Jesus Is Judged by Pilate

V. We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee.

R. Because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, early in the morning. John's Gospel presents the longest and most developed account of this trial, structured as a series of exchanges between Pilate and Jesus inside the praetorium, and between Pilate and the crowds outside. Pilate finds no basis for a charge: "I find no guilt in him" (John 18:38). He tries to release Jesus under the Passover amnesty. The crowd demands Barabbas. He proposes to have Jesus flogged and released. The crowd insists on crucifixion. Finally, when the crowd threatens to report him to Caesar — "Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar" (John 19:12) — Pilate hands Jesus over.

The exchange between Jesus and Pilate on the nature of truth is one of the great conversations in the Gospel. Jesus tells Pilate: "Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice" (John 18:37). Pilate responds: "What is truth?" (John 18:38). He walks away without waiting for an answer. Standing before the Truth made flesh, the embodiment of divine Logos, Pilate asks his famous question and immediately demonstrates by walking away that he does not actually want the answer. He is not seeking truth; he is seeking political survival.

This fifth station of the Scriptural Stations confronts us with the question Pilate did not wait to have answered: What is truth? And its corollary: Am I willing to let truth cost me something? Pilate knew what was right and chose what was convenient. In his cowardice, he handed over the Son of God to be crucified. The question the fifth station places before us is whether we are willing to do what Pilate was not.