1 - Jesus is Condemned to Death

We all know what it means when Pilate washes his hands, but just look at his face!  Total contempt - and he needs that state of mind to deal with the fact that he is sending an innocent man to his death.  The artist has made sure you can see what Pilate is thinking: "this Jesus has only got himself to blame.  I did my best for him, but he wanted to die: misguided fool!  I'm out of here!"

And that remains a contemporary reaction to Jesus even today.  People say: "I didn't ask him to suffer for me!  What good can that do anyway!  All this faith stuff just causes wars!  Jesus may have been a good innocent man, but this suffering is crazy, it's best to keep Jesus at arm's length."

The others in the scene, like the rest of us, go along with the majority on this: one looks to the authority figure and the other just gets on with what he has to do.

But the artist shows us that Jesus is his own man.  Able to plot his own course, not swayed by what authority or popularity say.  He is the Truth and that is our challenge:  We must choose in every detail of our lives, whether to side with the truth, or with worldly opinion.  It's not often that the two will coincide these days.  Jesus was received as the outsider then, and as Christians we can expect to be outsiders today.  If we fail, and surely we often do, then we side with the others in this scene: we side against Jesus.  In trying to retain our self respect in doing that, our lives can become a lie.

Let's pray for the wisdom and strength to recognise when we've failed to side with Jesus, let's repent and pray for the grace to side with Him every time from now on.