KING OF THE JEWS
“Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked Him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘Is that your own idea,’ Jesus asked, ‘or did others talk to you about me?’
“‘Am I a Jew? ‘Pilate replied. ‘Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?’
“Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of the world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.'” John 18:33-36 NIV.
One has to feel some pity for Pilate. At the crack of dawn, when the poor man had hardly wiped the sleep from his eyes, an irate mob of Jews, led by their religious leaders, turned up on his doorstep but refused to go inside because of some religious scruple of their own making. They were demanding the execution of a prisoner he knew nothing about.
When he asked about the prisoner’s crime, His accusers retort with the lame excuse that they would not have brought Him had He not been guilty! How was Pilate to interpret that? Were they trying to make him look like a fool so that they could dodge the question?
It was left to Pilate and Jesus to determine His crime. Pilate must have had some notion that Jesus claimed to be the king of the Jews. Now it was no longer blasphemy but treason and that was serious enough a charge to deserve the death penalty if it were proven true.
Pilate asked Jesus outright, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ He certainly didn’t look very regal at that moment. There was blood congealed on His face from the thorny crown that had bitten into His flesh. His seamless robe was dirty and dishevelled. There were bald and bloodied patches on His cheeks where the soldiers had pulled out His beard. He was pale and gaunt from lack of food and sleep.
He didn’t act like a king either. Where was His retinue of attendants? Where were His loyal subjects? He was neither loudly protesting His innocence not demanding justice for a man in His position. He had no secret army waiting in ambush to attack the Romans and defend Him. He stood before Pilate in respectful silence, waiting for him to decide what to do with Him.
Pilate and Jesus engaged in an unusually polite exchange for a Roman governor and a prisoner. Pilate must have been intrigued by this accused man who did not behave like all the others. There was a calm dignity about Jesus, in spite of His precarious position, that caused Pilate to treat Him far more gently than he would the run-of-the-mill prisoner.
Since Jesus would not state the charge which was supposed to have been brought by His accusers, Pilate tried to find out from Him what He had done to deserve this treatment. Jesus’ response was mystifying. ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ Was this man crazy? What was He talking about? He looked perfectly sane. Was He hallucinating from pain and shock?
No, Jesus was not crazy or hallucinating. As always, He viewed His life from the perspective of His purpose for coming to earth. Whether Pilate understood or not was irrelevant. He was making no claim to Caesar’s rule over Israel. He was establishing His right to rule over the hearts of the men and women He had created for Himself.
It was not what He had done that was the issue but who He was, and it was not Pilate’s responsibility to decide but to acknowledge that He was who He was and to submit to Him as King of the Jews.
Son of God…King of the Jews…from the human point of view He was guilty of both charges but, from the divine perspective, He not only claimed but proved Himself to be who He said He was. The problem was that His accusers refused to examine the evidence. He was a threat to their cushy lives and that was more important than the truth. Unlike Jesus, they refused to view the whole of life including the part that extended beyond the grave. Jesus was offering them mercy for the past and grace for the present and future but they turned it down flat!
What about you?