The Life of the Christ - ForMinistry

Luke 22, 23
60 Peter replied, “I don’t know what you are talking about!”
Right then, while Peter was still speaking, a rooster crowed.
61 The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered
that the Lord had said, “Before a rooster crows tomorrow
morning, you will say three times that you don’t know me.”
62 Then Peter went out and cried hard.
63 The men who were guarding Jesus made fun of him and
beat him. 64 They put a blindfold on him and said, “Tell us who
struck you!” 65 They kept on insulting Jesus in many other ways.
Jesus Is Questioned by the Council
66 At daybreak the nation’s leaders, the chief priests, and the
teachers of the Law of Moses got together and brought Jesus before
their council. 67 They said, “Tell us! Are you the Messiah?”
Jesus replied, “If I said so, you wouldn’t believe me. 68 And
if I asked you a question, you wouldn’t answer. 69 But from now
on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right side of God
All-Powerful.”
70 Then they asked, “Are you the Son of God?”
Jesus answered, “You say I am!”
71 They replied, “Why do we need more witnesses? He said
it himself!”
Pilate Questions Jesus
23 Everyone in the council got up and led Jesus off to Pilate.
2 They started accusing him and said, “We caught this man trying
to get our people to riot and to stop paying taxes to the Emperor.
He also claims that he is the Messiah, our king.”
3 Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“Those are your words,” Jesus answered.
4 Pilate told the chief priests and the crowd, “I don’t find him
guilty of anything.”
5 But they all kept on saying, “He has been teaching and
causing trouble all over Judea. He started in Galilee and has now
come all the way here.”
Jesus Is Brought before Herod
6 When Pilate heard this, he asked, “Is this man from
Galilee?” 7 After Pilate learned that Jesus came from the region
ruled by Herod, he sent him to Herod, who was in Jerusalem at
that time.
96
8 For a long time Herod had wanted to see Jesus and was very
happy because he finally had this chance. He had heard many
PONTIUS PILATE
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Jesus’ Final Week in Jerusalem
Pontius Pilate was governor (prefect) of Judea from A.D. 26 to 36, during
the time that Tiberius was the Roman emperor (A.D.14-37 ), and
Herod Antipas was governor (tetrarch) of Galilee (4 B.C.to A.D. 39).
Pilate is mentioned by Roman, Jewish, and Christian writers. The
Roman historian Tacitus tells in his Annals that Jesus was put to death
by Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. Philo, a Jewish scholar from Alexandria,
wrote that Pilate angered the Jews in Jerusalem by displaying metal
shields at the governor’s palace that bore the image and name of the
emperor as though he were a god. The Jewish historian Josephus tells
about the public outcry Pilate caused when he brought standards (images
carried on poles) into Jerusalem picturing the emperor as a god, and
when he took funds from the temple treasury to pay for an aqueduct
to bring water into Jerusalem.
In the New Testament, Pilate is mentioned several times
(Acts 3.13; 4.27; 13.28; and 1 Tim 6.13), but he is most important
in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ trial and execution. The oldest of
these stories (Mark 15.1-15) says that when Pilate asked Jesus if he
claimed to be king of the Jews, Jesus answered only, “Those are
your words.” Pilate saw no reason to put Jesus to death and was
also warned by his wife not to do so (Matt 27.1-26). But when the
crowd demanded that Jesus be crucified, Pilate gave in to their
demands and ordered Jesus’ death. Pilate washed his hands in
public to show he did not intend to take the blame for Jesus’ death.
Luke brings Herod Antipas into the story as the one who advises
Pilate not to put Jesus to death. Yet in each of the Gospel accounts,
Pilate gave in to the demands of the crowd (Luke 23.1-25).
Matthew was written at a time of growing conflict and
competition between the young Christian church and some of the
Jewish leaders. So Matthew seems to put the blame for Jesus’
death on the Jews and their leaders. If Jesus had been put to death
for breaking the Jewish law, his execution under Jewish authority
would have been done by crushing him to death with stones. This
was the form of punishment commanded in the Law of Moses and
that was later used to kill the church’s “first martyr,” Stephen (Acts
7.54-60; Deut 13.9-10; 21.18-20). But Pilate had Jesus put to death
by crucifixion, the Roman method of execution. And the sign he had
put over Jesus’ cross said that Jesus wanted to be the political ruler
of the Jews (Luke 23.38).