who found himself helpless in the
hands of people he despised and hated. There was some relish to him in
the crucifixion of Jesus when by his inscription he had turned it into
an insult to the nation. A gleam of savage satisfaction for a moment lit
up his gloomy face when he found that his taunt had told, and the chief
priests came begging him to change what he had written.

Pilate from the first look he got of his Prisoner understood that he had
before him quite another kind of person than the ordinary zealot, or
spurious Messiah, or turbulent Galilean. Pilate knew enough of the Jews
to feel sure that if Jesus had been plotting rebellion against Rome He
would not have been informed against by the chief priests. Possibly he
knew enough of what had been going on in his province to understand
that it was precisely because Jesus would _not_ allow Himself to be made
a king in opposition to Rome that the Jews detested and accused Him.
Possibly he saw enough of the relations of Jesus to the authorities to
despise the abandoned malignity and baseness which could bring an
innocent man to his bar and charge Him with what in their eyes was no
crime at all and make the charge precisely because He was innocent of
it.

Nominally, but only nominally, Jesus was crucified for sedition. If we
pass, in search of the real charge, from Pilate's judgment-seat to the
Sanhedrim, we get nearer to the truth. The charge on which He was in
this court condemned was the charge of blasphemy. He was indeed examined
as to His claims to be the Messiah, but it does not appear that they had
any law on which He could have been condemned for such claims. They did
not expect that the Messiah would be Divine in the proper sense. Had
they done so, then any one falsely claiming to be the Messiah would
thereby have falsely claimed to be Divine, and would therefore have been
guilty of blasphemy. But it was not for claiming to be the Christ that
Jesus was condemned; it was when He declared Himself to be the Son of
God that the high priest rent His garments and declared Him guilty of
blasphemy.

Now, of course it was very possible that many members of the Sanhedrim
should sincerely believe that blasphemy had been uttered. The unity of
God was the distinctive creed of the Jew, that which had made his
nation, and for any human lips to claim equality with the one infinite
God was not to be thought of. It must have fallen upon their ears like a
thunder-clap; they m