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Chosen no: R-1809 b, from: 1895 Year. |
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Jesus Before Pilate.
--MAY 19, MARK
15:1-15;--MATT. 27:1-30;
LUKE 23:1-25; JOHN 18:28-40; 19:1-16.--
Golden Text--"But Jesus yet answered nothing, so that
Pilate marvelled."
SINCE the informal meeting of the Sanhedrin described in the preceding
lesson could not give a legal sentence before sunrise, this morning meeting and
consultation were merely for the purpose of ratifying the conclusions then
reached. They then delivered Jesus bound unto Pilate, the whole company
escorting him thither to make sure that their purpose should be accomplished.--Luke 23:1.
Verses 2-5. The wicked shrewdness of the
Sanhedrin, in preferring the charge of blasphemy, for its effect upon the
people before whom they desired to appear very zealous for the law, while an
entirely different, but equally false, set of charges was brought against him
before Pilate, the Roman governor, who cared nothing for their religious ideas,
is very manifest. The accusation brought before Pilate involved the charge of
treason, a charge most likely to arouse the indignation and wrath of the Roman
rulers. They accused him of seditious agitation, of prohibiting the payment [R1810 : page 111] of tribute money, and of assuming
the title of King of the Jews, and thus apparently of conspiring against Caesar
and the Roman government.
While the second charge was entirely false (Matt.
22:21), the other two had an appearance of truth, and to these were added
numerous petty individual charges. But to none of them did the Lord make reply,
so that Pilate marvelled that he made no effort at self-defence in the midst of
such danger.
Verses 6-14. The several efforts of Pilate to
release his innocent prisoner, who, he discovered, had been delivered to him
for envy, were unavailing before the boisterous mob who, instigated by their
rulers, loudly clamored for his death, and that by the most ignominious and
cruel method, crucifixion, so that his memory should ever be covered with
infamy.
Verse 15. Then Pilate, who was influenced
more by considerations of policy than of principle, willing to satisfy the
people, delivered Jesus to be scourged and crucified, yet at the same time
protesting the innocence of his prisoner and washing his hands in token of his
own innocence in thus delivering up to them this just person. Not until he
himself was threatened by the mob to be reported to Caesar as one hostile to
the government and a traitor to his trust in encouraging seditions and
conspiracy against the government, did he relinquish his efforts to save
Jesus.--John 19:12-16; Matt. 27:24,25.
W.T. R-1809 a : page 111 – 1895 r.