I. Profoundly interesting is it to note, as traced by St. John, the mortal duel which is fought out between the Roman governor and the Jewish hierarchs; a duel which is not less real, nor waged the less fiercely, because carried on under forms which partially veil it from our eyes, so that only at certain moments the intense hostility which animates both him and them is permitted to appear. The conflict is undecided long, but the Jewish hierarchs are victorious in the end. And no wonder. They know their own minds, and he only half knows his. They are consistent, thorough-going in evil, he is weak and less than half-hearted in good. Perhaps Pilate might have ventured something in the cause of righteousness and truth; but an accusation at Rome, and to Tiberius, the most suspicious of all tyrants, this he could not brave; and it is with this that the Jewish chief priests threaten him. They will charge him at Rome with this, his unseasonable lenity to a rebel and pretender to Cæsar's throne. This they make Pilate clearly to understand, and this is enough. His guilty conscience tells him, that even if in this matter he could clear himself, there were charges enough of malversation, of violence, of cruelty, which they could bring against him, and from which it would be impossible to clear himself. He was prepared to drive matters far, but he dared not drive them so far as this. He delivered Jesus unto them to be crucified.
II. And so ends the tragedy of Pontius Pilate a bad man, but by no means the worst of that wonderful group which are gathered round the Cross of Christ, and on whom that Cross has poured such a flood of light; who, as actors, abettors, or approvers, share the primary guilt of that crime; the secondary guilt of which is shared by us all. A bad man, but very far from the worst; and therefore the more awful example of the crimes in which men may be entangled merely through a lack of moral stamina; for who can attest to us with such a terrible clearness as he does, how little feeble motions towards good will profit nay, how they will serve only to deepen the damnation of those who refuse to yield obedience to them: who, seeing what is the better part, do yet for by-ends of worldly policy and convenience, and to make things safe and pleasant to themselves, shrink from the painfulness of duty, and leaving that better part, choose the worse?
R. C. Trench, Sermons in Ireland,p. 212.
Reference: Matthew 27:14. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 93.