Luke 23:21

Yet since the word of God is rich and, according to the judgment of Solomon, is to be "inscribed upon the heart" not simply, but doubly and "triply," let us try even now to add some things to those which were spoken a while ago according to our strength, that we may show how, "in a type of things to come," here too one goat was offered to the Lord as a victim and the other was sent away "alive." Hear in the Gospels Pilate saying to the priests and the people of the Jews: "Which of the two do you wish that I release to you, Jesus who is called Christ, or Barabbas?" Then all the people cried out that he should release "Barabbas," but hand Jesus over to death. Behold, you have the goat which was sent away "alive into the wilderness," bearing with itself the sins of the people that cried out and said: "Crucify, crucify!" This, then, is the goat sent away "alive into the wilderness," and the other is the goat that was offered to the Lord as a victim to make propitiation for sins, and made true propitiation for the peoples who believe in him. And if you should also inquire this — who it is that led this goat "into the wilderness," so that it might be proved in him also that he was washed and made clean — Pilate himself can be taken as the "man made ready." For he was the judge of that very nation, who by his sentence sent him out "into the wilderness." But hear how he was washed and made clean. When he said to the people, "Do you wish that I release to you Jesus, who is called Christ?" and all the people had cried out, saying, "If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar," then, it says, "Pilate called for water and washed his hands before the people, saying: I am clean from the blood of this man; see you to it." So then he will be seen, with his hands washed, to have been made clean.

Celsus goes on to say that "those who killed Jesus suffered nothing for a long a time afterwards." We must inform him and all who are prone to learn the truth. The Jewish people called for the crucifixion of Jesus with shouts of "Crucify him, crucify him!" They preferred to set free the robber who had been thrown into prison for sedition and murder. They wanted Jesus, who had been delivered through envy, to be crucified. The city where all these things happened was attacked shortly after this. After a long siege, it was totally overthrown and destroyed. God judged the inhabitants of that place unworthy of living the life of citizens together. Although it may seem incredible to say, God spared this people in delivering them to their enemies. He saw that they were incurably against any improvement and were daily sinking deeper and deeper into evil. All this happened to them because the blood of Jesus was shed at their instigation and on their land. The land was no longer able to bear those who were guilty of so fearful a crime against Jesus.

And themselves became accusers, and witnesses, and judges, and authors of the sentence, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him;" that it might be fulfilled which is written by the prophets concerning Him, "Unjust witnesses were gathered together against me, and injustice lied to itself;" and again, "Many dogs compassed me about, the assembly of the wicked laid siege against me;" and elsewhere, "My inheritance became to me as a lion in a wood, and has sent forth her voice against me." Pilate therefore, disgracing his authority by his pusillanimity, convicts himself of wickedness by regarding the multitude more than this just person, and bearing witness to Him that He was innocent, yet as guilty delivering Him up to the punishment of the cross, although the Romans had made laws that no man unconvicted should be put to death.

Many have been crucified throughout the world, but the demons are not afraid of any of these. These people died because of their own sins, but Christ died for the sin of others. He "did not sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth." It was not Peter, who could be suspected of partiality, who said this, but Isaiah, who, although not present in the flesh, in spirit foresaw the Lord's coming in the flesh. Why do I bring only the prophet as a witness? Take the witness of Pilate himself. He passed judgment on him, by saying, "I find no guilt in this man." When he delivered him over and washed his hands, he said, "I am innocent of the blood of this just man." The robber is another witness to Jesus' innocence. He is the first man to enter paradise. He rebuked his friend and said, "We are receiving what our deeds deserved, but this man has done nothing wrong, because you and I were present at his judgment."

Here Pilate, who as a judge acquits Christ, is made the minister of His crucifixion. He is sent to Herod, sent back to Pilate, as it follows, Nor yet Herod, for I sent you to him, and behold nothing worthy of death is done unto him. They both refuse to pronounce Him guilty, yet for fear's sake, Pilate gratifies the cruel desires of the Jews.

He is sent to Herod, sent back to Pilate. And although neither of them pronounce him guilty, they still comply with the desires of someone else's cruelty. Indeed, Pilate washed his hands, but he did not wash away his deeds; for a judge ought not to yield to envy or fear, so as to deliver the blood of an innocent person. His wife warned him: grace shone in the darkness; divinity was evident; yet she did not temper the sacrilegious sentence in this way.

Similarly, I think that this is a prototype of all judgments that they would condemn those whom they believed to be innocent. However, it is evident that the Gentiles are more tolerant than the Jews, as Pilate's association with them demonstrates, and they are more persuaded by divine works.

They brought the holy and just One to Pilate. They spoke violent and unrestrained words against him and poured out falsely invented accusations. They persisted in the ferocity with which they accused him. Pilate then ruled that it should be as they desired, although he had publicly said, "I find no wickedness in this man." It says, "They cried out, 'Away with him, crucify him!' " The Lord had rebuked this unmerciful and unlawful cry by the voice of the prophet Isaiah. It is written, "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry!" In another place, he said of them, "Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me." It is written again, "Their princes shall fall by the sword, because of the rudeness of their tongue."

With the worst kind of death, that is, crucifixion, they long to murder the innocent. For they who hung on the cross, with their hands and feet fixed by nails to the wood, suffered a prolonged death, that their agony might not quickly cease; but the death of the cross was chosen by our Lord, as that which having overcome the Devil, He was about to place as a trophy on the brows of the faithful.

Pilate proposes for a third time to release Him, and for a third time they cry out against Christ, so that by this threefold outcry they might definitively confirm their thirst for murder. And they—as the blessed Peter says—"denied the Holy and Righteous One," and asked for a murderer to be granted to them (Acts 3:14). For they love what is like themselves (which is why they take part in it), because they themselves also revolted against the Romans and became the cause of countless murders and of their own destruction. The Lord foretells this through Jeremiah: "I have forsaken My house; I have left My heritage; the dearly beloved of My soul I have given into the hands of her enemies. My heritage has become to Me like a lion in the forest; it has raised its voice against Me: therefore I have hated it" (Jer. 12:7–8). And Hosea again: "Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me; destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me! I redeemed them, yet they spoke lies against Me… Their princes shall fall by the sword for the insolence of their tongue" (Hos. 7:13, 16).

Thus it came to pass, the once holy nation rages to slay, the Gentile Pilate forbids slaughter; as it follows, Pilate therefore spoke again unto them, but they cried out, Crucify, &c.

Therefore it is added: But they cried out, saying: Crucify, crucify him: where the perverse will of the Jews is shown in this, that they seek with clamor; whence that saying in Isaiah 5 applies to them: "I expected that he would do judgment, and behold, iniquity; and justice, and behold, a cry." For the clamor of this multitude it is said in Isaiah 17: "The multitude of many peoples, like the multitude of the roaring sea, and the tumult of crowds like the sound of many waters."

Their perverse will is also apparent from this, because they seek crucifixion: whence Bede: "Great cruelty: they seek not only to kill, but even to crucify, so that, with feet and hands nailed to the wood, he might be tormented by a prolonged death," and not only prolonged, but also bitter, according to that verse of the Psalm: "They pierced my hands and my feet"; and not only bitter, but also ignominious: Wisdom 2: "Let us condemn him to a most shameful death"; whence they wished to subject him as one accursed to the punishment of a curse, because, Deuteronomy 21, "cursed by God is he who hangs on a tree." But this was not without divine disposition, according to Galatians 3: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us"; but the impious demanded this out of cruelty and wrath. For these two things, namely the clamor and the cruelty, it is said in Jeremiah 12: "My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest: it has raised its voice against me"; and again in the Psalm: "For many dogs have surrounded me, the assembly of the wicked has besieged me."