Him go. To add to his caution in the matter, someone comes up and whispers in his ear.” What’s that?” says the governor, his hand behind his ear to catch the words almost inaudible. It is a message from Claudia Procula, his wife, who has had a dream about the Prisoner’s innocence and the danger of executing Him, and has just awakened from this morning dream to send news of it to the governor, at that very moment on the judicial bench. And what with the protest of his wife and the voice of his own conscience, and the entire failure of the vSanhedrists to make out a case, he resolves to discharge the Prisoner from custody.
The Scourging of
Jesus.
But that a n -
nouncement let loose
on the governor an
equinoctial storm of
indignation. They
would get him recalled by the Emperor Tiberius at
Rome. He should
no more be Governor
of Judea, and how
would he feel then
in disgrace, and perhaps be hanged for
treason. He had
already excited the
old emperor’ s suspicion, which rested
not until it finally
did effect his banishment and suicide. So
Governor Pilate, to
compromise the matte r, proposes the
whipping of Christ
instead of His assassination. He was
tied to a pillar near the ground, and on His bent and bare back came the thongs of leather, with chunks of lead and bone intertwined to augment the force and horror of the stroke, and when He was led up from that with flushed cheeks and torn and quivering and bleeding flesh. He presented a spectacle of suffering in which Rubens and Bouguereau found the theme for their great masterpieces.
“BEHOI.D THK MAN.
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THE SCOURGING. — From the Painting by Bouguereau.
50 1
But the Saiihedrists were still unsatisfied. They wanted not only part of hit nerves lacerated, they wanted all of them lacerated. They did not want a part of His blood, they wanted all of it, down to the last corpnscle.
The Remorse and Suicide of Juda.
The sentence of death had now
been passed by the Sanhedrim and
the execution of Jesus was a foregone conclusion.
Jerusalem was never before so excited over the approaching death of any man, and the public agitation extended rapidly over the outlying districts. Where were the nine apostles that fled in dismay when the Roman cohort and the rabbinical following invaded Gethsemane? Perhaps they had not gone
out of Jerusalem, yet it is probable that they extended
their flight to Bethany, Bethphage or Bethlehem, where
they might yet keep informed of the events transpiring in
Jerusalem. But Judas surely did not leave the city;
he was like a criminal held by some mysterious force to
the vicinity where the dead body of his victim lies, and
when the crucifixion of Christ was fixed to occur within
a few hours, the news of this horrible determination
promptly reached Judas’ ears.
When the tragic result of his traitorous enterprise
loomed up before him like some creation of distemper,
when he saw the blood of innocence swinuning like a
sea before his e)es, and the pale sad face of Jesus, the
unoffending, all-merciful friend of the world, rising before
him in a vision on which his very soul was forced to
gaze, his whole being was overwhelmed and swallowed
up by remorse; the agony which Jesus suffered in the flageukr, or scourge,
garden was now the agony of Judas; how his heart
cried out in despair, as the waves of contrition, regret,
self-reproach and soul-racking remorse came rushing over him in irresistible flood.
He had .sold his right to a throne, he had brought his Master to the cross, he had
SUCH AS WAS USED IN
PUNISHING JESUS.
drowned his soul in innocent blood. Whatever may have been his motives, the result now tore him with insufferable anguish. But it may not be too late to save his Eord! The thought came to him like a ray of light through the deepest cloud. He nursed the hope like a fond mother hugs to her breast her dying child when the doctor says one word of encouragement. He runs to the Temple, and making his way to the court of the priests, where none but consecrated feet might enter, he excitedly, nervously, prayerfully, begs the priests to do something yet to save his Master;” He is innocent; it is I alone that am guilty; I betrayed him without cause; I have falsely accused Him; take back this coin which is the wages of my guilt; do thou but deal justly; save yourselves from a crime which I have abetted; for the honor of yourselves, and the n6ble offices which you hold, and for the sake of the nation, allow this thing to go no further.” This might have been his agonizing appeal, but it fell on ears steeled against mercy; the gates of compassion were shut; God alone could open them. The priests would not take back the coin on which the stains of innocent blood were as fadeless as on Macbeth’s blade; the betrayer was now to them a piece of rubbish, which were better carted away than to lie about to offend their presence.
In the anguish of despair Judas threw the money with violence upon the marble floor and in mad desperation fled away to a spot of ground, the clay-yard of a potter, and there ended his miserable life with a rope.
Jesus Taken Before Herod.
Before execution of the sentence, Pilate, hoping that some means might yet be devised to save Jesus, sent Him to Herod for judgment as a Galilean, for as such He was not properly vmder Pilate’s jurisdiction.
The appearance of Christ was highly pleasing to Antipas, who was flattered so greatly by Pilate’s reference of the case to him that he dismissed the jealousy and enmity which he had theretofore felt for the Procurator, and a friendship between the two was by this means re-established. Antipas had heard so much about Jesus that his vanity was tickled by the appearance of the Messiah before him, who he felt sure would be glad to oblige the royal desire for an exhibition of supernatural power. When, therefore, Jesus was brought into his presence he condescendingly asked Him questions, prompted by an idle curiosity and doubtless requested that He perform a miracle to satisfy his doubts; but to none of the king’s questions would Jesus make any reply. This so angered Antipas that he turned from serioush considering His Messianic character to ridiculing His pretensions, and being desirous of escaping the obloquy and danger which might follow the execution of Jesus he thought to treat the charges against Him as unworthy of the dignity of a trial. But to humor the mob, which was intent on punishing their Victim, Antipas ordered a suit of royal regalia to be brought out,
IE SOLDIERS MOCKING JKSUS. — Drawn by Buia,
(503)
and in which Jesus was invested, to be made a butt of by the crowd. This robe was of white, which the king usually wore, though probably not on state occasions, and served as a badge of royalty-. In this garment Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate without giving judgment, for he recognized the dangers which threatened final disposition of the case, and therefore evaded responsibility by referring Jesus back to the governor.
After His return to Pilate Jesus was again scourged and given over to the custody of a squad of Roman soldiers, who, thoroughly brutalized, would now, with the Procurator’s permission, visit upon Jesus cruelties surpassing any of the inflictions to which He had before been subjected. So, deriding Him as did the mob before Herod, the soldiers placed a reed in His hand as a mock symbol of authority, and then a crown of thorns, woven with the thorns pointing inward, was pressed down upon His temples until they lacerated the flesh of His brow and caused streams of blood to flow down His face. This cruelty did not yet satisfy their vindictive and pitiless desires, for while bending their knees in insulting genuflexions they rose and struck Him, and mocked Him, and spat on Him, and then as a crowning act of infamy they tore the reed out of His hand and gave Him a violent blow on the head. Oh, the heart grows sick while recounting the indignities and ruffianly violence that were put upon Him. After amusing themselves by ridiculing the Prisoner, Jesus was stripped of His royal robes and clothed again in His own apparel, and prepared for execution.
“Shall I Release to You Barabbas?”
Executions were usually carried out on feast days, but it had been the custom for many years, out of regard for the feelings of the Jews, who held the Pas.sover as their most sacred festival, to release one prisoner mider sentence of death during Passover week, the culprit to be designated by a majority of the people attending the feast. Hoping to secure the release of Jesus, Pilate reminded the multitude of this custom, to which he received a vociferous request that it be now obser’ed. This gave Pilate hope, for between Jesus and a man named Barabbas, who was under sentence of death for killing a Roman soldier in an emeute, he believed that the people would certainly ask the release of Jesus. But revolts were so common on account of the implacable hatred between the Jews and the Romans, that Barabbas had many sympathizers among the Jews, who probably regarded him as a patriot. The hierarchal party therefore would not suffer defeat now, and at the instigation of Caiaphas and the priests, the crowd shouted, “Give us Barabbas; give us Barabbas.” Still hoping that the people might change their decisions at his implied request, he again asked, “Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas. or Jesus, which is called Christ? Will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?” But again the howling mob repeated their desire for the release of Barabbas.
“I FIND NO SIN IN THIS MAN.” — Drawn by Bida.
(505^
Then asked Pilate,” What will ye then that I shall do with Jesus? “and they all cried out, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”
With all this merciless, fanatical rabble before him, whom it were’ dangerous to trifle with, in his anxiety to even yet do something that would avert the awful crime which was about to be sealed, Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil hath He done? I have found no cause of death in Him; I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go.” But the mob’s cries only became the louder and more inexorable, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”
So, after all his merciful hesitation, Pilate surrendered to the demoniacal cry of “Crucify Him.” But Governor Pilate, seated in the presence of the people, sends a slave to fetch him something. The constables are impatient to lead out the criminal to execution, and the mob in the street are waiting to glare on their Victim. But a pause is necessitated for a few moments. Yonder comes a wash-basin. The clear, bright water is poured into it, and Governor Pontius Pilate puts back the sleeves of his robe and thrusts his soft, delicate hands into the water and rubs them together, and then lifts them dripping for the towel fastened to the slave’s girdle, and says, practically, “I wash my hands of this whole homicidal transaction. I will take none of the responsibility of this Prisoner’s death. You must assume all of it.” “He took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just person; see ye to it.’”
Behold how ceremonies amount to nothing without correspondency of heart. It is well that the hands be washed. When God made three-fourths of the world water He commanded cleanliness, and as the ancients did not take the hint He put a whole world under water. The Jewish religion made handwashing a law. By minute direction the hands must be plunged three times up to the wrist, and the palm of one hand rubbed by the closed fist of the other. The Jewish Mishna gives elaborate rule on this subject. All well as a symbol. But here Governor Pilate proposes to wash off guilt which he does not quit and of which he makes small repentance. Pilate’s wash-basin is a failure.
Alas for the agitated Judean governor, that night, after the court had adjourned and the Sanhedrists were gone, and only the tread of the sentinel at his door was heard, 1 think he rose from his tapestried and sleepless couch and went again to the laver and thrust his hands up to the wrist in the water, and cried, “Out! Out! thou crimson spot! How thou stickest fast, telling the story to me and the night and God! Is there no alkali that can remove this dreadful stain? Is there no chemistry to dissolve this carnage? Must I live and die with the blood of a martyr on my hands, and the blood of heavenly innocence upon my immortal soul?”