John 18:28-40

Jesus Before Pilate

28 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?"

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

31 Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."

"But we have no right to execute anyone," they objected. 32 This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.

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

34 "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"

35 "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"

36 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."

37 "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."

38 "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. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?"

40 They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!" Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.



Dig Deeper

There is a funny dichotomy in human nature that we all probably can readily identify with. We hate to be lied to. There is nothing that angers people more than to be deceived. We want the truth, or so we think. But on the other hand, most of us don’t care to hear the truth when it is directed at us. How many times have you had someone say something difficult and challenging, but true to you, and your first response was to get angry. This is particularly true of myself. I talk about the importance of truth all the time, and it is one of the primary concepts that I teach my sons. You have to tell the truth, embrace the truth, and live for truth. Yet, let my wife tell me something that she sees in my character and my first response is to get irritated. I want to make excuses, pass the buck, and not face the truth. I would rather deny the truth in cases like that or pass the blame or responsibility on to someone else. The truth is, I have found, most difficult for us to accept when it stands in opposition to us. It’s at those times that we suddenly don’t like truth as much as we might like to think.

There are so many things swirling around Jerusalem at this point that one might think the one thing that couldn’t possibly be found was the truth. How could a man like Pilate have a chance of wading through all of the competing forces and political pressures that he was dealing with to find truth? How could he possibly come out of the darkness of the world, his world, to find anything like truth? Truth was something that a man in his position had given up hope of finding or having any kind of belief in a long time ago. Truth simply didn’t have much purchasing power in his world. Yet, here we find Pilate, more than any man in history, at the crossroads between light and darkness. With an incredibly touchy and difficult situation swirling about him, Pilate looks up and finds himself face to face with the truest thing he will ever know. The Word has become flesh (Jn. 1:14) and he is truth (Jn. 17:17).

Pilate is a somewhat enigmatic figure in history. He ruled as governor of Jerusalem for about ten years, and had likely been the governor for about 7 of those years at this point when Jesus is brought to him. He was appointed to the position by his mentor, Sejnus, the commander of the praetorian guard in Rome. He ruled things in Jerusalem with a harsh and iron fist, but it seems that after Sejnus’ execution in 31 AD, Pilate’s position with Rome was much shakier. Rome wanted no problems in Jerusalem which might affect the smooth importation of corn from Egypt. From the point of Sejnus’ death, Pilate had to balance his disdain for the Jews and apparent glee in snubbing their leadership, with a need to not have any more problems in Judea. He simply was on thin ice and knew it.

As the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor, the scene is dripping with irony. The Jews did not have the power under Roman rule to put someone to death. They have no problem, though, with violating their own rules and their own law to have an innocent man put to death, while at the same time scrupulously worrying about becoming unclean for Passover by entering into the dwelling of a pagan. They wanted Pilate to do their dirty work for them and have this man crucified that they cannot even formulate a specific and legitimate charge against, yet they won’t even enter his house. This is exactly the sort of attitude that Jesus charged the Jewish leadership with, they were missing the big parts of God’s will while obsessing over the minor points of the law, something that he unforgettably called straining out a gnat but swallowing a camel (Matt. 23:24).

One thing is obvious in this whole scene. Pilate just doesn’t want to deal with this. He is in the position of power, but this issue has nothing but trouble written all over it. There seems to be no good that comes from this situation but there is plenty of danger. If he angers the Jewish leadership too much, they might cause problems or report him to Rome as not being loyal to Caesar. On the other hand, if he summarily puts someone claiming to be king to death, if that man had a large following, they might revolt. This determines the two things Pilate needs to know then, the one thing that he cares about. Is this man claiming to be king? Was he a threat to start a rebellion? Pilate’s actions and attitude towards this whole situation will largely hinge, at least initially, on the determination of those two questions.

Jesus’ response to Pilate’s inquiries of him being king seem confusing for a second, but they make perfect sense in context. Why is Pilate asking him if he is king? If he is asking for himself, from a Roman perspective? If so, then he wants to know if Jesus is leading a rebellion that Caesar needs to worry about. The answer to that question would be "no". If he is asking at the prompting of the Jewish leaders, then the question is concerning his alleged Messiahship. If it was strictly a religious issue, then that would not be something that Rome would be immediately concerned about. The answer to that question would be "yes". Clearly, though, Pilate doesn’t want to get involved in what he sees as silly Jewish religious internal disputes. Pilate is not instigating this arrest or this trial. The Jews are the ones that have the issue.

With that established, Jesus can answer the question firmly. His kingdom is not of this world. If it were, his servants would have continued to walk down the wrong road that Peter started when he cut off the ear of Malchus. This is not that type of kingdom. Jesus doesn’t mean, however, that his kingdom is not for the world. In fact, his disciples are to pray that the kingdom comes into this world as it is in heaven. His point is that the kingdom of God, the rule or reign of God does not have a worldly origin or character. It does not derive from this world for it is, in its essence, the will of God realized in the world; it is for the world in no uncertain terms.

Pilate finds himself somewhere he never thought he would be. He stands in his world of darkness and the bright shining light of truth is blazing away in his eye. He is challenged to accept or reject the truth that Jesus has revealed in his very life. He is truth, the one thing everyone wants, but that we all tend to avoid when it challenges who we are or what we are doing. We don’t know to what personal level Pilate was challenged by Jesus, but it does seem that he knew there was something to this man. Yet, the truth was simply too costly for him. How could he give up everything that he had worked for and built up to follow this lowly Jew who was standing before him rejected by his own people? It was absurd, but yet. . . there was something to this man. Is he a king? Certainly not the kind that could be considered any sort of serious rival to Caesar. That’s not what Jesus is about. He doesn’t want to be king of the false Adams in the realm of darkness. He came into the world to testify to the truth because he is truth. Everyone, says Jesus, who is on the side of truth listens to him. There it is. What will Pilate do? With the true Adam standing before him on the precipice of the New Creation, what will he do? The truth for Pilate is too costly, it’s too unattainable. He has chosen a life that has left him disillusioned and bitter. What is truth? Nothing that he will ever find, if it even exists at all. The only truth he knew was power and power has little concern for any other kind of truth.

So, Pilate has made up his mind. He has no interest in confronting himself with the difficult truth before him, but on a pragmatic level he knows Jesus is no threat but he cannot just let him go. He comes up with a seemingly brilliant solution. He will take advantage of the custom of releasing one Jewish prisoner during Passover as a sign of goodwill (a practice that is understandably not recorded in history outside of the biblical record). This solution would solve everything for Pilate. He would technically find Jesus guilty but then would let a man that he sees as no real threat to go free.

The plan is perfect except that the Jewish leaders throw a wrench in it. Pilate offers them the choice between Jesus, an innocent man, and Barabbas, a true rebel against Rome. The Jewish leaders want Barabbas. The name "Barabbas" literally means "son of the father." He represents every man. He is a rebel just like all the sons of Adam who stand in rebellion against God. Pilate doesn’t want to stand up, make a choice, and embrace truth. He has passed that decision on to the Jewish leadership. Do they want the false Adam or the real Adam? Do they want the real rebel or the man of peace that will bring reconciliation and the new creation to the world? They firmly declare their choice. They choose the false Adam. They will remain in darkness.



Devotional Thought

What do you do when confronted with truth about yourself? Do you get angry? Do you try to blame others or pass responsibility off from yourself onto others? Or do you seek the truth and embrace it when you find regardless of how difficult and challenging it is? Make a decision that from here on out you will be a person who is sincerely open to the truth in whatever form it might come.