"Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him." This was a very
unnecessary piece of cruelty practised by the Romans; whose custom it
was to scourge, or whip with cords, every criminal condemned to death.
We must now think of our blessed Lord, with His back all cut and
bleeding from the stripes laid upon Him, aching and smarting all over;
then we must remember that this was the punishment of _our_ sins,
which He bore, and that, "with his stripes we are healed." Shall not
such thoughts stir us up to show our love for Him, Who, out of His
wondrous love for us, bore all these tortures? "And when Pilate had
scourged him, he delivered Jesus to their will, to be crucified."
"Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus, and led him away into
the common hall, called Praetorium"; where fresh insults and sufferings
were inflicted upon the holy Jesus, the Messiah: for "they call
together the whole band of soldiers," and in mockery and ridicule for
His having styled Himself a king, "they stripped him" of his own
clothes, "and put on him a scarlet or purple robe," (for the same word
signifies both colours,) and then made a crown or wreath, by twisting
together some branches of a prickly plant. "And when they had platted
a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right
hand," to represent the sceptre, carried by kings. When the soldiers
had thus arrayed our Lord, in ridicule of His claim to be a king, they
went a step further, and in derision, "they bowed the knee before him,
and worshipped him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!"
Not satisfied with this mockery, "they smote him with their hands. And
they spit upon him," to show the greatest possible degree of hatred
and contempt; "and took the reed, and smote him on the head"; thus
driving the thorns into Him, and so increasing His sufferings. All
this He bore for us; and all He asks in return is, that we should take
Him for our King, so as to let Him reign in our hearts, and rule our
lives. Pilate made another attempt to save the life of Jesus; he
probably hoped, that if the people saw Him bleeding and suffering,
they would feel pity, and be ashamed of so treating a man, declared to
be innocent, and known to all as going about doing good. "Pilate
therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him
forth to you, 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
Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!"
The Priests, however, were determined that nothing should save the
life of their victim, and "therefore, when the Chief Priests and
officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, Crucify him."
Pilate finding all his efforts vain, and being still afraid to offend
the Jews, "then saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I
find no fault in him." As if he had said, If you are determined to
crucify Him, do it; but remember it is not my doing, "for I find no
fault in him."
"The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God." The Jews now changed their
ground of accusation, and simply named the sin of blasphemy, as the
cause for which their Law required our Lord's death.
"When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid": the
heathen governor had clearly seen that Jesus was no common man: if He
were put to death for declaring Himself to be the Son of God, He would
probably suffer for saying what was _true_; and though Pilate, as a
heathen, had no knowledge of the nature and power of the Lord God
Almighty, he was afraid to crucify One, whom he believed to be the Son
of God. Hesitating and perplexed, Pilate "went again into the Judgment
Hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no
answer. Then saith Pilate, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not
that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except
it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto
thee hath the greater sin."
Jesus meant to tell Pilate, that no earthly Ruler or Governor could
have power to put Him to death, unless it had been the Will of God,
who dwells in Heaven above, that He should suffer whatever the Jews
chose to do to Him. The Jews had cruelly and unjustly persecuted Him,
and in spite of His acknowledged innocence, had treated Him as the
worst of malefactors: and therefore Jesus told Pilate, that the sin of
the Chief Priests and others in insisting upon His death, was far
greater than the sin of Pilate in giving way to them, in order to
prevent a tumult amongst the people.
The words spoken by Jesus, His whole conduct and manner, so totally
unlike that of a guilty person, convinced Pilate more and more, that
He had _not_ "spoken _blasphemy_" in declaring Himself to be the Son
of God; and "from thenceforth he sought to release him."
To prevent the escape of their innocent victim, the Jews now returned
to their original charge of treason and rebellion against the Roman
Emperor, "and cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not
Caesar's friend; whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against
Caesar." Tiberius, who at that time was Emperor of Rome, was a
suspicious and cruel tyrant; and would have punished with death any
governor, supposed to have spared the life of a man, who had set
himself up to be a king in any of the Roman provinces. Pilate,
therefore, did not dare to give the Jews any excuse for thus
complaining of him to Tiberius: so "when he heard that saying, (If
thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend,) he brought Jesus
forth," from the Judgment Hall into which the Jews would not enter,
"and sat down in the judgment seat, in a place" outside, "that is
called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the
preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith
unto the Jews, Behold your king! But they cried out, Away with him,
away with him, crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify
your king? The Chief Priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then
delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified."
As St John's account of the hour at which the crucifixion took place
appears to differ from that named by the other Evangelists, it may be
well to explain why St. John says, "the _sixth_ hour," and St. Mark
"the _third_."
St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, speak according to the Jewish
mode of computing time. The Jews reckoned the day to begin at one
sunset, and end at the next; so that their night came before the day,
instead of after, as with us. From sunset, (about 6 o'clock of our
time,) they divided the night into four equal portions or watches, of
three hours each. The First from 6 o'clock P.M. to 9 o'clock; the
Second from 9 P.M. to 12 o'clock, or midnight. The Third watch, called
also the First Cock Crowing, ended at what we call 3 o'clock A.M.; and
the Fourth and Last, called the Second Cock Crowing, at our 6 o'clock
A.M. The next hour after 6 o'clock was called the 1st hour, and so on;
the 3rd hour answered, therefore, to our 9 o'clock A.M.: and this was
the hour at which St. Mark states that they crucified Jesus. It must
be remarked, that the Jews also divided their day into four portions,
calling each by the name of the hour at which it began: thus the 3rd
hour, being the beginning of a portion, would include the other two
hours in that portion. In this manner, the 3rd hour, our 9 o'clock,
would include the 4th and 5th hours, or our 10 and 11 o'clock. Then
the 6th hour, answering to our 12 o'clock mid-day, would extend to 3
o'clock, the 9th Jewish hour, and so on.
St. John, on the other hand, reckoned the time according to the Roman
and Asiatic mode, still used by us. Thus the day, as spoken of by him,
began at midnight; and therefore, his 6th hour was our 6 o'clock in
the morning, or 6 o'clock P.M. But the Romans also divided their time
into watches of three hours each, speaking of the whole three hours
under the name of the hour with which the watch began. Thus the 6th
hour, or 6 o'clock A.M., would include all the time up to 9 o'clock,
which according to the Romans was the 6th hour, and according to the
Jews the 3rd hour.
St. John further says, that it was "_about_ the sixth hour when they
crucified him"; now _about_ may mean a little before, or a little
after, the time mentioned; and therefore, we find that all the
Apostles mean the same thing; viz., that Jesus was crucified soon
after 9 o'clock in the morning.
The following table may help us to understand clearly the time at
which the different events happened; beginning with the Passover,
which Jesus ate with His disciples:--
--------------------+---------------------+-----------------------
| |
Our Time. | Jewish Time. | Events.
| |
Thursday, probably | |
about 5 o'clock. | Evening. | Jesus eats the
| | Passover.
--------------------+---------------------+-----------------------
6 o'clock P.M. | End of Day. |
7 " " | First Night Watch. | Jesus on the Mount of
| | Olives.
8 " " | |
--------------------+---------------------+-----------------------
9 o'clock P.M. | Second Night Watch. | Jesus in Garden of
| | Gethsemane.
10 " " | | Betrayed by Judas,
| | and taken to Annas.
11 " " | | Taken before Caiaphas.
--------------------+---------------------+-----------------------
12 o'clock Midnight.| Third Watch. | Peter's First Denial.
| First Cock Crowing. | Jesus condemned by the
| | Priests.
1 A.M. Friday. | | Abused by the
| | Attendants.
2 " " | | Peter's Second Denial.
--------------------+---------------------+-----------------------
3 o'clock A.M. | Fourth Watch. | Peter's Third Denial.
| Second Cock Crowing.|
4 " " | | Jesus condemned by
| | the Sanhedrim.
5 " " | | Taken before Pilate.
--------------------+---------------------+-----------------------
6 o'clock A.M. | Romans' 6th Hour. | Jesus sent to Herod.
| | Returned to Pilate.
7 " " | Jews' 1st Hour. | Crowned with thorns.
8 " " | " 2nd Hour. | Delivered to be
| | crucified.
--------------------+---------------------+-----------------------
9 o'clock A.M. | Jews' 3rd Hour. | Jesus crucified.
--------------------+---------------------+-----------------------