John 18:28-32 (NIV)
Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”
Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
“But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.
It was finally daylight on Friday morning, preparation day for the Passover Sabbath which would begin at sunset. But the religious leaders had important business to complete before the sun went down.
The Sanhedrin had already declared Jesus guilty of blasphemy (Matthew 26:65-66), a crime worthy of the death penalty under the mosaic law. But under Roman rule, the occupied nations were not authorized to put anyone to death. That was a prerogative that the empire reserved for itself, overseen by the Roman law, which they believed was vastly superior to the legal system of any other nation. So, in order to execute Jesus, the religious official had to persuade the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, that Jesus had committed a crime worthy of death under Roman law.
It was the height of hypocrisy that the religious leaders would not enter the governor’s palace, believing that setting a single foot inside a gentile’s residence would contaminate them and prevent them from eating the Passover meal. But at the same time, they had just spent the whole night trying to convict an innocent man, including calling false witnesses (Matthew 26:59-60, Mark 14:55-59) in blatant violation of the ninth commandment (Exodus 20:16). They never considered that that blatant sin contaminated them before God more than walking into a gentile’s home ever could.
Pilate went into this meeting out of sorts. Not only was it very early in the morning, but Caiaphas and his bunch were forcing him to go out to meet them outside in the courtyard instead of coming onto his turf. And besides that, this man, Jesus, did not appear to have broken any Roman law at all. It was plainly evident that Jesus was someone they simply wanted to get rid of, and they wanted him to get involved in their skullduggery and do their dirty work for them.
So, at first, he just blew them off.: “Take Him and judge Him by your own laws.” But in the face of accusations of conspiring against the Emperor by claiming to be the king of the Jews, he decided that he at least needed to go and conduct a preliminary questioning of the man Himself. So, he had Jesus brought inside to talk with him.
Father, such hypocrisy among those leaders, carefully checking the boxes on the outside while sin festered in their hearts, was the way that they normally operated (Matthew 23). But we ourselves can easily fall into that same mode of operation if we aren’t careful, carefully keeping in place masks of righteousness that cover sinful hearts. Lord, help us to live fully integrated lives, where we are on the inside as righteous as we want to appear to be on the outside. That’s the only kind of life that’s pleasing to You. Amen.
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