A Throne Of Thorns Series

In the weeks leading up to Easter, Christians the world over spend time reflecting on the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death. We are spending several weeks looking at what the gospel writer John says about the last hours of Jesus’ life. Jesus has been up all through Thursday night, and now Friday morning brings no relief. He’s been betrayed, deserted, and abused. He’s ALREADY endured trials of the high priests, the Sanhedrin, and Herod’s mockery. Now, the Roman soldiers will have their turn at Him.

Find John 19 with me, if you will.

The mighty Roman Empire stretched from North Africa around the Mediterranean Sea to Spain. And the worst outpost for soldiers was Israel. The Roman soldiers stationed there were used to dealing with rebellion. They would have been desensitized to violence. So, the soldiers who tortured Jesus were some of the most wicked and brutal in the Empire.1

John thinks these 24 hours in Jesus’ life are crucial. John devotes 1/3 of the entire gospel to just two days in Jesus’ life: the night He was betrayed, and the day He was crucified. John devoted 257 verses of 879 verses to just these 24 hours. When Scripture slows down, we should pay attention.

Sermon Preview

1) The Flogging of Jesus

2) The Illusion of Control

3) The Dangers of a Mob Mentality

1. The Flogging of Jesus

“Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him” (John 19:1-4).

The date is Friday, April 7, 30 AD or Friday, April 3, 33 AD. Pilate has already told the mob that he thinks Jesus is innocent, but in his attempt to appease the crowd, Pilate vacillates.

1.1 Pilate

Pilate is a powerful, but tragic figure – even a pathetic figure. He appears in all four Gospels in the account of Jesus’ trial.

1.1.1 Doubting Pilate

You know, it’s fascinating to watch people’s skepticism of the Bible. Many automatically assume the Bible is wrong without giving a second thought. That’s exactly what happened with Pilate. People thought the biblical writers invented Pilate to tell the story of Jesus’ death at the hands of the Romans. No administrative records survived with Pilate’s name. There were no genuine letters of his that have been preserved. The Bible must have made him up out of thin air! Then in the summer of 1961, everything changed. Prior to that summer, there was no archaeological evidence that Pilate existed. It was then that they discovered what is now called the Pilate Stone. For a long time, archeologists missed it. After all, it was nothing more than a block of limestone, and excavators could have easily missed it and discarded it as rubble. All the way back to the 300s, people had put this important discovery into a set of stairs in a theatre at Caesarea by the Sea. Thankfully, they placed the stone face down, preserving the writing, or else it would have been worn away over the centuries.2 The inscription includes the words, “Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judaea.” This was apparently Pilate’s reserved seat at the theater.

Why is this important? “…it is impossible for God to lie…” (Hebrews 6:18). If the Bible has one lie in it, it is not God’s book.

If things calm down in the Middle East, we will be seeing the Pilate Stone later this year. I invite you to come with me, and more information is at the ministry gallery.

1.1.2 Quick Bio of Pilate

Back to Pilate. Passion plays, Easter sermons, and films about Jesus almost always include Pilate. Pilate’s name is spoken weekly in churches that recite the Apostles’ Creed: “He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.” Roman sources tell us that Pilate came from the upper crust of Roman society. He came from a class just below the senatorial class of families in ancient Rome. He even married the granddaughter of Caesar. He’d been given governorship of Judea, an unstable region prone to uprising and rebellion. He likely saw his time there as a stepping stone to something grander, such as oversight of a more appealing part of the empire.”3 He served as prefect for Judea for ten years, when most typically served in the position for two to three years.4

He spent his days commanding Rome’s military force in the region when he wasn’t serving as the magistrate in civil and capital cases. Now, we know Pilate could be ruthless because Luke’s Gospel tells us that Pilate killed Jews right in the middle of the act of worship (Luke 13:1-2). By the time Jesus was before him, Pilate had earned a reputation with the Jews, who especially hated him for acts they viewed as provocative and deliberate.