“When they saw him, the leading priests and Temple guards shouted, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him,’ Pilate said. ‘I find him not guilty.’”
John 19:6 (NLT)
By the time Jesus is brought back before the crowd, He is nearly unrecognizable—beaten, bleeding, mocked, and crowned with thorns. Pilate declares for the third time that Jesus is not guilty, yet the response from the leading priests and temple guards is chilling: “Crucify him.” No pause. No pity. No mercy.
What’s hard to fathom is not only their cruelty, but Jesus’ restraint. This is the same Jesus who, with a single declaration—“I am He”—caused His enemies to fall to the ground. He had power to stop it all, yet He chose silence. Isaiah foretold it: oppressed, treated harshly, led like a lamb to the slaughter, He did not open His mouth.
The lamb imagery matters. Passover lambs were innocent, but they were not mocked, crushed, or humiliated. Jesus was. He is the Lamb who was slain, yet treated with relentless cruelty. And still, He responds with mercy.
That mercy didn’t end at the whipping post or the cross. It continued through the resurrection—opening the way for forgiveness, new life, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. I fail constantly, yet His mercy does not run out. If God has shown us mercy we did not deserve, how can we withhold it from others?