Pilate’s soldiers now have Jesus in their hands and so it’s time for cruel fun with this “king of the Jews” who’s been rejected by his own. The scene of their tormenting him is an ugly one which captures how
Motives for murder
Pilate tries to free Jesus by getting the crowd to ask for his release. But it goes horribly wrong and Pilate has Jesus killed to save himself trouble. How does it go wrong? Jerusalem’s leaders stir the crowd to turn
Playing politics
Jerusalem’s first century leaders are ready to kill Jesus. But they can’t do it; it has to be the Roman authorities. So they drag him off to the governor, looking to manipulate Pilate into doing their dirty work for them.
The sound of silence
Keeping silent can, at times, be more powerful than speaking. Jesus took that approach with King Herod (Lk 23:8,9) and other authorities (Mk 15:3-5). In the proud Roman colony of Philippi, Paul adopts the same technique with its leaders when