John 19:1-6

Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified

1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they slapped him in the face.

4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"

6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"

But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him."



Dig Deeper

As a young teacher, one of the jobs that I took on with a great deal of zeal was that of decorating my classroom. Teaching is certainly the most important part of being a teacher, but don’t underestimate the power of a well organized and decorated classroom. It sets the atmosphere and ambiance of the classroom and it demonstrates to the students what sorts of subjects and concepts will be valued in that classroom. One of favorite topics to teach about in my United States history classes was the time period of the U.S. Civil War. Out of that time, no one stands taller than President Abraham Lincoln. In fact, while I was on my honeymoon, we went to shop at a few antique stores because I was going to start my first year teaching in a matter of days after our honeymoon. I found a large and incredible bust of Lincoln and immediately bought it with designs on making it the centerpiece of my new classroom. From that time on, whenever I would see Lincoln memorabilia, busts, or even that of other important historical figures like George Washington, I would get them for my room. Other people took up that cause as well and would, from time to time, give me Lincoln or Washington busts that they had found. The thing that I like the most about having these busts and pictures, these images, of famous and important people in American history was that when the kids came into the room they could look and see that these are the people that were important in our history. These were the men and women that made our nation what it is. These were the representations and reminders of the people that gave us the country we have.

Throughout history, that same concept has been embraced in most cultures. This was particularly true of the Roman Empire. Throughout the Roman Empire you would find statues of the Emperors and the gods that they worshiped. These were the beings that made Roman life what it was. These were representations of who they were and what they were accomplishing. Believe it or not, Judaism and Christianity have a similar concept. In Genesis 1, we are told that God made man in his image. The Hebrew word used, tselem, means "idol" or "representative". That was the point that Genesis is conveying. I used to set up images of Abraham Lincoln around my classroom to remind students who he was, what he accomplished, and what he was like. God put his own idols in the world to accomplish the same thing. He created man, in his image, and told them to fill the earth. They were to serve the purpose of demonstrating to the entire creation, in their image and the dominion they were to have over the creation.

Yet, as a result of sin, something went terribly wrong. Mankind surrendered something of that image by marring ourselves with sin. No longer could we fully reflect the image of God and no longer could we properly represent him by exercising his dominion over the earth (cf. Gen. 5:3). This is much of the story of the Bible in many respects. Mankind had lost the glory of what he was intended to be, a thought clearly captured by the Psalmist as he declared that "You have made them a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas" (Ps. 8:5-8). Man was God’s image, His idol, but sin had marred that. Jesus, said the early Christians, was the fulfillment of Psalm 8. He was, as the New Testament writers went on to declare, the true image of God (Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4), and that only by dying to self and entering into the life of Christ (Rom. 6:1-4) could believers be restored to the image of God (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10).

Yet, this true human being, perfect from the disease of sin and without fault before God, stands before the Roman governor as a man charged with a crime that would lead to his death. We see all throughout this scene, however, that something is bothering Pilate. He has rejected the truth of this man but is still evidently haunted by it. Otherwise, he could easily wave his finger, have this man killed, and be done with it. But he didn’t want to do that. Instead, he has him flogged. There were three types of Roman floggings that were used in Jesus’ day: the fustigatio, a beating given for minor offenses, the flagellatio, a more intense beating given for more serious crimes, and the verberatio, the most brutal flogging that was given before crucifixion. It is likely that Pilate first orders the fustigatio, administered here in an attempt to appease the Jews. After the official sentence of crucifixion was passed down, he was probably taken and given the verberatio, a second beating which would have left him as weakened as the other Gospel accounts seem to indicate.

The Roman soldiers were no fans of the Jews amongst whom they lived and they seem to relish the chance to mock this man that they view as less than human (certainly another irony all its own). Their hails and actions mimicked those which were paid in homage to Caesar, as well as apparently copying the type of mocking a fake king that they would have been seen in Roman plays or circuses. They jam a crown of thorns, that could have contained spikes that were several inches, into his skull. They clothed him in a purple robe and mockingly hailed him as the king of the Jews, repeatedly striking him in the face. The thorns and the repeated strikes would have caused much bleeding, swelling, and disfigurement.

Pilate returns to the Jewish leadership, hoping that the beating will be enough to satisfy them. He found nothing in this man to indicate that he was any sort of threat to Rome. All the Jewish leaders needed to do was look at this man mocked, beaten, bloodied, and bruised to see that he was no royalty by any of the world’s standards. He wasn’t the image of a king. He was barely the image of a man anymore. Pilate presents Jesus to the chief priests and says, "here is the man." Truer words were never spoken, but Pilate had no idea of the depth that John likely found in those words. The phrase in the Roman vernacular meant something like "here is this poor creature." How could anyone think that this man was anything more than pathetic? Why not just let him go at this point and let good be well enough.

There is little doubt, though, that John wants us to see so much more behind Pilate’s words. It is another example of Johannine irony. Here is the man, indeed. The only true man. The true human being. He is not what anyone would think of as a king or an important person by the world’s standards, but he was, in reality, the very image of God. The image of the true God wasn’t a statue, or a piece of wood and bronze. People didn’t have to look at something like that to be reminded of who their God was. No, this human man, beaten, bloodied, and bruised was the image of God in the flesh. In John’s recapitulation of the Genesis 1 account, his opening prologue in chapter 1, verse 14 echoes Genesis 1:26-28. The image of God is the word become flesh. This is how man was supposed to be. This is how God will use flesh made in His image to rule wisely over His creation (cf. Ps. 8:4-8).

Here is the man. Despite what anyone standing there that day might have thought, this was the man. The image of God. He was the true embodiment of God’s wisdom, character, and nature. This was how God’s wisdom and His will were breaking into the world. He was the living, breathing, statue of flesh of the Creator of the universe showing people that this is who God is and this is how He is acting to begin the process of setting things in His fallen creation back to the way they were intended to be. And more than that, this the image of God that we all need to become.

But the false Adams will have none of that. Just as Adam rejected God’s will for his own will, so do they. They want nothing to do with God’s will in the flesh. If they do that, they will have to lay down their own lives and take up his. Instead they will cling to their own wills and demand the crucifixion of the Son of God.

Pilate’s response is biting and ironic. Pilate speaks sarcastically because he knows full well that the Jews did not have the authority under Roman rule to enact a death sentence by crucifixion. He finds no basis for a charge against the man. He’d rather just let him go, but if they insist on continuing down this path (and Pilate doesn’t need the trouble of resisting if they are absolutely insistent on it), then they need to be clear that this is on their head. Pilate doesn’t openly reject and call for the death of the man, but he won’t stand up for the truth and seek it either. In the end, there is little difference between his position and theirs. There is always little difference between fighting the truth and compromising it.



Devotional Thought

Have you ever thought about yourself as God’s idol? What does it mean to think of yourself as a living, breathing, statue of sorts, showing the world what God is like. Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and spend some time thinking about that concept today.