Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 23-24.

The first thing I noticed today was that when the Sanhedrin brought Jesus before Pilate, they accused Him of opposing payment of taxes to Caesar.  That was a stand which they had tried to get Him to take, and He had refused to do so.  Interestingly, Pilate does not ask Jesus about that part of the accusation.  Instead, he asks Jesus about the second part of the Sanhedrin’s charges against Him: Was He the king of the Jews?  Jesus’ answer to that question always fascinates me.  It seems like somewhere between “I never claimed that” and “I won’t deny it.”  It is clear from what Pilate said the the Jewish leaders that he interpreted Jesus as refusing to claim kingship over the Jews.  I believe that Jesus answered the way He did in order to give Pilate the option to interpret Him as denying His kingship.  Jesus acted as He did before Pilate in order to make it clear that there was no legal basis for condemning Him to death.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.