I’d like to begin with 18:28, where Yeshua is brought before Pilate for trial: Then they led Yeshua from Caiaphas into the Praetorium – the palace of the Roman governor, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover. What irony! What hypocrisy on the part of these Jewish leaders not wanting to be ritually defiled for Passover by entering a Gentile’s home (something which the Torah never forbids), meanwhile, they are committing one of the greatest sins in history, putting to death Israel’s King, the righteous Messiah, the Son of God, mankind’s Savior, and our only hope of salvation! What a warning about the danger of religion apart from a true relationship with God!
It’s somewhat insulting, not being willing to enter someone’s home, especially when you are there to ask them for a favor, but Pilate was gracious to the Jewish leaders, and didn’t insist they come before him in his home. Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?” This is a legal situation, and Pilate wants to know the specific charges against the accused. They answered and said to him, “If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him to you.” But, they don’t answer Pilate with specific charges, but with vague generalities, that Yeshua has done evil and has sinned.
That happens when you don’t have a good case. People resort to generalizations and name calling. So Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.” Pilate realizes that this dispute is between rabbis – Rabbi Yeshua and the other Jewish leaders. He doesn’t want to get involved. If He has done evil according to Jewish law, then Pilate wants Him judged by Jewish law.
The Jewish people still had religious courts, and still had that authority. Roman had taken much authority away from us, but not all. However, the Jewish leaders want a Roman trial because they are aiming for the death penalty, and it was the Roman governor who had the sole power of the death penalty.
The Jews (meaning the Jewish leaders) said to him, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death,” to fulfill the word of Yeshua which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die. These leaders thought they were the wise ones, they ones in charge, maneuvering things just the way they wanted. But behind them was the Wisest One of all, who is shrewder than the shrewd! They were actually playing into the hands of God, fulfilling His plans, and also the prophetic word of Yeshua, who had predicted how He would die (As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up… If I be lifted up from the Earth, I will draw all men to Myself (see 3:14 and12:32). Yeshua is most certainly a true prophet. Every word He speaks is true.
Again, notice the attention to details, and the dialogue that is recorded for us. This indicates a historical account that is based on eyewitness. Pilate has heard the preliminary charges. Now, functioning as a judge, he speaks to the Accused: therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Yeshua and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Why does he ask Yeshua if He is Israel’s King? Why that, and not the charges of the Jewish leaders?
Obviously, Pilate had heard something about the young Rabbi from Nazareth – that some were saying that He was a descendant of King David, and therefore the King of the Jews, and that was a very political thing, and would have been of interest to Pilate and Rome, even if the vague charges of the Jewish leaders weren’t.
Yeshua answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” Yeshua, who is the true King of Israel, wants to know if Pilate wants to know more about Yeshua on his own, and has some genuine interest in Him that is coming from within, maybe even a spiritual interest. How much spiritual truth does Pilate know? Has his time among the Chosen People benefitted him? Is he being drawn to God by the Spirit? Is that why Pilate is asking, or is he going along with a plot of these Jewish leaders who want to have Yeshua killed?
Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Look, I’m not interested in getting involved in your internal Jewish squabbles. I’m not interested in your religion. Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?” But I do want to know what you have done to arose the opposition of Your people and its leaders.
Yeshua does not answer this question, but He does answer Pilate’s original question about being the King of the Jews: Yeshua answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”
Yeshua is wise. He tells Pilate the truth, but not all of the truth. But the truth He told him was sufficient, and not misleading. He admits that He is a King, but His kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom is connected to another realm – Heaven. He is not a threat to Caesar. He is not a king who is a rival for this realm. If He was interested in competing with Caesar, then He would command millions of mighty angels to fight for Him, and all the Roman cohorts and all the mighty Roman armies would be utterly defeated before them!
The nature of Yeshua’s First Coming was not political, to take over the kingdoms of this world. He will at the Second Coming, when He returns as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Now, there are very important implications of Yeshua’s position. Like Messiah, in this age, Messiah’s Holy Community is not to be striving for political power, being rivals to Caesar, taking over the kingdoms of this world. We can and should get involved in politics, and exert what influence we can, but our goal is not the acquisition of political power to move forward God’s agenda. In fact, the Church has almost invariably been purer and holier and more faithful to its calling the farther it has been from the centers of political power.
I’m thinking in particular of what this same John, in the Book of Revelation, calls Babylon, that unfaithful, false church, who is centered in a city with seven hills, unfaithful to God, compared to a whore – persecuting the true believers, murderous, drunk with the blood of the saints, who consorts with Anti-Christ, and has had power over the kings of the Earth. I wonder who that can be?
Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Yeshua answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
Yeshua affirms that He is a king, but a different kind of king, One who is no rival to Caesar. He is the King of truth (and the kings of Rome certainly did not embody the truth). Messiah is the Supreme Authority who determines what is true. He controls all realty – what is real, what is right, what is true, what should be known and believed. And, the purpose of His First Coming was to tells us the truth.
Come on, did the Son of God really need to come down from the glories of Heaven, become a man, suffer all the indignities and misunderstandings that He suffered, just to tell us the truth? Yes – because mankind is totally confused about the truth, about what is really real, about the way things really are. We think we know, but we don’t know.
And what is truth? That mankind is alienated from the one true and living God, and utterly lost; the whole world is perishing, and unless we are born again, spiritually transformed, given new life from God, we will not enter Heaven and experience eternal life.
That Yeshua is the eternal Son of God, and the Way, the Truth and the Life; and no human being can come to God and Heaven and eternal life apart from personally placing their faith in Him. He is the sinless Redeemer, and the Light of the World, and mankind’s only Savior, and unless we believe in Him, we will die in our sins. But if we do join ourselves to Him, we will find that He is the Resurrection and the Life.
Since Yeshua is the King of Truth, are you a loyal subject to the King? Have you committed yourself to Him as the supreme giver of truth to humanity? Do you think that there is some higher truth out there? Do you know the truth? Are you committed to the truth? Do you live the truth? Or are you still in a state of confusion, like the rest of the world, and asking, like the Roman governor, what is truth?
Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” Even though Yeshua is his prisoner, He is confident and bold, and claiming to be the King of Truth. Interestingly, the one with greater power is not confident, and Pilate retreats into philosophical speculation. Truth? How can any man know the truth? This is what we would call an Agnostic – that philosophical position that it is impossible for humans beings to know ultimate truth.
Pilate is like most people today in our secular humanistic culture today. They don’t think that truth, absolute truth, is knowable. But is was knowable then, and it is knowable now.
You see, the Absolute Truth, the Source of Ultimate Truth, the Center of Reality, is standing right in front of Pilate, revealing Himself to him! He had personally just been told the truth by the King of Truth, and yet he denied it. How sad that a person can come so close to the Truth, and yet not know it.
Pilate did.
Judas did.
The rich young ruler did.
Most of the religious leaders of Israel did.
Might we be facing that same danger? In the book of Hebrews, religious people are described who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become sharers in the Holy Spirit, and tasted the goodness of God’s Word and the powers of the Olam HaBa – the World To Come, and then have fallen away. Adolph Saphir observes that these were people who were Messianic Jews in their profession and their outward appearance, but it seems that they were never true believers to begin with.
This is a description of the apparent and professing believer. They professed faith in Yeshua, and to all appearance they had been enlightened. They had tasted of the heavenly gift, for they expressed their joy in believing the Good News. They seemed to have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, for they called Yeshua Lord; they seemed to have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come, for they were willing to suffer and to lose their worldly goods for the sake of the eternal reward. Many of them had experienced supernatural gifts, and had been used by God to do miraculous works of power.
But unless they woke up from their spiritual slumber, unless by repentance and faith they continued to pick up their cross and follow Yeshua, unless they continued to be willing to ascend the steep and rugged heights, as Yeshua commands us to follow Him, their path is downward towards eternal ruin. If they continue in their downward direction, it will become obvious that they received the good seed only superficially, that they had no depth, and therefore after a short season of joy fell away. O, a person can come so very close to the truth, my friends, and yet not really be part of the truth. Is that you?
Why can people get so close to the truth, but deny the Truth? The answer is that the truth brings with it implications that they don’t like. If there is one true God, then He can tell us what is right and what is wrong; what is true, and what is a lie, what we can do, and what we should not do; and most people don’t like that.
They want pleasures, legitimate and illegitimate ones, and they want plenty of the world’s riches, and they want to be popular, and go along with the godless majority. But the truth won’t allow that, and so they deny the truth. Do you? Or are you committed to the true God, the true Messiah, and to the truth, no matter if the consequences are not what you would prefer?
Pilate was close to the truth. And, he was convinced that Yeshua was no threat to Rome, and that He had not committed any crime under Roman. Law. And when he had said this, he went out again – a second time, outside the Governor’s palace – to the Jews (meaning the Jewish leaders) and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him. I Pontius Pilate, the legal representative of the mighty Roman Empire, the dominant Gentile World Power, I find the charges against Yeshua of Nazareth to be unsubstantial. He is innocent of all charges.” Now, if Pilate was genuinely committed to justice, the case would be dismissed, and Yeshua would have been immediately released. But he didn’t release him.
Instead, trying to get that desired result, Pilate presented a plan: 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?” Pilate is attempting to get out of this dilemma, based on the Roman and Jewish custom, that the Romans released a Jewish prisoner in honor of the Passover. Let’s see if it works:
So they ? the Jewish leaders and their cronies – cried out again saying, “Not this Man, but BarAbba.” Now BarAbba was a robber.
What irony! What a choice! One BarAbba, which means “son of the father,” a robber, or another BarAbba, who is the true Son of the Great Father of all? Which one will they choose? A robber or the sinless Messiah, the Son of God, and the King of the Jews? It’s not much of a choice, for those who have eyes to see. But these Jewish leaders, and those who were loyal to them, didn’t know God, and didn’t know His Son, and so they chose to save the robber, and kill the Prince of Life.
I’m reminded of the words found in the prophet, “He was despised, and forsaken by men, and we did not esteem Him.” Isaiah predicted that we would not properly value the Messiah for who He truly was. And it happened.
Now, Pilate tries something else – humiliation, perhaps hoping that if he hurts and humiliate Yeshua of Nazareth, maybe that will win the young Rabbi some sympathy, show that He is not a threat, and be enough to satisfy those who want Him dead.
Pilate then took Yeshua and whipped 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.
Yeshua was unjustly struck at His trial before Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the High Priest. Notice that Gentiles are also involved and willing participants in Yeshua’s sufferings. In fact, His sufferings from the Gentiles far exceed the suffering He experience from the Jews.
Yeshua, although proclaimed innocent by Pilate, is very severely whipped. We know from history that many people didn’t survive a Roman whipping. Pieces of bone, metal or glass were tied to a leather whip which cut through the skin and even the muscle. The whole body was affected, including the face. Ancient records tell us that when the Romans were through with one of these whippings, oftentimes even family members could no longer recognize the person, because he was so cut up.
This is another miscarriage of justice. How does Yeshua react? Does He call down angels from heaven to destroy these cruel, wicked human beings? No. He suffered silently, knowing that He was whipped, so that by His stripes, we might be healed. He was whipped so that we might live in comfort throughout eternity. So He suffered and remained silent.
But whipping was not enough for the Romans. The Gentiles had other humiliations in store for the King of the Jews: they put a crown of thorns on His head, perhaps pressing down hard enough to pierce the skin. If so, it would have been painful.
I am in awe when I consider that the only crown the world’s greatest King ever wore while He was on Earth, was a crown of thorns. The head of the King of kings, that bore the greatest crown in Heaven, was forced by humanity to wear a crown made up of thorns.
Thorns are a direct result of the curse that was place on humanity and on the Earth when mankind rebelled against God. Thorns are a symbol of this terrible curse that comes from sin and disobedience and rebellion against God. By wearing this crown of thorns, the King is taking on His head the curse of humanity, and reversing that curse, in order that we might be restored to God’s blessing, that our sin and disobedience and rebellion against God might come to an end.
The Roman soldiers also put a purple robe on Yeshua. Making purple dye was expensive, and purple robes became associated with royalty and kingship. These Gentiles are mocking Yeshua, hailing Him as the King of the Jews. The King is the greatest person in any nation, and so this tells us what they thought, not just of our King, but of all Jews. These soldiers saw the Chosen People as weak and pathetic, worthy to be humiliated, slapped in the face, tortured, mocked and scorned. And, these cruel Gentiles thought all this was humorous, entertaining, and lots of fun.
Pilate came out again (for the third time) and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.” For the second time Pilate declares Yeshua innocent of all charges. So why doesn’t Pilate simply release Him? Because, he would like to make the Jewish leaders happy. He doesn’t want this to develop into a more serious political situation.
Then, after His whipping, beating and humiliation, Yeshua then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!” Look at this Man! He has been beaten. He has been whipped. He has been humiliated. No one will take Him seriously. He is not a threat to Rome or to you. Look at this Man. Now, let’s let Him go.
Pilate looked and saw a innocent but powerless Rabbi, and withheld justice.
The soldiers looked and saw a despised Jew, and laughed.
The Jewish leaders looked and saw a young miracle working rabbi who dared to assert that His authority was greater than theirs, and claimed to be the Messiah sent by God, and the Son of God, and rejected Him.
God looked and saw His dearly loved Son, the One who existed with Him throughout eternity, but who was willing before the foundation of the universe to reconciled fallen man back to God; the One who had willingly left the glories of Heaven, and had joined Himself to humanity, in order to redeem humanity. God looked and saw a perfect Man, a sinless Man, a Man who always honored Him in all that He did and said. What do you see?
Over the centuries, many have looked at this Man, and saw various things: a political revolutionary, a reformer, a good man, but not a prophet or the Messiah, or other things. Behold the Man is what the Spirit of God is saying to every human being since that time. So, just as Pontius Pilate did 2000 years ago, I likewise say to you, “Behold the Man! Take a very good look at this Man. What do you see?” And, your eternal destiny, your salvation, your very life and existence, depends on what you see.
So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, “Crucify, crucify!” Israel’s political and religious leaders saw the Man, and wanted Him dead.
Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.” You deal with Him. You punish Him. For the third time I am declaring that He is innocent!
Peter’s threefold denial is matched by Pilate’s three fold proclamation of innocence. Not once did Pilate proclaim Him innocent. Not twice, so that there would be no mistake, but three times, so that the absolute official proclamation of the official Roman governor was unmistakable: Yeshua is completely innocent. And, if he was a just ruler, and an honorable man, Pilate should have released Yeshua. But he didn’t.
The Jewish leaders 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.” According to our understanding of Jewish law, Yeshua has blasphemed. He has claimed to be God. That’s blasphemy, and the penalty for that is death. But only you Pilate, according to your Roman law which we are forced to deal with, can execute capital punishment.
Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid – because he knew Yeshua was a good and brave Man, a popular young Rabbi who helped people, and who claimed to love the truth. He probably heard stories about some of His miracles. He might have known that Yeshua was a descendant of King David, but that Yeshua wasn’t interested in political power, only in being the King of truth. Now Pilate is given more information, that Yeshua had claimed to be God in human form. And that scared Him, because something within Pilate thought that might actually be true. Maybe this young popular miracle working Rabbi was a divine being, a son of one of the gods, which was familiar to Roman religion!
And he entered into the Praetorium again and said to Yeshua, “Where are You from?” I want to know where you really come from. Are you divine? But Yeshua gave him no answer. Why? Perhaps because He knew that Pilate wasn’t just, wasn’t fair, wasn’t committed to the truth. He had given him the truth, but Pilate didn’t act on the truth he was given; and when a man or a woman doesn’t believe and implement the truth they are given, God will generally not give them more truth. So, Yeshua remained silent.
Let this be a warning to all those who want more truth, and more truth, and more truth, but are unwilling to implement the truth they already know. Better to know less truth, but practice that truth, then to know more truth, and not live by it.
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?” Yeshua’s strange silence mystifies him. Pilate was used to men begging for their lives, crying for mercy, promising him anything. That was normal. And so, Pilate reminds Yeshua of his authority over His destiny, that he is the one in control of Yeshua’s life, and can have Him killed, and so He had better cooperate.
Is Yeshua intimidated by the powerful governor of Rome? Does He back down? Does He say, “spare My life Pilate, and I’ll tell you anything you want to know?” Let’s see: Yeshua 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.”
Yeshua’s answer is even more strange and frightening. He tells Pilate that he is in his place of authority by the will of Heaven above. Yeshua was fully aware that Pilate, and the Jewish leaders, were not really in control, not really the ones in authority, but God was. This is all part of God’s divine plan, created before the beginning of time, to redeem sinful mankind.
Does that absolve Pilate? No. Pilate is still guilty for his unjust actions. Even more so are the Jewish leaders, like Caiaphas, who should have known better, because to whom is given, much is required, and the more you know, the more responsible you are, and the Jewish leaders had greater access to the truth, and therefore had the greater sin and were more guilty.
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.” Again Pilate tried to release Yeshua, and he could have, and should have, but the Jewish leaders put on more pressure by challenging his loyalty to Caesar. They level the political charge that Yeshua was a rival to Caesar, and if Pilate didn’t go along with them, they would complain to Caesar that Pilate wasn’t loyal to him. Of course that wasn’t true, but Pilate didn’t want to jeopardize his career for one innocent Jewish man.
Pilate was being forced to make a hard choice. He should have released Yeshua, who He knew was innocent. But now his own comfort, his own job, his own career, was at stake, and what is that compared to the life of one innocent man? Pilate’s spirit was willing, but his flesh was weak. He was willing to do what was right when it was easy, when it was convenient, when it didn’t cost him too much, but he was unwilling to do what was right when it was hard and costly. How about you? Is there a point that are you willing to stop doing what is right?
Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Yeshua out, to the Roman place of judgment, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabta – which may mean ridge or height.
Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. It was 12:00 noon, and as best as I can tell, on a Friday, the first day of Passover, but also the day of preparation for Shabbat. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!” Pilate is sick of Jews, and he mocks Yeshua and the Jewish leaders by saying: Behold your King! Your so-called King is contemptible, and this is what I think of all of you Jews!
But the Jewish leaders didn’t like any reference to Yeshua being King,, even if it was done to mock Him and them. 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.” We have no king but Caesar? Not, we have no King but God? This is a blasphemous denial of the Kingship of God over the nation of Israel by our leaders.
What they said was true – God, the Father of Yeshua, was no longer their King, since to deny the Son of the King, is do deny His Father, the Great King. This is the final rejection of Yeshua by the representative of the Roman government, and also by the official Jewish leaders, who knew more, and were more responsible. And it will result in terrible tragedy, especially for the nation of Israel, which has affected us to this very day.
So he then delivered Him to them to be crucified. Jews and Gentiles were are involved in the arrest, unjust trials, beatings, sufferings, humiliations of the Messiah. Both Jews and Gentiles are involved in His death, and thanks be to generosity of the grace of God, both can be participants of His resurrection!