Early morning at the judgment hall,

Holy men would not step in.

They guarded ceremonial cleanness

While delivering an innocent man.

Pilate crossed the doorway:

"What charge do ye bring here?"

"If he were not an evildoer,

We would not have brought him near."

"Judge him by your law."

"We cannot put a man to death."

The answer moved the sentence

Toward the manner Jesus had said.

Pilate entered once again:

"Art thou the Jewish King?"

The prisoner asked whose question spoke,

And what report had shaped the thing.

His kingdom was not of this world;

No servant fought to set him free.

His throne did not depend on Rome,

His truth did not need Caesar's leave.

His kingdom was not of this world,

Yet there a King before them stood,

Born to bear true witness,

Heard by everyone of truth.

"What is truth?" the governor asked,

Then left the Truth behind.

"I find no fault in him,"

But innocence did not decide.

A custom opened prison doors:

"Shall I release your King?"

They cried for Barabbas, robber freed,

And kept the guiltless one.

Scourges marked his body,

Thorns became a crown,

Purple mocked the kingdom

While soldiers struck him down.

"Hail, King of the Jews,"

Their cruelty made play.

Pilate brought him forth again:

"Behold the man today."

No fault.

Yet crucify.

No proof.

Yet crucify.

The verdict had no justice,

Only pressure dressed as law.

"By our law he ought to die;

He made himself God's Son."

Pilate heard a deeper charge,

And fear within him rose.

"Whence art thou?" No answer came.

"Knowest thou my power?"

But power held by empire

Had been granted from above.

The greater guilt lay elsewhere,

Yet Pilate's hands were not made clean.

He sought a road to free him,

Then Caesar entered through the threat:

"Whoever makes himself a king

Speaks against Caesar's claim."

The governor chose the safer throne

And carried truth to Gabbatha.

"Behold your King."

"Away with him! Crucify!"

"Shall I crucify your King?"

The chief priests answered their own shame:

"We have no king but Caesar."

His kingdom was not of this world;

No servant fought to set him free.

But worldly power and sacred fear

Agreed on one catastrophe.

His kingdom was not of this world,

Yet earth condemned its rightful King.

Truth stood bound before the throne,

And Pilate delivered him.

Delivered to be crucified.