When Christ was sent back to Pilate, see how the truth shines forth again. "You," says Pilate, "brought this man to me as one who perverts the people"; but I find nothing in Him "worthy of death," nor does Herod. Do you see the testimony of two men, and moreover one a governor and the other a king, perfectly true? Neither I, he says, nor King Herod have found any fault in Him. What will the Jews say to this? The judges themselves testify that this man is innocent; you, the accusers, have not brought forward a single witness: whom then should one believe? It is wondrous how the truth prevails! Jesus is silent, yet His enemies testify in His favor. The Jews cry out, and no one confirms their clamor. Pilate was a weak man and stood up very little for the truth. He feared slander, lest they accuse him of releasing a seditious man. For he did not know how to say: we will not fear your fear, but the Lord Himself shall be my fear (Isa. 8:12–13).
Lk. 23:16. Therefore, having chastised Him, I will release Him.
Lk. 23:17. And of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.
"So, having punished Him," he says, that is, having disciplined Him with scourges, "I will release Him." And it was fitting for the Romans, to please the Jews, to release one prisoner for the feast. For when making a covenant with the Jews, they gave them the freedom to live according to their own customs and laws. And the Jews had a custom from their fathers of requesting condemned men from the governor; just as they also interceded for Jonathan before Saul (1 Sam. 14:45). If you do not know this story, then take the first book of Kings, and you will find it.
Lk. 23:18. But the whole crowd cried out: Put Him to death!
"But all the people began to cry out," it says, "'death to Him!'" What could be worse than this? The chosen people furiously demand murder; Pilate the pagan recoils from murder: the top has become the bottom.
Lk. 23:18. Release Barabbas to us.
Lk. 23:19. Barabbas had been thrown into prison for a certain insurrection made in the city, and for murder.
Death to Him! Release Barabbas to us, who had been thrown into prison as a rebel and murderer.
Lk. 23:20. Pilate again raised his voice, wishing to release Jesus.
Lk. 23:21. But they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him!
Lk. 23:22. He said to them a third time: what evil then has He done? I have found nothing worthy of death in Him; therefore, having chastised Him, I will release Him.
Lk. 23:23. But they continued with great clamor to demand that He be crucified; and their cry and that of the chief priests prevailed.
Pilate proposes for a third time to release Him, and for a third time they cry out against Christ, so that by this threefold outcry they might definitively confirm their thirst for murder. And they—as the blessed Peter says—"denied the Holy and Righteous One," and asked for a murderer to be granted to them (Acts 3:14). For they love what is like themselves (which is why they take part in it), because they themselves also revolted against the Romans and became the cause of countless murders and of their own destruction. The Lord foretells this through Jeremiah: "I have forsaken My house; I have left My heritage; the dearly beloved of My soul I have given into the hands of her enemies. My heritage has become to Me like a lion in the forest; it has raised its voice against Me: therefore I have hated it" (Jer. 12:7–8). And Hosea again: "Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me; destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me! I redeemed them, yet they spoke lies against Me… Their princes shall fall by the sword for the insolence of their tongue" (Hos. 7:13, 16).
Lk. 23:24. And Pilate decided to grant their request,
Lk. 23:25. And he released to them the one who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, whom they requested; but Jesus he delivered to their will.
Lk. 23:26. They led Him away, and seizing a certain Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the field, they laid the cross on him to carry it behind Jesus.
Jesus was led away and at first the cross was laid upon Him, and He went bearing this burden. For none of the others would undertake to carry it, since they considered it a cursed tree. Then, finding a certain Simon of Cyrene, they laid the cross on him, compelling this man and, as if it were some kind of reproach, placing upon him the cross which the others shunned. In this a significant lesson is given. The cross is the mortification, the inactivity of the passions, and immobility. For he who is crucified is nailed fast and becomes inactive. Thus the Teacher Christ must first Himself take up the cross and nail His flesh to the fear of God and shine forth with dispassion, and only then lay it upon the obedient; for Simon means "obedience." In this are also fulfilled the words of Isaiah: "the government shall be upon His shoulder" (Isa. 9:6). For the cross is the government of the Lord and His Kingdom. Paul says: "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him," and so forth (Phil. 2:8–9). And if the cross became for Jesus exaltation and glory, then it is rightly called His "government," that is, His ruling dignity and the sign of His authority. Just as senators have the insignia of their ranks — some have sashes, others have mantles — so too the Lord establishes the cross as the ensign of His Kingdom. And if you look closely, you will find that Jesus reigns in us in no other way than through suffering, that those who live in luxury are enemies of the cross, and that he can become obedient to Christ and take up His cross who practices virtue, who "comes from the field," that is, who leaves the present field — this world and its affairs — and strives toward the Jerusalem above, which is free (Gal. 4:26).
Lk. 23:27. And there followed Him a great multitude of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented Him.
That a multitude of people and women followed after Christ signifies that after the cross a great multitude of Jews and many women would believe in Him. Read the book of Acts (Acts 2:41, 4:4), and you will see thousands of believers. And does not the fact that the women who followed Jesus "wept and lamented" serve as a moral lesson for us? The weak soul is a woman; but if through repentance she receives contrition of heart, weeps and laments, then she truly follows Jesus, who is crucified and suffers for our salvation.
Lk. 23:28. But Jesus, turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem! Do not weep for Me,
The women, those creatures readily moved to sobbing and weeping, weep as though some misfortune had befallen the Lord, and thereby express their compassion and lamentation over human injustice. But He is not only displeased by this, but even forbids them. For He suffered voluntarily, and for one who suffers voluntarily, and moreover for the salvation of the entire human race, what is fitting is not tears, but approval and glorification. By the Cross both death has been destroyed and hell has been taken captive.
Lk. 23:28. But weep for yourselves and for your children,
Lk. 23:29. For behold, the days are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed!
Lk. 23:30. Then they shall begin to say to the mountains: Fall on us! and to the hills: Cover us!