THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
The Trial Before Pilate
John 18:28-19:16
INTRODUCTION
From the last time we saw Jesus, He was on trial before the high priest Annas. Now we see Him brought before Pilate the Roman governor over Judea. John skips over the portion of the proceedings in which Jesus stood before Caiaphas the official high priest and the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court. The reason is that John knew his readers had access to this information from the other 3 Gospels which were written prior to his Gospel. With the exception of a few incidents, John gives us fresh material on the trial and crucifixion of Jesus assuming that we will fill in any gaps from the other 3 Gospels.
JESUS BEFORE PILATE (part one) 18:28-40
It is now early on the Friday morning before Passover (the Passover was supposed to begin at Friday sundown). The Jews take Jesus to the Praetorium which most likely was the Roman fortress Antonia, to be tried by Pontius Pilate. (The Praetorium was the official residence of the Roman governor in whatever city he was staying. Pilate was in Jerusalem at this time with a large contingency of troops to ensure the peace.) Although some claim that these proceedings would have occurred at the palace built by Herod the Great at the southwestern edge of the city , the fact that this whole situation was so very intense necessitated most likely that the proceedings occur in a much more secure setting like the Fortress Antonia than in the more luxurious Herodian palace. (The Fortress Antonia was strategically located just to the north of the Temple complex; it had been placed there because if any riots were going to break out, they would most likely break out in the Temple area where the Jews congregated.)
Pilate comes out to greet the Jews. At this point we have an example of John’s use of irony. Pilate came outside the Praetorium to meet the Jews because they scrupulously refused to enter the Praetorium in order not to be defiled. Gentile dwellings were considered impure because they normally buried their infants inside their homes. If the Jewish religious leaders had entered the Praetorium, they would have been considered impure for seven days and thereby unable to participate in the Passover which was occurring in just a few hours. The ironic part of all this is that while the Jewish religious leaders considered contact with a Gentile dwelling would have made them impure, they thought that using the court system to murder Jesus wouldn’t defile them at all! At any rate Pilate defers to their scruples and goes outside the Praetorium to meet them.
Pilate then asks the religious leaders what charge they have devised against Jesus. They insolently reply that if Jesus was not an evildoer, they would not have delivered Him up to him. They did not bring Jesus to Pilate so that he could conduct his own investigation; they brought Him to Pilate so that he could carry out the death penalty for the crime for which they had found Him guilty. Now whereas Pilate had agreed to Jesus’ arrest (the Roman soldiers would have only been sent to arrest Jesus with Pilate’s permission), that was a far cry from agreeing to execute Jesus. Pilate then tells them to try Jesus according to their own law.
Now the Jewish religious leaders betray the real reason they have brought Jesus to Pilate. They want Jesus first to be executed and second to be executed by crucifixion. The Romans were adamant about reserving for themselves the right to execute criminals. The reason is that occupied peoples have a tendency to execute people who are sympathetic to the occupiers. If the Jews were going to kill somebody, they most likely were going to kill people who assisted the Romans, the last people the Romans wanted executed. Since the Jewish religious leaders want Jesus executed, they need Pilate to authorize it. Second, they want to be executed by crucifixion. Although they might have gotten away with inciting some paid rioters to stone Jesus, they would not have been able to have Him crucified. They wanted Jesus crucified so that God’s curse would be placed upon Jesus. According to Moses God’s curse fell upon the person who hung on a tree (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13). The Jews were convinced that if God’s curse fell upon Jesus, then all would be assured that He was not God the Son since in their thinking God’s curse would never fall upon His Son. It is ironic that this is precisely what God wanted to happen. God wanted man's curse to fall upon Jesus so that He could take it off of mannkind and place His blessing upon them. [All this served to fulfill Jesus’ prediction about the way He would suffer death (John 12:32-33).]
At this point Pilate reenters the Praetorium and presents Jesus with the charge the Jewish religious leaders have leveled against Jesus: “Are You the King of the Jews?” With this charge the Jews are claiming that Jesus has presented Himself as a rival to Caesar, a charge the Roman procurator would have taken very seriously. Jesus turns the tables on Pilate: “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” Jesus in effect is asking Pilate if he is just merely parroting what others have said about Jesus or if he is genuinely interested in discovering who Jesus is. What is happening here is that Jesus is putting Pilate on the spot. Pilate has come to try Jesus, while all along Pilate is the one on trial, he along with Peter and the Jewish religious leaders. No man tries God; God serves only as Judge.
Pilate is aghast at Jesus’ response. He doesn’t care who Jesus is, just as long as He is not a threat to the Roman government. He’s a Roman, not a Jew. One thing does puzzle Pilate though. Normally people guilty of the charge leveled against Jesus were the last ones the Jews would ever turn over to Pilate for execution. The Jews were an oppressed people who would have liked nothing better than to have the Romans driven out of Judea. People guilty of the crime leveled against Jesus were trying to make that dream a reality. Pilate suspects that more is at work here; so he probes deeper: “You must have done something pretty bad to have Your own people turn against You. What have You done?”
Jesus now responds to the charge Pilate has brought against Him. While admitting that He is a king, Jesus rejects the kind of kingship Pilate is referring to: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Whatever kind of king Jesus was, He was not the kind which threatened Roman rule. It was a kingdom of a nature different from that of the Roman empire. The fact that Jesus did not have an army breaking down the doors of the Fortress Antonia at this very moment demonstrated that His kingdom was of a different type than Rome’s.
Pilate immediately picks up on Jesus’ admission that He is a king. He springs: “So You are a king!” Jesus answered affirmatively: “Yes, I am” (the form of Jesus’ response in the Greek implies that Jesus is answering affirmatively). Whereas He has just rejected Pilate’s and the Jews’ interpretation of the nature of His kingdom, He now explains to Pilate just what kind of kingdom He was ruler over: “For this reason I have been born and for this reason I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.” His kingdom is the kingdom of truth, truth about God the Father. As the Son Jesus has perfectly and truthfully revealed the Father to the world. By believing in this truth about Jesus and the Father, people enter into this kingdom of truth, this kingdom of salvation.
Pilate refuses to be drawn any further into this discussion. He has heard all he needs to know to resolve this case. In his mind Jesus is not guilty of sedition, and must, therefore, be declared innocent and set free. He dismisses Jesus with “What is truth?” He is a seasoned veteran. He was probably once idealistic like the young normally are; however, the experience of cruel reality has shown him that there are no such things as absolute truth and absolute values in the world. He has no time for such talk like truth; the only real truth is Rome.
Pilate goes out to the Jewish religious leaders and informs them that Jesus is not guilty of the charge leveled against Him. Whereas at this point Pilate should have immediately released Jesus, he makes a tragic mistake. Probably in order to placate the religious leaders by helping them save face, he asks them whom they would like for him to release at the feast. The Hasmonean kings (Jewish rulers over Israel from 142 to 63 BC) started the policy of releasing a prisoner each year at the discretion of the crowd in honor of the scapegoat which was also released during Passover. The Roman rulers revived this practice when they took control of Judea. Since the Jewish religious leaders have now exposed themselves as being fraudulent regarding their charge against Jesus, Pilate tries to let them off the hook by letting them ask for Jesus’ release. How they respond though stuns Pilate. There is another Jesus in imprison in Fortress Antonia, Jesus Barabbas [(Matt. 27:16); the editors of the UBS 3rd edition of the Greek text accept this reading]. When Pilate asks them which prisoner they want to be released, they cry out, “Jesus Barabbas!” All the world wants a Jesus; they just want Jesus Barabbas instead of Jesus the Nazarene. With their demand for Barabbas’ release, they expose themselves to be hypocritical. They had delivered Jesus up to Pilate on the charge of sedition. When they got a chance though to have any prisoner released, they asked for the release of a man who was actually guilty of the very charge they had leveled against Jesus, Barabbas who was a well-known guerilla fighter who had committed murdered in a recent insurrection (Luke 23:19).
PILATE SCOURGES JESUS (19:1-3)
Pilate is in a quandary. He should have never given them a say in what happened to Jesus because the only way to deal with such people is to render them completely powerless. Pilate was so sure that the Jews would have taken his bait and asked for Jesus’ release; however, cutthroats like the Jewish religious leaders could easily detect weakness in an opponent. The fact that Pilate was trying to let them save face showed that to some degree he cared about what they thought; from here on out, they will take advantage of Pilate’s weakness.
When Pilate’s first scheme failed, he devises another one. He hopes that he can play on their sympathy for a fellow Jew. It is one thing to ask for the death of a fellow countryman; it is quite another to see that fellow countryman actually suffer. In hopes of placating their bloodthirsty and of tapping into their sympathy for a fellow countryman, Pilate orders Jesus to be scourged.
There were 3 different types of scourging: (1) beating with rods which was normally reserved for the Roman citizen who has been condemned; (2) beating with a whip; and (3) a whipping with a whip made up of chain or bone or metal cattails. Jesus most likely underwent the third type of scourging. In his histories, Josephus, a famous Jewish first-century historian, remarked that in one instance when he ordered a man to be scourged, the whipping continued until finally the man’s entrails were exposed. At other times the scourging would continue until bone was exposed. It was such a vicious form of punishment that many times people actually died as a result of the scourging.
The Roman soldiers who have been ordered to conduct the scourging go further than the orders Pilate has given them. For years the Romans had hated the province of Judea. Judea was one of the few parts of the Roman empire which still resisted Roman rule. Most of the provinces had accepted and even begun to welcome Roman rule because of the political, social, and economic benefits that came along with being a part of the Roman empire. Not so Judea. It was a boiling cauldron of rebellion. One or two soldiers walking by themselves in the night were easy targets for the Sicarri, Jewish freedom fighters. The soldiers were in constant fear for their lives patrolling Judea. Now with this Jew before them they are able to vent all their pent-up frustrations and hostilities. They decide to mock this king of the Jews. They place upon Him a crown of thorns, the thorns measuring approximately up to 12 inches in length. When they placed it upon Jesus’ head, it ripped His flesh. They place a purple (scarlet) robe upon Him in imitation of the purple robe worn by the emperor. In place of the submissive kiss they would give the emperor, they spit upon Him. In mock imitation of “Ave Caesar,” they cry out, “Ave King of the Jews!” This is the only kind of coronation that they feel the king of the Jews deserves. No matter their intention, the truth is that they got it right. He was King of the Jews. The sad truth though is that this is the only kind of coronation that mankind is ever going to give God.
JESUS BEFORE PILATE (part two) 19:4-16
At this point Jesus is a bloody mess, His flesh ripped to shreds with a crown of thorns upon His brow. Pilate emerges from the Praetorium and announces to the Jews for the second time that Jesus is innocent of the charge brought against Him. To prove to them how absurd their charge against Him is, he announces that he is going to bring Jesus out to them. When Jesus emerges, Pilate cries out, “Behold, the Man.”
Undoubtedly the statement “Behold, the Man” reflects Pilate’s attempts to portray Jesus as nothing more than a mere man who is no threat to either the Roman empire or the Jewish religious leaders. John though undoubtedly sees more in this statement. Jesus is Man, all that God always intended man to be: full of love and purity, but also of loyalty to His Father to the point of even being willing to suffer all that the Father ordered Him to suffer. The world sees big burly Peter as the epitome of man. God sees Jesus as being the ideal for man.
Instead of placating the Jews, the sight of Jesus actually gives the Jews their first taste of blood. They can now taste Jesus’ blood. Nothing short of His crucifixion will satisfy them. They cry out, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate is beside himself. For a third time he pronounces Jesus innocent of the charge brought against Him. In Roman law the third pronouncement of a person’s innocence required the release of the accused. Pilate fails to release Him because of the riot developing. Pilate throws it back in their faces: “Take Him yourself and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.” He knows good and well that Roman law forbade them from crucifying Jesus; however, he has just about had it with them.
At long last they take off their masks. They didn’t care one whit if Jesus was a threat to Roman rule They wanted Him dead because He had claimed to be God the Son and because their Law demanded the death of One who made such false claims. Finally the Jews were going to have to face the truth. They now were not going to be able to stand before God on Judgment Day and say, “God, we had no idea that we were crucifying God the Son. We executed Him on the grounds of His being a threat to Roman rule.” On Judgment Day they were going to have to admit that they knowingly crucified God the Son that day.
Pilate is now really disturbed over what the Jews have just said. From the beginning Pilate had suspected that all was not as it seemed with Jesus. Now he is really nervous. Greeks and Romans from childhood had heard of gods coming down to earth to mingle with people; this strange person before him just might simply be an example of this. He returns to Jesus and asks Him where he is from.
Jesus this time gives no response. Earlier He had given Pilate the chance to respond positively to the truth. When Pilate scorned the truth, Jesus had nothing more to say to Him. God loves us and dearly wants to communicate with us; however, whenever we are flippant in our relationship with Him and His communication with us, heaven can become deadly silent.
Pilate vents all his pent-up emotions against Jesus: “You do not speak to me? How dare You? I am the Roman official here; You are nothing. I have the authority to release You and I have the authority to crucify You. If You know what is good for You, You will respond.”
Jesus once more reminds Pilate that he is the one on trial and not Jesus. Pilate is not Jesus’ judge because of some inherent quality but because Somebody, specifically God, has delegated that authority to him. Since God has delegated that authority to Pilate, Pilate is going to be held accountable to God for the way he has used that authority. Pilate’s response to this situation is going to determine the verdict God renders against or for Pilate. As for Caiaphas, he had no authority to deliver Jesus over to the Romans. His only right was to lead the people to accept Jesus as the Messiah and Savior.
At this point as hard as Pilate has tried to release Jesus, he now more than doubles those efforts. The Jews though have an ace up their sleeves. Ruling from Rome is an old, decrepit, suspicious Tiberias who is paranoid over anything and anybody who would threaten his rule. Moreover at this point Aelius Sejanus, Pilate’s patron in Rome, is under suspicion. Within a year Sejanus will be executed because he fell out of favor with Tiberias. The Jews know all this and use it to their advantage. They inform Pilate that no friend of Caesar would ever release a man trying to overthrow Roman rule. With the few quick strokes of a pen, Caesar will hear of his aiding and abetting a traitor if he releases Jesus. Sejanus’ fate will befall Pilate as well if he releases Jesus.
As nervous as Pilate is about God, he’s even more afraid of Caesar. To him God is a possibility; Tiberias on the other hand is a certainty. Jesus will be executed. When Pilate comes out of the Praetorium and sits on the Judgment Seat, the Jews know that they have won because it is at the Judgment Seat that the procurator will render his verdict. The Jews have gotten the upper hand; Pilate though is not to be trifled with. He is going to exact his revenge upon the Jews which will haunt them for the next 2000 years. Pilate brings Jesus out and declares, “Behold, your King.” The Jewish religious leaders respond: “Away with Him; away with Him! Crucify Him!” When Pilate asks them if he should crucify their King, they reply: “We have no king but Caesar!”
Do not let their last response escape you. They didn’t say, “We reject Jesus because we are waiting for the true king from God.” They don’t say, “Caesar is our king but God ultimately is our king.” They reply, “We have NO king but Caesar.” For all practical purposes they reject their status as the people of God. For the past 1700+ years starting with Abraham they had declared God to be their true king even though their history proved this declaration to be shallow, to say the least. Now at the critical moment in their history when God Himself came to them, they reject not only Jesus but also any other Messiah God might send to them; they in essence are rejecting God and their position as the people of God. Judea is now nothing more than another Roman province like Achaia or Macedonia. They have lifted the divine protection off themselves. It is now just a matter of a short time (40 years) before they discover what it is like to be nothing more than another province in the Roman empire; the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans is the natural outcome of this episode.
EPILOGUE
Before leaving this passage we need to draw out 2 more lessons from it. First, John mentions that the verdict rendered against Jesus occurred at the 6th hour on the Day of Preparation for the Passover. The Passover officially started at 6:00 p.m. (sundown) Friday and ran through 6:00 p.m. (sundown) Saturday. The lambs which the priests slaughtered for the Passover meals eaten throughout Jerusalem were slain at 12 noon on Friday, 6 hours before the Passover began. John mentions this hour in order to stress the true nature of what was going on. Jesus was about to be put to death at 12 noon because He was God’s Passover lamb (see John 1:29). What is ironic is that even though the priests did not know it, they were fulfilling the role God had assigned to them. They thought they were once and for all removing a major nuisance from their midst, while in fact they the official priests were slaughtering God’s Passover lamb. The sad thing is that even though they were fulfilling their role, they were not going to enjoy the benefits of what they had done because of their reasons for slaying Jesus. Nothing is going to prevent God’s will from being done; however, the question remains whether or not we will enjoy what God is doing in our lives.
Second, Pilate represents those in the world who try to have it both ways. They are not hostile to Jesus Christ; in fact they are quite intrigued by Him. They just don’t want to commit themselves fully to Him. On the other hand, these same people try to accommodate the world. They want peace. This episode shows that this just doesn’t work. As I watched The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers again the other day, I was vividly impressed with the truth that we are involved in a major war going on between Christ and Satan. You are either going to commit to Christ, or else you will end up being against him. The person who refuses to commit fully to Christ will end up being like Pilate. Though he was not hostile towards Christ, he ended up being a pawn of the world in its struggle against Christ.