30Jesus Before Pilate—Part 2: Phase Three of the Civil Trial  (John 18:39–19:16)

“But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?” So they cried out again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas.” Now Barabbas was a robber. Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; and they began to come up to Him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and to give Him slaps in the face. Pilate came out again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.” Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!” So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, “Crucify, crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.” Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid; and he entered into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to Him, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” As a result of this Pilate made efforts to release Him, but the Jews cried out saying, “If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar.” Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!” So they 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.” So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified. (18:39–19:16)

Through the centuries the debate has raged over who was responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. Some blame the Romans, since they are the ones who sentenced and executed Him (Matt. 20:19; John 19:10, 16, 18). Others argue that the Jews (particularly their leaders) were responsible, since “they asked Pilate that He be executed” (Acts 13:28). One of the disciples on the road to Emmaus lamented that “the chief priests and our rulers delivered [Christ] to the sentence of death, and crucified Him” (Luke 24:20). “This Man,” Peter told the crowds in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, “you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23). Shortly afterward Peter again laid the blame for Christ’s death at the feet of his countrymen:

Peter and John boldly declared to the Sanhedrin that Jesus was the one “whom you crucified” (Acts 4:10) and, “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross” (5:30; cf. 10:39). Stephen accused the same Sanhedrin of being Christ’s “betrayers and murderers” (Acts 7:52). The Jewish people themselves accepted responsibility for Christ’s death when they cried out, “His blood shall be on us and on our children!” (Matt. 27:25).

The truth is that humanly speaking the Romans played a part while the Jews were the instigators who bear the greatest blame for Christ’s death. But the real responsibility does not rest solely with either of them; What put Him on the cross was God’s own determination to punish His Son for all the sins of all who would ever be saved. John the Baptist hailed Him as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). The writer of Hebrews said that He “has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26). In his first epistle John wrote that “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2) and “He appeared in order to take away sins” (3:5). Our sins put Him on the cross.

Jesus Christ was no victim. Neither the Romans nor the Jews had the power to take His life. For that matter, neither did all the sinners for whom He died. “No one has taken [My life] away from Me,” He said, “but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father” (John 10:18). He told Pilate, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above” (see the discussion of v. 11 below). His Jewish adversaries sought to kill Him, but were unsuccessful “because His hour had not yet come” (7:30; 8:20).

Ultimately, Christ died not because of any human intentions, schemes, or actions, but because of the will of His Father. In the same sermon in which he indicted Israel for killing Jesus, Peter nonetheless affirmed that He had been “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). In another sermon Peter reminded the people that “the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled” (Acts 3:18). The early church prayed, “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur” (Acts 4:27–28). In an example of God’s using the wrath of sinful men to praise Him (Ps. 76:10), Paul declared, “Those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him” (Acts 13:27). In his magnificent prophecy of Christ’s death, Isaiah said, “It was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief” (Isa. 53:10 ESV). Speaking of His death, Jesus said, “The Son of Man is going as it has been determined” (Luke 22:22; cf. Matt. 26:24). “He [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,” said Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:21.

But God’s sovereign control of events does not relieve individuals of responsibility for their actions. This passage gives the account of the last phase of Christ’s civil trial (John omits the Lord’s hearing before Herod Antipas [Luke 23:7–12]). As was the case with the first phase of that trial (18:28–38), it was presided over by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea.

As he did throughout his gospel, John presented the majesty and dignity of the Lord Jesus Christ—even as He was beaten, unjustly sentenced to death, and led away to be crucified. The apostle did so by contrasting Him with the weak and vacillating Pilate, who lost his composure, his control over events, and was pressured into sentencing an innocent man to die. The story of Pilate’s downfall reveals his failed proposals to dispose of the case, his fatal panic as events spiraled out of control, and produced his final pronouncement of the death sentence on the Lord Jesus Christ.

PILATE’S FAILED PROPOSALS

“But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?” So they cried out again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas.” Now Barabbas was a robber. Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; and they began to come up to Him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and to give Him slaps in the face. Pilate came out again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.” Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!” So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, “Crucify, crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.” (18:39–19:7)

Pilate had already tried unsuccessfully to rid himself of this explosive case. In 18:31 he had half mockingly said to the Jewish leaders, “Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.” The Jews refused since, as they were forced to admit, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death.” Pilate then tried to transfer the case to Herod Antipas, who ruled Jesus’ home region of Galilee (Luke 23:7). But Herod merely mocked Jesus and then sent Him back to Pilate, leaving the latter still caught on the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, he had formally pronounced Jesus to be innocent (18:38; cf. 19:4, 6). According to the proud tradition of Roman justice, Pilate should have released Him. But to do so would have infuriated the Jewish leaders, and possibly touched off a riot that could have cost him his position as governor (see the discussion of v. 12 below).

Desperate to extricate himself from the tense, dangerous situation, Pilate came up with another plan. There was a custom that the governor release someone (i.e., a prisoner held by the Romans) as a goodwill gesture at the Passover. There is no clear reference to this practice outside of Scripture (some scholars see an allusion to it in the Talmud), but “the testimony of the Evangelists [gospel writers] is evidence enough for the historicity of the practice” (F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983], 355).

Pilate accordingly said to the crowd, “Do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?” By referring to Jesus by that title, Pilate again mocked the Jewish leaders, who vehemently rejected Jesus as their king. The governor’s offer appeared to be a logical solution to his problem. By now people had gotten wind of what was happening and a large crowd had assembled outside the Praetorium (Matt. 27:17). Pilate knew that many in that crowd had hailed Jesus as their messianic King earlier in the week. He hoped to play them off against their leaders and force the latter to agree to Jesus’ release.

Unfortunately, Pilate underestimated both the chief priests’ resolve and the crowd’s fickleness. The sight of Jesus, a bound, helpless prisoner of the Romans, made it clear that He was not going to meet their messianic expectations and drive out their oppressors. That allowed the persistent chief priests to manipulate the crowd (while Pilate was temporarily preoccupied with a message from his wife; Matt. 27:19) into crying out, “Not this Man, but Barabbas” (Matt. 27:20; Mark 15:11). Barabbas, as John’s footnote indicates, was a robber. He was no common, petty thief, however. Matthew calls him a “notorious prisoner” (Matt. 27:16), while Mark (15:7) and Luke (23:19) note that he was a murderer (cf. Acts 3:14) and an insurrectionist. The specific insurrection he was involved in is unknown, but such uprisings, precursors of the wholesale revolt of A.D. 66–70, were common at that time. Ironically, the same Jewish leaders who had demanded that Pilate condemn Jesus as an insurrectionist now demanded the release of the notorious insurrectionist Barabbas.

Pilate was rapidly running out of options. Almost plaintively, he asked the crowd, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” With one voice “they all said, ‘Crucify Him!’” (Matt. 27:22). In a last desperate attempt to appease them (Luke 23:16, 22), he then took Jesus and scourged Him. By brutally punishing a man whom he had already declared innocent, Pilate plunged further down into the abyss of injustice. Scourging was a hideously cruel form of punishment. The victim was stripped, bound to a post, and beaten by several torturers in turn. Jewish law set the maximum number of blows at forty (Deut. 25:3), and in practice the Jews gave a maximum of thirty-nine (to avoid accidently exceeding forty blows; cf. 2 Cor. 11:24). The Romans, however, were not bound by any such restrictions. The punishment would continue until the torturers were exhausted, the commanding officer decided to stop it, or, as was often the case, the victim died. The whip consisted of a short wooden handle to which several leather thongs, each with jagged pieces of bone or metal attached to the end, were fastened. As a result, the body could be so torn and lacerated that the muscles, bones, veins, or even internal organs were exposed. So horrible was this punishment that Roman citizens were exempt from it (cf. Acts 22:25). The scourging He endured left Jesus too weak to carry the crosspiece of His cross all the way to the execution site (Matt. 27:32). Pilate hoped that this brutalizing of Jesus short of death would satisfy the bloodthirsty mob.

Not content with savagely beating Jesus, Pilate’s soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head. This further indignity, a mock crown in imitation of the wreaths worn on occasion by Caesar, added to the Lord’s suffering. The sharp spikes would have cut deeply into His head, increasing His pain and bleeding. They also put a purple robe on Him (probably one of the soldiers’ cloaks), in mocking imitation of the royal robes worn by kings. Matthew records that the soldiers also put a reed in His right hand, mimicking the scepter carried by sovereigns. Having thus outfitted Jesus in the caricature of a king, they continued their sadistic game by “[kneeling] down before Him and [mocking] Him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’” (Matt. 27:29). In an ugly mockery of and disdain for Him, they also began to come up to Him … and to give Him slaps in the face. Matthew records that they also spat on Him, seized the reed from His hand, and beat Him over the head with it (Matt. 27:30).

Meanwhile, Pilate came out of the Praetorium again, implying that he had looked on approvingly as his soldiers abused Jesus, and said to the crowd, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.” Once again, Pilate affirmed Jesus’ innocence (cf. 18:38), the pronouncement of which heightens the injustice that he had just allowed to be inflicted on the Lord. At that point Jesus … came out, still wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe the soldiers had dressed Him in.

Theatrically, sarcastically, Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!” Jesus, bleeding from His scourging and the crown of thorns, His face bruised and swollen from being beaten by Pilate’s soldiers, looked like anything but a king. Pilate hoped this beaten and pathetic figure would satiate their bloodlust and elicit sympathy from the multitude. His designation of Jesus as the Man instead of “your King” as in verse 14 (cf. v. 15; 18:39) stressed to the Jews his view that Jesus posed no danger either to them or to Rome.

Once again, Pilate misjudged the depth of the Jewish leaders’ contempt for Jesus. The sight of the Lord’s bruised and bleeding body merely whetted their appetite. Like sharks sensing blood in the water, when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, “Crucify, crucify!”

That was enough for Pilate. Disgusted with the Jews’ callous attitude and wanting simply to be rid of Jesus, Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.” The emphatic pronouns Him and yourselves underscore Pilate’s exasperation. He in effect said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him; I want nothing more to do with Him.” The statement is a non sequitur; the governor is in reality saying, “Take this man and crucify Him, because I find Him not guilty.” Whether Pilate was officially granting them the right to execute Jesus or merely mocking them again is not clear; perhaps he knew the Jews did not crucify people. But that Pilate would even mention granting them the right of capital punishment—one of the most jealously guarded prerogatives of Roman rule—is yet another sign that he was losing control.

Pilate may have been through with the Jews, but they were not through with him. Realizing that they now had the upper hand, the Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die.” They knew that Pilate was still trying to evade the issue and pass the buck back to them, and they would have none of it. They reminded Pilate that they had already judged Jesus according to Jewish law and found Him guilty and deserving of death. Part of the genius of the Roman form of occupation throughout the empire was to grant autonomy in civil matters to the conquered nations. Roman provincial governors were expected to maintain control while upholding local laws insofar as they did not conflict with Rome’s priorities. The Jews demanded again that Pilate acknowledge their legal rights and order Jesus to be executed.

The specific charge that the Jews brought against Jesus, that He made Himself out to be the Son of God, at last revealed their true motives. Having tried unsuccessfully to get Jesus condemned on political grounds as an insurrectionist, they now wanted Pilate to sentence Him based on Jewish religious law. Evidently they had in mind Leviticus 24:16: “Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.” Because they rejected Jesus’ claim to be God incarnate, the chief priests held Him guilty of blasphemy for making it (cf. Matt. 26:63–65). This was an especially sensitive issue for Pilate, who had himself offended Jewish sensibilities regarding idolatry (see the discussion of 18:29–32 in the previous chapter of this volume). To do so again might provoke the Jews to riot, or to complain to his superiors. Either would be fatal to his future as governor.

PILATE’S FATAL PANIC

Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid; and he entered into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to Him, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” As a result of this Pilate made efforts to release Him, but the Jews cried out saying, “If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar.” (19:8–12)

As the situation deteriorated, Pilate’s fear increased. But when he heard the Jewish leaders’ statement that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, he was even more afraid. Pilate may have been cynical (cf. 18:38), but he was also, like many Romans, superstitious. The thought that Jesus might be a man with divine powers, or perhaps a god or son of a god in human form (cf. Acts 14:11) filled him with fear. If that were the case, he had just scourged and beaten someone who might use his supernatural powers to take vengeance on him. Fueling Pilate’s superstitious fear that he might have incurred the wrath of the gods was his wife’s dream about Jesus and subsequent warning to him (Matt. 27:19).

Taking Him with him, Pilate entered into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” His question had nothing to do with Jesus’ earthly residence; Pilate already knew that He was a Galilean (Luke 23:6–7). The governor’s question concerned Jesus’ nature: was He from earth, or the realm of the gods? But Jesus gave him no answer. There are several possible reasons for the Lord’s silence. It fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Him: “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth” (Isa.53:7). Further, Jesus had already told Pilate that He was a king from another realm (18:36–37). Certainly Jesus’silence was judgmental, in the sense that Pilate had heard the truth and rejected it, and now would receive no further answer from Him. The Bible teaches that when men persist in rejecting God, He will reject them (cf. Judg. 10:13;2 Chron. 15:2;24:20; Ps. 81:11–12; Hos. 4:17; Matt. 15:14).

Irritated by Jesus’ silence Pilate said to Him, “You do not speak to me?” He was insulted at the Lord’s apparent lack of respect for his dignity and power. “Do You not know,” he boasted, “that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” He may have had the right, but he did not have the courage to do either one. But as Leon Morris notes,

Pilate’s arrogant boast was not true. Breaking His silence, Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above” (i.e., from God). Although he was a responsible moral agent and accountable for his actions, Pilate did not have ultimate control over events related to the Son of God. Nothing that happens—even the death of Jesus Christ—is outside of the sovereignty of God. Faced with opposition and evil, Jesus took comfort in the Father’s sovereign control of events (cf. 6:43–44, 65).

Although Pilate was culpable for his actions, there was one who bore even greater guilt—the one who delivered Him to Pilate, Jesus declared, has the greater sin. The Lord was not referring to Judas, who did not deliver Him to Pilate, but to the Jews, who did. The reference is particularly to Caiaphas, who more than anyone else was responsible for handing Jesus over to the Roman governor. He was more guilty than Pilate for at least two reasons. First, he had seen the overwhelming evidence that Jesus was the Messiah and Son of God; Pilate had not. Further, it was Caiaphas who, humanly speaking, had put Pilate in the position he was in. As D. A. Carson notes, “Pilate remains responsible for his spineless, politically-motivated judicial decision; but he did not initiate the trial or engineer the betrayal that brought Jesus into court” (The Gospel According to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991], 602).

Despite the additional charge of blasphemy, the governor remained unconvinced that Jesus was guilty of anything worthy of death. Therefore Pilate made efforts to release Him, either by further attempts at reasoning with the crowd, or by preparing to pronounce Him innocent. But his attempts were brought to an abrupt halt. Realizing that they had failed to convince Pilate of Jesus’ guilt and afraid that the governor was going to set Him free, the Jews cried out saying, “If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar.” Here is yet another corrupt, hypocritical irony, since the Jews’ hatred of all Roman rule certainly indicated that they themselves were anything but friends of Caesar.

This was the last straw for Pilate; the Jews’ implied threat finally overwhelmed him. He could not risk having them report to the emperor that he had released a revolutionary, especially one who made himself out to be a king in opposition to Caesar. Several of Pilate’s foolish acts had already infuriated the Jews and caused turmoil in Palestine. Rome’s eye was on him, and he dared not risk another upheaval. The emperor at that time, Tiberius, was noted for his suspicious nature and willingness to exact ruthless punishment on his subordinates. Pilate feared for his position, his possessions, even for his life. He felt that he had no choice now but to give in to the Jews’ wishes and pronounce the sentence they demanded.

PILATE’S FINAL PRONOUNCEMENT

Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!” So they 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.” So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified. (19:13–16)

After hearing the words that the Jews had shouted at him, Pilate brought Jesus out from inside the Praetorium. In preparation for formally passing sentence on Him, he sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Ironically, Pilate rendered judgment on the One to whom the Father had granted all judgment (John 5:22), and who will one day pass eternal sentence on him.

The supreme moment to which all of redemptive history pointed had arrived, so John carefully, dramatically set the scene. It was the day of preparation for the Passover. The time was about the sixth hour; or late morning, approaching noon. This statement presents an apparent difficulty, because according to Mark’s account, Jesus was crucified at the third hour (9:00 A.M.). But as Andreas Köstenberger writes, “Since people related the estimated time to the closest three-hour mark, any time between 9:00 A.M. and noon may have led one person to say an event occurred at the third (9:00 A.M.) or the sixth hour (12:00 noon)” (John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004], 538). D. A. Carson cautions against “insisting on a degree of precision in both Mark and John which, in days before watches, could not have been achieved” (John, 605).

In one final sarcastic statement, Pilate taunted the Jews again, saying to them, “Behold, your King!” This was his way of mocking them, suggesting that this beaten, bloody, helpless man was all the king they deserved. Enraged, they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Either in continued mockery, or perhaps seeking one final time to escape his dilemma, Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” In a chilling act of appalling hypocrisy, the chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” Though said with blatant duplicity, the irony was that there was truth in their statement; having rejected their messianic King, they were left with only Caesar as their king. In yet one more bitter irony, those who had falsely accused Jesus of blasphemy committed an act of blasphemy of their own, since God alone was Israel’s true King (cf. Judg. 8:23; 1 Sam. 8:7; Ps. 149:2; Isa. 33:22).

All options exhausted, Pilate acknowledged defeat and handed Jesus over to them to be crucified. John is not saying that the Jews took physical custody of Jesus; Roman soldiers would perform the actual crucifixion. Rather, the sense is that Pilate “delivered Jesus to their [the Jews’] will” (Luke 23:25).

Pilate’s dilemma, expressed in his question, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” (Matt. 27:22) is the same one facing every person. There are only two alternatives: to stand with His rejecters and crucifiers and face eternal damnation (Heb. 6:6), or to acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior (Rom. 10:9) and be saved. Pilate’s futile attempts to evade the issue reveal clearly that there is no middle ground for, as Jesus declared, “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters” (Matt. 12:30). In the end, pride and fear of man led to Pilate’s downfall, and he sided with the crucifiers of Christ to the damnation of his soul. He stands in history as a monumentally tragic figure. Privileged to converse privately with the Savior, he found no value in the opportunity. It was likely the worst experience of his life. He belongs in Judas’s category.