Morning Trials and the Road to Golgotha

The night of the thirteenth was over, and the morning came. It was still the thirteenth, the same biblical day that had begun the evening before with the supper, and it would still be the thirteenth when He died.

This chapter follows the morning hours: from the council to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, from Herod back to Pilate, and from Pilate out along the road to Golgotha.

When Morning Came

The council had given its verdict in the night. In the morning it met again.

Matthew 27:1-2 Now when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Yeshua to put Him to death; and they bound Him and led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.

Why did the council need a Roman governor at all, if it had already said, “He deserves death!” (Matthew 26:66)? John gives the answer in the words of the leaders themselves.

John 18:31 So Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves and krino κρίνω kree'-no(judge) Him according to your nomos νόμος nom'-os(law)." The Jews said to him, "We are not permitted to put anyone to death,"

The council could judge, but it could not carry out the sentence it had spoken. So the case went to Pilate.

John also marks the hour, and with it something more important. As we saw in Chapter 21, he writes that when they led Yeshua into the Praetorium, “it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover” (John 18:28). The morning had come, and the Passover had still not been eaten. The leaders were guarding themselves so that they could eat it in the evening that would begin the fourteenth.

Before Pilate

Pilate questioned the prisoner the leaders had brought to him.

Matthew 27:11-14 Now Yeshua stood before the governor, and the governor questioned Him, saying: "Are You the King of the Jews?" And Yeshua said to him: "You are saying it yourself." And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He did not answer. Then Pilate said to Him: "Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?" And He did not answer him with regard to even a single rhema ῥήμα hray'-mah(spoken-word), so that the governor was quite amazed.

Luke adds that Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man” (Luke 23:4). But the accusers kept on insisting, and when they named Galilee, Pilate sent the prisoner elsewhere.

Sent to Herod

Luke 23:6-12 When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when epiginosko ἐπιγινώσκω ep-ig-in-oce'-ko(knowing-without-misjudgment) that He belonged to Herod's exousia ἐξουσία ex-oo-see'-ah(jurisdiction, authority), he sent Him to Herod, who himself also was in Jerusalem at that time. Now Herod was very glad when he saw Yeshua; for he had wanted to see Him for a long chronos χρόνος khron'-os(chronological-time), because he had been hearing many things about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. And he questioned Him at some length; but Yeshua answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing Him vehemently. And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate. Now Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other.

Herod, the ruler of Galilee, had long wanted to see Yeshua and hoped to see a sign. He received none. He had his soldiers mock the prisoner, put a gorgeous robe on Him, and sent Him back.

Luke closes the scene with a strange note: the two rulers, who had been enemies, became friends “that very day,” the day that Yeshua stood before them both.

Back to Pilate

Pilate now had two judgments in hand, his own and Herod’s, and both said the same thing.

Luke 23:13-16 Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, "You brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion, and behold, having examined Him before you, I have found no guilt in this man regarding the charges which you make against Him. No, nor has Herod, for I sent you to him; and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by Him. Therefore I will punish Him and release Him."

Neither ruler had found a charge that would stand. In Pilate’s own words, “nothing deserving death has been done by Him.” He tried to release Yeshua, but the crowd would not have it. Matthew records the exchange.

Matthew 27:22-24 Pilate said to them: "Then what shall I do with Yeshua who is called Messiah?" They all said: "Crucify Him!" And the governor said: "Why, what evil has He done?" But they kept shouting all the more, saying: "Crucify Him!" When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying: "I am innocent of this righteous Man's blood — see to that yourselves."

Pilate washed his hands and said, “I am innocent of this righteous Man’s blood.” Yet he gave the order. Luke records how it ended: Pilate “released the man they were asking for who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, but he delivered Yeshua to their will” (Luke 23:25). John records the moment the sentence was given.

John 19:16 So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified. And they took Yeshua and led Him away.

Matthew tells us that before this Pilate had Him scourged (Matthew 27:26), and that the soldiers then took Him into the Praetorium, put a scarlet robe on Him and a crown of thorns on His head, knelt before Him in mockery, spat on Him, and struck Him (Matthew 27:27-30). All of this happened in the morning of the thirteenth, the day John calls “the preparation day for the Passover” (John 19:14).

The Road to Golgotha

Matthew 27:31-33 After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him. As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull,

John writes that Yeshua went out “bearing His own cross” (John 19:17). Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that on the way the soldiers pressed a man named Simon of Cyrene into carrying it (Matthew 27:32); Mark and Luke add that he was coming in from the country, and Luke that he carried it behind Yeshua (Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26). Mark even names Simon’s sons, Alexander and Rufus. So they came to Golgotha, outside the city, the place where He would be crucified.

The Morning of the Thirteenth

The Gospels place a great deal in this one morning. The council met again, the leaders stood outside the Praetorium, Pilate questioned Yeshua, Herod questioned Him and sent Him back, Pilate tried to release Him and then gave Him up, the soldiers scourged and mocked Him, and He was led out to Golgotha. Each of the four Gospels tells part of it, and when their parts are laid side by side, they fill the morning.

And none of it is out of place on the calendar. The leaders had not yet eaten the Passover. The governor gave his sentence on the preparation day. The whole of this morning lay within the thirteenth, before the evening of the fourteenth had come.

The Same Day

It is worth pausing over what the biblical day does here. By our modern habit of counting, the supper would belong to one evening, and the cross to the afternoon of the next day. We would say these things happened on two days. But Scripture counts from evening. The supper opened the thirteenth, the night of the arrest and the trials ran through the middle of it, the morning before Pilate and Herod came next, and the cross stood in its daytime.

So the day on which the Messiah gave His disciples bread and said, “this is My body,” is the same day on which His body was nailed to the cross. Nothing in the Gospels has to be forced to fit it. It follows simply from reading their order of events by the Bible’s own reckoning of a day.

The road from the Praetorium ended at Golgotha. Before we follow Him there, we must hear what the Torah says about the lamb. Paul wrote that “Messiah our Passover has been sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7), and Moses set down in a single verse, Exodus 12:6, how the Passover lamb was to be kept and offered. The next three chapters read that verse word by word.