“Are you the king of the Jews? ” the governor asked him. Jesus answered, “You say so.”
— Matthew 27:11 (CSB)
Religion — Mingled with Politics – A.D. 30’s style
You know the old expression about mixing religion and politics -- ('Don't do it' all warn. Yet in every century our religious and political leaders rely on it.)
Today, Good Friday 2025 of the Common Era, we will address both!
—The POLITICS of ROME mingling with the RELIGION of JEWISH rulers of first century Jerusalem.
First, ROME and the rule of Pilate, the Roman Governors, several Caesars and captive/cooperative kings. This of course would include several King Herod’s and various Governor Herod‘s.
The cooperative nature of the Roman peace made strange bedfellows, so to speak.
Although it all comes to its pinnacle in the trial of Jesus Christ, the politics of these Roman and faux-Jewish governors and subject-kings will continue to affect the Apostles and saints well beyond Jerusalem’s destruction by Rome just forty years from this pivotal day in history.
For MORE insight into the politics of first century Jerusalem take a look at the above post from September, A.D. 2020. - RH
The Governor’s Examination of the Jewish King Jesus
From Pilate’s early-morning awakening by Jerusalem’s Jewish officials it began like this (as reported by Matthew, Jesus’ Disciple who had himself had an official tax-collecting post for Rome).
After tying him [Jesus] up, they [the chief priests and elders of Jerusalem] led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
— Matthew 27:2 (CSB)
At this point Matthew reports nothing more of the examination of Jesus by Pilate.
Let’s look at the testimony of the other Gospels.
So Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews? ”
He answered him, “You say so.”
3 And the chief priests accused him of many things.
Pilate questioned him again, “Aren’t you going to answer? Look how many things they are accusing you of! ”
But Jesus still did not answer, and so Pilate was amazed.
–– Mark 15:2-5 (CSB)
(The Gospels witness this mix of the Jewish false charges and the examination of the Governor in this brief early-morning balcony scene of sorts.)
Let’s move back a bit further in the transition of the actions which brought the accused King Jesus of the Jews before the Roman Governor.
Luke 23:
Then the whole company of them [the gathering of the Council] arose and brought him before Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying,
“We found this man [Jesus] misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”
And Pilate asked him,
“Are you the King of the Jews?”
And he answered him, “You have said so.”
Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds,
“I find no guilt in this man.”
But they were urgent, saying,
“He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.”
Do you see the political manipulation here?
Can you see the contemptable REJECTION of Pilate’s authority by the same religious officials?
They falsely claimed that JESUS would not allow Jewish followers to pay a Roman tax to Caesar — a tax which of course funds the Roman Governor and legions overseeing this captive city of Jerusalem.
Therefore the next POLITICAL move of both the Governor and these Jewish religious officials is to send the case to a more mutually agreeable jurisdiction – that of the Roman-appointed King legitimately appointed by the Caesar’s from the ruling family of the Herod’s.
The King’s Examination of King Jesus
We refer, of course, to political Judean King receiving Jesus, the Christ of the Jews!
(How volatile this judgment challenging who is king?)
And when he (the Roman Governor Pilate) learned that he [Jesus of Galilee] belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.
When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he [Jesus] made no answer.
The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with his soldiers treated him [the Jewish Christ or Messiah, Jesus] with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he [King Herod] sent him [Christ Jesus] back to Pilate [the Roman Prefect/Governor].
And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.
Gospel of Luke 23:7-12 ESV
Yes, 'strange bedfellows' indeed, but not so out of the ordinary for the great Herod's - Kings of the Jews!
Friends, Romans and Jewish countrymen.. (let us make pax–shalom)..
Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them,
“You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.
Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us.
Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.”
a political verdict and sentence
NOT Guilty .. but we will punish Him.
Jerusalem Evangelical Witnesses Political Action Committee –
JEWPAC
Now don't get all bent out of shape over my fictional illustration of the San Hedren of A.D. first century Jerusalem -- religious leaders beholden to the politics of Rome.
WE all know and recognize the function of Political Action Committees -- even 21st century C.E. Christian Evangelical PAC's
-- they raise and spend MONEY to influence a political outcome desired by leaders holding the purse-strings of THE PEOPLE.
“What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him [Judas Iscariot] thirty pieces of silver.
Gospel of Matthew 26:15 ESV
Let’s take a quick look back to how the religious leaders of Jerusalem sought to bring Jesus to trial and the Cross.
- ἐγκαίνια – the Feast of Dedication
instituted by Judas Maccabaeus [164 BC] in memory of the cleansing of the temple from the pollution of Antiochus Epiphanes
Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him,
“How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe…
“I and the Father are one.”
The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.,,
Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
Gospel of John 10:22-39 ESV excerpt
- Jesus’ Parable of the Wicked Tenants
One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up..
“.. But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ ..”
The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.
Gospel of Luke 20 ESV excerpt
Buying Betrayal
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Later Bribery against Truth
- A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising.
- Governor Pilate had already ordered crosses readied for Barabbas and two others,
- the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas
- and to have Jesus executed
- the crowds gathered before Pilate’s house …
and they cried out—the whole multitude—saying, “Away with this One, and release Barabbas to us,” .. Pilate again then—wishing to release Jesus—called to them, but they were calling out, saying,
“Crucify! Crucify Him!”
Surly, a pre-meditated placement of party members loyal to its leaders pressing against true judgment -- shouting down all opposition in order to create a consensus of social truth opposed to the True Savior of Jew and gentile.
These Chief Priests of Jerusalem had party leaders and blind sheep in their political pocket!
No Jew would dare oppose the mammon of their political power and leadership.
Buying the lies of status quo
AFTER Jesus burial and resurrection these same Political Action Committee-men would have to counter true witness of over five hundred men who knew that the Christ – Jesus of Nazareth – was no longer in the grave.
.. some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened.
A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. They told the soldiers,
“You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ If the governor [Pontius Pilate] hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.”
So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say.
Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.
[.. reports the Disciple Matthew Levi, who recorded his Gospel in Hebrew about 30 years later.
Who IS this CHRIST JESUS –crucified for our sins and Risen?
What must we do?
