The seven days after Palm Sunday leading to Easter are sometimes called “Holy Week,” and each day presents scene or episodes that I think over and contemplate and I would like to invite readers to do that with me. ὁ δίκαιος μαστιγώσεται, στρεβλώσεται, δεδήσεται, ἐκκαυθήσεται τὠφθαλμώ, τελευτῶν πάντα κακὰ παθὼν ἀνασχινδυλευθήσεται καὶ γνώσεται ὅτι οὐκ εἶναι δίκαιον ἀλλὰ δοκεῖν δεῖ ἐθέλειν.
It seems quite clear that the demand for the crucifixion of Christ, and the release of Barabbas is in full support of High Priest Caiaphas, who is looking for a scapegoat with this testimony:
47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” 51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. John 11
The Roman governor, Pilate, on the other hand, in wanting to be fair, sees "no guilt in Him". He eventually gets caught between a rock and hard spot when the chief priests say, "We have no king but Caesar". John 19:15
37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” 38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”
And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him. 39 But you have a custom that I release someone ]for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?” 40 So they cried out again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas.” Now Barabbas was a robber. John 18
Pilate should have listened to his wife, just like Caesar should have listened to his. It represents that we should attend not only to our rational sides but also our intuitive ones.
Pilate again, impotently, tries to avoid responsibility by allowing them to free one of the prisoners:
20But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.
This illustrates the ineluctable architecture of democratic consensus, which is always conditioned by non-democratic agents.
22Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. 23And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. 24When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. 25Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. 26Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
The surest way never to escape Plato’s Cave is to imagine we are not imprisoned there and the surest way to guarantee we ourselves would have been among the hoi polloi crying for Christ’s death is to imagine that we would have known better.
16Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
17And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: 18Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. 19And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. 21Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. 22Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
The title above the Cross seems like an accident, but everything seems like an accident until we understand the causes of things and the intentions of beings. Providence—the Will of the Father—works through creatures even while they remain unaware just like the breath moves through our lungs, animating them. Before we lived out these divine intentions in an instinctive way. In the middle, we begin to lose our way. Christ represents the dawn of our ability to participate them in full consciousness—“the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
It seems quite clear that the demand for the crucifixion of Christ, and the release of Barabbas is in full support of High Priest Caiaphas, who is looking for a scapegoat with this testimony:
47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” 51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. John 11
The Roman governor, Pilate, on the other hand, in wanting to be fair, sees "no guilt in Him". He eventually gets caught between a rock and hard spot when the chief priests say, "We have no king but Caesar". John 19:15
37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” 38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”
And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him. 39 But you have a custom that I release someone ]for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?” 40 So they cried out again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas.” Now Barabbas was a robber. John 18
Pilate should have listened to his wife, just like Caesar should have listened to his. It represents that we should attend not only to our rational sides but also our intuitive ones.
Pilate again, impotently, tries to avoid responsibility by allowing them to free one of the prisoners:
20But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.
This illustrates the ineluctable architecture of democratic consensus, which is always conditioned by non-democratic agents.
22Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. 23And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. 24When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. 25Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. 26Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
The surest way never to escape Plato’s Cave is to imagine we are not imprisoned there and the surest way to guarantee we ourselves would have been among the hoi polloi crying for Christ’s death is to imagine that we would have known better.
16Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
17And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: 18Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. 19And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. 21Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. 22Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
The title above the Cross seems like an accident, but everything seems like an accident until we understand the causes of things and the intentions of beings. Providence—the Will of the Father—works through creatures even while they remain unaware just like the breath moves through our lungs, animating them. Before we lived out these divine intentions in an instinctive way. In the middle, we begin to lose our way. Christ represents the dawn of our ability to participate them in full consciousness—“the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”