Pilate saw that there was nothing he could do and that the people were starting to riot. So he took some water and washed his hands in front of them and said,
Matthew 27:24I won’t have anything to do with killing this righteous man. You are the ones doing it!
Words: Charles Coffin, in the Paris Breviary, 1736 (Opprobriis, Jesu, satur). Translated from Latin to English by John Chandler, Hymns of the Primitive Church, 1837, page 72.
Music: Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich, in the Church Book, edited by Harriet R. Krauth (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. K. Shryock, 1890), number 174a (🔊 pdf nwc).
His trial o’er, and now beneath
His own cross faintly bending,
Jesus the fatal hill of death
Is wearily ascending.
And now, His hands and feet pierced through,
Upon the cross they raise Him:
Where even now, in distant view,
The eye of faith surveys Him.
O wondrous love, which God most high
Toward man was pleased to cherish!
His sinless Son He gave to die,
That sinners might not perish.
Yes, ’tis the cross that breaks the rod
And chain of condemnation,
And makes a league ’twixt man and God
For our entire salvation.
O praise the Father, praise the Son,
The Lamb for sinners given,
And Holy Ghost, by whom alone
Our hearts are raised to Heaven.