When we start to look closely at the ways of God, we notice that people often think they are shaming God, or making Him small somehow, with their words and actions against Him, when in reality they are glorifying God without realizing it. So it was with the soldiers mocking Jesus: putting the crown of thorns on his head, and dressing him in a royal robe. You can say, "Hail, King of the Jews!" as mockingly as you want, but if Jesus really is the King, the truth is the truth.
One of the reasons that the Church puts the words, "Crucify him, crucify him!" on our lips on Palm Sunday is that we don't want to begin to think that we are so much better than these officials. Every time we sin, we are like these leaders, who traded the innocent Jesus for a robber and a murderer.
Pilate finally got an answer to his question about what supposedly Jesus had done wrong: they were charging him with blasphemy, because he made himself equal with God. I think this is what made Pilate afraid, because people who take religion and authority seriously are more alike than those who do not, even if two believers believe very different things. This was not an unbelieving culture; later, Christian leaders would be executed by the Roman Empire for refusing to worship the Roman gods. The Christians were described as atheists, because anyone who didn't worship their Roman gods might as well believe nothing at all, according to the Romans.
When Pilate reminds Jesus that he has the power to free him or to execute him, Jesus essentially says that Pilate is only a minor player in this story. Jesus is the hope of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The greater sin is against them, and against their faith and hope.
This is why Jesus wept over Jerusalem: (see Matthew 23:37, Luke 19:41-44) because the One David hoped for and believed in is here, and Jesus still finds unbelief among his people. (See again John 1:11)
The saving work of Jesus is more than just the Cross, though it is not less. We might be able to divide his time here into his life, his suffering, and his death and resurrection. Of course, everything after his resurrection is back into his life, now that he lives forever.
Jesus could have saved us with one drop of his blood, but this was not fitting, because I don't think we would understand. Even those of us who have faith struggle to understand and to live in the power of his love for us. Faith is a gift, and it is a light from God the Father, in order to see things through God's eyes. May God grant us this faith, and the power to love Him, especially through the work of the Holy Spirit.
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