The Crowd Went Wild

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Literary Styles Used in the Narrative
Characters and Character Traits
Exegetical Approach
Works Cited

Introduction

Pilate took the case of Jesus with the intention of judging. He wanted to determine whether Jesus was guilty of the crime put against him. The Roman soldiers made fun of Jesus. They called him “King of the Jews” in a sarcastic tone, just to torture him psychologically.

They physically abused him, kicking him, and pushing him around. Pilate went back to the people and told them that he did not find any mistake committed by Jesus. He told to them that Jesus was innocent of the charges presented against him. Pilate presented Jesus to members of the public and told them that the man was innocent. Jesus wore a purple rob and a crown of thorns. When the Pharisees saw him, they cried aloud, “crucify him!”

Pilate once again reiterated to that he did not find any mistake that would warrant death. The Jews and the Pharisees did not want to hear anything less than a death sentence. They insisted that Jesus had to die.

In their minds, they had made a resolution and they wanted the presiding judge to confirm that Jesus was guilty of the crimes charged against him. Therefore, the punishment had to be in form of death. The Jews shouted saying that according to the law of the land, Jesus had to die for he called himself the son of God. Such a crime was considered a blasphemy.

When Pilate heard that Jesus was the Son of God, he became afraid. He took Jesus back to the court chambers. He asked Jesus who he was. The response from Jesus made Pilate conclude that Jesus of Nazareth had done no mistake. It was clear to him that Jesus was innocent. He therefore wanted to release him. He went back to the crowd to inform them about his decision (Zugibe 123). He told them that Jesus had committed no crime.

Consequently, Jesus would be set free. However, the Jews cried aloud. They told Pilate that by releasing the prisoner, Pilate would be going against Caesar. They told Pilate that Caesar was the only King in the land and that Jesus was to be crucified for trying to say that he was the King of the Jews and the Son of God. That was a blasphemy to God and disloyalty to the leadership of Roman. Such crimes could only be punished by death.

Pilate tried to convince the crowd that Jesus was saying the truth. He even told them that Jesus was their King. However, the Jews demanded for immediate crucifixion of Jesus. Pilate was forced to give in to the demands of the crowd. He released Jesus to them, but reminded them that as a Judge, he did not find any sin committed by Jesus.

The soldiers led Jesus to Golgotha for crucifixion. Jesus was finally crucified, along with other two criminals who had also been sentenced to death. This narrative is taken from the Book of John, Chapter 19 from verses one to nineteen. The book is in the New Testament of the Bible. It is the fourth book of the New Testament, after Mathews, Mark, and Luke.

Literary Styles Used in the Narrative

This narrative comes with a number of literary styles. These styles are discussed below.

Dialogue

Dialogue is one of the literary styles that have been used in this narrative. There are cases where direct speech between characters is used. In verse four of chapter nineteen, Pilate tells the gathered crowd, “Behold, I bring him to you that you may know that I find him of no mistake” (Kuniholm 52). In verse ten of the same chapter, Pilate engages Jesus in a discussion when he wanted to find out his identity.

The type of dialogue used in this chapter helps in making the narrative more realistic. Through dialogue, the reader can create a picture of the events that were taking place. The dialogue also helps in bringing out the mood of the occasion. The shouts from the crowd help in demonstrating the general atmosphere at the court. The dialogue also demonstrates the character traits of some of the individuals in the narrative.

Symbolism

Symbolism has been used extensively in this narration. The Pharisees saw Jesus as a symbol of power that would destroy them in a near future. In Jesus, they saw a person who would take away their position and destroy them. This was the reason that made them strongly believe he had to be killed.

The crown was a symbol of the power of Jesus. The crown of thorn, which pricked him and made him bleed, symbolized the fact that Jesus was actually the son of the King (God). Therefore, he was a king. He suffered at the hands of men. He suffered at the hands of his servants. The Roman soldiers put the crown of thorn as a sign to mock him.

Sarcasm

This narrative employs sarcasm in its style. The Roman soldiers who were guarding Jesus made a crown of thorn and placed it in the head of Jesus as a sign that he was the King. The sarcasm comes out even more strongly when they called him the King of the Jews while they smote him. The speech of Pilate had some sarcasm in it. It is true that Pilate confirmed the fact that Jesus was innocent. However, it was obvious that he had read the mood of the crowd and confirmed that they hated Jesus and wanted nothing but his death.

One of the reasons that made the crowd develop this strong hatred was the fact that Jesus referred himself as the Son of God. Therefore, Jesus was their King. It was an insult telling the crowd that Jesus was its king. Although he might have meant his word, the timing was wrong and the phrasing of the message was even worse. It was sarcastic to tell people who were convinced that Jesus was a criminal that he was their King.

Characters and Character Traits

This narrative has clearly demonstrated the traits of some of the characters. The characters whose traits come out strongly from this narrative are discussed below.

Pilate

Pilate comes out strongly as a fair judge. When the Pharisees took Jesus to him, he believed that the Jews had a reason to implicate him. He therefore set forth to know how the accused had sinned. When he listened to the case, he concluded that Jesus was innocent.

He therefore went back to the crowd and told them categorically that the accused was innocent. He told them that according to the law, there was no reason to charge Jesus. When the crowd went wild and demanded for his immediate crucifixion, he went back to the court chambers with Jesus to listen the case further to determine whether there was a reason good enough to punish him. He gave Jesus a chance to speak.

From their discussion, he was convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that Jesus was innocent. He went back to the Jews and told them that Jesus had not committed any crime that would call for public crucifixion. He tried to reason with the crowd. He wanted to shed some light to their reasoning. He tried all means to convince the crowd that Jesus was innocent. When the crowd failed to respect his Judgment, he released Jesus to them and told them that the man was innocent.

Pilate is a patient man and a careful listener. When he was presented with the case of Jesus, he took time to listen to the case and gave the Pharisees time to explain the accusations they had against Jesus. He attentively listened to their accusations. Upon a careful review, he concluded that Jesus was innocent.

The crowd demanded otherwise. Due to his patience, he went back to the chambers and gave Jesus an opportunity to express himself. He carefully listened to what he had to say and related it to what the Pharisees had said. He confirmed that Jesus was innocent. Pilate is also portrayed as a person who is easily cowed. It is a fact that in his first ruling, he found Jesus to be innocent and informed the crowd of the same.

When the crowd shouted and insisted that Jesus had to be crucified, he was stranded and he did not know how best he could act to calm down the crowd. When he heard that Jesus was the Son of God, he became afraid and considered taking him back to the trial chamber. He inquired about the identity of Jesus.

From the speech of Jesus, he was convinced that Jesus was a special person. He went back to the crowd to convince it that Jesus was innocent but the crowd would not listen. When the crowd said that he would be considered an enemy of the Roman government if he failed to convict Jesus, Pilate was once again cowed. He released Jesus to the crowd to be crucified specifically because of the fear. He gave in to the demands of the crowd.

Pilate is also very inquisitive. When he went to the chamber with Jesus, he wanted to listen to Jesus himself. However, the way Jesus responded to questions raised changed his attitude towards Jesus. He did not respond as a culprit who was fearful that his life was in danger. This made the judge want to know more about him. Pilate therefore put across a number of questions to him, which were meant to determine the identity of Jesus.

Although quite intelligent, Pilate is portrayed as an irrational individual. After the first trial, he concluded that Jesus was innocent. However, he was aware that the crowd outside was baying for his blood. By taking Jesus to them and telling them to their face that “Behold, this is the man,” he portrayed the features of an irrational individual (Walker 23).

It would definitely illicit anger the crowd because it was very emotional. The second time he went to the crowd, he acted even more irrationally. He went to an irate crowd and told members of the public that the man they wanted dead was their king. This would definitely illicit hatred from crowd.

Jesus

This narrative gives a number of qualities that Jesus possessed. The first trait that comes out is that he was tolerant and persevering. When he was taken hostage by the Roman soldiers, the soldiers physically abused him but he never reacted. They made a crown of thorn and placed it on his head.

They then smote him, calling him the king of Jews with lots of sarcasm. Jesus did not resist the torture. Moreover, he did not respond to the soldiers rudely. He remained silent and allowed them to mistreat him. When he was taken to the crowd, his tolerance was once again demonstrated when he remained silent even as the Pharisees hailed lies against him.

He did not attempt to justify his deeds and he did not refute the claims of his accusers. Jesus is portrayed as a very brave person who did not fear death. When the crowd shouted that he had to be crucified, he never panicked. He never begged for mercy. When Pilate finally released him to the crowd to be crucified, he remained calm and he always obeyed his aggressors despite the fact that he had power over them.

The Soldiers

The soldiers were very cruel. When they were given the opportunity to guard Jesus, they physically abused him. They made a crown of thorn and instructed him to wear it. They did not have a clear reason why Jesus had to suffer. They also despised Jesus without a reason.

The way they treated Jesus clearly demonstrated their hatred. The soldiers were easily moved by the mood of the crowd. The soldiers were not Jews, just as Pilate was not a Jew. Therefore, they had no direct grudge against Jesus. However, because the crowd was against Jesus, soldiers were also against Jesus and inflicted a lot of pain on him.

The Pharisees and the Crowd

The Pharisees and the crowd exhibited a similar behavior. The first trait that comes out is that they were not just. When they took Jesus to court, they did so out of self-interest. The Pharisees in particular knew that Jesus was innocent. They knew that Jesus had not committed any sin that could warrant a death penalty. However, they were determined to see him dead.

Even after the decision made by the judge that Jesus was innocent, they still insisted that he had to die. The crowd was irrational in some of its actions. They arrested Jesus and took him to court before Pilate. This was clearly a sign that the crowd wanted a ruling from the court.

The crowd wanted to know whether the actions of Jesus were enough to make him to jail or be punished by death. When the judgment was made, the crowd realized that it did not favor them. The judgment fell way below their expectations. The crowd therefore shouted that Jesus had to be killed. It was irrational therefore to go to the court of justice and fail to respect the justice delivered by the court. If the crowd knew that Jesus was to be killed, it should have stoned him other than bringing him to the court.

Exegetical Approach

This verse is titled “Jesus Sentenced to be crucified” (Olsson 172). However, this title raises some questions, especially after going through the text. Some of these questions are as follows:

When will it be appropriate to say that an individual has been sentenced?
Was Jesus really sentenced to death by the presiding Judge?
What was the role of crowd as regards to the sentencing of Jesus

The above questions are what the researcher seeks to respond to in this section. An individual would be said to be sentenced if the presiding judge finds him or her guilty. The charges and verdicts should be based on the findings. The presiding judge actually did not sentence Jesus. Pilate told the crowd twice that he did not find Jesus guilty of any offence.

He finally released Jesus to the crowd not because he was convinced that the crowd was right in its decision but possibly because of fear of what the crowd could do if he failed to act as per its demand. The decision to crucify Jesus was therefore not based on the judgment of Pilate. Pilate never sentenced Jesus to death. It might be true that the act of releasing Jesus to the crowd was actually condemning him to death. However, he had no otherwise but to act the way he did.

During his discussion with Jesus, Pilate told him that he had power to either condemn him to death or release him. He believed that the crowd will respect his decision and when he appeared before the crowd for the second time, he was convinced that the crowd would listen to him. He was wrong. The crowd had a predetermined decision and his word was taken into consideration. It was therefore not possible to save Jesus from the crowd (Ramsbottom 34).

When releasing Jesus to the crowd, he was very categorical that the accused was innocent before the law of the land. The judge therefore did not sentence Jesus to death but handed him over to the crowd that was getting increasingly impatient. The crowd was turning its aggression to the judge. Members of the public started blackmailing Pilate by telling him that they will consider him an enemy of Rome if he failed to sentence the culprit to death.

This narrative is very relevant to the current society. Sentencing of Jesus to death was actually done by the crowd. At first, when Pilate told members of the public that he did not find Jesus guilty of any offence, the crowd cried saying that the accused had committed treason and the punishment could only be by crucifying him. When Jesus was brought to the council for the second time, the judge said that he was innocent.

The crowd went wild. It shouted that Jesus had to die. The crowd failed to listen to the verdict made by the judge. Instead, it blackmailed the judge. The judge feared for his life. When Jesus was finally handed over to the crowd, it went straight to crucify him. The crowd is therefore not always right at all times. The views of the majority can be misleading.

Works Cited

Kuniholm, Whitney. The Essential Jesus100 Readings through the Bible’s Greatest Story. New Jersey: Willey, 2007.

Olsson, Suzanne. Jesus in Kashmir the Lost Tomb. New York: Oxford, 2005. Print.

Ramsbottom, Benson. Crucifixion of Jesus. New York: Gospel Standard Publications, 2002. Print.

Walker, Raven. The Crucifixion of Jesus. New York: Cengage, 2004. Print.

Zugibe, Frederick. The crucifixion of Jesus: a forensic inquiry. London: McMillan, 2005. Print.

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