The Kangaroo Court that sent a Man to the Cross

By Noralyn O. Dudt

"WE HAVE no king but Caesar" came the rallying cry from the agitated crowd at the praetorium, outside the palace of the Roman governor. Pilate brought Jesus out with the crown of thorns already on his head, blood streaming down his face. He asked the Jews, "what do you want me to do with your king?"

It had  been a long  grueling ordeal for Jesus. Just the night before, he was arrested at the Garden of Gethsemane where he was in deep and earnest  prayer.  "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done." He was so anguished that  he was sweating drops of blood. Sweating drops of blood is rare but very real. It is known as "hematidrosis," a  medical condition that causes one's sweat to contain blood. The sweat glands are surrounded by tiny blood vessels that can constrict and then dilate to the point of rupture, causing blood to effuse into the sweat glands. The cause of hematidrosis is extreme anguish. In the gospel accounts, we see the level of Jesus' anguish: "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death" ( Matthew 26:38, Mark 14:34)

Not long after that agonizing prayer, the temple police armed with swords and clubs came looking for him, with Judas at their side. A quick kiss of betrayal, and Jesus was taken away and brought to Caiaphas, the Chief Priest. It was a night arrest which was against Jewish law, a subversion  of the entire legal process so that they could "legally" put Jesus to death. Caiaphas, the chief priest interrogated Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. He was looking for something on which to build a case. As there were no witnesses, the entire proceeding was illegal. When Jesus replied "I spoke openly to the world. I even taught in the synagogue and in the temple, and I did nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask them who heard me." It was a response that elicited anger from the temple guards striking Jesus in the face.

An all-night trial... then the cock crowed signaling that morning had come. Jesus had not slept at all. He had endured not only the agony in the garden but had been bullied by the Sanhedrin and beaten by the temple police. He was interrogated, slapped, mocked, humiliated, and condemned to death. 

The Jewish authorities led Jesus to Pilate so that the Roman governor might examine him and ratify their sentence. They didn't want to do this dirty work of condemning an innocent man to die.  Pilate came out to them and asked, " what accusation do you bring against this man?" Their reply reeked of sarcasm: "if he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him unto you."

A malefactor ? The word is 'kakopoios,' an evildoer, a criminal. It carries the idea of one actively engaged in evil. What a slander about the One who "went about doing good."

The Jesus who  had healed  the sick, given sight to the blind, cast out evil spirits, fed hungry multitudes, and even raised the dead was being labeled "malefactor." As they could not prove their allegations,  they had been forced in the end to hire false witnesses against him. Pilate must have sensed that they were bringing a capital case to him. So he told them, "Take ye him and judge him according to your law." He played dumb and referred the case back to their court. "If he is just a criminal, then you take care of the case," he said. Citing Roman law, the Jews replied, "it is not lawful for us to put any man to death." They would cite Roman law when it suited their purpose. The right to exercise capital punishment was the most jealously guarded of all, a Roman governor's prerogative.

As the Roman governor of Judea, Pilate had the power to release Jesus. By asking Jesus questions and was dumbfounded by Jesus response and no response, he found no reason to prosecute him. He must have hoped that by ordering Jesus to be flogged and scourged with a whip, that would have been enough to convince the Jewish authorities to set him free. Pilate must have sensed he was being used by the crafty Caiaphas. He was not sure what the Jewish leaders were up to, and he was suspicious of them. But at the same time, he was puzzled by something else: why were they so full of malice against this man? He put the question to Jesus: "what hast thou done?"

Why are your people so bitterly opposed to you?

Jesus made no attempt to hide from Pilate the fact that he was a king, but his kingdom was a spiritual kingdom. He had not come to establish it by force. It drew its power from another world. It did not depend on the support of earthly forces, nor could it be overthrown by military might. As for the Jews, he had voluntarily put himself in their hands.  The Jews were looking for a militant Messiah, one who would lead them to victory over Rome and over the world, one who would make Jerusalem the capital of a new empire.  They were scornful of him because he was a weak messiah. They had long rejected him and his claims.

A confused and frustrated Pilate  turned Jesus over to the soldiers to be whipped and scourged.

Trial by scourging was a terrible ordeal. The victim was fastened to a post. The whip had many throngs and at the tip of each throng were pieces of metal or bone. A soldier would  bring the whip down with all the force of his arm across the victim's back. The first blow would knock all the breath out of the body. The second would lay  open the skin. As the punishment proceeded,  flesh would be  ripped from bone.  Sometimes vital organs would be exposed. Often those who survived were maimed for life. Pilate callously handed over the man he had just pronounced innocent to this systematic torture.

So brutal this whipping and lashing that anyone who underwent it would be at the point of death.

And then to add insult to injury, Pilate  had the soldiers take Jesus away to be spat on, to be beaten, to be stripped of his clothes,  and mocked: "Hail, King of the Jews" clothing him  with a purple robe  and twisting together a crown of thorns and putting it on his head,  and then striking him in the face. It was humiliation to the highest degree.

Then Pilate brought Jesus out again  to the crowd, a crowd so riled up,  assembled by the  Sanhedrin  (the ruling council of the Jews), thinking that they would have some pity on a man who had been flogged,  bloodied and mocked.

"Ecce Homo"  Behold the Man ! Pilate said. "I find in him no fault at all."  As if he were  saying, "look at him now, he has been punished more than enough: flogged, scourged almost to the point of death.

Pilate was now in the negotiating mode; "You have a  tradition that releases a prisoner on the day of your Passover. I can release your king ! Or Barabbas?"

As a Roman prelate, Pilate had the power to decide who can be released. Why would  he even suggest that they choose between Jesus, the Holy One, and Barabbas,  the rebel?

A crowd that had  been provoked  to demand  that Jesus must die screamed,  "Crucify him, crucify him." Pilate replied, "crucify your king?"

The crowd yelled louder,  "we have no king but Caesar."  A declaration so ironic—the Jews who so despised the  Romans would strongly assert that they had "no king but Caesar?"  And added irony was the fact that they wanted Barabbas released—the rebel who  led an insurrection against Rome and Caesar whom they espoused to be their only king.

Crucifixion was considered to be the most painful and torturous method of execution ever devised and was used on the most despised and wicked people. In fact, so horrific was the pain that a word was designed to help explain it—excruciating,  which literally means "from the cross."

Pilate finally  gave in. Their cry "we have no king but Caesar" had an ominous tone. They were threatening him. "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar." Pilate has been outmaneuvered and he knew it. He then took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd and said, "I am innocent of this man's blood. It is your responsibility."  And all the people answered, "Let his blood be on us and on our children."

And then he handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.

"LET his blood be on us and OUR CHILDREN." There must have been hatred and malice so deep and unfathomable  toward Jesus that the people were willing to entangle their children and their children's children as responsible for "his blood" and compromise their future.

"WE HAVE NO  KING BUT CAESAR" they staunchly  declared.  Had they recognized the gravity of such a declaration, might they have paused to think.it over? Did they even have an inkling of what was going to happen in the next 2,000 years?