When the matter concerns murder, whether open or "legal," one often has to deal not only with active murderers, but also with murderers who are, so to speak, passive. With those who...
When the matter concerns murder, whether open or "legal," one often has to deal not only with active murderers, but also with murderers who are, so to speak, passive. With those who did not much want to kill, but... it happened that they killed. They took part. As if incidentally, to one degree or another. And such a participant can sometimes think that he had nothing to do with it, even up to the day of Judgment, when self-deception will no longer work.
This always happens in more or less the same way: by evading responsibility. Pilate and Herod evade it in just this way. Neither of them wants to confirm a death sentence. Pilate is uneasy - he understands that this Man whom they want to execute is innocent. Herod is afraid - who knows how the execution of a Man whom the people consider a great prophet will echo among the people... In the end, Pilate still has to make the decision. But he and Herod understand each other so well that they become friends: both are what one calls real politicians; both do not want problems; both think only about their own power, even though the scale of that power is not comparable. And neither wants to answer for anything. In any case, for anything unpleasant or delicate.
Herod shifts everything onto Pilate, and Pilate onto the crowd shouting, "Crucify Him!" This is very convenient - the voice of the people, nothing can be done... and besides, another option was even proposed: to release one of the condemned. But the people are against it; they want Jesus' execution. Everything is logical, if not for one "but": the choice of whom to execute and whom to release was Pilate's prerogative and his alone. But if one does not want to make a decision, if responsibility is a burden, then let the people decide. In truth, there was no people in that square. There was a crowd - a form and way of being of a people that also does not want to answer for anything. There each person is "like everyone else," and "everyone" is "as one." That very "one" who answers for nothing and is easy to manipulate because deep down, and sometimes on the surface, he would like to be manipulated. Then everything can be blamed on the manipulators - and he himself can again evade responsibility.
That is how the cross was prepared for the Messiah - not in infernal depths, but in a mixture of irresponsibility, petty fears, and "great" interests. In a shallow but murky pool, where, as everyone knows, devils have plenty of room.
23
23:1 Mat 27:1; Mar 15:1; Joh 18:28.
23:4 Then said Pilate - After having heard his defence - I find no fault in this man - I do not find that he either asserts or attempts any thing seditious or injurious to Cesar.
23:5 He stirreth up the people, beginning from Galilee - Probably they mentioned Galilee to alarm Pilate, because the Galileans were notorious for sedition and rebellion.
23:7 He sent him to Herod - As his proper judge.
23:8 He had been long desirous to see him - Out of mere curiosity.
23:9 He questioned him - Probably concerning the miracles which were reported to have been wrought by him.
23:11 Herod set him at nought - Probably judging him to be a fool, because he answered nothing. In a splendid robe - In royal apparel; intimating that he feared nothing from this king.
23:15 He hath done nothing worthy of death - According to the judgment of Herod also.
23:16 I will therefore chastise him - Here Pilate began to give ground, which only encouraged them to press on. Mat 27:15; Mar 15:6; Joh 18:39.
23:22 He said to them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? - As Peter, a disciple of Christ, dishonoured him by denying himthrice, so Pilate, a heathen, honoured Christ, by thrice owning him to be innocent.