LECTURE CXXIV.

LUKE XXIII. 1-12.

2.

"And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that he himself is Christ a king. 3. And Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answered him and said, Thou sayest it. 4. Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man. 5. And they were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. 6. When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilean. 7. And as soon as he knew that he belonged unto Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time. 8. And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. 9. Then he questioned with him in many words; but he answered him nothing. 10. And the chief priests and scribes stood, and vehemently accused him. 11. And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. 12. And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves."

WE have seen how our Lord underwent a kind of mock trial before the chief council of the Jews, and how, in defiance of all form and substance of justice, he was condemned to death by that iniquitous and infatuated tribunal. Writers on the customs of the Jews show that they had regulations by which they were prohibited from judging capital cases during the night, or on a feast day, and from pronouncing sentence in such cases till the day after trial, and by which they should have been at their prayers, or saying their phylacteries, very early in the morning after the paschal supper; but these particular canons, as well as the general principles of equity, they trampled under foot, in their eagerness to accomplish their rancorous purpose against the Son of God. Matthew says," * Matthew says, "When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took

* Matt. xxvii. 1.

counsel against Jesus to put him to death." They had already passed sentence of death against him, but they had not the power to carry it into execution, at least, not without the consent of the Roman government, the authority of which was now supreme, and under which the Jews were now held in a kind of vassalage, though they were allowed, in many respects, to follow their own customs, and to put in force their own ecclesiastical laws.* This proved that the sceptre had departed from Judah, and, therefore, that Shiloh was come. The Jewish rulers, being anxious to have Jesus put to death, yet not daring to do it themselves, resolved to apply to the Roman governor, that thus they might accomplish their purpose, more in accordance with existing powers, with less danger and odium to themselves, and with greater ignominy and cruelty to the innocent sufferer. Thus it is, that many are more afraid of the danger and scandal of sin than of sin itself. Let it not be so with us; but, as we would avoid the greatest misery and disgrace at last, let us avoid all iniquity now, however securely, for the time, we may suppose it is in our power to perpe

trate it.

Luke says, in the opening of this chapter, " And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilate." As the common people were, in general, favourably disposed towards Jesus, the multitude here mentioned must have consisted of the chief priests, elders, scribes, captains of the temple, and officers, and other dependants. Matthew mentions that Christ's persecutors "bound him." He was bound before, when seized in the garden, and led away to the high priest's house.† His being bound now must, therefore, imply that his bonds were loosed during his trial, or, that he was now bound more closely. As the typical

* There is considerable diversity of opinion among the learned as to how this matter stood, some holding that the power of life and death was authoritatively taken from the Sanhedrim by the Romans; some, that the exercise of this power had gradually gone into disuse from the general laxity of morals and prevalence of crimes, which deterred the Sanhedrim from acting with decision; and some, that their not proceeding to inflict capital punishments had a connection with the removal of the council from the apartment called Gazith, which was appropriated for it in the temple. Lightfoot, on Matt. xxvi. 3, quotes largely in support of the two last ideas. Stephen was put to death without the authority of the Roman governor; but that was a deed of hasty violence. On the whole, it is sufficiently plain that the Jews no longer regularly retained the power of capital punishment. See Pearce, Calmet, and Lardner's Credibility, part i., book i., chapter 1.

+John xviii. 12.

sacrifices were bound, so was the true sacrifice. "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar." If the apostle Paul said of what happened to himself, who was but a servant of Christ, "Remember my bonds," surely, it especially becomes us to remember the bonds of our divine Master and Redeemer. "Christ, being publicly bound before the tribunal of an earthly judge, not for his own sins, as appears from the mouth of the judge himself, but for the sins of us all, was condemned to the cross, that we, most guilty creatures, being freed from the penalty of our sins, might be publicly justified before the tribunal of God, and the assembly of his angels."* They led Jesus to Pilate, or, as in Matthew, "They delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor." Pilate is generally believed to have been a native of Italy. He was appointed procurator of Judea, in the room of Gratus, in the year of our Lord 26 or 27. He governed ten years, and these during the reign of the emperor Tiberius. Philo and Josephus describe him as an obstinate and passionate man, who sold justice, and pronounced any sentence for money. They mention his extortions, murders, and torments. The excessive cruelty of his government disturbed the repose of Judea, and was the chief occasion of the revolt and troubles which succeeded. We found him mentioned in the beginning of the 13th chapter, where it is said that he "had mingled the blood of" certain "Galileans with their sacrifices.' Such a man was a fit instrument for the Jewish rulers on this occasion.

Let us here notice the parallel passage in John xviii. 28: "Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment," that is, the prætorium-the place or court in which causes were heard, and judgment given by the prætor, or other chief magistrate. "And it was early," adds John— so eagerly were they bent on accomplishing their cruel purpose without delay. "And they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the passover. The prætorium was part of Pilate's palace, that is, of the house of a Gentile. The Jews were forbidden to touch any unclean person,+ and Gentiles were generally considered to be ceremonially unclean. The Jews often carried their care, in this respect, farther than the law of Moses required; and, whether rightly or not, they would not enter Pilate's house at this time. The passover here mentioned, of which they were + Lev. xv. 10.

* Beza.

desirous to eat, was not the paschal lamb, for, that was eaten the evening before, but the chagigah, as it was called, or the sacrifices offered the next day; indeed, the feast of the passover, in the most extensive sense, lasted seven days.* Taking the most favourable view of the conduct of these Jews, and supposing them to be acting according to the law in refusing to go into the prætorium, what vile hypocrisy do we here observe! How hypocritical, to pretend such a regard for the sanctity of the ordinance, and such a desire to partake of it, at the very moment when they were cherishing such rancour in their breasts, and preparing to imbrue their hands in the blood of the Son of God! This was quite of a piece with the character of those who "devoured widows' houses, and for a pretence made long prayers;" and who "strained at a gnat, and swallowed a camel." May we be preserved from the notorious partiality and hypocrisy of being satisfied with scrupulosity in some things, however important, while we omit other things also of importance, nay, perhaps the "weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith." These things we ought to do, and not leave the other undone. Let us be especially on our guard against evil passions, when we are about to wait on God in any solemn ordinance. If we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us. "Behold,

ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness."- "Is it such a fast that I have chosen?" saith the Lord.

The evangelist John proceeds to mention that "Pilate then went out unto them;" in compliance with their scruples, he left the prætorium, or judgment hall, and sat in judgment in some open place adjoining. When Jesus was set before him, he said, "What accusation bring ye against this man? They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor we would not have delivered him up unto thee." They replied with somewhat disrespectful smartness, being displeased that he did not take it on their word that Jesus was a notorious offender, and order his execution immediately. But, as Paul said, "It was not the manner of the Romans" (nor can it be the manner of any who preserve the shadow of justice) "to deliver any man to die before he who is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him." It had been well for Pilate if he

See Lecture on xxii. 7, &c.

had acted fairly on that principle, and gone through with the case, which it certainly was his duty to settle. He said, however, to the Jews, "Take ye him, and judge him according to your law." Being unwilling to engage in this cause, of which he was, probably, by no means ignorant, he thus endeavoured to shift it from himself at once. His words were ambiguous; they might bear the construction that the Jewish rulers were at liberty even to put Jesus to death; and yet, had they done so, the words were not so express but that Pilate might have found fault. If he spoke cautiously so did they, for they said, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." This intimated that nothing short of Christ's death would satisfy them. Here, too, though his enemies seem to have looked no farther than the accomplishment of their murderous design in the most safe and effectual way, the providence of God was concerned, and so overruled all these circumstances, "that," as John says, "the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die." He had repeatedly foretold that he was to be crucified.* Crucifixion, however, was a Roman, and not a Jewish form of punishment; and, had Jesus been put to death under the charge of blasphemy, according to the Jewish law, he must have been stoned to death, as that law expressly enjoined, and as was the case with Stephen;t and thus, the prophecy would have been falsified. But that could not be. The decree of God, as to the manner of our Lord's death, was fulfilled, without destroying the moral responsibility of the agents. "Him being delivered," said Peter, "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." We have here, also, an example of wicked ecclesiastical rulers abusing their influence with the magistrate, and inducing him to enforce their cruel and persecuting measures. Thus, the ministers of the Man of Sin first condemned those who would not submit to their unscriptural impositions, and then handed them over to the civil power.

Finding Pilate not satisfied with the general accusation against Jesus of being "a malefactor," the Jews proceeded to advance specific charges. Luke says: "And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that he himself is Christ, a king." Though it was on a charge * John xii. 32; Matt. xx. 18. + See Lev. xxiv. 16; Acts vii. 59.