John 18:28-32

²⁸Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. ²⁹So Pilate came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this Man?" ³⁰"If He were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed Him over to you." ³¹Pilate said, "Take Him yourselves and judge Him by your own law." ³²"But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death He was going to die would be fulfilled.

Jesus had been tried before Annas and Caiaphas, and now He is taken to Pontius Pilate, who alone had the authority in this region to have a criminal executed. This is early in the morning on Good Friday. Jesus and His disciples had eaten the Passover meal the previous night, but Jewish leaders had yet to eat the meal. They would plan to eat their meal prior to the beginning of the Sabbath, which occurred Friday evening. Tradition allowed for the Passover meal to be celebrated anytime during the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Roman Palace, called the Praetorium, was a Gentile place of ceremonial uncleanliness, so the leaders refused to enter, thinking they were being pleasing to God – but they had no problem subjecting a fellow Jew, Jesus, to this unclean place, which was truly cleaner than their bodies and souls by far.

Pilate asked the reason for their early morning visit, and they had no real crime against Jesus. Yet they show their own pride or arrogance in judgment of Pilate by claiming that the crime of Jesus need not be revealed, for surely they always do what is just and right. Shame on Pilate for failing to realize that! Offended by their comment, Pilate offends them by telling them to judge Jesus under their own religious laws; he mocks the laws of God, since they consider them to be superior to Roman law. And since they did not have the right to execute criminals under Roman law, they appealed to Pilate by demanding that he do his job; thus he would have to hear the case. John tells his audience, as He often points out throughout his gospel, that the events described, in this case, this entire exchange, happened according to God’s will, here that Jesus would be crucified according to the Scriptures (Matthew 20:19). How ironic that the infallible Judge of all humanity is here subjected to a wicked and unjust human judge!