NOTES for Luk 23:12

Still, did the authorities, religious and secular, understand even a little who they were dealing with when it came to Jesus? Sometimes one cannot help thinking that if they did not know exactly, then at least they had some vague sense of something. If He was a prophet, He was an unusual, strange prophet; if a teacher, then some completely "nontraditional" one. Herod wants miracles from Him, but he has no intention of making a decision about His further fate and does not want to take on the responsibility that the procurator is trying to shift onto him. So he sends the prisoner back. Pilate has no need of an extra headache at all. Deep down he understands that whatever decision he makes, everything will turn out badly and to his disadvantage. And fear, some half-conscious fear, is felt in his heart all the time. It would be better, of course, to release Him under some plausible pretext. The feast is conveniently at hand; this would be the moment to free Him and slow the case down... Ah, the people do not want that? Well, all the better: let us meet the people halfway; after all, He declared Himself their King... That is how earthly power thrashed about before the face of the One who brought the Kingdom into the world. He gets in the way; it would be good to get rid of Him, but best of all would be if He somehow disappeared on His own, as if He had never existed. Then everything would again become, if not good, at least normal, as before. As for execution, execution is not difficult, of course; He is not the first and not the last. But somewhere almost on the edge of consciousness there glimmers an understanding that execution is not a way out, that something will happen, that the matter will not simply end like this, however much one guards the tomb. And still, there seems to be no way out. Execute, do not pardon. The comma has been placed.

In Luke's account of Jesus' interrogations and trial, Jesus Himself takes almost no part. The Jewish elders, Pilate, and Herod search in vain for formal grounds for a charge. Does Jesus claim the Jewish throne? Apparently not... Herod's throne? Not that either... What, then, is He guilty of, and for what can He be killed? It seems that this question, in one form or another, always arises when a person tries to settle his relationship with God, with Christ. We do not want simply to reject faith for no reason at all. We have to find a pretext: believing in God is outdated, boring, troublesome, useless, foolish, or something we never get around to... These are, of course, the most primitive arguments; there are more serious ones as well. But the fact remains: if we need to remove Christ from our lives, it is always possible. For now the judge's seat is beneath us, we are free to decide, and He remains silent...

Very recently we saw that Christ does not object to paying taxes to Caesar, but now false witnesses accuse Him precisely of forbidding people to pay the tax. The accusers themselves are by no means admirers of Roman power; they call a crime, and attribute to Christ, deeds they themselves would gladly have committed. Extremes, as often happens, meet, and those who present themselves as patriots and zealots for the faith of their fathers are ready to hand an inconvenient compatriot over to pagan occupiers for execution.

According to the evangelist's testimony, Pilate and Herod became friends with each other that day. It is strange to hear of friendship between rulers accustomed to being guided by principles other than personal sympathies. Just as strange is a friendship born in the commission of a crime. But perhaps even in their reconciliation the beneficial action of Jesus was felt? After all, the hostility of rulers affects their subjects through bloodshed and deprivation...

Pilate acts according to the "will of the people." That alone would have been enough for Christians to avoid using the pagan saying, "The voice of the people is the voice of God." Sadly, they do not avoid it, and to this day every superstition and false idea insists on its truth by appealing to the large number of those who share it. Those who see the truth often have to defend it while in the minority. But there is no need to fear this; Truth itself, knowing what it is to be in the minority, is our support.

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.