Pilate questions Jesus, sends him to Herod (who sends Him back), still finds nothing wrong with him, but sends him to be crucified anyway: Mark 15:2–5; Matthew 27:11–14; Luke 23:1–12; John 18:28–40; Mark 15:6–15; Matthew 27:15–26; Luke 23:13–25; John 19:1–16; Mark 15:16–20; Matthew 27:27–31

What was Jesus’ so-called crime? Luke reported it as this:

^{Luke 23:1-2} Then the entire council took Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor. They began to state their case: ‘This man has been leading our people astray by telling them not to pay their taxes to the Roman government and by claiming he is the Messiah, a king.’

The Council would have had to have known the taxes accusation was false: it was one of the questions they’d tried to use to trip up Jesus. They probably thought they needed to add in something to get a Roman Governor’s attention.

They were right about needing something: the tax accusation didn’t get a second thought, and Pilate didn’t care about this Messiah business at all. Pilate’s view was that Jesus hadn’t broken any Roman law.

^{Mark 15:9-10} ‘Would you like me to release to you this ‘King of the Jews’?’ Pilate asked. For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.