What kind of king?
John 19:1-11
19 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. 3 They kept coming up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and striking him on the face. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.’ 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’ 6 When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.’ 7 The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.’
8 Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. 9 He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, ‘Where are you from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Pilate therefore said to him, ‘Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?’ 11 Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’
This passage is driven by the tension between Pilate trying to figure out how to get Jesus freed and Jesus knowing that he has to get across the finish line which means going to the cross. The two have competing goals.
Pilate’s actions of having Jesus flogged and insulted are in fact an attempt to say to the leadership who want Jesus dead – “See he is been beaten up and we have ridiculed him, isn’t that enough?” To top things off Pilate has Jesus dressed as a king brought out to the leadership with the implied question: “Do you really want me to kill your king?” (see John 18:39) Pilate is trying to set the stage so the leaders will say, “Okay, enough is enough.”
In a moment of “lost in translation” (vs. 7, 8), the Jews say Jesus is guilty of blasphemy because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. But Pilate with his Roman background would not have heard the charge that way. Ancient Roman religion had numerous gods, who had children with human women, so Pilate heard Jesus’ claim to be Son of God as possibly being true. Was he about order the killing of the divine? In fact, that is exactly what he did.
Jesus is trying to ensure that Pilate will sentence Jesus to death. When Pilate comes back inside with Jesus, Jesus does nothing to give Pilate any additional reasons for stopping the process towards a sentence of death. Even to the point of saying that Pilate would not bear the greater guilt if he pronounces the death sentence. Jesus is making sure that he will get to the cross.
PRAYER:
We are overwhelmed, O Lord, by Jesus’ commitment to be obedient to your plan and command, even to the level of ensuring that Pilate will sentence him to death on the cross. All we can do is be in awe and wonder. In Jesus’ name. Amen.