Two political trials

Luke 23:1-12 (New Living Translation)

1Then the entire council took Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor. 2They began to state their case: “This man has been leading our people astray by telling them not to pay their taxes to the Roman government and by claiming he is the Messiah, a king.”

3So Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus replied, “You have said it.”

4Pilate turned to the leading priests and to the crowd and said, “I find nothing wrong with this man!”

5Then they became insistent. “But he is causing riots by his teaching wherever he goes—all over Judea, from Galilee to Jerusalem!”

6“Oh, is he a Galilean?” Pilate asked. 7When they said that he was, Pilate sent him to Herod Antipas, because Galilee was under Herod’s jurisdiction, and Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at the time.

8Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus, because he had heard about him and had been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle.9He asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer.10Meanwhile, the leading priests and the teachers of religious law stood there shouting their accusations. 11Then Herod and his soldiers began mocking and ridiculing Jesus. Finally, they put a royal robe on him and sent him back to Pilate. 12(Herod and Pilate, who had been enemies before, became friends that day.)

In what ways did your childhood and background prepare you to respond to Jesus?

Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea, where Jerusalem was located. He seemed to take special pleasure in harassing the Jews. For example, Pilate had taken money from the temple treasury to build an aqueduct . And he had insulted the Jewish religion by bringing imperial images to the city. As pilate well knew, such acts would backfire. If people were to lodge a formal complaint against his administration, Rome might remove him from the post. Pilate was already beginning to feel insecure in his position when the Jewish leaders brought Jesus to trial. Would he consider to badger the Jews and risk his political future, or would he give to their demands and condemn a man who, he was quite sure, was innocent? That was the question facing Pilate that springtime Friday morning nearly two thousand years ago. Under the circumstances, how would you have responded?