Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page 74
74 Christianity – A Journey from Facts to Fiction crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves. " (Matt 27:24) This amounted to a confession on his part that Jesus as was indeed innocent and that the harsh judgement passed by him was under duress. It is quite clear from the New Testa- ment that the powerful Jewish community had colluded against Jesus as and was determined to have him punished. So any decision by Pilate contrary to Jewish wishes could have resulted in a grave law and order situation. This was Pilate’s compulsion which rendered him helpless and was displayed in the act of washing his hands. Pilate had also made another attempt to save Jesus as. He gave the enraged crowds an option either to save Jesus’ as life or that of a notorious criminal called Barabbas (Matt 27:16–17). This provides us with a significant clue to the state of Pilate’s mind at that time. He was quite obviously against the idea of sentencing Jesus as. It was in this psychological state that he fixed Friday afternoon to be the day and time of the execution. What actually happened was a clear indication that he did it on purpose because the Sabbath was not very far from Friday afternoon and he, as the custodian of law, knew better than anyone else that before the Sabbath began by sunset, Jesus’ as body would have to be taken down; and that is exactly what happened. What normally took three days and nights, approximately, to finally inflict a torturous death upon a condemned man was subjected to Jesus as for a few hours at the most Hardly enough, one is compelled to wonder, to actually kill a man like Jesus as , whom an austere life had toughened physically.