Behold Your King! (John 18:28-19:16) Series

So then, do you want me to release for you the king of the Judeans?"

Let's pause here. Pilate knows what their answer will be. The Judeans are the ones who handed Jesus over to him. They want Jesus dead. What Pilate is doing here, is flexing his muscle over the Judeans. He's humiliating them. That's why he addresses Jesus by his title here. "Do you want me to release for you the king of the Judeans?" Based on what you can see, Jesus is not much of a king, with not much of a kingdom. And his weakness, is an opportunity to poke the Judeans. So don't read Pilate's words as sincere here. He's goading them, messing with them.

Verse 40:

(40) Then, they cried out again, saying,

"Not this one but Barabbas."

Now, Barabbas was a robber/revolutionary/bandit.

The word that AJ uses to describe Barabbas here, doesn't just mean a "thief" or a "robber." Josephus uses the same word to describe people who try to lead uprisings against Rome. If you're sympathetic to these people, you could call them "freedom fighters," or "the resistance movement." But if you're unsympathetic, you'd call them "bandits" or "terrorists."

The Judeans here reveal their true colors. They act like Jesus is a threat to Rome, and like they are doing Pilate a favor. But the man who is an actual revolutionary, who is a threat, is someone they want saved.

The other thing we really need to hear, is the echo to John 10 (NRSV).

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.

8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

What we are seeing in these verses, is John 10 playing itself out literally. The Judeans would rather choose a bandit to lead them, than the Good Shepherd (John 1:11).

With this, we come to John 19:1. We are still in the same story. We just have to ignore the chapter division, and keep reading (scene 4):

(19:1) Then, Pilate next took Jesus,

and he flogged/beat him,

(2) and the soldiers, weaving a crown from thorns, placed it on his head,

and a purple robe they put on him,

and they were coming to him,

and they were saying,

"Hail!, the king of the Judeans,"

and they were giving him blows/slaps ,

Why does Pilate beat Jesus?

There are two explanations. And this is where commentators start to really obviously disagree.

(1) The first option, is that Pilate is trying to gain sympathy for Jesus here in front of the crowds by beating him. [But he beats Jesus privately, which is awkward].

(2) The second option, is that Pilate views Jesus as a troublemaker. And troublemakers, even if they don't deserve to be executed, should still be beaten to teach them a lesson.