So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
Pilate accommodates the Jews and goes out to them. He was not always so nice. He had a great deal of contempt for the Jews and their “superstitions”.
Pontius Pilate was the Roman procurator of Judea from A.D. 26-36. Upon his appointment by Tiberius, his first action was to move the headquarters of his army to Jerusalem from Caesarea. The soldiers took their standards, which bore the cast image of the emperor, who they claimed to be a god, into the city of Jerusalem and planted them within sight of the Temple, which greatly enraged the people, who demanded that they be removed or else they would die at his hand. Pilate relented and had the standards returned to Caesarea.
He later had golden shields inscribed with the names of Roman gods hung in his palace on Mount Zion and they were only removed after the people appealed to Caesar who ordered their removal. Pilate also appropriated the revenues of the Temple, which came from the redemption of vows, called Corban (Mark 7:11), for a building project of an aqueduct. Both of these instances almost caused the insurrection of the Jews, but they were not all that Pilate was infamous for (Luke 13:1).
Mark 7:11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God),
Luke 13:1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
Pilate asks the Jews for the charges they are bringing against Jesus. Roman law demanded that the accused must meet his accuser and have a chance to defend himself against the charges brought against him (Acts 25:16-17). Pilate is acting as judge, which is his position in these matters and either his sense of justice or his determination to do his job dictated that he would act accordingly.
Acts 25:16-17 “I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over any man before he has faced his accusers and has had an opportunity to defend himself against their charges. When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in.