Tag Archives: Pilate

JOHN’S GOSPEL…THE ENCOUNTER – 25a

Bible Study, ,

I have written at length about all the aspects of Jesus’ arrest and trial before the Sanhedrin except His encounter with Pilate. 

“So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.” Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” “But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected…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 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.” “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “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.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.”

‭‭John‬ ‭18‬:‭29‬-‭31‬, ‭33‬-‭38‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Surely, Pilate is to be pitied rather than judged, or is he? He was the Roman governor of Judea, raised a pagan, taught to believe in the evil, capricious panel of gods who ruled over Rome. What did he know of a religion that believed in one true, holy God who ruled over Isreal from heaven, requiring obedience to a substantial set of rules administered by His priesthood? 

Pilate was caught up in a saga he didn’t know how to handle. A Jewish rabbi claiming to be the Son of this holy God, was on trial for blasphemy. Pilate had no interest in the religious squabbles of his subjects but, when it came to the issue of treason against Rome, he pricked up his ears. It was his responsibility to keep these rabble-rousing Jews under control. 

The Jewish authorities had charged Jesus with blasphemy under very flimsy false pretences, but they had no authority to execute Him. They had to bring a charge against Him that rattled the Roman authorities. What better charge than treason since Jesus spoke often of representing another kingdom, albeit an unseen realm over which their God ruled.  

Pilate was rudely awoken to face this dilemma. The sun had hardly risen before an unruly mob, led by members of the Jewish Sanhedrin, half pushing, half dragging a bedraggled, dishevelled man along with them. “Crucify Him!” they demanded. “For what reason?” Pilate retorted. “Of what is He guilty?” 

Notice how the Jewish rulers side-stepped the question. 

“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.””

‭‭John‬ ‭18‬:‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Already prejudged and condemned, the Jewish rulers expected Pilate to rubber-stamp their verdict. “Not so fast!” declared Pilate. “What has He done?” Blasphemy would not stick with him but treason was a different matter. Without pressing the Jews for an answer, he questioned Jesus about the verdict. Why had they found him guilty? He, Pilate, was not aware of any uprisings in Jerusalem. 

“Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?””

‭‭John‬ ‭18‬:‭33‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus’ reply was equally baffling for a pagan Roman. 

“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.”

‭‭John‬ ‭18‬:‭36‬ ‭NIV‬‬

How was he, the Roman governor who had the power to kill or acquit Jesus, supposed to sentence a man to death who was no threat to Rome? Where was the evidence of His incitement to an uprising? Where was this “other place” kingdom of which Jesus spoke? 

To get a plain answer, Pilate made a statement he wanted Jesus to corroborate, to which Jesus replied with even more puzzling words…

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “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.””

‭‭John‬ ‭18‬:‭37‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Surely, how was Pilate, this secular man who, seemingly, had no understanding of or interest in spiritual matters, supposed to order the execution of a man who spoke about truth! What was truth? What did he know about truth? Truth, to him, was irrelevant. He lived by his own beliefs and carried out the orders of Rome without question, whether they were good or bad. 

With a gesture of contempt, Pilate turned on his heels muttering, “What is truth?”, to wash his hands of this matter by giving in to the mob. 

On what grounds was Pilate judged when he stood before this same Jesus in the very realm of which He spoke and over which He now rules? Where once Pilate was the judge and Jesus the condemned, the moment Pilate passed from this life, the tables were turned. What did Jesus say to him? On what grounds was he sent to the place he had chosen in this life? Was it that he had given in to the crucifixion of an innocent man? Was he condemned because he ordered the execution of the Son of God? Was there a place of torment far worse for him than any other person for having had Jesus, the Son of God, killed? 

Strangely enough, no! The verdict was, for Pilate, the same as for every other person who is sentenced to live in eternal darkness, “Guilty, as charged.” The charge?

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬-‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“However,” you might say, ”what chance did Pilate have of believing the truth?” The answer is…he had the same chance as every other person on earth who rejects the truth and goes into eternal darkness…

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭18‬-‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It’s that simple! He was guilty beyond reasonable doubt. 

It’s not that people don’t know the truth. It’s that it’s inconvenient to know. They don’t want to know because they love the darkness of sin and unbelief rather than the light of truth. All sin, even Pilate’s outrageous injustice, is the fruit of unbelief. So, it’s not the sin that God condemns but the unbelief in the one He sent to tell the truth that will ultimately send them to hell.  

But wait…there’s more!

To be continued…

MARK’S GOSPEL…THE TALE OF YWO SONS – 40

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Mark‬ ‭15‬:‭6‬-‭12‬, ‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them. “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.”

‭‭

A twist in the tale! Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent of the charges brought against Him. Mark even diagnosed the motive of the religious leaders for the abominable travesty of justice…

“fthonos”, meaning “envy”. 

Envy is more than jealousy. Envy includes the desire to do away with the person whose goods or attributes are desirable. It has in it the thought of corruption, to defile or destroy. 

So, Pilate was at war with himself. Should he risk antagonising the Jewish leaders by releasing Jesus, or does he violate his conscience by condemning an innocent man? Then a lightbulb moment! He’d throw the choice back on them! A strange custom came to mind…to release a condemned criminal of the people’s choice at Pentecost. 

Jesus or Barabbas? For Pilate, the choice was obvious. Barabbas was a murderer. Would they really want a murderer on the loose among them again?

Let’s examine the credentials of these two men. They were both “sons of the father” as Jesus claimed and Barabbas’ name meant. 

Was Jesus “Son of the Father”? Apparently “yes”, since He was on trial for this claim. He, according to the witness of Scripture, is…

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word…”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬a NIV‬‬

What of Barabbas? His name, Bar-Abbas” means “son of the father”. Was he the son of his father? We know nothing about his father except that he inherited the nature of his “father” – Adam. In Adam’s nature was the lawlessness and wickedness of rebellion against God, confirmed by Barabbas’ evil deeds and inherited by all mankind. Barabbas, the murderer, was a true son of his father!

So, for Pilate, this was the way out of his dilemma. He no longer had responsibility for Jesus’ death if the people chose Barabbas. 

Despite the terrible evil of the people’s choice, and despite Pilate’s guilt no matter how much he tried to shrug it off, the tale of two sons is a strange twist in this story but the heart of the gospel…the Son of God died in the place of “the son of the father”. 

Did Barabbas stand at a distance, watching the lifeblood of his substitute dripping on the ground? Did he see the head of Jesus hanging lifeless on His chest? Did he think, at that moment? …”He died for me!”

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PILATE’S DILEMMA

Christian Life, ,

PILATE’S DILEMMA

“Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked Him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’” (John 18:33, NIV).

Never had Pilate encountered a man like this. 

Although He was the prisoner, Jesus was clearly in charge. The leaders and the people had lost it, screaming and yelling like kindergarten kids while He stood calmly observing them. He could have walked free on a few words of self defence, but He refused to respond to their lying accusations. He knew who He was. Pilate was unnerved. “Don’t you realize I have the power either to free you or to crucify you?” he demanded. Lies! Jesus responded with the truth, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”

Pilate was caught in this dilemma through no choice of his own. As governor of Judea, it was his responsibility to ratify the death sentence on those found guilty by the Jewish High Court. Jesus had been sent to him because the Sanhedrin had found Him guilty of blasphemy by claiming to be God. As a Roman, this was nothing to Pilate, so the Sanhedrin changed the charge to treason since Jesus also claimed to be king of the Jews.

“Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate demanded. It was a desperate question and on Jesus’ answer depended His fate.

“My kingdom is not of this world…You are right in saying that I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”(John 18:37, NIV). 

“What is truth?” Pilate spat back. He was not interested in the answer. Without waiting for a reply, he turned on his heel and walked away. Faced with the worst dilemma of his life, his mind reeled. The mob was yelling, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” Inside, his mind was screaming, “Innocent, innocent.”  Even more disturbing was the warning he had received from his wife.

“Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of Him.” (Matthew 27:19b, NIV).

What was he to do with Him? Yield to the mob and save his skin or yield to the truth and save his life? He chose to save his skin and lose his life.

Every day we face the same dilemma…follow the lies of the world and save our skin or follow the truth and save our lives.

“What is truth?” asked Pilate. Peter declared, “God had made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36b, NIV).  

The apostle John wrote, in the thick of terrible persecution, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (3 John 4). We alone can make the choice to walk in this truth or take the consequences. Are you walking in the truth?

CONSIDER YOUR VERDICT

Christian Life, ,

CONSIDER YOUR VERDICT

“Then they all took Jesus to Pilate and began to bring up charges against Him. ‘We found this man undermining our law and order, forbidding taxes to be paid to Caesar, setting Himself up as Messiah-king.’

“Pilate asked Him, ‘Is this true that you’re ‘King of the Jews’?’

“‘These are your words, not mine,’ Jesus replied.

“Pilate told the high priests and accompanying crowd, ‘I find nothing wrong here. He seems harmless enough to me.'” Luke 23:1-4 (The Message).

Pilate had no idea, when he opened his eyes that morning, that for him it was judgment day. A routine day, a few more Jewish prsioners to sentence; he’d done it all before. It was an unpleasant part of his role as governor and he did it with indifference. Judah had always been a troublesome province and he was quite glad to sentence a few more rabble-rousers to death.

But this man seemed different. He didn’t have the same insolent attitude. His face wore an expression of serenity, an eerie calm that disturbed him. There was none of the bravado that aroused his rage and gave him a feeling of sadistic pleasure to see condemned prisoners walking towards the execution site, backs bent under the heavy load of the crossbeam.

The mob that crowded the courtyard were in a ferment. Led by the high priests, they were yelling out the charge, ‘Treason! He calls Himself ‘King of the Jews’! He’s inciting rebellion!’

Pilate looked at Jesus. Flanked by two soldiers, hands tied so tightly behind his back that dried blood stained His wrists and hands, He stood unmoved, lookng steadily into his eyes, almost challenging him to consider his own verdict. ‘Pilate, you decide whether I am guilty or not guilty.’

Just as the Jewish leaders were put on trial that day, so was Pilate. He was a man to be most pitied. He had an unpleasant job to do in Jerusalem. It was Passover and the city was filled with volatile Jews from all over Israel. Although the Jewish leaders had not planned it this way to avoid a riot, Jesus had inadvertantly fallen into their hands at this inopportune time through the conniving of Judas.

But it was the Father’s time. Jesus had to fulfil the role of Passover lamb, to be sacrificed for the sin of the world at the precise moment when the high priest spilt the blood of the first lamb in Jerusalem.

Pilate still had to face his own responsibility in this drama. He had the final say regarding Jesus’ guilt or innocence. He alone decided whether He lived or died. His honest verdict, even after a perfunctory examination of the prisoner was, ‘Not guilty.’ It was glaringly obvious that the charges against Jesus were trumped up.

In true “Jesus” fashion, He turned the question back on Pilate. ‘It’s not my responsibility to tell you. It’s your responsibility to make your own decision. On that rests your own fate.’ Pilate’s verdict was ‘not guilty, but that was not the end of the story. The deciding factor would be what he would do about it.

PASSING THE BUCK

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PASSING THE BUCK

“But they were vehement. ‘He is stirring up unrest among the people with His teaching, disturbing the peace everywhere, starting in Galilee and now all through Judea. He is a dangerous man, endangering the peace.’

“When Pilate heard that, he asked, ‘So, He’s a Galilean?’ Realising that He properly came under Herod’s jurisdiction, he passed the buck to Herod, who just happened to be in Jerusalem for a few days.” Luke 23:5-7 (The Message).

How convenient for Pilate! Herod was responsible for governing Galilee. Jesus was a Galilean. Herod “happened” to be in town. Pilate must have heaved a sign of relief. Jesus was a “hot potato” and he did not want to handle Him. Was it “Providence” that organised the circumstances to let him off the hook?

How does one go about finding reliable witnesses in a crowd of volatile people who were so stirred up by their religious leaders that any tiny spark could set the whole mob on fire?

Their accusations against Jesus were touching raw spots in Pilate’s mind. His role in Judea was to keep the peace by enforcing Rome’s domination. The Roman overlords, represented by the military, did whatever was necessary to suppress rebellion by oppressing the people. The gospels give hints of Roman cruelty even at the instigation of Pilate. On one accasion he ordered the murder of woshippers in the temple. Any sign of insurrection was ruthlessly crushed. Jewish blood flowed for vey little reason and yet, Pilate was reluctant to deal with Jesus.

What was it about the man that caused him to hesitate to pronounce Him guilty and pass the death sentence to appease the Jewish leaders? One more dead Jew would be one less troublemaker for him. But somehow he couldn’t do it because of the man!

He had never had a prisoner like Jesus. Every time he looked at Him, he felt guilt overwhelming him. The man’s eyes bored into him like a laser beam, exposing the deepest secrets of his heart, and yet he felt, not condemned but loved. How was it possible for a “rabble-rouser” to arouse such mixed emotions in him? He was drawn and repelled at the same time. He wanted to love Him in return but he was supposed to be indifferent, just there to do a job.

It was a relief to have Herod in Jerusalem as a back-up. Let him handle Jesus. After all, He was his responsibility because He was a Galilean. And so Pilate hoped that his brief encounter with this man would end and be forgotten.

Would Pilate be able to shake Jesus off that easily? He did not know that he had been brought face-to-face with the man who would one day be his judge. Destiny had caused their paths to cross for one brief moment but, unknown to him, it was a dress rehearsal for a much greater encounter in the future. Passing the buck seemed a simple solution to his dilemma but he was to learn that he could not evade his responsibility then, just as he would not evade his accountablity on Judgment Day.

That was not only Pilate’s moment. It will be ours as well. “Just as man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” Hebrews 9:27-28 (NIV).

To those who have recognised who He is and have willingly given Him the reins, His coming will be the most joyous occasion ever. For those who tried to get rid of Him, there will be the inevitable consequences of their rejection. This is not a threat to garner supporters. This is the sober truth that warns of the outcome of cutting ties with our Creator and trying to establish our own rebellious rule. 

We have to learn, like Pilate, that we cannot pass the buck. Accountablilty is inevitable. There is no such thing as all religions worshipping the same God; all roads do not lead to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There cannot be more that one Lord, and God has declared the Jesus is Lord and to Him every knee will bow!