The via dolorosa

Pilate was caught between a rock and a hard place. He saw no reason to declare Jesus guilty, and moreover, his wife told him she had been warned in a dream not to punish the righteous man. When he learned that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, “he was even more afraid” (John 19:8). Making things more difficult for Pontius Pilate was that his career and life were in danger. Sejanus, the trusted official who had appointed Pilate as governor of Judea, was executed for treason by the paranoid emperor Tiberius. Now, all of Sejanus’s friends were seen as suspects. The Jewish leaders argued that if Pilate released a man claiming to be a king, then he was no friend to Tiberius; so, Pilate gave in and handed Jesus over to be crucified.