Mark 15:5

But Jesus yet answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled.

The question of Pilate indicated in what form the accusation of the Jewish authorities against Christ had come before him. Since the enemies had no tangible evidence against the Lord, they construed His confession concerning His Messiahship in such a way as to give it political significance: The Christ, regarding whom every Jew believed that He would establish a temporal kingdom. They insinuated that this Man was a rebel against the Roman government. That was the meaning of Pilate's question. He may have thought that he here had a case of a periodic Messianic disturbance, although he had the conviction from the start that there was a great deal of jealousy on the part of the Jews involved in the affair. The answer of Jesus to this direct question was just as brief. But the explanation which He afterwards added, as given by John 18:36, showed Pilate that the accusation had nothing to do with political affairs and dangers to the government. And the chief priests felt the weakness of their position, since they did not insist upon this one point, but kept bringing other accusations, of a more or less vague character, many of them, their idea being to swamp Pilate with the mass of material and thus to cause his assent to their wishes without making a careful examination of the evidence. Pilate felt the vagueness and uncertainty of the accusers, and in the same strain asked Jesus whether He had no answer to all these charges, since they were made with such vehemence and bitterness. But Jesus observed a majestic silence. Why waste breath when it was perfectly obvious to every sane person that these were nothing but trumped-up charges, without the shadow of a foundation which would stand before any real court of justice in the world. Not so much as a single word did He answer, for He knew also very well that Pilate felt the weakness of the accusers and believed Him to be innocent.