Fifth Gospel(138)

Cassius did as he was ordered and the sight of the man disrobed caused even the crowds to gasp.

‘What man could want more vengeance than this?’ Pilate said, and turning to the crowds, yelled out, ‘Ecce Homo!’ Then in Aramaic, so that all the people might hear it, not only the priests, ‘Behold! The man! Here is his body and his blood transformed for you!’ he said, ‘Now are you satisfied?’

Ananias shouted, ‘NO! He has made himself a Son of God and must be condemned!’

Cassius frowned. What strange day was this? A Son of God! To claim openly the title of Son of God, a God incarnate, was to rival Tiberias who also claimed this title.

Pilate went through the arch and gestured for Cassius to bring Jesus to him. Pilate paced the floors, pausing before the figure of the broken, bloodied man.

‘Iesus Nazarenus, tell me this…from whence do you come? Is it true that you say you are the Son of God?’

The prisoner was silent.

‘Why do you not answer? Don’t you understand that those filthy priests are accusing you of rivalling Tiberias?’

Jesus of Nazareth, leaning as he was and clinging to his life, said nothing.

‘I have the power to crucify you or to set you free…but you must first deny it!’

When Jesus finally spoke it seemed to Cassius that the voice was not the voice of a man torn and battered. It was a voice strong and full of authority, ‘You can have no power over me unless that power is given to you from above. Those outside…those who delivered me to you, they have said that I am the Son of God, they say it because they know from whence comes the power in me and to Whom they are responsible. Because of this they have a greater sin than you.’

Pilate made a gesture of the hand, which Cassius could see meant they should go.

When they were once more upon the Pavement, the cries for crucifixion rose upwards with greater fierceness.

The day was low hung and that oppressive heat made breathing difficult under the darkening sky.

Pilate took himself to the raised throne, the official marble seat. Cassius knew he would now make a judgement, ex cathedra, that is, he would judge as a representative of Caesar. Whatever judgment was made, it would be as if Caesar had made it. The people knew it also and they grew silent, so excited were they at the prospect of what he would say.

‘See this, your king! He is the Son of God, your Messiah!’ he said to them.

Now the court broke out into a great clamour.

Pilate had made a royal proclamation! Had the infernal heat caused him to lose a wit?

‘This man is the enemy of Caesar!’ Caiaphas shrieked, outraged, ‘We renounce him!’

‘Rome has no quarrel with this Messiah!’ Pilate gave back, ‘His kingdom, he freely admits, is not of this world, and we are not concerned with him as long as he gives dignity to the name of Caesar!

‘We renounce him!’ echoed the people.

‘Does this mean you will never demand liberation from Rome?’ he sat forward on his seat. ‘Does this mean that you will renounce all those who call for a Messiah, a King of Israel in future times? Think carefully!’

Gloom fell over the court.

Caiaphas yelled out, ‘We have no king but Caesar!’

Uncertainty moved over the faces of the people. Cassius himself could not believe that a Jew, let alone a high priest had spoken these words. This was indeed the strangest of days!

‘And so you have spoken!’ shouted Pilate. ‘This means, therefore, that I am not responsible for your madness!’

Ananias answered it, ‘No…let the responsibility lie with us, let the blood of this man be on our own heads, and on the heads of our children!’

Pilate called to an attendant. ‘So it shall be!’ he said, ‘You have spoken not only for your own, sorry selves, but also for those Jews who love him and have no part in this, and are outside this square only because they would not take your money! Well then! I wash my hands of it…bring me water!’

The attendant brought water in a pitcher, which was poured over the Governor’s hands, as was his custom. When he had wiped them clean with a towel he stood and said to the crowds, ‘I pronounce myself innocent of the blood of this just man!’ Then to his scribes, ‘Write this down…having been compelled, for fear of an insurrection, to yield to the wishes of the high priest of the Sanhedrin and the people who demanded the death of Jesus of Nazareth, I have handed him over to the guards for crucifixion; and upon his titulus will be written, in all three languages of the land, in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, his crime: INRI…Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaerum – Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews!’

A great shouting now came from the priests.