He said he was innocent. He ordered the execution anyway.
📖Based on Matthew 27:24
He had questioned him himself.
He found no fault in him.
He said so. Three times in Luke.
He offered to release him as was the custom at Passover.
The crowd chose Barabbas.
He had Jesus flogged, perhaps hoping that would satisfy them.
They demanded crucifixion.
His wife sent a message during the trial.
She said: Have nothing to do with that righteous man.
I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.
He knew.
He knew by his own judgment.
He knew from his wife's dream.
He saw that a riot was beginning.
He took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd.
He said: I am innocent of this man's blood.
See to it yourselves.
The crowd said: His blood be on us and on our children.
He released Barabbas.
He flogged Jesus.
He handed him over to be crucified.
The hand washing was a gesture.
The order was an act.
The gesture and the act were in direct contradiction.
A man cannot declare innocence and sign the execution order in the same breath.
He had the power to release him.
He said so. The crowd said so.
He had the authority to let him go.
He chose not to use it.
And then announced himself innocent of the decision he had just made.
The water didn't clean anything.
The signature did what signatures do.
It remained.
Scripture — Matthew 27:24
"When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it."
Reflection
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He named Jesus just while signing his death warrant. The contradiction lived in one sentence.
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The washing was theatrical. The crowd saw it. The order was the reality.