MAKING THE PASSION PERSONAL
A Journey with Jesus to the Cross and Beyond

by Tricia McCary Rhodes

DAY SIXTEEN -- Final Questioning

Where have your love, your mercy, your compassion shone out more luminously than in your wounds, sweet gentle Lord of mercy? More mercy than this no one has than that he lay down his life for those who are doomed to death.

Bernard of Clairvaux

But they shouted all the more, "Crucify Him!"
Mark 15:14

The battered prisoner barely stands, a solemn symbol of Rome's power to destroy. Wanting to get away from it all, and confident the extremely brutal beating will satisfy the Jewish priests, Pilate asks once again: "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?"

Before the words are out of his mouth a loud cry ensues: Crucify him. You crucify him.

"Me? But I believe he's innocent. Tell me -- what evil has he done? Take him yourselves and crucify him -- I find no guilt in him."

Pilate knows his offer is an empty one, for the power to execute lies with him alone. Try as he might, he cannot extricate this man's future from his own hands.

Jesus struggles to keep his balance. He has lost so much blood, his head at times seems to float above him. Standing here, he is the only who really knows the details of how this drama will end. Does he wish he could just speak and be on his way to Golgotha? If this entire crowd suddenly stopped to listen to him, what would he say?

"He says he is the son of God, and by our laws, for this he must die." A high priest makes his voice heard above the crowd.

Superstitious fear grips Pilate upon hearing these words. Son of God? He hasn't heard this charge before. Is this why his wife warned him to steer clear of this man? Does he have mystical powers? Watching the broken prisoner, it seems nothing could be further from the truth.

Turning quickly, Pilate motions for them to bring Jesus back into the palace. He must get to the bottom of this.

"Where do you come from?" Knowing the answer already, Pilate gives the prisoner a chance to deny their charges of a claim to Deity.

Jesus looks at him, but says nothing.

"Why won't you talk to me?" Pilate pleads, baffled again by this one who offers no self-defense. It is unheard of - truly he must be crazy.

"Don't you understand that I have the power here, that with a word I can release you or crucify you?"

Looking off as if in a trance, Jesus smiles slightly. Is he moving through the caverns of his eternal memory to a time before the foundation of the world? Does he see the moment before his incarnation, when he stepped down from heaven to redeem mankind? Does he recall his agony of a few hours past when he made the choice to drink this very cup? What thoughts drive him to finally respond to Pilate?

"You have no power over me, except that which is given to you from above. The one who turned me over to you has the greater sin here."

Pilate bristles at the affront to his authority, but senses a strange relief. He has done all he can do. He looks once more into the eyes of the Christ, frustrated at his failure to figure this odd prisoner out. Shaking his head, he walks back onto the platform, leaving him behind with the guards.

Distant cries for execution tick like a time bomb in Jesus' ear. But perhaps he garners a measure of strength in the words of truth he has just spoken. For though he feels his wounds in every excruciating move of his body, no one can take his life from him -- he alone has the power to lay it down.

Faces flash across his mind -- fishermen, priests, prostitutes, mothers, children, tax collectors, doctors, friends and enemies. In every countenance he sees a desperate need for a redeemer. For these he came. . . for these he presses on.

Respond