19 19:1Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 19:2And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 19:3They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 4 19:4Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 19:5So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” 6 19:6When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” 7 19:7The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” 8 19:8When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 9 19:9He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 19:10So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 19:11Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
12 19:12From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” 13 19:13So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. 14 19:14Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 19:15They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16a 19:16aSo he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
This passage is so shocking that words refuse to communicate how offensive it is.
Who deserved to be welcomed by the people of Israel more than Jesus? For whom had they waited so long? To whom did their Scriptures testify? On whom were their hopes pinned? Would there come another who could do what he did or teach as he had? Would there come another who could raise the dead and give sight to the blind, living water to the thirsty, heaven’s bread to the hungry? Would there come another who would love God as Jesus did, who would love neighbor as self the way he had?
There would never come another like Jesus. And they swapped him for a known criminal (John 18:40). What man deserves to be treated with honor by his fellow man? Is there any human being on whom a crown and a robe of purple should be placed, before whom subjects should bow? If ever a man deserved to be so treated, Jesus did. If ever a man deserved the respect of his fellow man, Jesus did. Not only because of who he was, but also because of how he had behaved and to what he was committed. Jesus deserved to be crowned, robed, honored, and obeyed. How cruelly they used him.
John, the author of this Gospel, has presented Jesus as not only the rightful King of Israel but also the incarnation of Israel’s God (e.g., 1:1, 49; 6:15; 10:30). Here John confronts his audience with palpable irony: the one who will be crowned King of creation is crowned with a mock crown of thorns. The one who will wear the festal robes of the High Priest-King of Israel—indeed, of all nations—is with disdain and contempt treated to a purple array meant to proclaim him as but a pretender (19:2).
Then, raucous soldiers profane his presence and slap him. The one before whom every knee shall bow (Phil. 2:10), whose lordship every tongue shall confess (Phil. 2:11), whose “wrath is quickly kindled” (Ps. 2:12), is approached by brigands and scoundrels who sarcastically hail him as the “King of the Jews,” accompanying their disrespectful words with audacious hands (John 19:3). The one who shaped and formed the human hand is confronted with that miracle of engineering used against him as a weapon.
19:4–8 The Condemnation of the Guiltless. Secure in his arrogance, the might of Rome enforcing his position, Pilate has treated the High King of heaven and earth with impudence. The soldiers in their turn have lampooned the idea that Jesus deserved to be treated with respect, putting on him a thorn crown and robe of purple. Perhaps Pilate thought that parading Jesus in this way would alleviate any concerns the Jews had about him (v. 4). What revolutionary leader’s prestige could recover from such shameful treatment? How could he maintain standing among his followers? How could his opponents continue to fear him after such indignity was done to him by a Roman overlord?
When Pilate says he finds no guilt in him (v. 4), he probably means he does not perceive Jesus as a threat to Rome. According to Pilate, Jesus is not guilty of sedition. Pilate does not think Jesus will provoke rebellion. Jesus does not strike him as a rabble-rouser, one who will threaten the peace, the pax Romana. Pilate’s mistaken conclusion here demonstrates the finite limitations of all human rulers, judges, and governments. Pilate is correct that Jesus bears no guilt. But on the question of whether Jesus is a threat to Rome, whether Jesus is a king about whose threatened conquest he should be concerned, Pilate could not be more wrong.
Pilate may not fear him, the soldiers may boldly sneer at him, but even as they do so they follow the script in which he will rise to power by lowering himself unto death. He could not be less threatening as he obeys his Father, like a lamb silent before its shearers, and yet there exists no greater threat to all impudent human rulers who refuse the warning to “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry” (Ps. 2:12).
John 19:5 may contain the greatest display of humility, patience, self-control, restraint, and nobility ever seen in human history. Solomon declared in Proverbs 19:11, “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” Never was more glory seen. Never was one worthy of more honor treated with more infamy. Never was more power restrained in the face of more provocation. Never was one with more authority treated with more disregard by those dependent upon his goodwill and kindness.
And who would expect the Jews to respond to their King, the incarnation of their God, the way they do in John 19:6? They see him and they cry, “Crucify.” The pagan Roman is disgusted with this and tells them to do the injustice for themselves. The Jews had objected that they were not permitted to execute (18:31), so they need Rome do to this for them. These Jews are in the act of seeking the death of the one whose life results in law, the one whose existence makes law understandable and necessary, and as they try to kill him they pretend to be concerned about law.
As the basis for Rome executing Jesus, they falsely assert that Jesus has committed a crime that their own law would punish with death (19:7); they would use the law against its giver and rationale. They charge Jesus with “[making] Himself out to be the Son of God” (v. 7 NASB). Such a claim has various connotations. It communicates that one is the king from David’s line, since God told David that his seed would be as a son to God himself (2 Sam. 7:14). It also communicates divinity, since we have seen this taken to mean that Jesus was making himself equal with God (John 5:18; 10:30–31). But to Pilate’s Roman ears, this assertion that Jesus made himself out to be the “Son of God” may have been heard as something like what Homer had said about Achilles or Virgil about Aeneas; Pilate’s fright in 19:8, therefore, may have resulted from an unwillingness to risk angering whatever god Jesus may or may not have had on his side.
Pilate has asserted in 18:38, 19:4, and 19:6 that he found no guilt in Jesus. The Jews assert that he should die because he has made himself out to be the Son of God. They do not believe that he is, so they think he should die for blasphemy. John’s perspective, however, is that Jesus is precisely what he has claimed to be.
19:9–11 Authority and Sin. Frightened by the charge that Jesus was making himself out to be the Son of God (vv. 7–8), Pilate reenters the headquarters, apparently taking Jesus out of public view (cf. vv. 5–6), to ask him whence he came. Jesus does not answer the question (v. 9). Jesus had said to the Jews, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world” (8:23). In 18:36 Jesus had said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world,” then he spoke in verse 37 of how he was born for the purpose of bearing witness to the truth. Now, however, in 19:9, he gives no answer to Pilate.
Indignant that Jesus will not answer, Pilate makes a statement meant as a threat to elicit an answer, asking whether Jesus realizes that he, Pilate, can either release him or have him crucified (v. 10). In response, Jesus first says that Pilate has authority over him only because it has been granted from above (v. 11a). This asserts God’s sovereignty over the proceedings. In what Jesus goes on to say, however, he affirms human responsibility, and as he speaks, a most unexpected development occurs: the one on trial pronounces judgment on the criminals conducting the proceedings against him. Jesus moves from being the defendant to his true role as judge. Reasoning from the fact that Pilate has authority over him only under the sovereignty of God, Jesus concludes that the one who has handed him over to Pilate has the greater sin (v. 11b).
The logic at work here implies that Jesus sees a distinction between what Pilate is doing and what the Jews are doing. The Jews are maliciously seeking Christ’s death, whereas Pilate is an unprincipled coward faced with undesirable choices. Jesus can see that Pilate recognizes his innocence but does not know how to placate the Jews pressuring him. Pilate’s sin, therefore, is the sin of collusion with murderers. He is misusing his authority and allowing himself to be corrupted by the pressure the Jews bring to bear upon him. That is sin. The worse sin, however, is that of which the Jews are guilty: they actively seek the death of Jesus. Pilate merely goes along with the program.
19:12–16a Caesar or Jesus? Pilate has tried to bully Jesus and has failed (vv. 9–11), so now he seeks to act on his conviction that Jesus is not guilty (18:38; 19:4, 6) by attempting to secure his release (v. 12a). In response, the Jews bully Pilate with the threatening charge that to release Jesus would be disloyal to Caesar, for Jesus has asserted his kingship in opposition to Caesar (v. 12b).
The royal connotations of Jesus’ making himself out to be the Son of God (v. 7) can be seen in the charge in verse 12 that he made himself king. The worldly Pilate failed to recognize Jesus as a threat to the Roman Empire. Remarkably, the Jews, who would have been expected to seek the kingdom of God, profess zeal for the kingdom of Rome. All to be rid of Jesus, bringer of the kingdom of God. They are so committed to destroying Jesus that they mouth concern for Caesar.
The Jews executed this maneuver to force Pilate’s hand against Jesus, and it worked. In response, Pilate takes his place on the judgment seat and brings Jesus up for sentencing (v. 13). Jesus and his followers celebrated their Passover meal together on Thursday evening, and now the “day of preparation” in view in verse 14 is the day of preparation for the Sabbath, Saturday. Thus these events take place on Friday of Passover week.
In 18:28 we read that the Jews had taken Jesus from the home of Caiaphas to Pilate in the “early morning.” John relates in 19:14 that now “it was about the sixth hour,” which would be around 12:00 p.m. Mark 15:25 states that “it was the third hour when they crucified him,” which would have been around 9:00 a.m. Both D. A. Carson and Andreas Köstenberger explain this apparent discrepancy as arising from the inexact methods for computing time prior to universal access to wristwatches and other timepieces. Time was apparently reckoned in three-hour increments, determined by the sun, so that one person might judge the sun to be overhead, or close enough, and call it the sixth hour, while another might judge it to be nearer the mid-morning mark and refer to it as the third hour. If so, either John did not know Mark’s Gospel by heart or, if he did, was not bothered by this detail from Mark and went with his own remembrance of the time of day.
Pilate had presented Jesus with the words, “Behold the man!” (John 19:5), and now he presents him with the words, “Behold your King!” (v. 14). Because Pilate thinks Jesus innocent and wants to release him, his presentation of Jesus as the King of the Jews can only be viewed as a sarcastic insult directed at the murderous Jewish mob.
The Jews had cried out for Jesus to be crucified in verse 6, and they cry out for him to be crucified all the more vehemently in verse 15. When Pilate taunts them, asking if they want their king to be crucified, they assert that they have no king but Caesar (v. 15). Pilate clearly has no respect for either Jesus or the Jews, but in their reply the Jews repudiate the promises of the OT concerning the kingdom of God and the king from the line of David. Repudiating God’s kingdom and God’s King is tantamount to a repudiation of God himself.
Pilate delivers Jesus to be crucified, and they take him away (v. 16a).
1 Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verses 12, 14, 31, 38
2 Or Hebrew; also verses 17, 20
3 That is, about noon
1 D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, PNTC (Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity Press, 1991), 605; Köstenberger, John, 538.