THEY MADE THEIR CHOICE!
“When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. ‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, ‘Take Him away! Take Him away! Crucify Him!’ ‘Shall I crucify your king?’ Pilate asked. ‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered.
“Finally Pilate handed Him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.” John 19:13-16 NIV.
Was Pilate playacting or was he stalling for time?
He knew he was beaten but he still acted as though he were in charge. Perhaps he made a show of taking the judge’s seat, ready to give them his verdict and pass sentence on the prisoner. Instead of announcing, ‘I find the accused, Jesus of Nazareth, guilty of treason. I sentence Him to death by crucifixion,’ …or…’I find the accused, Jesus of Nazareth, not guilty of the crime of treason against Caesar. The prisoner is free to leave,’ he made a statement, weak but intended to be dramatic! ‘Here is your king!’
What was that supposed to achieve? Did he really think that this militant mob would be moved with pity when they saw the swollen face and bloodied body of their enemy being paraded before them? It was the sight of Jesus, weak and stumbling, with flesh hanging in shreds from His mangled body, that spurred them on to begin to chant, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ rising to a deafening crescendo until Pilate silenced them with an upraised hand.
‘Do you really want me to crucify your king?’ he asked. So significant was this question that it could have come from the mouth of the Lord God Himself. Just as Pilate stood before the representatives of God’s people and gave them the choice; ‘Who do you want to rule over you; to set the standards by which you are governed; to decide what is right and wrong; to decide the course of your lives and your destiny as a nation; and to exercise justice over you,’ so God was asking them, ‘Who will be your chosen king, Caesar or God?’
They made their choice. In the heat and fury of their demented minds, the chief priests yelled, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’ What a choice! This was their final decision against the God who had loved them, wooed them and stood by them through centuries of rebellion, spiritual adultery and unbridled wickedness. Again and again He had forgiven and restored them. His love would not let them go.
He sent His Messiah, He beloved and only-begotten Son to rescue them from the consequences of their terrible choices and now they had thrown Him away like filthy garbage and chosen Caesar as their king. Who was this Caesar they were so enamoured with?
“Tiberius Julius Caesar ruled from 14 AD to 37 AD. He was one of Rome’s greatest generals but he came to be remembered as a dark, reclusive and sombre ruler.” (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/tiberius)
“It is not known whether Tiberius had heard of Jesus, or knew about the crucifixion of Jesus. Word about Jesus and his miracles spread quickly throughout the Roman Empire, even to the Imperial Palace o Palatine Hill but Tiberius had retired to his palace on the Island of Capri in 26 AD, while all sorts of corruption was happening in Rome…There were many rumours about Tiberius on Capri involving homosexuality, and sexual perversity with young boys, which included all sorts of inhumane cruelty.”
(www.bible-history.com/sketches/ancient/tiberius-caesar.html)
God took them at their word, “His blood be upon us and upon our children” and in AD 70 the Roman army under General Titus, destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, slaughtered the people and Israel ceased to exist as a nation until 1948.
And God has not finished with the Jews yet!