WHAT IS THE CHARGE?

<a href="http://Image by Raheel Shakeel from Pixabay“>Image by Raheel Shakeel from PixabayIn disciplinary or judicial exercises you have to follow due process, if you don’t you allow a loophole that any accused or aggrieved person can and will exploit to the full.

In the days of Jesus, Pontius Pilate was the supreme judge of Roman justice of the region in Judea where Jerusalem was situated. He knew he had to follow the letter of the law or run into trouble. So, ironically, in the account by John, about the trial and death of Jesus Christ, Pilate asked, “What is the charge?” “What has this man done wrong?”

The real answer was, clear: “Nothing.” Little did Pilate know that he was about to embark on a foolish and tragic miscarriage of justice that would echo down the anas of history and that it would be the single most infamous incident in all of human history, an event that he would be remembered for, for all time. A charge, however, there had to be and the Jewish leaders knew that allegations of blasphemy were not going to wash with Pilate, though that was ostensibly the one thing they were deeply concerned about.

Even now, in this day and age, people still “charge” Jesus with many inaccurate calculations. One of the main ones is that he was a “fraud” and another one was that his disciples made up most of the stories told about him. Another is that he was a day-dreaming idealist, divorced from the realities of the world”   Another one is that he was simply an ordinary man, whom, his followers, especially Paul – have built up into a divine figure. Some have claimed he was a leader of the Essenes, a Jewish monastic group who lived by the Red Sea. In fact, he was the Lord and Saviour of mankind.