Governor Pilate stood on the balcony of the praetorium, his headquarters, and looked down at the mobs milling around in the streets below. “Ugh!” he thought. Jewish pilgrims, priests, vendors, thieves, rebels, beggars, prostitutes … rabble! … all crammed into Jerusalem’s narrow streets … and it was his job to keep law and order over this whole mess.
Trouble could erupt anywhere … at any moment. In fact, two days ago he heard about a rabbi … a “messiah” … the crowd called Him … riding into town. Pilate’s sentries and spies reported that a huge crowd greeted Him as He rode through the East Gate on a colt. The crowds shouted “Hosanna!” as He passed them on His way to the Temple. Some ran before Him, spreading their cloaks and palm branches on the ground before Him.
When Pilate made inquiries as to who this man was, no one seemed to know much about this so-called “messiah” except that His name was “Yeshua” and that He came from some spot in the road way up north called “Nazareth.”
“Messiah?” he asked one of his advisors. “What’s a ‘messiah’?” When he was told that the word “messiah” was a title that meant ‘king’ in Hebrew, Pilate burst out laughing. What an absurd thought. “Herod’s gonna love that, I’m sure,” he scoffed … but his humor was short-lived. “Great! Passover … the streets are crowded … the tension in the city is so thick that you can cut it with a knife,” he thought as he looked down into the packed street below him, “and now this! Some yokel rides into the town and is welcomed as a king and I have no doubt that Herod’s gonna be thrilled when he hears that, I’m sure. Herod’s been nothing but a pain in my neck … constantly whining and complaining to Rome. When he hears about this, he’s gonna blow his top. I’m not too worried about Herod though … I know how to handle him,” he smirked, “but this ‘Yeshua’ … I know nothing about him.”
Pilate listened in astonishment as his advisor told him what this Yeshua character had done at the Temple. “He just walked into the main Temple courtyard and began turning over the tables of the money changers and drove out some of the livestock that was for sale. It caused quite a commotion, Sir. He’s got the Jews all stirred up.” “This Yeshua got hutzpah, I’ll give Him that,” Pilate smiled, “but I don’t need this kind of trouble right now. Something like that could set the Jews off and cause a riot … and the last thing I need is for Rome to hear about another riot” … wincing over the letter that he got from the Emperor after the Jews got so upset because he borrowed money from the Temple treasury to finish building a badly needed aqueduct in Jerusalem. “Hypocrites!,” he swore after he got the letter. “I notice that they don’t mind drinking the water that comes out of it.”
“Well … let’s get this over with,” Pilate says to his Captain of the Guard. “Bring the prisoner here so that I can interrogate him and get to the bottom of this and hopefully avert a colossal disaster.” He plops down in his chair and waits for the Captain of the Guard to being Yeshua into his council chamber.
When Jesus is escorted into the room and made to stand before him, Pilate is struck by how plain and ordinary He looked. He was expecting an imposing, rough looking figure with the fire of defiance in His eyes and the spirt of rebellion just oozing out of Him. This “messiah” was anything but what Pilate expected. There was nothing threatening or menacing or belligerent about Him or His manner … and yet, there was something about Him. Pilate was immediately mesmerized by this man the second their eyes met for the first time. There was something mysterious and intriguing about Him … He had a peace about Him that was somehow unsettling. He was surprisingly calm, and that aura of calm seemed to come from a place of great strength at His core. He was both intriguing and baffling at the same time. Pilate always considered himself to be a good judge of character and could usually read a man pretty well but this Yeshua character ... Pilate just couldn’t get a fix on Him. He felt drawn to this man but he couldn’t tell why.
“What is he charged with and where are his accusers,” Pilate demands. “Sire … they refuse to come in. They’re waiting for you to come down and talk to them.” “How degrading,” he thought. Such insolence. Such arrogance. They probably wouldn’t come in for some silly reason that had to do with their religion.
Sure enough, there they were … hovering around the steps of the praetorium like a flock of pigeons, wringing their hands, and talking all at once. “By all the gods,” Pilate wondered, “what could that man upstairs have done to have worked these Jewish ‘dignitaries’ up into such a lather?” “What charges do you bring against this … ‘Yeshua,’ is it?” Pilate asks. “If he were not a criminal,” Annas speaks up, “then we would not have handed him over to you.” “There it is,” thought Pilate, “that smug, holier-than-thou, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-their-mouths attitude again. Who do they think that they are? Well … two can play this game.” “Okay, Annas,” Pilate says coolly, “why don’t you take him and judge himself yourself according to your laws.” The sarcasm was apparently wasted on them. Equally coolly, Annas replied, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death, that’s why we’ve come to you.”
“Death sentence!” Pilate thought. “These guys are pretty serious. I need to go back upstairs and deep a little deeper. Maybe this Yeshua character can give me some kind of insight as to why these guys are so set on getting him killed.”
As he walks up to Jesus, he gets that weird feeling again. “What is it?” he wonders. “Is it peace? Power? Strength? Serenity? All of the above … yes … and yet, somehow more … something tantalizing … elusive … indefinable.”
“Those guys out front,” says Pilate, “want you dead. They say that you claim to be … what was the word that they used?” “Messiah,” the Captain of the Guard spoke up. “Yes … yes! That’s what they said … that you claimed to be a ‘messiah’ … a king of some sort? Are you a … ‘king,’ Yeshua of Nazareth?” He could barely hide his grin. “That’s what those jokers downstairs say … that you are claiming to be some kind of a king. Are they right, Yeshua? If you are a king, Yeshua … king of what? Are you claiming to be the king of Galilee? King of the Jews? Don’t the Jews already have a ‘king’?”
“Do you ask this on your own … or did others tell you about me?” Jesus asks. “Ah! He speaks! He does have a tongue after all,” Pilate mused, “and there’s that hutzpah again!”
“By all the gods, man … what kind of answer is that? Of course someone told me. What do I know of these things? Those religious nuts who brought you here told me that you claim to be the messiah … the King of the Jews … something that Herod’s not going to be too happy to hear, mind you. What do I know of these things?! Do I look like a Jew to you? Do I sound like a Jew to you? Look … I’m not the one accusing you of anything … your friends downstairs are. So again, fill me in … tell me what going on … what makes you so bad … what makes you so dangerous, so evil that they would want to kill you, hum?”
“My kingdom is not from this world” … again, there was that look in His eyes … a calm power in His voice. “If my kingdom were from this world,” He continues, “my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews, but as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”
Pilate claps his hands together and laughs. “Ah … at last! We’re finally getting somewhere. So … are you saying that you ARE a king?”
“You say that I am a king.”
The smile leaves Pilate’s face. “So, it’s gonna be word games is it?” he thought.
“For this reason I was born,” Jesus continues, “and for this reason I came into the world … to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
“Ah … what is ‘truth’?” Pilate smiles an evil smile and begins to enjoy the game again.
If only Pilate knew the truth, amen? He would listen to Yeshua … he’d listen very, very closely indeed! And here is the truth … and I hope and pray that YOU listen very closely [pause].
Pontius Pilate was a duly appointed Roman prefect or procurator of Judea … a kind of “governor,” if you will. Important or major Roman provinces such as Asia Minor were usually ruled over by some high-ranking official within the Roman government. Less important provinces or regions … such as Judea … were assigned to ambitious middle-ranking military men like Pilate. The main job of a Roman prefect or provincial governor like Pilate was to keep things under control, to collect taxes, command the local military units, maintain the prisons, and keep the peace. In order to keep the peace, the Roman government usually allowed the local people to practice their own religion and, to some degree, allow them to manage their own affairs.
As Prefect or Governor of Judea, Pilate was the only one authorized by the Roman government to try capital cases and carry out capital punishment. As he so smugly points out to Jesus, he literally held the power of life and death in the palm of his hand and could have Jesus executed with a word or the stroke of a pen.
Pilate lived in a palace … ate the best food that the region had to offer … drank the best wine. He was surrounded by slaves who jumped as his every beck and call. He commanded a force of soldiers who were ready to obey his every command. In the eyes of the world, Pilate was a fairly powerful man.
Not so with Jesus … an unknown and untrained Jewish rabbi from some backwater town in Galilee. No palace … no soldiers … just an eclectic group of disciples and followers … no steady income … dependent solely on hand-outs and hospitality … no home … no roof over his head … traveling around the countryside on foot. He had to borrow the colt that he rode in on, for crying out loud.
His inspired teaching, his miraculous healings, his ability to confront and drive out demons was impressive, to say the least … but only qualified him to be a prophet … at best an exceptional or divinely anointed prophet like Elijah … but certainly not someone to fear.
Two men standing face-to-face … Pontius Pilate and Jesus of Nazareth. One with the power of Rome behind him … the other, well …
Pilate has often been described as petulant … covering up his weakness by constantly flexing his political and military authority. History remembers him as a tactless and stubborn, insensitive man who wasn’t qualified to be a prefect or a governor. He only got the position because he was married to the granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus … which is why it is so confusing that Pilate would try to show some compassion towards Jesus. During Jesus’ public trial, Pilate actually appears to be going out of his way to help Jesus … to justify releasing Him. Over and over again, he tells the Jewish leaders that he can find no reason to convict Jesus of anything … let alone convict Him of a capital offense. In fact, he tries to pass the buck by sending Jesus to be examined by King Herod … who is also unable to find a reason to convict Jesus and sends him back to Pilate.
Pilate goes back down and speaks to the Jewish leaders still hovering outside the praetorium. “You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people and I have examined him in your presence and have not found this man guilty of any of your charges against Him,” Pilate protests to the Jewish religious authorities who continue to insist that Pilate convict Jesus. “Neither has Herod, for he sent Him back to us. Indeed, [this man] has done nothing to deserve death. I will therefore have Him flogged and release Him” (Luke 23:13-15).
Sadly, having Jesus flogged doesn’t dampen the intensity of the Jewish authorities’ passion for seeing Jesus convicted and executed … so Pilate gives them a choice. He could release a notorious prisoner by the name of Barabbas or he could release this harmless rabbi from Galilee. The crowd … stirred up by the religious leaders … call for Barabbas’ release. “Away with this man!” they cry. “Release Barabbas for us!”
Once again, Pilate pleads with them to let Jesus go. “What evil has He done?” Pilate asks. “I have found no grounds for the sentence of death” (Luke 23:22).
“Crucify Him!” the religious leaders start chanting. The crowd joins in … “crucify Him!”
So, when Pilate sees that he can do nothing to appease the leaders, and fearing that a riot might break out, he gives into their demands. He takes a bowl of water and washes his hands before the crowd, saying: “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” Then the people as a whole answered: “His blood be upon us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:24-25). Whoa! Yikes! That’s a pretty serious oath, amen? May His blood … may His death be on their hands and on the hands of their children!
In the face of such determined opposition, Pilate grants them their wish and releases Barabbas and hands Jesus over to the Captain of the Guard to be crucified.
How are we to understand all of this? To make sense of it? How do we explain the determined desire of the religious leaders to have Jesus executed? How do we explain Pilate’s pity for Jesus? His desire to give Jesus a pardon at the risk of a potential riot?
Well … some experts and historians have argued that Pilate was afraid of the religious leaders and the crowd. I don’t think so. He was never afraid of them before. While other governors were respectful of Jewish customs and religious practices and tried to cooperate with the local Jewish leaders, Pilate rode roughshod over them every chance he got. He had the power of Rome behind him and he wasn’t afraid to use it. When Pilate rode into Jerusalem to take charge as governor, he carried banners bearing the Roman eagle on top of them, knowing that this would infuriate the Jews … and it did.
When Tiberias took over as Emperor, Pilate had golden shields placed all around the Temple bearing pagan images and the likeness of the new emperor on them. When the Jews saw what Pilate had done, they marched to Caesarea where Pilate was staying and demanded that the shields and standards be taken down. Pilate flat-out refused. When the Jews kept insisting that he take them down and began threatening to riot, Pilate ordered them rounded up and confined in a stadium and told them that they would be killed if they didn’t quietly disperse immediately and go home. To Pilate’s surprise and shock, the Jews threw themselves on the ground and bared their necks, proclaiming that they would rather die than see their city and their holy Temple contaminated with pagan images. Pilate backed off … that time … and had the shields and standards removed.
But …
When Pilate wanted to build an aqueduct from the Pool of Solomon to Jerusalem and ran out of money, he had no problem helping himself to some of the Temple treasury to finish his project. When the Jews resisted, Pilate didn’t back down this time. At his command, Roman soldiers beat and stabbed the rioters … maiming and killing many of them. Luke describes a time when Pilate killed some Jews who were worshiping in the Temple and had the priests pile up the bodies on the altar so that the victims’ blood would mix with the blood of their sacrifices (Luke 13:1). Does that sound like someone who’s concerned about upsetting the Jews or their religious leaders? Ordering the execution of Jews was part of his job description as governor of Judea.
Some scholars and historians argue that Pilate was afraid of Rome. Rome was highly vested in maintaining the “Pax Romana” … the “Roman Peace.” Rome was a polytheistic culture that had no problem with the religious practices of those whom they conquered … so long as it didn’t interfere with their governance or their highly treasured “Pax Romana.” If they did, the Romans had no problem swiftly and brutally quashing any rebellion … as was the case when the Romans thoroughly smashed the Temple in 70 AD to quell a Jewish revolt against Gessius Florus, Pilate’s replacement, who, like his predecessor, looted the Temple treasury. As Jesus predicted, the Romans left almost no stone atop another … so I believe that neither Rome nor Pilate were too overly concerned about the teaching or death of some lone rabbi from Nazareth, do you?
So what, then, made Pilate … who had a history of cruelty and indifference towards the Jews … who thought nothing of executing Jews or throwing them in jail … be so moved by this one particular Jew? Why would he work so hard to try and free Jesus? Could it be the fact that Jesus was so obviously innocent? Maybe. But I suspect that Jesus wasn’t the first innocent person Pilate had executed, amen?
I think it had to do with Jesus Himself. I truly believe that something happened to you when you met Jesus … that when He looked at you it felt like He was looking right into your heart … and in the words of John Wesley, it would make your heart feel “strangely warm.” I believe that Jesus didn’t have to speak a word and you would still get an unsettling feeling of strength and power from Him … an undeniable sense of mystery … a quiet sense of peace that seemed to flow out from Him … that there was light … and an indescribable energy or force that surrounded Him.
So why would Pilate give them a choice between Jesus and Barabbas? Why would he give in and wash his hands of the whole affair? Why would he let his soldiers mock and beat and torture Him? Why would he have Jesus flogged? Why would he let them nail an innocent man to a criminal’s cross? Why didn’t he just let Jesus go? Again, I ask: How can we make any sense of this?
You want to know the truth? You think that you can handle the truth? Are you sure? Ready? Here we go!
What is truth? Jesus tried to tell Pilate the truth even before he asked Jesus for it. “My kingdom” Jesus tried to explain to Pilate, “is not from this world” (John 18:36).
That question … “What is truth?” … has given birth to millions of sermons and scholarly books and papers, and thousands of years of discussion and debate … but I honestly don’t think that Pilate was trying to engage Jesus in an ethical or philosophical discussion. Jesus was on trial for His life and His accusers are almost rabid in their demands for His death … and no profound, scholarly, or philosophical insights were going to sway them or Pilate, amen? Besides … Pilate was a Roman prefect. In his eyes, Jesus was just a lowly Jewish holy man with no classical training from the backwoods of Judea. Why would Pilate … or any self-respecting Roman for that matter … even attempt to engage a Jew like Jesus or His followers in a heady philosophical debate? The Romans sat around in bath houses and banquet tables and marble halls discussing such matters as “What is truth?” … and then only the well-to-do ones … not farmers and shepherds and shopkeepers or craftsmen and carpenters.
It’s ironic actually. The leaders of Rome considered Jerusalem as much of a backwater filled with hicks and rubes as the Jewish leaders and good citizens of Jerusalem considered Nazareth a backwater filled with hicks and rubes. What good could come out of Nazareth, hum? What great rabbinic leader filled with wisdom could possibly come from a spot-in-the-road like Nazareth, amen? As far as Pilate and Rome were concerned, what scholarly king, what philosophical giant, what ethical pioneer could ever come out of Jerusalem, right?
And yet [pause] …
And yet … standing before Pilate was the Source … with a capital “S” … the Source of all wisdom … the Possessor of all knowledge … the Creator of all power … not just in Judea … not just in Rome … not just on the earth … but throughout the entire universe and beyond!
Standing before Pilate was the King of the Universe … the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and all that is in it. Jesus of Nazareth … the Eternal Caesar … the Lord and King of all time, all space, all creation. The King Maker and Kingdom Breaker stands before the weak, insecure, puny representative of the temporary empire of Rome.
“Are you a king?” Pilate asks Jesus (John 18:33). Jesus tries to explain to him that His kingdom is not of this world. “My kingdom … the Kingdom of God … is not coming with things that can be observed … nor will you be able to say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘Look, there it is!,’ for in fact, my kingdom is here … it is here among you” (Luke 17:20-21).
“Am I a king, you ask? Yes, I am! In fact, I am the King of all kings. I am the Lord of all lords. I am the Alpha and the Omega … who is, and who was, and who is to come (Revelation 1:8). I was there when the universe was created because I created it. I’ll be here when it all comes to end.
“Let me ask you, dear Caesar … let me ask you, dear Pilate … let me ask you, dear Caiaphas … let me ask you, dear Annas … let me ask all of you calling for my death: Where were you when the universe was created? I don’t remember seeing any of you there. And where will you be when it all comes to an end? You are all from below. I am from above. You are of THIS world. I created you and I created this world but I am not of this world.”
Jesus and Pilate … standing face-to-face. When we think of the “Trinity,” it’s hard because we think of them as three separate, distinct entities or beings or spirits or essences or what have you. We call them “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” But I think we forget that they are also ONE. Standing face-to-face with Pilate is Jesus … the Son of Man … the Son of God … Immanuel … God Incarnate. We speak of Jesus being obedient to His Father and His Father’s plans and purposes … that He undergoes all this horror and humiliation for the sake of His Father’s plans and purposes … as though He and the Father are two separate beings … but that is not the case! Standing before Pilate is a mystery beyond human understanding. Standing before Pilate is YHWH … God Himself …being talked down to by a puny Roman administrator and despot. God … who with the snap of His fingers … with a word … with a thought could snuff Pilate out as easily as blowing out a candle and make it as though Pilate never even existed in the first place, amen? With a snap of His fingers … with a slight puff of His breath … with a thought … He could wipe out Pilate’s entire military force and make it as though they never existed, amen? In fact, with the blink of an eye He could wipe the entire Roman empire off the face of the earth and make it as though Rome and its empire never existed, amen? And with a snap of His fingers … with a word … a thought … He could bring it all back, amen? And He could keep doing that until He got bored of doing it … now you see Pilate, now you don’t … now you see Rome … now you don’t. Now you see earth … now you don’t … now there is a universe … now there isn’t, amen?
What is truth? The truth is that the Jewish leaders, Pontius Pilate, and even Rome and Caesar Augustus were mere pawns … foot soldiers … the front lines for a far greater power. Can any of you guess Who or what that Power was?
Could it be … Satan?!
This is not a showdown between a Nazarene rabbi and a group of jaded priests and Temple administers. This is not a battle between a Jewish king and a cruel and corrupt Roman governor. This is a war between two super powers … two ultimate supernatural powers, to be exact!
Standing face-to-face is God … Who Was and Is and Will Always Be … and Satan … Ruler of Chaos and Darkness and Destruction. Standing face-to-face are the forces of Heaven and the forces of hell.
Jesus was telling the truth when He said “My kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). God even used Pilate’s wife to deliver a supernatural warning while Pilate was trying to decide Jesus’ fate. “While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat” … don’t miss the beautiful irony of that image … while Pilate was sitting on his official judgement seat in Jerusalem, guess where God was? Sitting on His Judgment Seat, amen? “While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him. ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about Him’” (Matthew 27:19)
What is the truth? Jesus told us. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). I believe that Pilate was struggling because he felt something mysterious, something powerful when he stood in the presence of Jesus, don’t you? Something that struck at his heart … that pierced his soul, amen?
Jesus is hauled by the religious leaders to the praetorium, demanding that He be executed. At this particular moment in time, it seems that Jesus is being swept away by the events surrounding Him … it appears as though things are out of control … moving ahead at an alarming rate … but the TRUTH is that Jesus is the only one in control, amen? He is absolutely and totally in control right now … and it is Pilate and the Jewish leaders who are being swept up and surrounded by a battle that they cannot see or control.
The Jewish leaders thought that they had control over Pilate: “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar” (John 19:12). Pilate thought that he was in control: “Do you know that I have the power to release you, and power to crucify you?” (John 19:10).
Satan thought that he was in control when he tried to tempt Jesus in the desert. Satan thought that he was in control when he entered Judas and set this whole chain of events in motion. He thought he was in control when he watched as they nailed Jesus to the cross … and he thought he had won when Jesus cried out and gave up His spirit and they sealed Him in a tomb.
But the truth!
Jesus rebukes Pilate’s claim to have power over Him. “You would have no power over me unless it had been given to you from above” (John 19:11). Let’s face it … Jesus would not have been arrested if Jesus hadn’t allowed it, amen? The soldiers couldn’t have put a crown of thorns upon His head and strike Him if Jesus hadn’t allowed it, amen? They couldn’t have draped a purple robe over His shoulders and mock Him unless He allowed it. They couldn’t have flogged Him or driven a single nail through His hands and feet unless He allowed it. Jesus knew that Satan was going to enter Judas and He knew that Judas was going to betray Him … and Jesus allowed it because He knew that it would set in motion the terrible events that would lead to our salvation, amen? “For THIS reason I was born,” Jesus tries to explain to us, “and for this reason I came into the world … to testify to the truth” (John 18:37; emphasis added).
Next week we will celebrate the truth of the empty tomb. Join us, won’t you? And, oh … bring a friend will ya?
Let us pray:
