Jesus Condemned to Death
Those of us who have had the privilege and honor of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land always make Jerusalem part of the holy time. There, although the Jewish Temple has been replaced by a grand mosque, we can see the very places we read about in the New Testament, the actions of our redemption through the life, passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many make the way of the cross, the Via Dolorosa, an ancient prayer service with stops at places that commemorate events of Our Lord’s tortuous journey to the place of His execution. Some of the stations, as they are called, are taken directly from the Gospels, some are inferred from the practice of crucifixion, and a few come from Christian tradition.
The first station is titled “Jesus is condemned to death.” All the Gospels agree that Jesus was condemned to death by the Roman procurator, Pilate. In fact, the early creeds specifically declare that the unjust execution was the responsibility of Pilate. St. John records that Pilate practically bragged to Jesus about his life-and-death authority over Jesus. Our Lord answered, “you would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above.” The procurator would have interpreted “from above” to mean the emperor Tiberius. In light of Christ’s saving act, we know it to mean “from God,” whose infinite love allowed the Messiah to be crucified so that all humans would have access to salvation.
Even though we know that Jesus was innocent of any crime or sin, there were many people in Jerusalem that year who wanted Him dead. St. John, who appears to have had inside information, tells us of a planning session of the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, in which Jewish leaders agreed that Jesus must die. Jesus was at the center of a threatening movement that could ruin their authority, authority that was supported by the Romans: “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” Then Caiaphas, chief priest, responded: “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” John comments that the corrupt high priest was speaking prophetically, not realizing that he really was predicting that the death of Jesus would prevent the eternal death of billions of human beings who would believe in Him.
Now that the Jewish leaders had determined on the execution of this Galilean nuisance, they ran up against the reality that those who had heard Him, or been healed or forgiven by Him, knew Him to be innocent of any crime. So, they had to justify His condemnation in Jewish law and in Roman law. In doing this, they ironically committed sin after sin, crime after crime. Judas, one of the Twelve disciples closest to the Lord, understood the leaders’ jealousy and approached them, offering for money to be a mole in the company. The Jewish leaders and their flunky police force didn’t know Jesus and needed to be sure they were arresting the right Galilean. So, for whatever reason, Judas betrayed His master with a kiss, an embrace of treason. They dragged off Jesus to a detention cell deep under Caiaphas’s house, and then brought Him out for trial. They had paid many false witnesses to testify against Him, as Matthew reports, but they couldn’t make charges stick. Finally they got two of them to agree that Jesus claimed to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days, which was, of course, a total misinterpretation of what Jesus had said days earlier. The High Priest then asked Jesus if He were the Messiah, Son of God, and heard “You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” This was blasphemy, and, hearing it, Caiaphas tore his robes (itself a violation of Torah) and condemned the Lord to die.
Pilate did not care one way or another about matters of Jewish religion, so the conspirators had to find a charge that Jesus had broken Roman law. Only a few days earlier, He had entered Jerusalem in a triumphant procession in which many Jews proclaimed Him to be the long-awaited Messiah, descendant of King David. To Romans, anyone claiming Messiahship was a threat. Thus, Pilate sent Him to be crucified and even put the inscription “King of the Jews” as the indictment nailed with Him to the instrument of torturous death.
At every turn, the evil intent of humans at every level wove an intricate garment of lies, hatred and Jealousy that ultimately nailed Jesus to a cross. Yes, Jesus was condemned to death, the most unjust judicial execution in human history. But it was all part of the divine plan that the Son of God and Son of Man would be lifted up, die a horrible death, but in His Resurrection draw all humans to Himself.
