The Last Week of Jesus's LifeSýnishorn

Friday, April 3, 33 AD

Pilate calls together the chief priests and their posse (Luke 23:13). Mark 15:10 notes that Pilate “perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up.”

“Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him” (Luke 23:15–16). Pilate thinks this is a fair deal for both parties. Annas gets the guilty verdict he so desires, Jesus gets a stern warning to cool it, and Pilate gets to be seen as a faithful Roman while simultaneously avoiding an Annas- or Jesus-led riot.

To sweeten the deal, Pilate offers them a prisoner exchange. The prefect has a hardened criminal in his dungeon, a notorious insurrectionist who murdered one of many recent uprisings (Matthew 27:16; Mark 15:7). Surely these God-loving Jews will take the innocent preacher over the proven murderer. The criminal’s name, according to some ancient manuscripts of Matthew 27:16–17, is . . . wait for it . . . Jesus Barabbas.

Pilate asks the crowd, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” (Matthew 27:17). Note the wordplay here. Jesus Bar-abbas means “Son of the father,” and our Jesus claims to be the heavenly Father’s son. Will the religionists choose death or life, violence or nonviolence, flesh or spirit? Will it be an armed insurgent or an unarmed messiah?

The chief priests whip their sycophants into a frenzy (Mark 15:11). “Barabbas!” they shout. Pilate begins to deftly move into position for the final kill. Instead of passing judgment, he throws it open to the House of Annas. “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?”

They shout back: “Crucify him.”

“Why? What evil has he done?” (Mark 15:12–15).

They scream him down—justice and evidence have never mattered in this case. “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar” (John 19:12).

Annas’s implicit threat has now been vocalized. Murder this Jew, or we will report you to Caesar and you will lose your job if not your head. It may seem as though Annas has Pilate on the ropes, but this is exactly where Pilate wants Annas. The perfect plunks down on his judgment seat and parades Jesus before the mob of high priests, lawyers, aristocrats, temple guards, religionists, and supporters, taunting them. “Behold your King!”

The crowd shouts, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your King?”

The chief priests alone answer: “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15).

And there we have the truth of the matter. This is not an assembly of faithful Jews, but rather a mob of political expedients whose allegiance is not to God but to power itself. They have denied their nation, denied the messianic hope, and denied the ultimate authority of the Jewish nation—God himself.

Does a crowd of faithful Passover pilgrims really want a corruption-ending, temple-mocking, body-healing, food-providing revolutionary fellow Jew to be tortured and murdered by the Romans? No. This is a crowd of paid actors, rounded up and controlled by the House of Annas, less than a hundred of the most zealous beneficiaries who profit greatly from their unearned place in the corrupt political hierarchy.

But rather than enforcing holy justice and cracking down on the riotous crowd, Pilate plays his trump card. The prefect calls for a bowl of water and publicly washes his hands. “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” The crowd answers, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:24–25).

Checkmate.

Pilate wins.

The House of Annas has issued the charges, declined the lesser punishment offer, rejected the prisoner trade, chose the final penalty, pledged their allegiance to the Pax Romana, and promised to deal with the fallout. Pilate finally has the upper hand on the highest of priests. Now Annas owes him. Pilate will grant Annas’s request and kill this Galilean, but if the rabbi’s followers rise up in protest, Pilate knows the temple administration will deal with it. Unlike the aqueduct fiasco, the House of Annas will support Rome against the disciples of Jesus to their dying day.

Does Pilate feel bad that this Galilean is just a chess piece in the priest and prefect’s game?

Does Pilate have any clue that he and Annas are chess pieces in Jesus’s infinitely bigger game?

Having finally extracted loyalty from Annas, Pilate turns the rabbi over to the Roman soldiers to be flogged and crucified. Jesus will be murdered by the Romans at the behest of the House of Annas as a public and private political nuisance.