“Wherein lay the cause of Pilate’s weakness? He was the emperor’s representative, the imperial procurator with power to crucify or to save; officially he was an autocrat. His conviction of Christ’s blamelessness and his desire to save Him from the cross are beyond question. Why did Pilate waver, hesitate, vacillate, and at length yield contrary to his conscience and his will? Because, after all, he was more slave than freeman. He was in servitude to his past. He knew that should complaint be made of him at Rome, his corruption and cruelties, his extortions and the unjustifiable slaughter he had caused would all be brought against him. He was the Roman ruler, but the people over whom he exercised official dominion delighted in seeing him cringe, when they cracked, with vicious snap above his head, the whip of a threatened report about him to his imperial master, Tiberius” (Jesus the Christ, 3rd ed. [1916], 641).
Elder Talmage further observed that “Pilate knew what was right but lacked the moral courage to do it” (chap. 34, note 7 in Jesus the Christ, 648).
“Character is revealed … in the power to discern the suffering of other people when we ourselves are suffering; in the ability to detect the hunger of others when we are hungry; and in the power to reach out and extend compassion for the spiritual agony of others when we are in the midst of our own spiritual distress. Thus, character is demonstrated by looking and reaching outward when the natural and instinctive response is to be self-absorbed and turn inward. If such a capacity is indeed the ultimate criterion of moral character, then the Savior of the world is the perfect example of such a consistent and charitable character” (“The Character of Christ” [Brigham Young University–Idaho Religion Symposium, Jan. 25, 2003], 2–3).
Victims of crucifixion sometimes lived in torment for several days before dying. After crucified persons had died, Romans customarily left the bodies on crosses to deter other would-be criminals. The law of Moses, however, prohibited leaving the bodies of criminals to hang on a tree overnight (see Deuteronomy 21:22–23). Also, in the case of Jesus’s crucifixion, the next day was the Sabbath. Therefore the Jewish leaders, wanting to have the bodies removed from the crosses before the Sabbath began at sundown, sought to hasten the deaths of the three men on the crosses by asking that their legs be broken. This would cause the victims to suffer cramping in the chest and restricted breathing because they could no longer use their legs to support their weight. After breaking the legs of the other two crucified men, the Roman soldiers found Jesus already dead and so had no need to break His legs.
This important moment on the cross fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy: “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken” (Psalm 34:20). Additionally, the Lord had instructed Israel that Passover lambs, which foreshadowed Jesus’s sacrifice as the Lamb of God, were not to have their bones broken (see Exodus 12:46).