Very early in the morning, they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s residence. Pilate came out to them impatiently perplexed as to why such matters needed his attention. “What charges are you bringing against this man?” he gruffly asked. With an offended arrogance, the religious leaders responded, “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” But Pilate saw right through their game. Since they had already found Jesus guilty, why bother the governor with the matter?
With sarcastic condescension, Pilate ordered, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” Pilate didn’t want to be bothered with the matter. But the religious leaders objected saying, “But we have no right to execute anyone.” There is no end to their hypocrisy. They tried to kill Jesus on more than one occasion. But they wanted Jesus to be crucified so that he would appear to be cursed by God (see: Galatians 3:13).
Pilate found himself in an aggravatingly familiar dilemma. The Jewish people under his jurisdiction were notorious for disturbances. He didn’t want to find himself in trouble with Caesar for failing to keep peace in the region. The religious leaders might cause a social uproar if Pilate didn’t placate their wishes. Word might then travel to Rome about Pilate’s inability to maintain order in Judea.
So Pilate went back inside the palace, ignoring proper judicial procedure, he summoned Jesus, and, with sarcastic irony, asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Emphasis must have been on the “you.” It seemed like a bad joke. Pilate was asking Jesus to testify against himself. So Jesus asked where the witnesses were. “Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me?” This angered Pilate. With disgust, he asked, “Am I a Jew?” “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” Pilate responded, “You are a king, then!” The goal of charging Jesus with claiming to be a king was to accuse him of disloyalty to the Caesar (as if loyalty to Caesar matter to the religious leaders). Jesus replied, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“Truth?!” Pilate thought. What does any of this have to do with truth? Pilate cynically retorted, “What is truth?” Disgusted with the whole matter, Pilate went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” This judicial rendering should have ended the proceedings. But knowing it wouldn’t satisfy the bloodthirsty mob, Pilate said, “… it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover.” Condescendingly, he asked, “Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” Do you want your king? Angrily, the religious leaders responded, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” In a twist of historical irony, we learn that “Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.”
Why does Pilate want to wash his hands of Jesus? Pilate’s superstitious conscience was on edge regarding Jesus. But Pilate was ultimately a self-serving pragmatist mainly interested in preserving his position. So although he found no charge against Jesus, he vainly tried to placate the angry mob by ordering Jesus to be beaten. He even let the soldiers have some sadistic fun with Jesus. They twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe, put a mock scepter in his hand and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” as they beat his face and spit on him.
Thinking this would satisfy the bloodthirsty mob, Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” Why is Jesus receiving a beating if he is declared innocent of any charge? Justice did not matter to the religious leaders or to Pilate.
When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” As if to say, “Look, he is no threat to anyone.” Blood running down his face, swollen from the fists that repeatedly pummeled him, Pilate presents Jesus as a pathetic harmless man.
But “as soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify! Crucify!’ Pilate answered, ‘You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.’ The Jewish leaders insisted, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.’”
Son of God? When Pilate heard this, his superstitious conscience went into overdrive. The historian tells us that Pilate “was even more afraid.” Shaken with uncertainty and fear, Pilate went back inside the palace and asked for Jesus’ pedigree. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. Through his quivering indignant voice, he said, “Do you refuse to speak to me?”
Although Pilate was clearly afraid to do either, he warned Jesus, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” But Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
At first Pilate probably viewed the claims of Jesus as the pathetic fantasies of a deranged peasant. But he wasn’t completely sure. When he asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?” it’s possible that mention of Jesus claim to be the Son of God, triggered Pilate’s polytheistic worldview fearing that he may have just ordered a god to be beaten. To make matters worse for Pilate, his wife sent him a message saying, “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.” Not surprisingly, from then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free.
Pilates dilemma remains today. What should we do with Jesus? Ever since Judas betrayed and sold Him, Jesus continues to be sold. In books, movies, new gospels, Davinci codes and Jesus seminars, they market him — often trying desperately to change him, to domesticate him — to make him like us, less than us or, at least, as bad as us.
Pilate repeatedly said, “I find no fault in Him” (John 18:38; 19:4). Judas said, “I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4). The criminal crucified next to Jesus said, “We are getting what we deserve but this man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:39-42). The Roman centurion said, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). The apostle Paul wrote, “God made the One who knew no sin to be sin…” (2 Cor. 5:21). The apostle John said of Jesus, “…in Him is no sin.” (1 John 3:5). The apostle Peter said, “Jesus did no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).
Jesus is not an option to be considered. Humanity is obligated by God to respond. If a person chooses to be indifferent to Jesus, it will be considered the same as rejecting Him. On the other hand, if you turn to Jesus Christ to save you from your sins and be your Lord in life, you have this promise from him: “whoever comes to me I will never drive away …For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:37-40).
Steve Cornell
