When Pilate heard this, he was "the more afraid." Of course, Pilate could understand the expression "Son of God" only in the pagan sense, in the sense of demigods, heroes with whom pagan mythology is full, but even this was enough to confuse him, taking into account the warning of his wife, who had some mysterious dream about this mysterious Man. And so Pilate took Jesus with him to the praetorium and asked Him privately: "Where are you from?", that is: what is your origin, whether you are from heaven or from earth? Are You Really the Son of God?" But Jesus did not give him an answer." — It was useless to answer this question. The Lord tried to explain to Pilate who He was, but His words caused him only a frivolous and joking remark (John 19:9). Could a crude pagan skeptic understand the doctrine of the true Son of God?

Overcoming fear in himself, Pilate decided to show his power, and at the same time to dispose Jesus to answer: "Do you not answer me..." The Lord answers these proud words with Divine wisdom: "You would have no power over Me if it had not been given to you from above" – the fact that I am in your hands is only God's permission. Having given His people into slavery to the pagan Roman power, God thereby transferred power over Me to you. Thou shalt be guilty, however, of this condemnation of Me, for Thou condemnest against Thy conscience, but greater sin shall be upon him who hath not been given power over Me from above, who has done it arbitrarily, out of malice, that is, the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas, as his instrument, Judas Iscariot. The wise words of the Lord apparently pleased Pilate, and "From that time Pilate sought to let Him go." Then the accusers decided to resort to the last resort – to the threat of accusing the procurator himself of betraying the authority of the Roman Caesar: "If you let Him go, you are no friend of Caesar..." This frightened Pilate, for the emperor at that time was the suspicious and extremely cruel despot Tiberius, who willingly accepted denunciations.

With this threat, the matter was settled. Pilate, having sat down in his judgment seat with a lithostroton, formally and solemnly ends the trial. The Evangelist therefore marks the day and hour of the Lord's condemnation: "Then was the Friday before Pascha, and the sixth hour," that is, there was the Friday before the feast of Pascha and the sixth hour, that is, according to our reckoning, about 12 o'clock in the afternoon. In the indication of this hour, St. John seems to disagree with the other Evangelists, especially with St. Mark, who says: "There was a third hour, and they crucified Him" (Mark 15:25), and from the sixth to the ninth hour there was darkness over all the earth (Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:33 and Luke 23:44), but the fact is that the day, like the night, was generally divided into four parts of three hours each. and therefore in the New Testament only the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours are mentioned. St. John does not say "the sixth hour," but "as the sixth," that is, "as it were the sixth": according to us, this could have been during the entire period of time between 9 o'clock in the morning and noon. Finally, there is an opinion (Gladkov) that St. John gives the time according to the Roman reckoning, which corresponds to ours, that is, it was about six o'clock in the morning, as we now believe, from midnight.

"And Pilate said to the Jews, Behold, your King!" – it is difficult to say what Pilate wanted to express with these words, but it is impossible not to see in them the last attempt to free the Lord from death. Perhaps in his irritation at being forced to pass judgment against his conscience, he once again hurls a cruel rebuke to the entire Sanhedrin: "You dream of regaining your independence, of some kind of high calling of yours among all the peoples of the world: no one would be so capable of fulfilling this lofty task as this Man, who calls himself the spiritual King of Israel." How is it that you, instead of bowing down before Him, demand His death? Do you want me, the Roman governor you hate, to take away from you your King, who can fulfill all your cherished dreams?

Apparently, this is how the accusers understood these words, because with particular fury they cried out: "Take, take, crucify Him!" Michael, "a cry from a wound inflicted on the most sensitive place," but "Pilate, before finally yielding, once more turns the knife in this wound with the words: 'Shall I crucify your king?' — if Jesus calls Himself your King, he thereby promises you liberation from the power of the Romans: how can you demand that I, a representative of the Roman power, put Him to death? To this admonition the chief priests, in their mad blindness with malice against Jesus, pronounced the terrible, fatal words, which were the verdict over the entire subsequent history of the Jewish people: "We have no king but Caesar!" declaring that they do not have and do not want to have any other king than the Roman Caesar.

Having failed in his attempts to free Christ, Pilate finally decided to yield to the desire of the Jewish leaders and "delivered Him up to them for crucifixion." St. Matthew reports that Pilate had previously washed his hands (Matt. 27:24): "Pilate, seeing that nothing helped, but the confusion increased, took water and washed his hands before the people, and said, 'I am innocent of the blood of this Righteous One; See you." It was the custom of the Jews to wash their hands to prove that the washer was innocent of shedding the blood of a man found murdered (Deuteronomy 21:6-8). Pilate used this custom as a sign that he absolved himself of responsibility for the execution of Jesus, whom he considered innocent and righteous. "Look" - you yourself will be responsible for the consequences of this unjust murder.

In order to obtain the procurator's consent to the confirmation of the death sentence, the evil Jews agree to everything, without thinking about any consequences: "His blood be on us and on our children," that is: if this is a crime, then let God's punishment fall on us and on our descendants. "Such is the reckless rage," comments St. Chrysostom, "such is the evil passion... let it so that you curse yourselves; Why do you also bring a curse on your descendants?" This curse, which the Jews brought upon themselves, was soon fulfilled: it was in the year 70 A.D., when, during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, an enormous number of Jews were crucified on crosses. It was also fulfilled in the subsequent history of the Jews, who have since been scattered throughout the world, in those innumerable "pogroms" to which they were constantly subjected, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Moses in Deuteronomy (chapters 28:49-57; 64-67).

"Then he released Barayeva to them, and having beaten Jesus he handed him over to crucifixion," that is, having confirmed the sentence of the Sanhedrin, Pilate gave them soldiers to execute the death penalty on the Lord Jesus Christ by crucifixion.

Having washed his hands, Pilate, of course, could not relieve himself of the responsibility as he wished: after all, he was the supreme judge, who knew that the accused was completely innocent. The expression "wash your hands" has since become proverbial. God's punishment befell Pilate for his faint-heartedness and unrighteous condemnation of Him Whom he himself called the Righteous One. He was sent into exile in Gaul (the city of Vienna) and there, two years later, exhausted by anguish, tormented by conscience and despair, he committed suicide.

The Way of the Cross to Golgotha

(Matt. 27:31-32; Mark 15:20-21; Luke 23:26-32; John 19:16-17).

All four Evangelists tell about the Lord's way of the cross. The first two, St. Matthew and St. Mark, speak of him in exactly the same way. "And when they mocked him, they took off his scarlet robe, and clothed him in his garments, and led him away to be crucified. As they went out, they met a certain Cyrenean, named Simon; they have compelled him to bear his cross." St. John speaks very briefly, without mentioning anything about Simon of Cyrene. St. Luke speaks in detail of all. As St. John reports this, and as was generally customary with those condemned to death by crucifixion, the Lord Himself carried His cross to the place of execution. But He was so exhausted by the inner struggle of Gethsemane, and the night spent without sleep, and by terrible tortures, that He was unable to carry the cross to its destination. Not out of compassion, of course, but out of a desire to reach as soon as possible to complete their evil deed, the enemies of the Lord captured on the way a certain Simon, a migrant from Cyrene, a city in Libya on the northern coast of Africa west of Egypt (where many Jews lived, who had long moved there), and forced him to bear the cross of the Lord when he was returning from the field to the city. St. Mark adds that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus, later known in the early Christian church, whom he mentions in the Romans. 16:13 St. Al. Paul.

St. Luke adds that "a great multitude of people and women followed Him, weeping and weeping for Him." Not only enemies, but also worshippers of the Lord, who had compassion on Him, followed Him. In spite of the custom that it was forbidden for a criminal to express sympathy when he was being led to be executed, the women who were in this crowd loudly and sobbed their compassion for the Lord. The compassion they expressed was so deep and sincere that the Lord deemed it necessary to respond and addressed them with a whole speech, presumably at the time when there was a halt in the procession at the laying of the cross of Christ on Simon of Cyrene. "Daughters of Jerusalem! Weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children..." "Daughters of Jerusalem" is an affectionate address indicating the Lord's benevolence towards these women who expressed such touching sympathy for Him. It is as if the Lord forgets about the sufferings that await Him, and His spiritual gaze turns to the future of the chosen people, to the terrible punishment that will befall him for rejecting the Messiah. "Weep for yourselves and for your children" – in these words the Lord warns them of the calamities that will befall them and their children.

Here He seems to have in mind the terrible oath that the Jews so lightly brought upon themselves, who cried out: "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matt. 27:25). "Behold, the days are coming..." — the days of terrible calamities are coming, approaching, when the supreme blessing of childbearing will turn into a curse, and those who were previously considered to be under the wrath of God, as barren, not giving birth, will be considered blessed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us!" — so great will be the calamities. We are undoubtedly talking here about the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 A.D.