Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas to the hall of judgment (Pretorium); and it was early. And they themselves went not into the judgment-hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover — keep the paschal feast. If they had gone so early on this day, after the paschal evening, into the house of the Gentile, they would have defiled themselves, and thus rendered void their paschal celebration of the previous evening, and they would have been obliged to celebrate later the supplementary little Passover.⁷

They were, however, as little disposed to procure for the Lord, at the hand of Pilate, an ordinary process of life and death, as they had provided such a one at the hand of Annas. They, on the contrary, demanded of Pilate nothing less than that he, without further ado, should execute their ecclesiastical sentence of death against Jesus by the power of the State. — Just as, at a later period, the mediaeval Church consorted with the civil power. — Pilate knew well how to adapt himself to their Levitical scruples about cleanness: he went out to meet them before the palace. As regards, however, the process itself, he took for granted that he himself had first to conduct it in person. Hence the question, 'What accusation bring ye against this man?' They answered and said, 'If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered Him up to thee! 'They thus declared that He was at all events a malefactor according to their Jewish law, if not also according to the Roman. Pilate therefore should cause Him to be executed. He, however, was not so soon of a mind to accept such an interchange of the different tribunals, and to degrade the Roman state into an executioner for the Jewish hierarchy. He therefore replied, 'Take ye Him, then, and judge Him according to your law,' — according to which, e.g., they might cast out of the synagogue, curse, and beat. In this reply there lay also an expression of irony at their dependence on Roman law, according to which they dared not proceed further. They now answered plainly, 'It is not lawful for us to put any man to death,' and thereby declared that they had already pronounced sentence against Jesus, as worthy of death. The Evangelist adds the remark: That the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which He spake, signifying beforehand what death He should die, — namely, the death of the cross, which was inflicted, according to Roman custom, on those condemned for more serious transgressions, but did not accord with Jewish practice. Pilate was now made aware that the process was one of life or death, and he himself took it in hand. This concluded the preliminary negotiation regarding the question of competency.

On this follows the first act of the trial. Pilate entered again into the Pretorium, called Jesus — before his tribunal — and said unto Him, 'Art Thou the king of the Jews? 'This, then, was the first accusation of the Jews; it contained, according to appearance, a charge of sedition. Jesus, however, immediately recognized the deception which the Jews had attempted to practise by means of the double meaning of this word, and therefore answered Pilate, 'Speakest thou thus of thyself, or have others said (εἶπον) — this thing so expressed — to thee of Me?' That is: Sayest thou this in thine own Roman sense, or is it the Jewish expression of the accusers — according to which, the word denoted the Messiah. — Pilate answered, 'Am I a Jew? Thine own nation, and the chief priests, have delivered Thee unto me. What hast Thou done? '

Through the hint given by Jesus, Pilate himself, having begun to fear the entangling ambiguity of the Jewish expression, now put the question in the genuine Roman form: What hast Thou done?⁸

The moment had now come when Christ was to meet the genius of the Roman world in its peculiarity, with the same distinct appreciation as, a short while before. He had shown in reference to that of the Greek. He thus replied: —

'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered over to the Jews; but now is My kingdom not from hence (does not proceed from this earth).' The kingdom of Christ is then equally real with that of the Romans, or rather it stands in relation to that kingdom, which, as a kingdom of the world, is only a shadow of it, as the absolutely real and substantial kingdom, and source of all power. Therefore it would be a small matter for the servants of this kingdom to preserve the Lord from the hands of the Jews, — a thing which the representative of the Roman empire is not able to do. Yet the kingdom of Christ is not a kingdom which has its foundation in this world, in the principles of this world. It would therefore destroy itself, according to its own idea, if it sought to triumph by outward violence; it is victorious through suffering. Christ at the same time intimates to Pilate, that as the Jews are certainly not His friends, but His enemies, there can thus be no question about inciting to insurrection; and He gives him to understand, that He even now already regards him as an involuntary instrument in their hands.

Pilate most of all caught hold of the circumstance, that Jesus spoke of a kingdom which belonged to Him, and said, 'Art Thou then indeed a king? 'Jesus answered, 'Thou sayest it! I am a king. To this end was I born, and to this end came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.' Pilate saith unto Him, 'What is truth? 'And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and said unto them, 'I find no fault in Him! But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the Passover.⁹ Will ye therefore that I release unto you the king of the Jews? 'Then cried they all again — in the same manner as they had previously commenced their accusation of Jesus, viz., with clamour — and said, 'Not this man, but Barabbas.' Now Barabbas, remarks the Evangelist with pregnant simplicity of expression, was a robber.

Pilate rightly concluded, if Christ possessed a peculiar kingdom, He must also be a king. And thus he provided the Lord with an opportunity of acknowledging Himself to be a king — the King in the kingdom of truth; because, namely, it was the end and aim of His being to witness to the truth. The witnesses for the truth are in His view kings, in the higher sense of the true essential life; and the kings of the earth themselves are such kings in the higher sense, so far as they are also witnesses of the truth. But Christ is the King of these kings, because He is the absolute martyr (witness) (Rev. i. 5). His subjects, therefore, are also thus designated. All who are of the truth, hear with feelings of rejoicing loyalty His royal voice, they do homage to Him. Not so Pilate. He sought to free himself from the dim perception he had obtained of the majesty of this King by the frivolous exclamation, what is truth? In this there lay hid a chain of sequences: truth is a fable, and equally fabulous is its king and its kingdom. No doubt there lay in it likewise the acknowledgment, that the Roman power had nothing to fear from so ghostlike a prince. And with this discovery he hastened to turn his thoughts from the deeper background of the word of Christ, by going out and declaring to the Jews that he found no fault in Jesus.

He could not have given a more conspicuous testimony to the innocence of Jesus, than was contained in his offer to the Jews to release unto them Jesus during the paschal celebration. It lay in the nature of the case, that the Jews carried off such persons in triumph. How easily, however, might the danger of commotion have arisen, if the party released had been a mover of sedition! Pilate expressed thus the strongest confidence in the political blamelessness of Jesus, by proposing to set Him free in this form; whilst at the same time he thought to have acted with the utmost policy, as the Jews laid great stress on their customary privileges, and in this would find an inducement to accept the acquittal of Jesus.

But Pilate had miscalculated, apart from this, that he spoiled a prudent device by the bitter contempt expressed in his designation of Jesus as king of the Jews. He had also, however, transgressed in his capacity as a judge; for he had already treated the innocent as guilty. On this descending path, he now proceeded farther. For, after the first, purely political examination, he ordered Him to be scourged.

Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him — He caused Him to be seized, carried off, and scourged. — And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it upon His head, and they put on Him a purple robe, and said, 'Hail, king of the Jews! 'and they smote Him with the palms of their hands. Then went Pilate forth again, and said unto them, 'Behold, I bring Him forth unto you, that ye may know that I find no fault in Him! 'So Jesus came forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, 'Behold the man! 'When, therefore, the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, 'Crucify Him! crucify Him! 'Pilate saith unto them, 'Take ye Him and crucify Him! I find no fault in Him.'

Pilate manifestly applied the scourging, to which he subjected the Lord, as torture. The conduct of Christ, under it, was to him a new proof of His innocence. And now he thought the Jews must indeed be satisfied; the more so, as the torments of the scourging, and likewise the mockery which followed it, had been intended to quench their thirst of vengeance. Yet here again, there was mingled with his policy the unwise contempt, shown in his making the Lord come forth in the same habiliments in which his soldiers had mocked Him as king of the Jews. Hence, therefore, the increased animosity displayed by the Jews when Jesus thus appeared. This appearance of the Lord, with the crown of thorns, is, however, in the eyes of the Evangelist, a new and beautiful sign of His glory. He stands forth as the crowned King of all patient sufferers. And so powerful is the impression of this manifestation, that Pilate testifies to his own agitation by a singular exclamation, and the enemies of Christ cry aloud for rage. We hear also once more a renewed testimony to the innocence of Jesus from the mouth of Pilate.

The Jews now gave occasion to Pilate to undertake an entirely new examination of Jesus, and in this case a spiritual one. As the hierarchs had first pronounced a political judgment on Jesus, the politician now allowed himself to be so far led away by his anxious excitement, as to sit in spiritual judgment upon Him.

Mockingly had Pilate thrown out the words in the hearing of the Jews: 'Take ye Him and crucify Him; for I find no fault in Him.' To this the Jews answered, 'We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.' When Pilate heard that word, he was more afraid — than before, — and went again into the Pretorium — in order to commence a new examination of Jesus, — a spiritual one. He now, namely, proposed to Jesus in a religious sense the question: 'Whence art Thou? 'But Jesus gave him no answer. Even because he as judge usurped a theocratic jurisdiction, and thus overstepped his own competency. Then said Pilate unto Him, 'Dost Thou give me no answer? Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and have power to release Thee? '(This is the watchword of Erastianism.) Jesus answered, 'Thou couldest have no power — none at all — over Me, unless it had been given from above. Therefore he that delivered Me unto thee hath the greater sin.' In this lies the explanation of the mystery of the Caesarean Papacy (Erastianism). There is, namely, always an unfaithful priesthood in the plot which delivers over the heavenly life of Christ into the hard hands of the State. In this form it is, that power over the life of Christ, by God's counsel and justice, comes into the possession of the worldly State. When thus the State commits an outrage on this life, it is not indeed without guilt, but the chief guilt lies at the door of the unfaithful priesthood which stands in the background. Pilate must have felt impressed by the holy gravity, the divine benignity, the heavenly, calm collectedness and dignity of Jesus, as well in His silence as in His answer; so that in this examination also he stood before the accused as one entirely vanquished. From this moment he gave himself no ordinary trouble to effect the release of Jesus, and thus in his nobler efforts he became an involuntary witness to His glory.

But in an unforeseen way, the Jews now procured the wished-for sentence of condemnation. The endeavours of Pilate to rescue Jesus came much too late; for he had already too long from policy placed himself in the position taken by the Jews, and treated Him as one that was guilty. The Jews therefore now cried out, saying, 'If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend — as thy honorary name implies;¹⁰ — for whosoever maketh himself a king, opposeth himself to Caesar.' When Pilate therefore heard that word — which threatened him with so heavy an accusation before the Emperor Tiberius, there was an end of his better efforts — he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment-seat, in a place that is called the Stone Pavement (Lithostroton), but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the day before the Sabbath of the Passover-time, and about the sixth hour.¹¹ — No wonder that the Jews made more and more m-gent haste with the judgment, whilst Pilate, in the hope of delivering Jesus, more and more delayed. It was as if he had become quite confused under the antagonism created by his fear of the Jews and his scornful contempt for them, when he now presented to them the accused, with the words, 'Behold your king! 'But they cried out, 'Away, away with Him! crucify Him! 'Pilate replied, 'Shall I crucify your king? 'The chief priests answered, 'We have no king but Caesar.' So far did their hatred against Christ bring them, that publicly, before the forum of the Roman judge, they renounced their Israelitish hope of the expected king, and their spiritual freedom. Pilate, even amidst all his alarm, had thereby, in a political point of view, obtained an important result. The hierarchy had given in the most unreserved declaration of submission to the Roman power. It had fallen under the policy of the State. On the other hand, however, the State had also fallen before the fanaticism and servility of the Church, Then delivered he Him unto them, says the Evangelist, that He might be crucified.

The glory of Christ appears thus, finally, in the judicial sentence which is pronounced upon Him. The honour and the rights of the hierarchy, as likewise the dignity and the freedom of the State, are all alike destroyed in this judgment. His condemnation is effected under a twofold supposition: on the one hand, that the priests form a secret police for political purposes, who seek only to procure the removal of a demagogue out of the world, who have no hope of an ecclesiastical kingdom beyond the objects of the State; on the other hand, that the worldly judge has here nothing to do, but slavishly to perform the work of an executioner, by carrying into effect a sentence of death pronounced against Him by a spiritual tribunal, although He stands before him in the felt majesty of a divine man.

In the individual circumstances, also, connected with the crucifixion itself, we are met by the traces of Christ's royal spiritual dignity.

First, in His dignified voluntary departure for Golgotha. They took Jesus — on His being delivered over to them — and led Him away — to death. And He took on Himself His cross¹² — with free determination — and went forth to the so-called place of a skull, which in the Hebrew is named Golgotha.

Further, those traces appear in the honour which the thoughtless mockery of Pilate himself prepared for Him, that He was crucified as the king of the Jews, and was thus designated on the cross before all the world. There then they crucified Him, and two others with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a superscription, and put it on the cross; and it was written: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This superscription then read many of the Jews; for the place where Jesus was crucified was iii,2:h to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Then said the chief priests of the Jews — who felt themselves insulted by this superscription — to Pilate, 'Write not. The King of the Jews, but that He said, I am King of the Jews.' Pilate answered, 'What I have written, I have written.' This fact had a threefold significance. It was made manifest before all the world, that the Jewish world, in their Messias, had cast away their hope of the kingdom. The heathen world, on the other hand, appeared here, in the act of Pilate, as contemptuously mocking at the Israelitish hope of a kingdom of heaven. The Christian spirit accepted this ignominy as an honour. On the cross, the eternal kingdom of Jesus of Nazareth began to unfold itself before all the world.

But even as Pilate was an involuntary instrument of the providence of God to glorify Him, so also were the soldiers. These, namely, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments (His upper garments), and made four parts, to each soldier a part. So also they took His under garment. Now the under garment was without seam, wrought from the top throughout. They said, therefore, among themselves, 'Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be.' That the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith: They parted My garments among them, and for My vesture they did cast lots (Ps. xxii. 18). And these things the soldiers did, adds the Evangelist, significantly — the soldiers, who naturally knew nothing whatever of that passage in the Psalms, and could have had no intention to procure its fulfilment.

One must connect together Pilate with the soldiers, in order fully to appreciate the greatness of the glory thus prepared for the Lord in these various particulars. The one insisted on crucifying Him as the king of the Jews, without surmising what that meant; the others were also led, unintentionally, to treat Him entirely according to the picture drawn of the Messianic sufferer in the Psalms. Thus the representatives of the Gentile world, from the highest to the lowest, had to fulfil the Scripture, because they were the instruments of the providence of the same God who in Scripture had foreshadowed the coming of Christ.

The central point of His glory on the cross, however, is found in the three of His seven last words, which John has preserved, and which form a counterpart to the three words of Luke.

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw His mother, and the disciple standing by whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, 'Woman, behold thy son! 'Then saith He to the disciple, 'Behold thy mother! 'And from that hour, the disciple took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, 'I thirst.' The consciousness of this completion left His spirit free, so that He could now feel His thirst, and utter this complaint, in order to obtain the last human refreshment. But this circumstance also must, according to God's appointment, serve to realize a feature in the Old Testament picture of the suffering Messias¹³ (Ps. xxii. 15). Now there stood there a vessel full of vinegar (sour wine). And they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it on a stalk of hyssop, and held it to His mouth. When Jesus had now taken the vinegar, He said, 'It is finished! 'And He howed His head, and gave up the ghost.

The first word is a word of that divine love, which, even in its earthly impoverishment at the place of a skull, on the cross, in the hour of death, retains its heavenly affluence; which, in its earthly nakedness, presents to the friend a mother, to the mother a son; which, encircled by hatred, establishes a covenant of love in the presence of death, an abode of hope in the hour of dispersion, a maternal home of union. It is the very triumph of love.

The second word is an expression of the perfected incarnation of the Logos, of His humanity, finiteness, need, and of His submissive trust, perfected in the hour of death. He who is the source of life to the world, languishes in consuming thirst; for He is a man. He has hitherto not regarded His thirst; for He stood as a warrior in the fight: but now that His warfare is accomplished, He is not ashamed to complain of His thirst, although He could easily suppress it; for He is a human man. And as little does He hesitate to accept refreshment even from the hands of His tormentors; for His human weakness is itself divine grace and strength. And thus does He celebrate His victory with a refreshing draught of sour wine from the rude hand of an enemy; for the divine Man is also a childlike man, above all others. This is the glorifying of the flesh in its weakness, the glorifying of want and dependence in their divine dignity and consecration.

The third word is the proclamation of the perfected divine incarnate life, and of His perfected work for the eternal salvation of the world. It is the sealing of the intercessory prayer of Christ by a fact, in the full consciousness of the completeness of the sacrifice, by which the redemption and renewal of the world, in the deep foundation of human history, is accomplished.

But the signs of His glory flash around the very body of Jesus, and shine forth through the night of His death: nay, even over His grave we behold a resplendent radiance testifying to His honour.

As the day on which the death of Jesus took place was the day before the Sabbath — and that Sabbath itself was an high day¹⁴ — the Jews, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath-day, begged Pilate that their legs might be broken — as was customary in such cases of accelerated crucifixion — and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and so also of the other who had been crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they brake not His legs; but one of the soldiers, with a spear, pierced His side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water.¹⁵ And he that saw it hath borne testimony — ever afresh — and his testimony is true — in word and life; — and he knoweth that he speaketh truth, that ye also may believe. For these things happened, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: A bone of him (the paschal lamb) shall not be broken (Exod. xii. 46). And again another scripture saith: They shall look on Him whom they have pierced (Zech. xii. 10).

These circumstances form together a singular aggregate of the most striking indications of the glory of Christ. The Jews, and Pilate, and the soldiers, must this time all co-operate, in order to glorify Him anew. Already have the Jews proposed that the legs of the three bodies should be broken; already has Pilate given a general order to this effect; and already has the work been commenced beside the crucified Jesus, right and left, and there is the highest probability that the like will happen to His body. But now the soldiers remark, that He is already dead, and the thought occurs to them: here the breaking of the legs is superfluous; yet in the room of this, one of them inflicts a wound with his spear, in order to assure himself of the death of Jesus. And this one extraordinary occurrence brings about at one stroke two fulfilments of Old Testament declarations. In the fact, that not a bone of Him shall be broken, is fulfilled that declaration of the paschal lamb, which had a typical reference to Him; and thus is Christ in this feature also designated as the true Paschal Lamb. At the same time, however, the positive prophecy is fulfilled, which represents the Lord as one who, in His manifestation in human form, shall be pierced by His own people, and on whom His people, now affrighted, shall look. On the body, namely, of Christ there appeared, through the thrust of the spear, an extraordinary sign, which was well fitted to affect His people who had given Him the heart-wound, as well as the soldier who at last outwardly inflicted it: Blood and water flowed. The Evangelist, however, saw in this remarkable phenomenon, a sign, that the case of the holy body was altogether peculiar, and that it should not be subject to corruption like others.¹⁶ Therefore he declares also, that he ever anew testified to this fact in his proclamation of the Gospel, and that its truth was most intimately bound up with the evangelical testimony of his whole life; that it had greatly helped to the furtherance of his own spiritual life, and to the confirmation of his faith.

These signs were a fitting introduction to the honourable burial of Christ.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly — hitherto — for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate, that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took down the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, who aforetime had come to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes — overlaid — with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, in which no man had ever yet been laid. There laid they Jesus therefore, because of the Jews' preparation-day — which demanded the greatest urgency; — for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

The Evangelist hints, that in the opposite case, if perhaps there had been more time, the body of Jesus might have been buried in another place, doubtless in the possession belonging to some disciple who might have been able to put in a stronger claim than Joseph.

Thus, under the shadow of the cross of Jesus, two members of the Sanhedrim itself, who had previously concealed their faith through fear of man, openly declared themselves His disciples. The death of Christ brought their regeneration to a new life, to a decisive issue, and made them willing to risk and sacrifice all for His sake. In the princely burial which they provided for Him, His victory over the world was practically manifested, and the prediction was fulfilled, with which He had formerly taken leave of Nicodemus on the occasion of his nocturnal visit: He that doeth truth cometh to the light. In the homage which these new disciples offer to Him, there appears already in rich promise the dawn of the world's illumination, which His death has definitively ushered in.

In the history of the passion of Christ according to John, the historical triumph of Christ over the world is glorified in its most diverse elements. The passage of Jesus over the brook Kidron has become a symbol of all decisive steps in the affairs of the kingdom of God, which possess a world-wide importance. The parcel of ground where Jesus was made prisoner, which John seems for special reasons not to name, in Gethsemane, is the mother of all the Christian places of prayer, houses of God, and so-called conventicles and oratoires, which in every successive age have been assailed by hostile power. Equally symbolical is the powerful muster of armed men, with which Judas approaches against Jesus and His little company; even the torches and lanterns by moonlight, i.e., the measures against Christianity, which display a ludicrous colouring of anxious forethought, have often again presented themselves. Of the same universal significance is the spiritual terror which Christ excites in the company of His enemies with the simple and sublime, I am He; it repeats itself in many forms. And, as in Gethsemane, He still ever takes the unripe disciples under His guardianship, to shield them against the danger of assault from the world; wherein, however, the unsheathing of Peter's sword, or the random strokes of an unpurified fanatical zeal against the enemy, renders the exercise of His protective help more difficult, and brings His cause oftentimes under suspicion. Christ bound and made prisoner is a phenomenon, in which a thousand sufferings of the Church are typically represented. The forum of Annas exhibits a fanatical hierarchy in its illegal courses. Some ecclesiastical legitimistic nook-forum lurks for the most part in the background of the lawful hierarchical tribunal, and guides its decisions. An old artifice of the hierarchy consists in exciting suspicion against the Christian life, as a secret compact, a conspiracy. And there is ever a fanatical officer of the temple at hand, to reward the outspoken witnesses of the truth with strokes on the cheek. The disposition also of the hierarchy to make the State a slavish, blind, and ready executioner of its bloody, or at least hostile condemnations of heretics, often returns again; not less that old hypocritical remark: We may put no one to death! The same holds true of the ambiguousness and perfidy of its accusations. How often are the purest spiritual utterances, like that word of Christ, He said, that He is the king of the Jews, stamped as proofs of a treasonable purpose, in order to prejudice the State against the witnesses for the truth! How frequently has the ignorant multitude been instigated to evil by the hierarchy, and even seduced into sedition, nay, into committing the frightful outrage of begging the life of a Barabbas, in order to condemn Christ! How often are even the frivolous children of the world seized with compassion, when they see how inexorably the hierarchical judges of heresy persecute their victims; yet how often do they preach to them in vain the laws of humanity, even as Pilate in vain exclaimed to the Jews, Behold, what a man! And even the last desperate effort of the Sanhedrists to make Pilate an assessor of their spiritual tribunal, by occasioning him to institute a judicial examination regarding the fact, that Jesus had made Himself the Son of God, repeats itself in many spiritual processes. In this way the hierarchical spirit has come at length, more than once, solemnly to renounce all its spiritual hopes and rights before the forum of the State, in order merely to attain its fanatical ends. It throws down its Messianic hope at the feet of Caesar, in order to nail to the cross a Messianic life, which it hates.

The life-picture of this hierarchy is, however, at the same time the life-picture of hypocrisy.

But as the character of a degenerate, Christ-hating hierarchy is here described in all its peculiar features, so not less, in its most essential characteristics, is the conduct of Christ towards the same, viewed in its universal and historical significance.

On the one hand, indeed, the denial of Peter repeats itself in all ages, but, on the other hand also, the faithful confession of Christ. And so also do its individual features return anew: the appeal to the known publicity of Christianity, and to its public witnesses in all the world; the protest entered against illegal tribunals; the putting to shame of raging fanatics by calm superiority of spirit; the unveiling of fraudulent ambiguity in the accusations of enemies; the directing of attention to their hostile character; the forewarning of the infatuated State; the repelling, within the limits of their competence, of those unwarranted to pass judgment on theological questions; holy silence and holy speech according to the standard of the most delicately drawn line of right; above all, however, the perfect divine composure, unconstrainedness of spirit, inward peace and resignation, and the collectedness of mind, strength, and dignity therewith connected, which ever anew secure the victory.

In still more definite outline, however, are we presented with a richly developed life-picture of the worldly State, and its policy, in the conduct of Pilate.

In the first place, we recognize in the image of Pilate the political pliability, the judicial strictness in adherence to form, the dignity, and the power of the worldly-minded State; but likewise, also, its want of insight into the deeper problems of life, its stranger-like demeanour in matters of faith, connected as it is with indifference and even with unbelief, and showing itself in a hasty, shy passing over of the most important elements, the most precious opportunities to get a better insight. Then follow the traces of the unholy policy which begins to drive a bargain between right and wrong, which permits itself to treat the innocent as guilty in order to rescue him. We see no doubt, also, the nobler features of the life of the worldly State again appear; on the one hand, the powerful stirrings of humanity; on the other hand, the strong manifestations of a deeply felt natural piety, even should it be beclouded by superstitious prejudices. Soon, however, are these better impulses damped by the State now beginning to interfere authoritatively in spiritual matters, and in the end they are wholly suppressed by its boastful reliance on external power: which, however, is straightway followed by faintheartedness through fear of man — fear of Caesar in the upward direction, fear of popular commotion beneath. Just then, however, when the moral position of the worldly State is most compromised, it assumes the most lordly demeanour. It now, for the first time, truly sets itself on its high throne, whilst in reality inwardly it is dragged along at will by the multitude. It gives itself the air of despising the people, whilst it panders to their domineering passions; and at last seeks to regain the honour of its firmness in trivial formalities, whilst it has parted with it in the greatest matters. Its deepest fall, however, consists in giving over the life of Christ into the hand of fanatical enemies, and turning itself into an unwilling executioner of the sentences of spiritual heresy tribunals and persecutors of the truth.

This symbolism of the worldly-minded State in its fall, is at the same time the symbolism generally of the worldly mind in superior station, of a worldly unbelieving culture, nay, also of the individual worldly man.¹⁷

Everywhere, however, the Spirit of Christ presents the same features of contrast to this spirit of worldly culture. Everywhere it exhibits the same ascendancy of spiritual insight. It teaches the worldling to distinguish between worldly and spiritual ideas, in order thus to free him from his prejudices. With holy earnestness it opens to him a glimpse into the mysterious background of the fleeting phenomena of this earthly life, into the kingdom of truth, of the real life which is not of this world, and conveys to him the impression of other and higher dignities than the legal and the symbolical, which belong to earth. It overawes him in his levity by the invincibility of its patient trust in God, by the glory it throws around the ignominy of the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and especially also by the clear spiritual insight with which it points him out in the false use of his power as an involuntary instrument in a twofold sense — as a blind instrument of human passions, and as an unsuspecting instrument of the holy and righteous administration of God; finally, by the dignified boldness and gentleness with which it holds up to his view his sins.

The most appalling symbol, however, in the condemnation of Jesus, lies in the illustration of the fact, that the hierarchy and the worldly State, after the most violent contests regarding their competence in reference to the treatment of questions pertaining to the spiritual life, after the most unequivocal mutual inroads by the one power into the province of the other, become of one mind in condemning Christ to the cross; and that to these two powers is added a third — the will of the people in a state of commotion, the revolution.

In this fact, however, the life of Christ becomes also manifest in its highest glory. We see how those three great powers of the world are put to shame before His image, how they judge themselves, and, without surmising it, must therefore glorify Him as the true High Priest who delivers the Church, as the true Prophet who delivers the people, as the true King who delivers the State, as the unfettered though thorn-crowned Prince — the King of the Jews, who lays the foundations of a glorious new kingdom in the abyss of holy ignominy and shame, which the old world has assigned Him as His portion.

Every feature of His conduct, from the commencement of His sufferings to His last exclamation on the cross, 'It is finished! 'is a special ray from His spiritual kingly crown, by whose brightness His crown of thorns is encircled with light, and is at the same time a special symbol of the manifestation of His glorious life in the world.

Therefore also the mockery of the world must unconsciously bear witness to His honour, by designating Him, in the three most important languages of the world, as the King of the Jews. And thereby the victory of God in Christ over the world's mockery is declared.

And so must the blindest instruments in the world help to fulfil the counsels of God concerning Him, as these have been recorded in the Old Testament. There thus arises a threefold illumination. The world in all its doings appears under a divine vassalage to render holy service to the theocracy. The Old Testament appears in the full glory of its New Testament relationships. The life of Jesus appears in the light of its eternally pre-ordained purpose, as already announced in the Old Testament.

More especially, He is represented as the fulfilment of all Old Testament types, as the true Paschal Lamb.

The holy body of Jesus also exhibits the prototype of the transition from death into a glorified condition, as a token that mankind through Him shall be introduced into the possession of a new life.

How His love, in the midst of His mortal sufferings, brings hesitating disciples to decision; how His cross subdues the spirits, wins the rich with their possessions, and conquers the world; and how, generally, just in the times of heaviest tribulation for the life of Christ, the hearts of the susceptible are most easily freed from the fear of man and the world's attractions, and make the greatest sacrifices for His sake: this triumph of the life of Christ in its mortal anguish appears in visible manifestation at His burial. In the act of faith performed by Joseph and Nicodemus, we see the passion-flower bloom over the grave of Jesus; and since that time it everywhere unfolds its blossoms in the gardens of the Church, whenever suffering to the death is prepared for the life of Christ in His own people.

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Notes

1) From the ἐξῆλφε (chap, xviii. 1) it cannot be concluded that Jesus now first went out from the house where the Passover was celebrated, as Stier has again lately asserted. Cue may easily suppose that the precincts of the city extended them- selves as far as the brook Kidron (comp. vol. iii. 144).

2) See above, iii. 222.

3) See vol. iii. 225; comp. Gfrörer, p. 227.

4) See vol. iii. 226.

5) See vol. iii. 238.

6) See vol. iii. 246, 247.

7) See vol. iii. 257, and vol. i. 164.

8) As, in like manner, Napoleon, when the question was of the superior qualities of a man, is said to have asked: What has he done?

9) Regarding the critical importance of the expression, ἐν τῷ πάσχα, in reference to the 4th Gosp., see above, sec. i., note.

10) See above, vol. iii. p. 275.

11) See above, vol. iii. p. 276.

12) Regarding the relation in which this notice stands to the synoptists, see vol. iii, pp. 283 and 289.

13) Regarding the reality of the circumstance referred to, comp. iii. 316.

14) See above, vol. iii, p. 330.

15) In the wound by the spear Gfrörer (p. 237 et seq.) seeks, in the most artificial manner, to discover a trace of an intentional preservation of the life of Jesus on the part of powerful friends, in order to get a foundation for the theory of a pretended death. He thinks, if Jesus had not yet been dead, the soldier must also have broken His legs; and if dead, it could not have been of the slightest consequence to any one, although the legs of the dead body had been even crushed to pieces. The truth walks freely and without restraint through this somewhat blunt alternative. When the soldier saw that Jesus was dead, he gladly spared himself the trouble of breaking His legs; but yet, in order to exercise the strictest caution, he fetched Him a wound in the heart with the spear, as it were to make assurance doubly sure. Probably this modification of the usual practice was even according to rule. One may suppose, that a special veneration towards Jesus, or even the believing centurion, may here have exerted an influence. From this no conclusion whatever can be drawn against the truth of the death of Jesus.

16) see above, vol. iii. p. 333.

17) That the examination of Jesus before Pilate, and especially the picture of Pilate himself, in this examination, as unfolded in the narrative of John, are wonderfully true to life, has been misunderstood by few so entirely as by Weisse, ii. 298, ff.