Mistrial (Part 2)

 

Mistrial

Mistrial (Part 2) - Audio/Visual

(Part II)

Pilate said, “So you are a king?” Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” “What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, “He is not guilty of any crime.” (John 18:37-38)

Jesus has already been through three (3) “trials,” none of which were legitimate. Of course, that didn’t stop the religious leaders from reaching a verdict anyway. The problem was that the charge of blasphemy wouldn’t stand up in a Roman court. However, Annas had made it very clear that this Jesus must be put to death – today – and Caiaphas had already tipped his hand earlier by telling the gathered intelligencia that, “It’s better that one man should die for the people.” (John 18:14) Faced with a new legal dilemma, what’s the Sanhedrin to do? Easy. Just switch the charge to treason rather than blasphemy. And that’s exactly what they did. Between the time they’d dismissed the proceedings and gained an audience with the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, they switched the charge: this time the charge was treason. In other words, they claimed that Jesus was guilty of attempting to overthrow the government.

Now Pilate was an anti-Semitic, Gentile born in Spain. He was appointed by Caesar to govern Judea. He was what you would call the governor of a state, though in those days they were called provinces. Pilate was a short-timer in the mind of Caesar due to a number of revolutions that had broken out under Pilate’s governance. The truth is that Pilate had made some pretty poor decisions during his administration, murdered plenty of his Jewish subjects, tightened the screws of Roman rule on his largely Jewish population and lacked basic diplomacy skills. As a result, the state over which he served was in constant turmoil. Despite these shortcomings, Caesar tacitly approved of Pilate and left him there as governor, but Pilate was under constant surveillance. In fact, not long after Jesus’ trial, Pilate was banished to Gall where he later committed suicide.

Apocryphal accounts of Pilate’s suicide suggest that Tiberius Caesar had become gravely ill and had heard of a wonderful Judean physician who could heal with just a word. As a result, the Caesar sent orders to Pilate to bring the doctor to Rome. There was just one problem with that plan: Pilate had earlier ordered the doctor’s crucifixion. Furious at Pilate’s stupidity, Caesar sentenced Pilate to the most disgraceful death possible. Thus, and in order to avoid this disgrace, Pilate committed suicide. In a nutshell, Pilate was a very unstable guy. But because of some shrewd, political maneuverings, he’d become the governor of a province – if only for a short time.

The time was now around 6:30 to 7:00 a.m., and the Sanhedrin was leading Jesus from Caiaphas’ house to the judgment hall. (John 18:28) But doing so presented a problem; the religious leaders didn’t dare physically enter into the judgment hall itself because no Jewish person could enter a Gentile court on Passover – if they did, they’d be defiled, or ceremonially unclean and this was certainly NOT the time to be unclean, considering it was Passover – the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

As a result, Pilate literally had to come out and meet the religious leaders. You see, they may have been criminally-minded in attitude, but they were extremely legalistic when it came to religion. It’s because of this, then, that you see Pilate going in and out of the judgment hall, almost as if he were acting the part of a mediator trying to settle a legal dispute, rather than acting as the governor.

Now, the first law of the Roman code of criminal procedure was accusation, and that's the first thing Pilate covered. “So, what’s the charge here, guys?” Jesus’ accusers sarcastically responded, “Hey, Bub, if he weren’t guilty, we wouldn’t be here, you dope!” (John 18:29-30)  But in Pilate’s defense, he really had no earthly idea that he was being asked to adjudicate a capital case. He simply said that if it's a problem with the Jewish law, then take him and judge him yourselves. (John 18:31) And that’s when the lights came on. “It’s not lawful for us to put any man to death,” the leaders said. (Id.) Well, now; that changes everything. And from the other gospels, we know that they’d declared that Jesus was guilty of treason, i.e., claiming to be another Caesar. (Luke 23:2)

The second law of the Roman code of criminal procedure, after accusation, was interrogation, i.e., to probe and search for evidence against the accused. Thus the following question: "Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered him, “Is this your idea, or did somebody else tell you that?” Pilate answered, “Hey, do I look like a Jew? It’s your people that brought you here, buddy. So, what’s the rap?"
(John 18:33-35) In other words, Pilate wanted to figure out if Jesus was in the process of attempting to overthrow the Roman government. Jesus responded by saying that his kingdom was not of this world since, if it were, his servants would be fighting in the streets, taking lives, storming the temple and putting an end to this mockery of a trial. “But you don’t see them, do you?” Jesus implied. (John 18:36)

The third process in the Roman code of criminal procedure was defense. And now Pilate, acting more like a defense attorney, begins to look at the facts from Jesus’ perspective. By the way, Roman law, much like American law, allowed for a defense attorney, but Jesus was never allowed that opportunity – not even a court-appointed attorney. So, Pilate considers the evidence and says, “So, you are a king," to which Jesus responds, “You say that I am a king, and for this reason I was born so I could come to this world and bear witness to the truth.” Pilate, at this point, incredulously says, “What’s truth?” (John 18:37-38)

In other words, “This has nothing to do with the case, Jesus. You’re on trial for sedition, not your philosophical beliefs.” Ahhh, but this had everything to do with Pilate’s mind set. He’s a very mixed up, miserable man who, in a matter of months, will take his own life. So it’s no wonder that he’s in a quandary when it comes to objective, sound truth. And so he says, “What's truth?” And when he said this, Pilate went out to Jesus’ accusers and said that he found Jesus not guilty. (Now that was the truth!) But we’re not done here. The fourth step is a verdict, and Pilate said he found Jesus not guilty. In fact, all Pilate could find was that Jesus claimed to be a king from some sort of weird, spiritual kingdom. That's not a threat to Rome. But the crowd goes crazy anyway, yelling that Jesus is a rebel rouser stirring up trouble from Galilee to Jerusalem.

And then it hits him.

Pilate may not have been the brightest crayon in the box, but he’s not stupid. He hears the word “Galilee,” and knows exactly what to do: kick this can down the road since Galilee isn’t in his jurisdiction. “Hmmmm, I wonder where the proper venue would be for this action? Aha! I know. That’s Herod's jurisdiction; I’ll send Jesus to Herod and it just so happens that he’s in town today. What a stroke of luck!” (Luke 23:6-7) Now, for whatever reason, Herod and Pilate were political enemies, at least up until this particular event. Maybe it was because Pilate was a loser with a plumb job in Jerusalem. Regardless, Herod had a reputation of his own. He was the one who beheaded John the Baptist. He's the one who dealt with vicious cruelty over his subjects.

But Herod had heard about Jesus and was excited to see Jesus perform a miracle: kind of like a circus monkey in a freak show. He thought Jesus was some sort of magician and was anxious to see Jesus do a trick. (Luke 23:8) Jesus, knowing Herod’s intent, didn’t throw him a bone. This was no proceeding at all! All Herod wanted was a jester for his court; a clown. And when Jesus wouldn't cooperate, Herod’s court personnel mocked him as a king and sent him back to Pilate.
(Luke 23:10-11)

Now back at the Palace, Pilate was eating eggs Benedict and thinking, “Whew! Dodged that one. I’m not as dumb as I look.” And then, as he’s chewing on his English muffin, he looks out the window, and lo and behold there’s Jesus, bound and robed as a king. “Are you kidding me?” It was obvious to Pilate that Herod was not in a particularly cooperative mood. Curiously, the whole event brought Herod and Pilate together as friends. Maybe it was due to the fact that Pilate had showed Herod some deference in allowing him to adjudicate a capital case involving one of his own subjects. (Luke 23:12) Others have speculated that Pilate and Herod Antipas despised the Jewish religious authorities. Of course, feelings were mutual since the scribes and Pharisees hated the Roman authorities. So, by returning Jesus to Pilate, Herod was effectively saying to the Pharisees and Sadducees that Christ was their problem, not his. And Pilate felt exactly the same way and as the saying goes, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Go figure.

But Pilate still didn’t want to declare Jesus guilty, and his wife had had a bad dream about this guy. Even Herod was on his side, who didn’t do anything except send Jesus back. So, he tried several angles to get out of having to reach a verdict. The first thing he offered to do was to chastise and beat Jesus and then release him. But the people said “No.” Then he tried to release Jesus through a custom of that day: to release a prisoner during Passover. (Matt. 27:15) The choice? Barabbas or Jesus. And Pilate, in selecting Barabbas, thought this would be a shoe-in. Barabbas was a notorious criminal. He was a murderer; he was an insurrectionist; he was guilty of sedition; and he was bound in prison awaiting death by crucifixion. Barabbas had been convicted of a capital crime. He was the one guilty of treason. So, Pilate thought that if he were to put Barabbas next to Jesus, and offered to release one of them, the crowd would surely say, "Don't release Barabbas! Release Jesus, instead!" But it backfired. They wanted Jesus dead. (Matt. 27:19-23)

 

So, Pilate gathered a band of soldiers, stripped Jesus and put on a scarlet robe, placed a crown of thorns on his head, a reed in his right hand and then mocked him by bowing down and saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They struck him on the head, spit on him and led him away to be crucified.
(Matt. 27:26-31) C.S. Lewis, an atheist turned apologist said in his book, God in the Dock (implying, God on Trial), "One of the great difficulties is to keep before the audience's mind the question of Truth. They always think you are recommending Christianity not because it is 'true' but because it is 'good'. One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if it is true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important."

The case against God should have been declared a mistrial. But for the sake of our redemption, God didn’t ask for a mistrial which, when granted, would have rendered him immune from further prosecution. Instead, he voluntarily bore our sins so that, at our trial, we can be declared righteous, or not guilty: not of our own selves, but because the consequences of our actions were borne by God’s son who only wants to have a relationship with those whom he made for that very purpose.

Want some free legal advice? Hire Jesus. There’s no better advocate, and he’ll represent you pro bono since he’s already paid your retainer. Pretty good deal, if you ask me. And I should know – I’m a lawyer in need of a Savior.

Grace,

Randy