(Study Outline sourced from “The System Bible Study” – “The Book of Life” [Zondervan])
7. Jesus’ First Appearance Before Pilate (Early Friday Morning)
Jesus’ examination by Pilate is recorded in all four gospels, but John gives details that are not seen by the others. Luke pens that “..the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate.” ; which is essentially repeated in the other gospels. Mark, Matthew and Luke also state that they began to accuse Jesus of being a rebel and a traitor to Roman rule. John, however, gives a different insight to the account. After bringing Jesus before Pilate in the early morning “…to avoid ceremonial uncleanness…” , so that they could eat the Passover they did not enter the palace. This being the case they would have had to have their accusations and testimony relayed to Pilate. Pilate therefore had to go out to them and ask, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” and is questionable if this would be acceptable in any court of Law. All the gospels record that to Pilate’s amazement Jesus refused to respond to the charges. Pilate, therefore, could not condemn Jesus to death and told them “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”. To this they objected “But we have no right to execute anyone” fulfilling Jesus’ prediction of His death . Pilate could Judge Jesus only on the charge of treason and asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?” , establishing the reason for his question Jesus responded, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” . There is no evidence in Jesus’ response that He was the leader of a rebel kingdom since His kingdom was not of “this world” and there was no army to defend it.
Jesus was born a king to His kingdom, and He came to testify to the truth leading Pilate (and many others through the ages) to respond, “What is truth?” . Was this a question from Pilate, a statement in ridicule; did he know the truth? Certainly, all judgment must be based on truth and all the evidence brought before Pilate was very questionable, so he responds to the Jewish leaders “I find no basis for a charge against him.” .
8. Jesus Before Herod Antipas (Early Friday Morning)
“Herod…. for a long time he had been wanting to see him…” , “…he hoped to see him perform some miracle.” .
Although Herod had many questions of Jesus, our Lord gave him no answers. Finally, after ridiculing and mocking Jesus, Herod sent Him back to Pilate.
(Continued….)