From Friend to Enemy
The scene spreading out before us is one of palpable emotion; hatred, fear, anger and disappointment hold sway. When these take control, especially in a crowd, the first victim is often justice. The scene is Jesus before Pontius Pilate as the religious leaders inspire the mob to demand the crucifixion of him, who had healed, delivered and even raised the dead. The crowd, the same one placing palm fronds in his path and praising him as the deliverer, was now clamoring for his blood. What could turn a crowd from ecstatic worship to blood lust? How could one who had helped so many be the object of such rage?
The crowds displeasure grows as Jesus, after the trial before the Sanhedrin, is taken before Pilate, then to Herod then back to Pilate. The fever gets so high that Pilate fears a revolution in his province. Thousands dead, years of deprivation and hordes of wealth could be spared by the execution of one man. Still with all the accusations, the threats of force and Caesar’s displeasure, Pilate sought to release Jesus. It is at this final point that the emotions swell to their highest. What about Pilate’s actions would cause such an eruption?
The Jews were expecting a messiah, a deliverer who would kick out the Romans, reestablish the throne of David and rule from Jerusalem. This hope was a constant problem for the Romans as pretenders, some more influential than others, caused a near continuous state of unrest just below the surface. In the Jewish view there was no greater threat to Roman dominion than the messiah. If Pilate wanted to release Jesus then Jesus was no threat to the Romans.
In his discussion with Jesus, Pilate learned that the kingdom Jesus claimed to rule was not of this world and therefore no threat to the empire. Being unwilling or unable to consider this view of the kingdom the natural assumption of the crowd would be that if Jesus was no threat to the Romans then he was either not the messiah (impostors would always fail but the true deliverer wielding the power of God was unbeatable), or else he was in collusion with the Romans.
Unlike most Americans the people of Israel knew their history. They would recollect that the Romans gave the throne of Israel to the Idumean Herod while executing Antigonus, whom many Jews saw as the rightful heir. As a non-Jew and a long time supporter of Rome, Herod was hated. In their clouded view of the facts, looking through centuries of assumptions, conjectures and prejudice the only reason Pilate would release this man was because, as a phony or as a potential puppet of the Romans, he was no threat to Rome. Either way their hoped for deliverance (as they defined it) was not available through Jesus. One must wonder what would have happened had they understood their own scriptures: the messiah was to die for their sins; the kingdom of God was spiritual; the son of man was God in the flesh, et al. Of course, had they understood this, the rest of scripture would not have been fulfilled. It was necessary that their view of messiah be twisted as it was, thus consummating the true deliverance of all, Jew and Gentile.
