The Sanhedrin has voted to condemn Jesus to death on the charge of blasphemy. Under Roman rule the Jews can no longer carry out executions, so they are forced to take prisoners charged with capital crimes before a Roman judge. Pontius Pilate, a Roman prefect over Judea and Samaria and Idumea, is in Jerusalem to help maintain law and order during Passover. The Sanhedrin must bring Jesus before Pilate in order to obtain a death sentence, but they know Pilate cares nothing for the breaking of their religious laws. In fact, the historian Flavius Josephus presents Pilate as a man who hates being at Jerusalem, who dislikes the Jews, and who has nothing but scorn for their customs and religious practices. The enemies of Jesus know they have to come up with charges against Him that Pilate will care about, and this is what we find them doing as dawn breaks.
"Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led Him away and handed Him over to Pilate." (Mark 15:1) There's nothing unusual about the religious leaders bringing a prisoner to Pilate at daybreak. Roman courts were in the habit of convening as soon as the sun came up and Pilate is used to having capital cases bound over until he arrives in town. What is unusual about this case is that the religious leaders have to invent charges against their prisoner and are unable to produce witnesses to back up their story. Pilate may be no fan of the Jews, but he senses something underhanded is taking place and he is not interested in being used as a pawn in whatever game is afoot.
What are these plans the religious leaders make as the sun comes up? Luke spells them out for us, "Then the whole assembly rose and led Him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse Him, saying, 'We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.'" (Luke 23:1) To subvert means to "corrupt, deprave, contaminate, or poison." When did we ever find Jesus corrupting the nation? When did we ever witness Him telling a lie? When did we ever hear Him suggesting that the people turn their backs on the laws of God? In every way Jesus has upheld the laws of God, the very laws the Sanhedrin should have been upholding themselves. They are trying to present Him to Pilate as a dangerous man who cannot be allowed to remain free. They insinuate that He is a threat to the Roman government and that at any moment He may order His countrymen to rise up and fight. To back up their claim that He is an enemy of the state, they tell the bald-faced lie that Jesus has been urging the people not to pay their taxes, when Jesus clearly commanded the people to pay their taxes in Mark 12:17 when He said, "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's."
I think the intense hatred Jesus' enemies feel toward Him is based on another definition of the word "subvert": "to undermine the power and authority of an established institution". The religious leaders are not concerned with any threat Jesus may present to Rome; they are concerned with the threat He represents to their own power and authority. As He takes the laws of God and explains them in plain terms everyone can understand, the flaws of the religious leaders are made evident to the citizens. Their hypocrisy and greed are exposed for all to see. The priesthood has become corrupt. The Pharisees are interpreting the laws of God in order to suit their own desires. The teachers of the law are following the letter of the law in some areas while having lost the spirit of the law in other areas. They have forgotten how to be merciful. They have exploited their own people and left them "as sheep without a shepherd". (Mark 6:34)
Pontius Pilate is an insightful man who hasn't risen to his position of power by being a dummy. He sees through the trumped-up charges levied against Jesus and knows "it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him." (Matthew 27:18) I prefer the way the KJV words it, "For he knew that for envy they had delivered Him." Pilate knows the religious leaders haven't brought Jesus to him because they are concerned about Rome or about taxes or about a carpenter from Nazareth who claims to be their Messiah. He knows they have brought Jesus to him because of envy, a word which means "a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck". Pilate peers through their flimsy charade and perceives that somehow this Jesus has become a thorn in their side which they are desperate to pluck out. Unable to pluck it out themselves, they want Pilate to do their dirty work for them. As we continue our study this week, we find Pilate doing everything he can to avoid ordering the execution of Jesus, but eventually he will be caught in the same trap as the One the Sanhedrin have condemned.
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