Just when one thought when this horrifying night would get over, it just kept getting longer. And one wondered when the sufferings of Jesus would come to end and hoped that may be, just may be, he could be let off with a warning or a reprimand. But if anyone thought on these lines, he had obviously not taken the prophesies recorded in The Book seriously........... The Pasion of Our Lord Jesus had just begun.
This was not just a random confluence of many events, everything falling apart just by chance. All of this was planned by the leaders well in advance and executed in such a way that the 'accused' should not be allowed to go free , no matter what happened. After an initial interrogation, Jesus was brought before the Sanhedrin. They used all the appropriate legal procedures to proceed with the trial. Questions on the doctrines He preached and the teachings He gave were asked and the Lord gave them straight forward answers which was not exactly appreciated by the crowd gathered around including members of the council. How could they appreciate Him? After all, they had already decided on the verdict. No matter what, this man should die or else He would grow into a much bigger problem for the whole nation...As Caiphas, the real head of the Sanhedrin, would cry out later to other members of the council, "You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." But for some reason, these 'great leaders' of the Jewish religion did not want to sentence Him to death. 'Who wants to have the blood of an innocent man on his hands', they must have thought. They devised another plan, they thought of passing the buck on to the roman procurator, Pontius Pilate and let him at the mercy of the roman soldiers for the rest of the night, who stooped to new lows in humiliating Jesus in many a base ways. Why should they bother, He was not one of them. Nothing like kicking around a frail man who had already decided not to resist, let alone retaliate. And thus the Passion continued...
It was morning and the procurator was mighty miffed on being dragged into this controversy. He must have thought why should he be bothered if a small time son of a carpenter claims to be the Son of God. The romans never believed in the Jewish God, let alone His Son. He found it extremely irritating to give time to such trivial affair. But the recent Jewish uprising against the roman rule was on his mind and the emperor wanted order in his province. So he decided to meet Jesus. He must have been aghast at the sight of the battered man, whom these jews considered a threat considered a threat. He found nothing wrong with Jesus and (may be to please the Jews) had Him scourged at a pillar at his courts. Lash after lash on his bare back with whips made of solid leather laced with nails, pieces of metals and stones..There was no end in sight yet to the Lord's sufferings...
The jews were not satisfied mere scourging. They wanted more. The crowds gathered around. Yes, the fickle crowd was back and this time they no longer cried "Hail Him,hail the king of Jews" they were shouting "Crucify him, Crucify him". They put a demand for the release of a zealot, responsible for a previous jewish uprising, Barabas, a murder, in place of Jesus. Pilate was soon losing interest in the whole issue and also his patience. This was an opportune time to give in to a silly demand of the Jews, if it could buy him some peace and order in the province, then why not. Who wants to risk his job , may be even lose his life. You never know with these roman emperors, if they do not like you as procurator, the next thing you find yourself in is in dungeon. The Crowds won, little did they know that they were merely playing their part in making the prophesies of old come true. Every major act of the Lord's Passion had already been written out by many prophets of the old covenant. Jesus was crucified and hung on the Cross for 3 hours before submitting His Spirit to the Father but not before crying out forgiveness for everyone involved with His death.
Though everything was already prophesied and still continues to stay prophesied. It does not mean that I do not have choices to make. When I look back at my past life when I was working in Delhi and I take a stock of situations when I was in a position of authority and was responsible for certain decisions. Thankfully, the Lord led me into making upright decisions all the time but there was one occasion, when I felt I may have fallen to pressure of people from other functions, like Pilate did that day, I too may have thought a bit too legalistically, instead of looking at it objectively, strictly on the merits of the case, I may have been on the wrong side. I wish I could probe a bit deeper, take stronger stand and may be go against the tide on that occasion. I have since realised that walking with Jesus is mostly going to be a walk against the tide and I would be called to take a stand and hold firm to it. Unlike the crowds that historic day, I would be called to faithful and not fickle. There are always going to be people who do not like you because of your faith, always people who make fun of you even intimidate you for your stand and those are the moments of truth for my walk with the Lord and I just pray that I imitate Him and that my responses are that of love, meekness & kindness because that's what He did right till the end on the Cross.
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