The last couple of days have been extremely difficult for the followers of Jesus. Thursday, after they had shared a last supper together, the Lord went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. There he was arrested by the religious authorities and put on trial in the court of Caiaphas, the high priest. Jesus was charged with blasphemy: false religious teaching. Had Caiaphas heard sufficient evidence to find him guilty, he could have been sentenced to death by stoning.

The high priest was not comfortable with that verdict and turned Jesus over to Pontius Pilate and charged him with the political crime of challenging the governing authority of Rome. Pilate, a political hack of the worst order, tested winds of popular opinion by sticking a wet finger in the air. When a few strident voices shoute…