(Verse 24) But Pilate, seeing that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a tumult was taking place, took water and washed his hands before the people, saying: I am innocent of the blood of this just man: you shall see. Pilate took water, according to that prophetic saying: I will wash my hands among the innocent (Ps. 25:6); so that in the washing of his hands, the works of the Gentiles might be cleansed, and he might separate us from the impiety of the Jews, who cried out, crucify him, thereby attesting in a way that I indeed wanted to free the innocent man; but since sedition arises and an accusation of treason against Caesar is brought against me: I am innocent of the blood of this just man. The judge who is forced to pass sentence against Christ does not condemn the accused; but he accuses those who offer him, pronouncing that the one who must be crucified is just. He says, 'You will see. I am the minister of the laws: your voice sheds blood.'
27:25
(Verse 25) And all the people answered and said, 'His blood be on us and on our children.' This curse persists upon the Jews until the present day, and the blood of the Lord is not removed from them. Hence, Isaiah speaks: 'If you raise your hands to me, I will not listen to you. For your hands are full of blood' (Isaiah 1:15). The Jews leave the best inheritance to their children, saying, 'His blood be on us and on our children.'
27:26
(Ver. 26.) Then he released to them Barabbas, but Jesus, after he had been scourged, he handed over to them to be crucified. Barabbas, a robber, who had caused insurrections in the crowds, who was a murderer, was released to the Jewish people, that is, the devil, who reigns in them even to this day, and therefore they cannot have peace. But Jesus, being handed over by the Jews, is acquitted by Pilate's wife, and is called just by the governor himself. And the centurion confesses that he is truly the Son of God. The learned reader may wonder how it is fitting for Pilate to have washed his hands and said, 'I am innocent of the blood of this just man,' and then handed over Jesus to be crucified after he had been scourged. But it should be known that he served the Romans' laws, which decreed that whoever is to be crucified should first be scourged. Therefore, Jesus was handed over to the soldiers to be scourged, and they tore into that most sacred body, capable of containing the heart of God, with lashes. However, this was done so that, as it is written: 'Many are the scourges of the wicked' (Psalm 31:10), by him being scourged, we might be freed from scourges, as the Scripture says to the righteous man: 'No scourge shall come near your tent' (Psalm 90:10).
27:27-29
(Verse 27 onwards) Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered the whole cohort around him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe around him. And twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' The soldiers, since Jesus had been called the King of the Jews and the scribes and priests had accused him of claiming to be the ruler of the people of Israel, did this mockingly. They dressed him in the scarlet robe as a symbol of royalty, put a crown of thorns on his head, gave him a reed as a scepter, and pretended to worship him as a king. But we must understand all these things mystically. For just as Caiphas said, 'It is necessary for one man to die for all' (John 11:50), not knowing what he was saying, so these people, whatever they did, although they had different intentions, nevertheless gave us, who believe, the sacraments. In the scarlet robe, he bears the bloody works of the Gentiles; in the crown of thorns, he undoes the ancient curse; with the pen, he kills poisonous animals. Whether he held the pen in his hand to write the sacrilege of the Jews.
27:30
(Verse 30) And spitting on him, they took a reed and struck his head. At that time it was fulfilled; I did not turn my face away from the shame of spitting (Isaiah 50:6), yet when they strike his head with the reed, he endures everything patiently, to fulfill the true prophecy of Isaiah, which says: He will not break a bruised reed (Isaiah 42:3).
27:31
(Verse 31) And after they had mocked him, they stripped him of his cloak and dressed him in his own clothes, and led him away to be crucified. When Jesus is whipped, spat upon, and mocked, he does not have his own garments, but those which he had taken on for our sins. But when he is crucified and the spectacle of mockery and illusion is over, then he receives his former clothes again and puts on his own attire. And immediately the elements are disturbed, and the creature gives testimony to its Creator.
27:32
(Verse 32) And as they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon: him they compelled to bear his cross. Lest anyone think that this account is contradictory to the story of John the Evangelist. For he said that the Lord, going out of the praetorium, carried his own cross; but Matthew reports that they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon, whom they compelled to bear Jesus' cross. But this is to be understood, that Jesus, going out of the praetorium, himself carried his own cross; afterward they encountered Simon, to whom they imposed the task of carrying the cross. According to anagoge, the nations accept the cross of Jesus, and the obedient stranger carries the ignominy of the Savior.
27:33
(Verse 33.) And they came to a place called Golgotha, which is the place of Calvary. I have heard someone explain the place of Calvary, where Adam was buried, and therefore it is called that because there the head of the ancient man is buried, and this is what the Apostle says: Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. A favorable interpretation that pleases the ears of the people, but not true. For outside the city and beyond the gate, there are places where the heads of the condemned are severed, and they took the name of Calvary, that is, beheaders. Therefore the Lord was crucified there, so that where there had been a place of condemnation, there might be erected the banners of martyrdom. And just as He was made a curse for us, and was scourged, and was crucified, so for the salvation of all, even though guilty among the guilty, He would be crucified. But if someone should wish to argue, why was the Lord crucified there, so that His blood might drop upon the tomb of Adam, let us ask him why, then, were the other thieves crucified in the same place? From which it is clear that Calvary does not signify the tomb of the first man, but the place of the beheaded, so that where sin abounded, grace might more abound (Rom. 5). But we read in the volume of Jesus son of Navé that Adam was buried near Hebron and Arbee (Josh. 14).
27:34
(Verse 34.) And they gave him vinegar to drink mixed with gall, and when he had tasted it, he would not drink. God speaks to Jerusalem: I have planted you as a true vine, how have you become bitter like a foreign vine (Jeremiah II, 21)? A bitter vine makes bitter wine, which they gave to the Lord Jesus, so that what is written may be fulfilled: They gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink (Psalm LXVIII, 22). But when it is said, 'And when he had tasted, he did not want to drink,' this indicates that he did indeed taste the bitterness of death for us, but on the third day he rose again.
27:35
(Verse 35.) And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: They divided my garments among themselves, and upon my vesture they cast lots. And this was prophesied in the same psalm: They divided my garments among themselves, and upon my vesture they cast lots (Psalm 22:18).
27:36
(Verse 36.) And they kept watch over him while he was sitting. The diligence of the soldiers and priests helps us so that the greater and more evident power of his resurrection may appear.
27:37
(Verse 37.) And they placed over his head the charge against him, written, 'This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.' I cannot sufficiently admire the magnitude of the matter, that, for the sake of the redeemed, with a false accusation and having incited the unfortunate people to sedition and outcry, they found no other cause for his execution except that he was the King of the Jews. And perhaps they did this in mockery and ridicule. However, Pilate also responded unwillingly, 'What I have written, I have written.' Whether you want it or not, Jews, a crowd of all nations responds to you: Jesus is the king of the Jews, that is, the emperor of believers and confessors.
27:38
(Verse 38.) Then they crucified him with two thieves, one on his right hand, and one on his left. If Golgotha is the hill of Adam and not the place of the condemned, and therefore the Lord is crucified there to raise up Adam, why are the two thieves crucified in that same place?