Tractate CXVI.
John XIX. 1-16.
1. On the Jews crying out that they did not wish Jesus to be released
unto them all the passover, but Barabbas the robber; nottim Saviour, but
the murderer; not the Giverof life, but the destroyer,-"then Pilate tookJesus
and scourged Him." We must believe that Pilate acted thus for no other
reason than that the Jews, glutted with the injuries done to Him, might
consider themselves satisfied, and desist from madly pursuing Him eve,unto
death. With a similar intention was it that, as governor, he also permitted
his cohort to do what follows, or even perhaps ordered them, although the
evangelist is silent on the subject. For he tells us what the soldiers
did thereafter, but not that Pilate ordered it. "And the soldiers," he
says, "platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and they clothed
Him with a purple robe. And they came to Him and said, Hail, King of the
Jews! And they smote Him with their hands." Thus were fulfilled the very
things which Christ had foretold of Himself; thus were the martyrs moulded
for the endurance of all that their persecutors should be pleased to inflict;
thus, by concealing for a time the terror of His power, He commended to
us the prior imitation of His patience; thus the kingdom which was not
of this world overcame that proud world, not by the ferocity of fighting,
but by the humility of suffering; and thus the grain of corn that was yet
to be multiplied was sown amid the horrors of shame, that it might come
to fruition amid the wonders of glory.
2. "Pilate went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him
forth, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And he saith unto them,
Behold the man!" Hence it is apparent that these things were done by the
soldiers not without Pilate's knowledge, whether it was that he ordered
them or only permitted them, namely, for the reason we have stated above,
that His enemies might all the more willingly drink in the sight of such
derisive treatment, and cease to thirst further for His blood. Jesus goes
forth to them wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, not resplendent
in kingly power, but laden with reproach; and the words are addressed to
them, Behold the man! If you hate your king, spare him now when you see
him sunk so low; he has been scourged, crowned with thorns, clothed with
the garments of derision, jeered at with the bitterest insults, struck
with the open hand; his ignominy is at the boiling point, let your ill-will
sink to zero. But there is no such cooling on the part of the latter, but
rather a further increase of heat and vehemence.
3. "When the chief priests, therefore, and attendants saw Him, they
cried out, saying, Crucify, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them Take ye
him and crucify him; for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered him,
We have a law, and by the law he ought to die because he made himself the
Son of God." Behold another and still greater ground of hatred. The former,
indeed, seemed but a small matter, as that shown towards the usurpation,
by an unlawful act of daring, of the royal power; and yet of neither did
Jesus falsely claim possession, but each of them is truly His as both the
only-begotten Son of God, and by Him appointed King upon His holy hill
of Zion; and both might He now have shown to be His, were it not that in
proportion to the greatness of His power, He preferred to manifest the
corresponding greatness of His patience.
4. "When Pilate, therefore, heard that saying, he was the more afraid;
and entered again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence
art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer." It is found, in comparing the
narratives of all the evangelists, that this silence on the part of our
Lord Jesus Christ took place more than once, both before the chief priests
and before. Herod, to whom, as Luke intimates, Pilate had sent Him for
a hearing, and before Pilate himself; so that it was not in vain that the
prophecy regarding Him had preceded, "As the lamb before its shearer was
dumb, so He opened not His mouth," especially on those occasions when He
answered not His questioners. For although He frequently replied to questions
addressed to Him, yet because of those in regard to which He declined making
any reply, the metaphor of the lamb is supplied, in order that in His silence
He might be accounted not as guilty, but innocent. When, therefore, He
was passing through the process of judgment, wherever He opened not His
mouth it was in the character of a lamb that He did so; that is, not as
one with an evil conscience who was convicted of his sins, but as one who
in His meekness was sacrificed for the sins of others.
5. "Then saith Pilate unto Him, Speakest thou not unto me knowest thou
not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
Jesus answered: Thou wouldest have no power against me, except it were
given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the
greater sin." Here, you see, He replied; and yet wherever He replied not,
it is not as one who is criminal or cunning, but as a lamb; that is, in
simplicity and innocence He opened not His mouth. Accordingly, where He
made no answer, He was silent as a sheep; where He answered, He taught
as the Shepherd. Let us therefore set ourselves to learn what He said,
what He taught also by the apostle, that "there is no power but of God;"
and that he is a greater sinner who maliciously delivereth up to the power
the innocent to be slain, than the power itself, if it slay him through
fear of another power that is greater still. Of such a sort, indeed, was
the power which God had given to Pilate, that he should also be under the
power of Caesar. Wherefore "thou wouldest have," He says, "no power against
me," that is, even the little measure thou really hast, "except" this very
measure, whatever its amount, "were given thee from above." But knowing
as I do its amount, for it is not so great as to render thee altogether
independent, "therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater
sin." He, indeed, delivered me to thy power at the bidding of envy, whilst
thou art to exercise thy power upon me through the impulse of fear. And
yet not even through the impulse of fear ought one man to slay another,
especially the innocent; nevertheless to do so by an officious zeal is
a much greater evil than under the constraint of fear. And therefore the
truth-speaking Teacher saith not, "He that delivered me to thee," he only
hath sin, as if the other had none; but He saith, "hath the greater sin,"
letting him understand that he himself was not exempt from blame. For that
of the latter is not reduced to nothing because the other is greater.
6. "Hence Pilate sought to release Him." What is to be understood by
the word here used, "hence," as if he had not been seeking to do so before?
Read what precedes, and thou wilt find that he had already for some time
been seeking to release Jesus. By the original word, therefore, we are
to understand, on this account, that is, for this reason, that he might
not contract sin by slaying an innocent man who had been delivered into
his hands, even though his sin would be less than that of the Jews, who
delivered Him to him to be put to death. "From thence," therefore, that
is, for this reason, that he might not commit such a sin, "he sought" not
now for the first time, but from the beginning, "to release Him."
7. "But the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art
not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against
Caesar." They thought to inspire Pilate with greater fear by terrifying
him about Caesar, in order that he might put Christ to death, than formerly
when they said, "We have the law, and by the law he ought to die, because
he made himself the Son of God." It was not their law, indeed, that impelled
him through fear to the deed of murder, but rather it was his fear of the
Son of God that held him back from the crime. But now he could not set
Caesar, who was the author of his own power, at nought, in the same way
as the law of another nation.
8. As yet, however, the evangelist proceeds to say: "But when Pilate
heard these sayings, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down before the tribunal,
in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And
it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour." The
question, at what hour the Lord was crucified, because of the testimony
supplied by another evangelist, who says, "And it was the third hour, and
they crucified Him," we shall consider as we can, if the Lord please, when
we are come to the passage itself where His crucifixion is recorded. When
Pilate, therefore, had sat down before the tribunal, "he saith unto the
Jews, Behold your king! But they cried out, Away with him, away with him,
crucify him. Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify your king?" As yet
he tries to overcome the terror with which they had inspired him about
Caesar, by seeking to break them from their purpose on the ground of the
ignominy it brought on themselves, with the words, "Shall I crucify your
king?" when he failed to soften them on the ground of the ignominy done
to Christ; but by and by he is overcome by fear.
9. For "the chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then
delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified." For he would have
every appearance of acting against Caesar if, on their declaration that
they had no king but Caesar, he were wishing to impose on them another
king by releasing without punishment one whom for these very attempts they
had delivered unto him to be put to death. "Therefore he delivered Him
unto them to be crucified." But was it, then, anything different that he
had previously desired when he said, "Take ye him, and crucify him;" or
even earlier still, "Take ye him, and judge him according to your law?"
And why did they show so great reluctance, when they said, "It is not lawful
for us to put any man to death," and were in every way urgent to have Him
slain not by themselves, but by the governor, and therefore refused to
receive Him for the purpose of putting Him to death, if now for the same
purpose they actually do receive Him? Or if such be not the case, why was
it said, "Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified?" Or
is it of any importance? Plainly it is. For it was not said, "Then delivered
he Him therefore unto them" that they might crucify Him, but "that He might
be crucified," that is, that He might be crucified by the judicial sentence
and power of the governor. But it is for this reason that the evangelist
has said that He was delivered to them, that he might show that they were
implicated in the crime from which they tried to hold themselves aloof;
for Pilate would have done no such thing, save to implement what he perceived
to be their fixed desire. The words, however, that follow, "And they took
Jesus, and led Him away," may now refer to the soldiers, the attendants
of the governor. For it is more clearly stated afterwards, "When the soldiers
therefore had crucified Him," although the evangelist properly does so
even when he attributes the whole to the Jews, for they it was that received
what they had with the utmost greediness demanded, and they it was that
did all that they compelled to be done. But the events that follow must
be made the subject of consideration in another discourse.
