The Gospel of John portrays a complex and conflicted Pilate. As we said in a previous article, Pilate’s main concern was maintaining the peace of Rome. A peace often enforced through brutal means, as we’ll soon see. And yet, there is a glimmer in the narrative of Pilate wanting to release Jesus. That glimmer leads to a bright-line choice that Pilate can’t cross.
John recorded, “Pilate then took Jesus and scourged 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. Pilate came out again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.” Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!” So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, “Crucify, crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.” The Jews 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.” Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid; and he entered into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 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?” Jesus 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.” (John 19:1–11, NASB95)
The scourging Jesus endured was, by all accounts, brutal. The whip was not straight leather but contained pottery shards to cut deeply and inflict greater pain. After the scourging and mockery by the Roman guards, Pilate again presents Jesus to the crowd. He again declares Jesus’ innocence. The crowd shouts, “crucify.” This moment is all sideways. On any other day, the Romans would be condemning the prisoner, and the Jewish leaders would be begging for their release. But not on this day. That conflict finally bubbles up the actual indictment against Jesus. “He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.”
Pilate, frightened by the revelation, again takes Jesus inside for an interview. This may seem odd to our post-modern minds. But Pilate was a Roman; his gods were often vindictive, petty, and jealous. It’s one thing to mock and scourge a “king”; it is quite another in Pilate’s mind to assault a god. To find the truth, Pilate asks a simple question, “where are you from?” Jesus was silent. 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?” Jesus 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.”
Pilate had the authority from Caesar to govern. In that authority, he could do what he wanted to maintain the peace, even to the point of crucifying someone for a petty offense. Jesus didn’t dispute that authority but informed Pilate of where that authority came from. But Pilate is caught in a vice. A vice that will be turned tighter in our next article.
The undercurrent of these events is that of Jesus’ purpose. How many times could He have spoken a word or worked a miracle that would have turned away the tsunami coming His way? Imagine if He would have genuinely answered Pilate’s direct question, “where are you from?” John does answer that question in the first words of his gospel – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1, NASB95) Jesus could have walked away, but He didn’t. The Bible says that Jesus, “for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.” (Hebrews 12:2b, NASB95)
The pivot point of following Jesus always rests on this one question. Who is Jesus? Where is He from? Just a man with some good ideas? A spiritual leader seeking to pull out the best in folks? A legend and myth of ancient belief that we have outgrown? A con-man, liar, or lunatic? Or the Son of God? Many follow the idea of Jesus, a noble starting place, but eventually, a choice must be made. Is Jesus whom He says He is? If He is the Son of God, then we aren’t following an idea or a philosophy or a worldview, but we are following Him. It’s more than “what would Jesus do” but “what is Jesus doing right here and right now.”
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