John 18:28-40. The Trial of Indecisive Pilate

This title is not a mistake as you will see!

The poet, Percy Shelley (1792-1822), wrote a considerable amount of poetry in his short life, as well as penning pamphlets such as The Necessity of Atheism (which got him expelled from Oxford). One of his best is ‘Ozymandias’ which was published in 1818. It describes a traveller who was crossing an ancient desert and came across two vast stone legs rising from the sand. On an adjacent pedestal he reads these words,

‘“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

This sonnet is about the remnants of a vast civilisation represented by this statue standing alone in a desert – a desert which was once the vast empire of Ozymandias, ‘King of Kings’. The poem is a haunting reminder that all civilisations fall and how futile human success is.

Some have regarded Jesus in this way. Albert Schweitzer wrote in the first edition of his book, ‘The Quest for the Historical Jesus’ the following notorious line,

“The wheel rolls onward, and the mangled body of the one immeasurably great Man, who was strong enough to think of Himself as the spiritual ruler of mankind and to bend history to His purpose, is hanging upon it still. That is His victory and His reign.”

Significantly this was removed from subsequent editions of the book. Schweitzer was suggesting that Jesus was just a great example of selfless humanity who died trying. However the gospels portray an utterly different Jesus who remained in total control even up to the end.

In the Garden of Gethsemane it was Jesus who came forward to confront those who had come to arrest him. He could have run away. He said to Peter, after he had attacked Malcus with a sword,

“Put your sword back in its place . . . Do you think I cannot call on my Father and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” Matthew 26:52-53

Jesus, who had raised Lazarus and others from death was in total control as he let them bind him and take him away, the first port of call was to the honorary high priest Annas, for that illegal trial in his home.

Pilate

The Sanhedrin reached a decision ‘very early in the morning’ ( Mark 15:1). They wanted a public execution but, as only the Romans could order that, they had to become involved. Roman involvement would also help share the responsibilty for Jesus’ death. They clearly felt that a public execution followed by a public display of the corpse would help the public loose faith in Jesus, as the teaching of the Torah on this subject was well known.

“If a man, guilty of a capital offence, is put to death and his body is hanged on the tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day as anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.” Deuteronomy 21:22-23

Caiaphas must have been ignorant of what Jesus had said early in his ministry,

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” John 3:14-15

Jesus knew that he had to die by crucifixion. The Jewish Scriptures, such as the following, made this clear,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? . . . a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. . . They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. . . Rescue me from the mouth of the lions . . . For he has not despised or scorned the the suffering of the afflicted one . . . All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD . . . They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn for he has done it (or ‘it is finished’).” Psalm 22:1-31

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows . . . Surely he took our infirmites and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each opf us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:3-6

Without knowing that they were fulfilling their Scriptures, they transferred Jesus to see Pontius Pilate in the Praetorium, the magnificent palace of the Roman Governor that Herod the Great had had originally built for himself. It was still early morning. The Jews didn’t want to enter the Praetorium, as that would make them ceremonially unclean. If they had entered the Praetorium, a Gentile home, they would be unable to participate in the festivals of the Passover and Unleavened Bread that lasted a full week. It is remarkable that the Jewish authorities were fastidious about the minutiae of the Jewish law but completely failed morally. So Pilate agreed to go outside to talk with the Jews.

Quite rightly, he wanted to know what specific allegations were being brought against Jesus and there they had a problem and could only reply,

“If he were not a criminal . . . we would not have handed him over to you.” John 18:30

In response Pilate’s initial reaction was not to get involved,

“Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” John 18:31

This response appears to confirm that Jesus had yet to have had a fair trial. The Jews’ response was clear, they did not want justice but an execution, so they objected,

“But we have no right to execute anyone.” John 8:32

Jesus is not really on trial before Pilate, both Pilate and the Sanhedrin are up before the God of the universe. The Lord Jesus is holding court and rendering the sentence. The remarkable thing is that Jesus then takes the judgment on himself.

Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He was an ambitious and officious Procurator. According to the ‘Peter Principle’ he had been promoted above his capability. He was politically inept and brutal. His family, the Pontii, originally came from Saville in Spain. He joined the army and when stationed in Rome he met and married Claudia Procula. the grand-daughter of Emperor Augustus. He then applied for the post of Procurator of Judea which he obtained, doubtless supported by nepotism and patronage.

In Judea he was inept and made many mistakes.

a. On his initial visit to Jerusalem he was accompanied by a large group of soldiers who carried banners that bore the image of the Emperor, Tiberius. This enraged the Jews and a group followed him up to Caesaria. This group was taken into the arena and surrounded by soldiers. Pilate said he was going to kill them all. The Jewish leaders simply bared their necks and said, in effect, ‘Go ahead.’ Understandably Pilate backed down.

b. He raided the Corban treasury in the Temple in order to obtain money to build an aqueduct. When people protested, he sent in soldiers, dressed in plain clothes but armed with daggers and clubs. They mingled with the crowd and several Jews were killed.

c. He stored votive shields bearing the image of Tiberias in Herod’s Palace in Jerusalem.

d. Luke recalls, in his record of the gospel, an occasion when Pilate’s legionarii killed a group of Galileans who had come to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices in the temple. A group of these soldiers slaughtered them there(Luke 13:1-5).

There must have been some connaivance between the Jewish and Roman authorities prior to the arrest of Jesus as a cohort of Roman soldiers was involved in his arrest. It is likely that Claudia, Pilate’s wife, knew something of the plans as that night she had a dream concerning him. She wrote a note to her husband that reached him, as he was sitting in the seat of judgment, which said,

“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 27:19

The ‘trial of Pilate before Jesus’.

Pilate left the Jewish delegation and returned inside his palace and summoned Jesus to be brought before him. He asked Jesus,

“Are you the king of the Jews?” John 18:33

In the original Greek, all four gospels make the ‘you’ emphatic, so the question could be translated,

“Are you really king of the Jews? You?”

There was Jesus dressed in ordinary clothes, clothes that he had slept in and were undoubtedly dirty and bloodstained as he had been beaten earlier by members of the high priest’s staff. Yet Jesus turns the question round beautifully. He is clearly in complete control of the situation and it is he who asks the next question.

“Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?” John 18:34

If it was Pilate’s idea, he was asking ‘Are you a rebel, are you a rival to Rome?’ If the question was one posed by the Jews it meant, ‘Are you the Messianic King?’ It is as if Jesus is asking Pilate to make up his own mind concerning him. This is a decsion every person needs to make. Pilate, however, tries to sidestep the question and replied,

“Am I a Jew? . . . It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it that you have done?” John 18:35

Clearly the question being asked was,

“Are you the Messiah, God’s chosen king?”

There was no suggestion that he was a rebel who opposed Roman rule or their law.

Jesus’ world is full of paradoxes

The meek rule, not the apparently strong.

The poor not the rich will inherit the kingdom of Heaven.

The weak will overcome the strong.

The unlearned will outwit the humanly wise.

The beaten, defenceless and humiliated holds court on the powerful Pontius Pilate.

The author G.K.Chesterton wrote,

“A paradox is truth standing upon its head that it might gain attention.”

Here is one of the paradoxes of Jesus’ life. At the lowest point in his life, when he appears to be on trial for his life, he is in complete control. He still wants people to know precisely who he is. Jesus continues confidently to say to Pilate,

“My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is of another place.” John 18:36

This is the heart of the matter. This what he was being accused of but significantly no evidence against him on this question of being a rebel was put forward by the prosecution. They did not want a trial on the question of his being the Messiah as there was so much evidence in support of Jesus’ claims, including the Old Testament prophecies about his birthplace, his ministry, his ancestry from David (which the Messiah had to be), as well as his teaching, his personality, his miracles and his life.

Jesus’ claim was immense, so was he lying or mad? The Jesus standing before Pilate and the Jews was clearly not insane. It may be that Pilate did wonder whether Jesus’ claim could be true. He knew that, what Claudia his wife had written to him, was true. Jesus was innocent and he kept saying so. Yet here was Jesus in front of him insisting that he, Pilate, should surrender everything to Jesus! Instead of ‘Have nothing to do with this innocent man’, she should instead have said ‘Have everything to do with the Messiah standing before you.’ This is a decision everyone has to make. Pilate continued,

“You are a king, then!” John 18:37

This was no longer a question but a statement. Jesus continued to try and help Pilate understand,

“You are right in saying 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 18:38

Can we all understand how astounding this is. Pilate, as a judge, would have valued a reputation of being impartial and only interested in truth. Yet Jesus is saying that, what he says about his being the king of God’s kingdom is really true. Jesus is supposedly on trial for his life but he turns it round and says that it is Pilate and ourselves who are on trial for our spiritual lives. The only way to receive eternal life is, Jesus says,

“Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” John 8:38

This word ‘listen’ as used here must involve following and obeying. This is the only way to understand our existence in this world. There are no exceptions, ‘Everyone’ on the side of truth takes God and his Son very seriously indeed.

Today too many are looking to materialism to satisfy their needs, but that satisfaction is only short-lasting. God says that we all need a spiritual Saviour if we are to be satisfied eternally. Soon after miraculously feeding the five thousand, Jesus said to the crowds,

“I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and fishes and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval. Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’

Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:26-29

The result on that occasion was that the people left Jesus because were looking for physical satisfaction, and were not seeking to please God.

What is truth?

Pilate replies to Jesus with a profound statement, one that is used by so many today, to avoid confronting Jesus who was becoming too difficult for him.

“ ‘What is truth?’ Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against him.’ John 18:38

I once asked a group of hospital consultants, ‘What is truth?’ and they had difficulty answering. In the end one radiologist replied, ‘Truth must be consensus.’ However, what the majority think, the consensus, is easily manipulated, as Hitler, Putin and many politicians have discovered. In science, in law, in medicine, in relationships and in most walks of life we are looking for the truth. Our understanding may be imperfect but we know there is truth somewhere out there. Plato understood this. Truth can only be a concept that is compatible with God. It cannot be defined any other way. It is absurd for a person to say, ‘That is not my truth.’ Hegel’s idea of ‘evolving truth’ can only refer to our understanding of truth, not to truth itself. My understanding of the truth may be wrong because I am self-centred

This is why Jesus could say, ‘I am the truth,’ (John 14:6) as he knew that he was God and was therefore the end of every investigation that is looking for truth. Any concept that is not compatible with him cannot be true.

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) once famously wrote,

“ ‘WHAT is truth?’ said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.”

It is surely unlikely that Pilate was joking in this very difficult situation. He seems to be implying that he could not ‘come out’ on what he knew to be true and underneath was feeling very tense. Perhaps he had in mind that message he had received from his wife, Claudia. Is the opinion of others the best way to discover the truth? Pilate’s problem was, at root, that he was a materialist and pragmatist. Status, wealth and power were what really mattered to him. No wonder he would not stay for an answer.

Today most of our popular films and soap-operas are all to do with materialism and power. Very few have an answer to ‘what is truth?’ Pilate tries to avoid taking responsibilty for his decision about Jesus by side-stepping the issue. History agrees that he should not have done that.

Luke tells us that when Pilate heard that Jesus was a Galilean, he referred the case to Herod Antipas, who ruled Galilee at the time, but was in Jerusalem for the Passover. Herod was happy to see Jesus as he had heard all about him and wanted to see some miracles himself (Luke 23:6--12). Herod asked Jesus many questions but Jesus did not reply a word. The chief priests kept accusing him yet still without getting a response. There was no convincing case to answer. Then they dressed Jesus in a royal robe and mocked him mercilessly, after all he did claim to be a king! They then returned him to poor Pilate. What should he do now? Then he had another idea about how he could avoid making a decsion about Jesus.

There was a Jewish traditon at Passover time for a prisoner to be released. This was to commemorate the fact they it was at Passover time the Jews had been freed from captivity in Egypt. Pilate went outside again and yet again said to the Jews,

“I find no basis for a charge against him.” John18:38

That should have been the end of the matter but Pilate wants to keep in with the people. He knew he was not a popular governor. He gave them a simple choice, should he release a notorious criminal (Matthew 27:16), a man named Barabbus, or ‘the king of the Jews’. Mark and Luke tell us that Barabbus was an ‘insurrectionist who had committed murder’ (Mark 15:7), John says that he had been involved in an insurrection, and presumably this was against Rome. This choice is remarkable. Pilate is asking for trouble. He seems to be surrendering justice to the whim of the crowd in front of him.

“Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews?’” John 18:39

Such decisions about Jesus must always be personal, they cannot be delegated to others. The crowd, possibly orchestrated by the Jewish authorities, were adamant,

“No, not him! Give us Barabbus.” John 18:40

“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Christ?”

“They all answered, ‘Crucify him!’”

“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’” Matthew 27:22=23

Pilate was now losing control. He then again tried to exonerate himself from making a decision.

“He took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is your responsibility.’ All the people answered, ‘Let his blood be on us and on our children.” Matthew 27:24-25

The question must be asked why John overlooks some of the details that are given in the Synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. He seems to assume that his readers have a knowledge of the other gospels but prefers to concentrate on his one theme, that all people must make a decsion about Jesus, because to be safe with God, to be saved, we must believe in him.”

Barabbus deserved to die physically yet Jesus took his place, we deserve to die spiritually yet Jesus took our sin on himself so that we can be free. This is what the prophecy in Isaiah 53, quoted above is all about. I deserved hell, but Jesus took my hell. Heaven lies ahead of me now simply because of what Jesus did for me. This ‘substitutionary atonement’ by Jesus, where he made his people ‘at one’ with God, by becoming our substitute, is the message of the whole Bible. Just as lambs acted as symbolic substitutes in the Old Testament sacrificial system, so Jesus, the Lamb of God (John 1:29) became the ultimate sacrifice for sin, once for all time. Paul wrote,

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

A Christian attempted to explain the significance of Jesus and the gospel to a Jewish friend but the man did not accept his message. However, some time later, the man was dying. The Christian went to see him as he lay on his death bed. The nurse said he could go in, but just to be there with him. The Christian went in, knelt beside the man’s bed, held his hand and prayed silently. Then man then uttered a few words,

“Not Barabbus, but this man. I want Jesus.”

This is the offer that was made to Pilate but he shunned his opportunity. It was made to Herod but he was not interested, and it is made to each one of us. John reminds us,

“These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:31

A decision about Jesus has to be made.

BVP