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Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, "You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him, no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him. I will therefore chastise Him and release Him" (for it was necessary for him to release one of them at the feast).
And they all cried out at once, saying, "Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas" -- who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder. Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them. But they shouted, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Then he said to them the third time, "Why, what evil has He done? I have found no reason for death in Him. I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go." But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested. And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison; but he delivered Jesus to their will.
- Luke 23:13-25
It is Holy Week in Jerusalem, and Jesus has been arrested (betrayed by Judas His disciple), He has been denied by Peter His disciple, and He has been mocked and ridiculed by and beaten by guards and subject to a false trial. In yesterday's reading, we were told that the whole multitude of them arose and led Him to Pilate. And they began to accuse Him, saying, "We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ, a King." Then Pilate asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?" He answered him and said, "It is as you say." So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no fault this Man." But they were the more fierce, saying, "He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place." When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the Man were a Galilean. And as soon as he knew that He belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him. Then he questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing. And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him. Then Herod, with his men of war, treated Him with contempt and mocked Him, arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him back to Pilate. That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.
Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, "You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him, no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him. I will therefore chastise Him and release Him" (for it was necessary for him to release one of them at the feast). My study bible says that "to chastise means to scourge, a Roman punishment using a whip made from several leather strips with small bones or metal bits tied at the tips." The text makes it clear, several times now, that Pilate believes none of the charges against Jesus.
And they all cried out at once, saying, "Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas" -- who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder. Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them. But they shouted, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Then he said to them the third time, "Why, what evil has He done? I have found no reason for death in Him. I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go." But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed. A note tells us that "these men were the sympathizers of the Jewish leaders, not the general public whom the leaders feared (see 22:2, 6)."
So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested. And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison; but he delivered Jesus to their will. My study bible says: "Here is a tragic irony. The murderer is released and the innocent Jesus is given up to be murdered, a failure of both the Roman and Jewish systems of justice."
An irony indeed, that a murderer and rebel should be released by Pilate, while the innocent Jesus (a man Pilate understands to be innocent) is the one given over to execution. And more than an irony. Jesus' death reminds us that we live in a world where evil dwells side by side with the good, and where the innocent may be harmed. We can see on the part of the religious leadership a whole host of ills: a desire for power, to retain that power at all costs. We can assume that they, too, understand that Jesus is innocent, but they have other concerns they consider more important (see John 11:49-50). But the fact that the murderer and rebel Barabbas is released tells us something more, about the material-minded nature of the choices that are happening here. Jesus is Messiah, but He's a Messiah of peace, having ridden into Jerusalem in His Triumphal Entry on a donkey's colt, and not with weapons of war and violence, such as those of Barabbas the rebel or a conquering general. Luke's Gospel has told us that as Jesus drew near Jerusalem in His Triumphal Entry, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes." So peace and war are important elements in this scenario. The ones making the ultimate decision here (albeit under considerable pressure from the local religious leadership) are representatives of the great Roman power of Caesar. It's possible that in all of history there's been no greater imperial presence in the world known for its army like Rome was (certainly there have been many others, including today's modern technological warfare which is beyond measure more powerful), but Caesar's Rome remains the image of such power, force and discipline. Up against all of these powers is Christ, who is the Prince of Peace, who weeps for Jerusalem as He is about to enter. For Jerusalem is given over to violence in many more ways than we can even name, and on many more levels. There is not just the colonial occupying power, but there is also the violence of the leadership in its treatment of the people, penalizing the poor, and keeping God far away -- all the things that Jesus has protested in various forms throughout His ministry. As we will recall, a central bone of contention has been Jesus' insistence on healing on the Sabbath. So, in so many ways, violence and peace are themes we look at today in the contrast between those in leadership (including the Roman leadership) and Jesus. Jesus is the prisoner who has been mocked and chastised and beaten; He's the one bound and held captive. But if we see with true eyes here, Jesus is the one who is free and it is the rest of them who are truly bound. The religious leadership is bound by its greed and thirst for position and control, Pilate is bound although he knows Jesus is innocent and surely wants to let Him go. No one wants to stand up and make a decision here for truth. It is Jesus who has told us "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31-32). It is Jesus who is truly free here, and it is truth and freedom that are inextricably linked. In order to understand this, we have to go deeper into the reality behind what we witness, for there is not only material reality; there is also spiritual and psychological reality, those things that dwell within us and work their way into the world through us. Jesus has come here into our world as the "stronger man" whose real spiritual battle is with the "strong man" of this world, the evil one and the darkness of all forms of evil that truly bind us. In all ways, Jesus' ministry has been an expression of freedom, because it is an expression of truth. He teaches us about healing, about the freedom to heal and to know and to witness truth, about freedom from affliction, about God's love that really sets us free in so many countless ways. It's those who are bound by position, and all that goes along with it, the priority of material-minded choice, who are not free here, and not at peace -- not even free enough to consider "the things that make for your peace." When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, His lament was for what was to come, the great violence that would consume the city eventually, but His words reflect a deep-rooted failure to know what makes for the city's peace. Let us not fail to heed that lament today. Do we know what makes for our peace? Do we put our priorities straight? Or is it simply the material outcome we prioritize? In a world that values and praises truth and justice and freedom, do we know and uphold what these words truly mean? Whether it be nation to nation, or in the intimate setting of a family or friendship, even as we stare into a mirror -- where are our real values and what determines our choice? What do we put our faith in? Let us look to Him, bound as a prisoner and given over to death, and truly come to understand who is free here and who is not. In John's Gospel, Pilate asks Jesus, "What is truth?" The real answer to that question is that He is standing right before him.
