This coming Sunday is the Solemnity of Christ the King. The gospel reading for this year is the scene of Jesus on trial before Pontius Pilate during which the nature of Jesus’ kingship and kingdom is revealed. The Civil proceedings against Jesus begin after the religious trial by the Sanhedrin.  Jesus is bound and led to Pilate.  The opening confrontation with Pilate and the Jews is described with subtle irony.  Having cynically decided on the death of Jesus because it was more advantageous that one man die than that the whole nation be destroyed, the Jewish authorities are, nevertheless, scrupulously correct in their observance of ritual purity.  They do not hesitate to make use of the Gentile to destroy their adversary, but they will not enter the Gentile’s house.  In the ritual impurity would affect their participation in the Passover seder.

Pilate is dressed and ready to participate in the trials and comes out of the praetorium.  He immediately asks, ‘What charge do you bring against this man? (Jn 18:29).  The question is part of the provincial system of administering justice through the personal cognitio of the governor.  While charges and penalties were freely formulated, eventually a proper and formal accusation had to be made to the holder of the imperium, so that he could investigate and acquire personal knowledge (cognitio).  Pilate may have cooperated with the Sanhedrin in putting a possible troublemaker under temporary arrest during a traditionally dangerous festival period; indeed, he may have been the moving spirit behind the arrest of a man who he had heard was a revolutionary, and he may have intended the Sanhedrin to investigate whether the man should undergo trial.  But now the Sanhedrin authorities were turning over a prisoner for an official trial, and Pilate had to follow a legal format.  He asks for the findings of the Sanhedrin “grand jury” and the formal accusation.

In the Johannine account, the Jewish leaders say, ‘If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.’ (Jn 18:30).  Perhaps there is a tone of insolence here.  And insolence would not be unexpected if the Sanhedrin had been working in concert with Pilate and felt sure that he would accept their decision.  But Pilate answers their insolence by insisting on correct procedure.  If he has ordered or allowed them to conduct an inquiry, he has not ceded his right to judge.  The Jewish leaders would be capable of judging Jesus guilty on religious grounds and Pilate invites them to do so according to their laws (Jn 18:31).  Only in response to his rebuff so the Jewish leaders indicate to Pilate that they are accusing Jesus of a capital civil offense, implicitly the offense that Pilate had suspected: Jesus is a revolutionary with monarchical pretensions.  The rumors that had reached Pilate and had caused him to send  Roman troops to arrest Jesus had proved correct: Jesus is claiming to be the ‘King of the Jews’.  This version is a reconstruction that seems to make sense of the Johannine narrative, but one based on the judicial posture similar to that of the Roman officials described in Acts 18:14-15 and Acts 23:28-29. (Note: In the Luke account, they present charges of ‘…misleading our people, he opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar and maintains that he is the Messiah, a king.’ (Lk 23:2). )

Image credit: “Christ before Pilate” by Duccio di Buoninsegna | Museo dell’Opera metropolitana del Duomo, Siena | PD-US