Category: John 19

From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free…

Pilate had just told Jesus, “…I have the power … to free you…” At the time he said that he was trying to coerce Jesus into answering his question about where he was from. As it turns out, Pilate did not have the power to free Jesus. If he had today’s verse would have read, “Then Pilate set Jesus free.” But it doesn’t say that. Pilate didn’t set Jesus free. Not because he did not want to, but because he could not.

Why?

What was the power that the Jews had over Pilate? How was it that the governed were able to govern the governor?

Perhaps Pilate’s success as governor depended in part on his relationship with the chief priests and Pharisees. If that were the case, then his “power” would be partially dependent on the leaders of the Jews. If he were to free Jesus in opposition to the will of the Jews they would turn the power they had against him. The result might be that he would lose his position, his wealth, and his livelihood if not his own life.

Jesus wasn’t impressed by Pilate’s claim to power because he knew exactly how much power Pilate actually had. It wasn’t much.

Application: One of Satan’s most effective tools is the lie that we are more important or powerful than we are. Woe to the person who thinks that they are indispensable and when they leave or retire they find out that things go on just as before without them. Paul puts it this way: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” (Romans 12: 3b)

Food for Thought: What would have happened if Pilate had set Jesus free?

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Continue reading “Power-Faux – John 19: 12a”

Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.

Looking at life through God’s eyes offers a lot of interesting insights. Jesus is talking with the man who has just had him flogged and humiliated. The pain is fresh and intense. Most people after being whipped and humiliated would either be completely cowed or indignant and enraged. Jesus was neither.

Pilate begins to wonder who Jesus really is and where he comes from. Jesus does not answer. He is not here to convert Pilate. He is here to be crucified.

Confronted by Jesus’ silence, Pilate tries to goad Jesus into responding. He says to Jesus, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

What is he really saying?

He says, “I have power.” That power, he says, can be used to free Jesus or crucify him. Pilate normally deals with people who will do anything to live. Jesus knows that life in a physical body is not really living. Life with God is what true living is all about.

Instead of answering Pilate’s question about where he comes from, Jesus says something amazing.

”You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”

He is not taking away from Pilate’s authority here. He acknowledges his authority … with a twist. Instead of allowing that Pilate’s authority comes from Caesar, he points out that it comes from God.

Jesus again speaks as one who is not from around here. He speaks as one who knows what God sees and what God thinks. He continues:

”Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

It is tempting for us to want to pass judgment on Pilate as a “bad guy.” After all, he is the one who was responsible for ordering the crucifixion of our Lord. Yet Jesus seems unconcerned. Instead, he offers comfort to Pilate. In effect, he says that what Pilate is doing (or is going to do) is not as bad as what the chief priests and Pharisees did in bringing Jesus to Pilate.

Later, on the cross, Jesus would say, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”* Who was he asking forgiveness for? Was it the chief priests? The Jews in general? The Roman soldiers? Or was it for all mankind? All of us, even Pilate?

Application: At this point in his ministry, Jesus has become the sacrificial lamb. His job is not to beg for his life or argue with his antagonists, but to allow his Father’s will to be carried out. Even in the midst of what was already unbearable pain after the flogging, Jesus shows concern for the human judge tasked with condemning him to death. He explains that Pilate’s real power comes from God above and that whatever sin he is guilty of is less than the Jews themselves. How gracious is that? Should we be any less gracious with those whom God has put in authority over us?

Food for Thought: How does God weigh sin? Why is Pilate’s sin less than the Jews who brought Jesus to him?

*(Luke 23: 34)

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Continue reading “Comfort – John 19: 11b”

…but Jesus gave him no answer.  “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”

Pilate is starting to wonder about who Jesus is and what he is. When asked where he comes from, Jesus simply does not answer.

Pilate is not used to being ignored. As governor in a world where life is cheap, he is used to people being afraid of him. When he asks a question he always gets an answer. But not today. Today, standing before Jesus, Pilate’s question is ignored.

John’s picture of Pilate is sketchy, but we still have quite a bit of information.

Pilate is a man who holds a high official position with the Roman government.

The chief priests and the crowd that brought Jesus came early in the morning. (Had Pilate even had his coffee yet?)

Immediately the Jews start making demands of Pilate. He doesn’t like that and he doesn’t agree with them.

Emotions are running high on both sides. Pilate is afraid.

Then Pilate finds out that Jesus might be the Son of God. Now Pilate is more afraid.

Nothing seems normal on this most unusual day. The supposed criminal is acting like the adult in the room, and the supposed adults outside are acting like criminals. Finally, Pilate lashes out in frustration, “Don’t you realize I have the power either to free you or to crucify you?”

Jesus’ answer fits in well with this most unusual day. He says, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”

Application: In the midst of pressure from the crowds, abuse by the soldiers, incredible pain from the wounds on his body and Pilate’s questioning, Jesus gives a brilliantly rational statement of fact. Power comes from God above. Even the power to crucify his own Son. We would do well to remember that at home, at work, and in the public square. Life is better when we see it the way God sees it.

Food for Thought: Jesus tells Pilate that the power he has over himself comes from God. What were the extents of this power? Did Pilate have the power to choose not to crucify Jesus?

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Continue reading “Power – John 19: 9b-11a”

When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. ‘’Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus…

At this point, Pilate is starting to wrestle with the same question we have wrestled with throughout John’s gospel. Where did Jesus come from? Jesus consistently speaks as if he is not from around here. He talks about coming from the Father and going to the Father. He says that before Abraham was, “I am.” He looks at the world and the people in it as if he had traveled a long way to visit.

Now Pilate asks, ”Where do you come from?”

Pilate’s relationship with Jesus is unique. Pilate has not come to Jesus to be healed. Pilate is not interested in the arrival of the Messiah. Instead, Jesus is brought to him and presented as a man deserving punishment. The only problem is that to Pilate’s eye, Jesus does not appear to be guilty of anything. Now the Jews tell him that Jesus claims to be the Son of God.

Application: Before there can be faith, there needs to be a sense of wonder. The man who is confident that he knows everything there is to know is not open to something or someone larger than he is. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is recorded as saying, ”Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18: 3) A child’s mind is open to wonder. In today’s passage, we see Pilate starting to wonder. The door of his mind is opening a tiny crack to the possibility of something beyond imagination being real. Like Pilate, we need to open our minds to the wonder that is the reality of God on earth.

Food for Thought: Do you allow yourself to wonder? Do you feel wonder is safe or dangerous? Why?

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Continue reading “Wonder – John 19: 8-9a”

As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But 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.”

Finally! After all this time, the Jewish leaders let Pilate in on their secret. The real reason that they want Jesus killed. The motive for their madness.

When they first showed up at the governor’s palace they claimed that Jesus was a criminal. No crime was specified. So Pilate is left to try and figure out from the accused what, exactly, he was accused of. Pilate and Jesus talk about what it means to be “king of the Jews”. Pilate is not impressed with Jesus as a threat. He declares that there is no basis for a charge.

The Jews refused to accept this tactic. Pilate tries to negotiate using a known rebel nobody would want as a bargaining chip. Nothing. Pilate then flogs Jesus and once again tries to give him back to the Jews. Pushed into a corner, the Jews resort to the truth. They let Pilate know that Jesus “… claimed to be the Son of God.”

Jesus didn’t just “claim” to be the Son of God. If that had been the case, the Jews probably would have ignored him or locked him up themselves. The real story is that Jesus didn’t just “claim” anything. Jesus also:

• Taught with authority
• Healed the sick
• Gave sight to the blind
• Made the mute speak
• Opened the ears of the deaf
• Fed thousands
• Calmed storms
• Walked on water
• Raised the dead
• Forgave sins
• Fulfilled prophecy

He did things that no other person on the planet had ever done or will ever do. He demonstrated all the traits that the Jews expected from their Messiah. Except that Jesus didn’t recognize the opinions of the chief priests and Pharisees as authoritative. Jesus knew the law of Moses better than they did. Since Jesus was the true Author of Life the priests and Pharisees should have bowed down to Him. But they didn’t. Instead, they decided to kill him.

Application: When we finally meet up with our Maker, there is a very real possibility that He won’t be what we expect Him to be. Jesus was a humble carpenter from Galilee. The Jews turned their noses up at such people because they talked funny. They were lower-class citizens. The one thing we don’t want to do is find ourselves unwilling to enter God’s mansion in heaven because we turn up our nose at the appearance of the Builder.

Food for Thought: Pilate wasn’t motivated by seeing Jesus’ miracles. As he says in verse 35, ”Am I a Jew?” Instead, he appears to be motivated by the idea that justice stands for something. If Pilate were willing to go toe to toe with the Jewish leaders to protect an innocent man, how would the news that Jesus might be the Son of God affect Pilate?

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Continue reading “Motives and Madness – John 19: 6-7”

Once more 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.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

Two threads run through this story of Pilate and the Jews. One is the battle between the Jews and Pilate over whether Jesus should be crucified. The other is the idea that the reason Jesus should be crucified is because he claims to be king of the Jews.

If Pilate had better understood the Jews, he would have recognized that the “king of the Jews” was a hot button topic. What Pilate was mocking when he glibly referred to the king of the Jews was not the crowd’s accusations. He was mocking the Jew’s hope for a real king that had been promised to them by God. Each time Pilate mentions the “king of the Jews,” he pours gas on the raging fire of the angry crowd.

In today’s passage, Pilate avoids using the words, “king of the Jews.” Instead, he says simply, “Here is the man!” When Jesus stands before the crowds, “the man” wears a purple robe and a mock crown. Even without words, the message is still the same: Jesus is the one who claimed to be the Messiah, the true king of the Jews. For this affront, this blasphemy, Jesus must die. Instead of calming the crowd, the situation has grown worse. Pilate’s words and actions are at cross purposes with each other.

Application: In his book, ”The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People,” Stephen Covey lists one of them as ”seek first to understand, then to be understood.” If Covey had been around in Pilate’s time, Pilate might have paused to try and understand what was bugging the Jews so much about Jesus. Instead, in his ignorance, he made the situation worse. We can learn from Pilate’s mistake by being sensitive to the emotional needs of others. We can try to understand what makes a person tick before we push for what we want.

Food for Thought: As Jesus stands before the crowd what thoughts might have been going through his head?

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Continue reading “Cross Purposes – John 19: 4-5”

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, ”Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.

Pilate thought he might make inroads with the Jews if he had Jesus flogged. John describes this event with three short verses. It is likely that those who first read John’s gospel were familiar with what was involved in a flogging. Today it depends on which part of the world you live in. Far too many people today know what a flogging means because they have seen it first hand. Far too few know what it means because they do not know their history. For brevity’s sake, let’s just say that flogging was a very bad thing. Especially a Roman flogging.

In addition to the flogging, the Roman soldiers thought they might have a little fun with the idea that Jesus was a king. After all the Jews were pushing the idea as if it were a fact, and the Governor was publicly mocking the idea.

To make the point more graphic, they put a wickedly sharp “crown” of thorns on Jesus’ head. I’m just guessing here, but it seems likely to me that the men who just spent a quarter of an hour whipping Jesus to within an inch of his life were none too gentle when they put it on.

Then they mocked Jesus. Then they slapped him.

It should be pointed out that they were not just mocking Jesus. They were also mocking the Jews. The Jews had claimed that Jesus was a threat because he claimed to be king of the Jews. The solders shredded the skin on Jesus’ back, bloodied his head with a ring of thorns, and put a robe on him. The idea that what was left of Jesus was either a king or a threat to Rome was laughable.

Application: Sometimes things that happen to us are not just about us. The Romans were likely mocking the Jews more than they were mocking Jesus. Jesus was being mocked, there is no doubt. Yet the larger point was Pilate’s effort to mock the Jews themselves. Sometimes it helps to realize that it is not about us. When we let go of our hurt in the moment and give it to God, we allow God’s will to be done. At the same time, we avoid being sucked into a vortex of bitterness and rage.

Food for Thought: It may be that Pilate thought flogging Jesus would help get him released. If this is the case how would that work?

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Continue reading “Mocked – John 19: 1-3”