Six Trials

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Six Trials

Matt. 27:22-23

22 Pilate [Pilatos] saith [lego] unto them [autos] , What [tis] shall I do [poieo] then [oun] with Jesus [Iesous] which [ho] is called [lego] Christ [Christos] ? They all [pas] say [lego] unto him [autos] , Let him be crucified [stauroo] .
23 And [de] the governor [hegemon] said [phemi] , Why [gar] , what [tis] evil [kakos] hath he done [poieo] ? But [de] they cried out [krazo] the more [perissos] , saying [lego] , Let him be crucified [stauroo] . KJV-Interlinear

22 Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?' They all said, 'Let Him be crucified!' 23 And he said, 'Why, what evil has He done?' But they kept shouting all the more, saying, 'Let Him be crucified!' NASB

Mark 15:12-14
12 And answering again, Pilate was saying to them, 'Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?' 13 And they shouted back, 'Crucify Him!' 14 But Pilate was saying to them, 'Why, what evil has He done?' But they shouted all the more, 'Crucify Him!' NASB

Luke 23:20-23
20 And Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again, 21 but they kept on calling out, saying, 'Crucify, crucify Him!' 22 And he said to them the third time, 'Why, what evil has this man done? I have found in Him no guilt demanding death; I will therefore punish Him and release Him.' 23 But they were insistent, with loud voices asking that He be crucified. And their voices began to prevail. NASB

The crowd which is being pressured by the chief priests, has called for the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus. Now Pilate does not know what to do with Jesus, so he asks the question in the public forum, 'Then what shall I do with Jesus?'

The call is escalated and crucifixion is demanded by the crowd. This is the first time that death has been requested and now is being demanded in the open public.

A crowd does not come up with this idea on its own, but is prodded into it by the chief priests. Pilate asks again a second time, 'Why?' And he is met with a torrent of shouts of 'Crucify Him!'

Pilate asks yet a third time, reminding all that are gathered, that Jesus has not been found guilty of any crime. That not any type of infraction has been found against Him. Again, he is met with the shouts of, 'Crucify Him!'

Pilate is amazed, even overwhelmed that these people would now want to put to death the man whom they looked to as their king. Barabbas is to be released, and Pilate would have released Jesus as well just to maintain civil order, and to get this morning over with.

Three times Pilate declares the innocence of Jesus. Three times he asks for an explanation of what wrong He has done, and especially to deserve death. And all three times he is met with a very closed minded crowd, a crowd being driven by a very evil group if chief priests and elders.

Again, why all the drama? Because this demonstrates to everyone and to all of history that mankind, when Gods word is absent in the soul, is extremely evil and will reject even the most obvious truths of life. Later when Jesus is being led away, He tells certain women who are crying, to imagine what the world will be like when there is virtually no influence of God in it (the Tribulation), as opposed to the present world which treats Jesus Christ in this manner, when there is a great deal of spiritual influence in the world.

The Tribulation will be many more times worse with respect to defiance toward justice and truth than it is at any other time in history. The Tribulation will be a terrible time almost beyond imagination by comparison.

Three times the question and the objection is put to the crowd by Pilate. He now does not even know to whom he is addressing as a riot of sorts is beginning to escalate. Yet the scribes and chief priests, the elders, all of whom know all too well the prophecies of the Messiah, but they ignore them because the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Messiah is not convenient nor to their liking at the moment. What they want is something else. They want their life style to continue, and if God would be so merciful as to allow them to have their sinful desires, then they might consider accepting His Messiah. Of course that is never going to happen.

The four gospels record in great detail the extreme defiance against truth, in the face of overwhelming evidence and proof as to Jesus' true identity. This is for our benefit so that we won't fall into the same trap of subtle defiance as did the apostles, nor escalate in our defiance to the extremes of the chief priests, nor be somewhere in the middle in indifference as are Pilate and Herod.