So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?”
Pilate's opening words in this trial are a judge's proper question: name the charge. The scene is strange from the start. The governor has to come outside to the accusers. When he asks for a crime, the men who dragged Jesus there cannot name one.
Why the judge had to come outside
Pilate did not summon the accusers in; he went out to them. They refused to set foot in a Gentile building. One writer notes how that demand would have struck a Roman official.
The Bible TreasuryThey had led Jesus to him from Caiaphas. But they would not enter his palace, in case it defiled them and left them unable to keep the great festival of the Passover. So the Roman governor had to go out to them to hear their charges. Giving way like this would gall the Roman soldier. He was used to demanding full respect for the Imperial eagle he represented. Who were these Jews who claimed to be polluted by entering the halls of imperial justice?
Scruples are not conscience
They were careful about ceremony while they were set on having a man killed. One writer explains what that kind of care is worth.
J. N. DarbyThey did not want to defile themselves, because they wanted to eat the Passover. At that very moment they were handing over the true Passover Lamb to be sacrificed. Scruples are not conscience. We must not violate scruples, if we have them, but conscience looks to God and to His word. Conscience did not stop the Jews buying the blood of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Yet a scruple would not let them put the money Judas threw back into the temple treasury, because it was the price of blood.
A fair question from an unfair man
Pilate's question followed proper legal order. The pagan governor, not the religious leaders, keeps some form of justice here.
Hamilton SmithPilate may be a hard-hearted man of the world, but at least he shows some semblance of justice by asking what the accusation against Christ is. In their answer, the Jews pose as thoroughly upright men. On their showing, it insults them to suggest they would bring the Lord before the judge unless He were a criminal.
No charge, only a verdict already reached
Instead of an accusation, they gave a character reference for themselves. One writer names the tactic behind it.
F. B. HolePilate was right to want a definite accusation. They had none to offer, so they first tried to rush him into a verdict on the general plea that He was an evildoer. It is a common trick of the religious persecutor to attack in general terms and avoid any specific charge.
With no charge, the case should have ended that morning. One writer puts the blame for what followed on the judge himself.
L. M. GrantIf Pilate had then acted justly, he should have declared the prisoner free, for there was no specific charge against Him. But he was in no way fitted to be a just judge. He wanted to slip out of any responsibility. He kept that up until he had entangled himself in the most dreadful injustice in history.
Why the case came to Rome at all
Pilate tried to send the case back to the accusers, and they refused. That refusal decided how Jesus would die.
William KellyPilate felt that there was no proper case for him, and asks for a definite accusation (verse 29). Lacking one, they dodge it by taking offence, real or pretended, at his question, as if they could not be unjust (verse 30). The governor would gladly have thrown the responsibility back on the Jews. Their answer betrays their settled decision: Jesus must die. They could not lawfully put Him to death themselves, so it had to be done by the hands of lawless men. He must die the death of the cross.
Another writer ties the Roman court to the way Jesus had said He would die:
Michael HardtHe came as the Saviour of the world, and so the world power judges Him… The Roman method of capital punishment served to fulfil Christ's predictions about how He would die — that He would be "lifted up" (3:15; 8:28; 12:31).
Summary
- Scruple — They stayed out of a building to keep clean for the feast while arranging a killing. Care about appearances is not conscience before God.
- Question — Pilate asked for the charge. That was the one correct step in the trial, and it came from the pagan governor, not the religious leaders.
- Silence — They had no crime to name, so they took offence instead. Attacking in general terms is the standard weapon of the religious persecutor.
- Failure — With no charge, the prisoner should have gone free that hour. Pilate tried to dodge responsibility, and it bound him tighter to the injustice.
- Purpose — They refused to take the case back, so it went to Rome, and so to the cross. That is the death the Lord had foretold for Himself.