Thus formally addressed, the Holy One at length broke the silence He had hitherto maintained, saying, in reply to the question, I am; and hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven[519]. He thus in the most solemn and explicit manner asserted that He was not only the Messiah, but the Son of God, and that in the sublimest sense of the words.
All was now uproar and confusion. In token of his horror the high-priest rent his clothes, and pronounced the utterance of the Redeemer to be direct and treasonable blasphemy. What further need, he exclaimed, have we of witnesses? Ye have heard His blasphemy: what think ye? (Mtt. xxvi. 65; Mk. xiv. 63, 64). Carried away by his vehement gestures and words, and his great influence, the court pronounced their opinion, He is guilty of death (Mtt. xxvi. 66). Worse than false prophet, worse than false Messiah, He had declared Himself to be the Son of God, and that in the presence of the high-priest and the great council of the nation. He had incurred the capital penalty.
And now ensued a scene of fearful violence. The bystanders were permitted to do their worst to One thus declared guilty of blasphemy. Some spat upon His face; others smote Him with the palms of their hands; others blindfolded Him, and in derision of His Messianic claims bade Him detect the hand that had been raised against Him (Mtt. xxvi. 67, 68; Mk. xiv. 65; Lk. xxii. 63, 64).
But though the great council of the nation had thus passed sentence, there remained a serious obstacle before they could carry it out. Cases punishable with death, such as false claims to prophetic inspiration, or blasphemy, they were fully competent to try[520] (Comp. Acts iv. 5–21; v. 17–40; vi. 12–15; xxiii. 1–10), but they could not execute the sentence of death, for the right had been taken from them ever since Judæa became a Roman province[521]. Mistrusting, therefore, the people who might attempt to rescue the Holy One from the hands of their own officers, reluctant to incur the odium of profaning so sacred a day with a public execution, anxious to shift the responsibility from their own head upon that of the Romans, yet determined to insure the destruction of their Victim, they again reassembled their court (Mtt. xxvii. 1; Mk. xv. 1), and resolved to send the Redeemer before the tribunal of Pilate, who, they might not unreasonably suppose, “would not hesitate, at once, and on their authority, on the first intimation of a dangerous and growing party, to act without further examination or inquiry, and without scruple add one victim more to the robbers and turbulent insurgents, who, it appears, were kept in prison, in order to be executed, as a terrible example at that period of national concourse[522].” Pilate had, as usual, come up to Jerusalem to preserve order during the Passover, and was now residing either in a palace near the tower of Antonia[523], or in the splendid and luxurious structure which had been erected by Herod the Great[524]. Thither, therefore, the Saviour, after He had been again placed in bonds (Mtt. xxvii. 2), was led, attended by a deputation of the Sanhedrin to support and explain the charge[525].
Meanwhile the fact of His condemnation had become known[526] to the traitor Judas (Mtt. xxvii. 3), and filled him with the deepest remorse. Hitherto he had been lured on by covetousness, and his eyes had been blinded by the Evil One. Now they were opened, and he saw what he had done. He had betrayed innocent blood (Mtt. xxvii. 4). Filled with terror and anguish, he hurried to the chief priests and elders, and openly confessed his awful crime. But they received his confession with gibes and taunts. What is that to us? said they; see thou to that (Mtt. xxvii. 4). In frantic despair the wretched man resolved to get rid of the reward of his treachery. Rushing into the sanctuary[527] he flung down the thirty pieces of silver before the priests, and went and hanged himself[528] (Mtt. xxvii. 5), but, probably in consequence of the rope breaking, he fell headlong, and burst asunder in the midst (Acts i. 18), so that, when his body was found, all his bowels had gushed out. With the blood-money he had left in the Temple the chief priests were at first perplexed what to do. Though they had not scrupled to pledge it as the reward of the basest treachery, yet they were unwilling to return it to the Temple funds, and at length resolved to apply it to the purchase[529] of a field for the burial of strangers, which was afterwards known as Aceldama[530] (Acts i. 19), or the Field of Blood (Mtt. xxvii. 6–10; Zech. xi. 13).
CHAPTER VII.
THE TRIAL BEFORE PILATE—THE CONDEMNATION.
A.D. 30.
WHAT amount of knowledge Pilate already possessed of the Saviour’s person and character is not known. But he could not fail to have been surprised, on this occasion, at the earnest request so early in the morning to decide the question respecting the Teacher from Galilee. The deputation from the Sanhedrin would not enter his prætorium, lest they should incur pollution, and be unable to keep the Passover (Jn. xviii. 28). Yielding, therefore, to the popular custom[531], with political tact he came forth from his palace (Jn. xviii. 29), and enquired the nature of the accusation against the Redeemer.
At first they replied evasively, and as if they felt hurt at the question, If this fellow were not a malefactor we would not have delivered Him unto thee (Jn. xviii. 30). But this would not satisfy Pilate, and he replied ironically[532], Then take ye Him, and judge Him according to your law, as if anxious to refer the whole matter back to themselves. To this the Jews replied that it was not lawful for them to put any one to death (Jn. xviii. 31), and having thus intimated that the Redeemer had committed a crime, for which the punishment of death was due, artfully put forward a charge, which, as a Roman procurator, Pilate could not overlook. We found this fellow, said they, perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that He is Christ a King (Lk. xxiii 2).
Though Pilate must have known the Jews too well to imagine that the Sanhedrin would really hate and persecute One, whose sole crime was an anxiety to free them from the Roman power[533], he saw that the case could not be hastily put aside, involving as it did three grave charges; (i) seditious agitation, (ii) attempted prohibition of the payment of the tribute-money, and (iii) the assumption of the suspicious title of “King of the Jews.”