Chapter 19: Part 1 Verses 1-16

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1 The Book of JOHN Chapter 1 Chapter 19: Part 1 Verses 1-16 Chapter 19 is a continuation of the events of Chapter 18. There is no interruption here. Jesus is still before Pontius Pilate. Ultimately, Pilate caves in to the demands of the self-righteous Jewish religious leaders, and the mob which has now been whipped into a frenzy, and delivers Yeshua up to be crucified. This lesson will be part 1 of this chapter, up to this point. Part 2 will cover Jesus journey to Golgotha, and the time He suffered on the cross, to His death. As before, we will consult the other Gospels to get a complete picture of this time. Pilate said to them, What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said to him, Let Him be crucified! Then the governor said, Why, what evil has He done? But they cried out all the more, saying, Let Him be crucified! When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it. And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children. Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. (Matthew 27:22-26) Then the multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do just as he had always done for them. But Pilate answered them, saying, Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd, so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. Pilate answered and said to them again, What then do you want me to do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews? So they cried out again, Crucify Him! Then Pilate said to them, Why, what evil has He done? But they cried out all the more, Crucify Him! So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified. (Mark 15:8-15) Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him; no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him. I will therefore chastise Him and release Him (for it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast). And they all cried out at once, saying, Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder. Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them. But they shouted, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him! Then he said to them the third time, Why, what evil has He done? I have found no reason for death in Him. I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go. But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested. And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison; but he delivered Jesus to their will. (Luke 23:13-25) RockofAges.org 1 The Book of John, Chapter 19, Part 1: Verses 1-16

2 1 So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. 2 And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. 3 Then they said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they struck Him with their hands. Pilate is still hopeful that he won t have to crucify this strangely silent, defenseless man. He hopes to placate the frenzied and determined Jewish leaders who want him dead. Perhaps they will be happy if they see Him scourged, which is literally flogged or whipped. But this is no ordinary whipping. This whip was constructed of leather thongs, which had sharp pieces of metal and bone tied to the ends. As this whip lashed the back of prisoners, the flesh was torn open, and sometimes even tore through organs. Yeshua could have died just from this beating. Many prisoners did. Jesus was handed over to the soldiers, Roman military men who were trained to be cruel and mocking of anyone not Roman. They had most likely heard the exchange between Pilate and the Jewish leaders about whether or not Jesus was a King of the Jews. The Romans had great disdain for the Jews, so any king of theirs would have been mocked. But this over the top and took mocking to a whole new level of cruelty and barbarity. They played a little game with Jesus, which was apparently well known in these times. COMMENTARY: The soldiers took this opportunity to have their fun with Him before He was crucified. When it says they struck him with their hands, it means they played a cruel Roman game with Him. All the soldiers would show the prisoner their fists. Then they would blindfold the prisoner and all but one would hit him as hard as they could. Then they would remove the blindfold, and if the prisoner was still conscious he was to guess which soldier did not hit him. Obviously, the prisoner could never guess the right one. They would continue this until they had beaten the prisoner to a pulp - the Lord Jesus was so mutilated that you would not have recognized Him. (McGee) The awful beating that Jesus took which left Him unrecognizable, fulfilled scripture written in Isaiah: Just as there were many who were appalled at him-- his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness... ( Isaiah 52:14) Not only was He not recognizable, He wasn t even human looking anymore. It is a wonder that Jesus survived to even go to the cross....they put on Him a purple robe... Purple was, and still is, considered the color of royalty. It was originally extracted from a mollusk that was found near the city of Tyre. Since only the wealthy could afford this purple dye, it came to be associated with royalty. It was then called Tyrian Purple (after the city of its origin). Alexander the Great and his successors, and the Roman emperors wore what was called Imperial purple. It was known world-wide as the color of the royals and is still known to represent royalty. The soldiers put this purple robe on Jesus to mock His claim to be King of the Jews. Someday these people, who cruelly and horribly beat and mocked Jesus as King of the Jews with a crown of thorns and a purple robe, will see Him again, but wearing a different crown and a different robe. He will be robed in glory and will come as the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Every knee, including these present at this time, will bow before this King. RockofAges.org 2 The Book of John, Chapter 19, Part 1: Verses 1-16

3 4 Pilate then went out again, and said to them, Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him. 5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, Behold the Man! After this horrible beating, Pilate parades Jesus back outside in view of the angry crowds. He is hopeful that now, once they see the almost dead, badly ripped open and bleeding body of this innocent man, they will be satisfied with this punishment and let Him go. Pilate knows in his heart that what is happening here is wrong. He is very uncomfortable (uncharacteristically) in this position and does all he knows to do to prevent what will be an inevitable sentence of death by crucifixion. As much as he tries, though, Pilate cannot prevent what God has ordained. An important lesson for us! Behold the Man! This is one the sayings of Pilate that has become well-known. Perhaps he was indicating that this now unrecognizable mass of injury is actual the man Jesus, and they should be satisfied with this humiliation for His punishment. However, there is much more to these words than even Pilate could have imagined. These words fulfill another prophecy found in the book of Zechariah. Zechariah is filled with visions from God about His plan for His people from that moment in their timeline (when then had just returned from the captivity back to Israel, and to Jerusalem). In chapter 6, a strange vision is given about the high priest whose name was Joshua. [Joshua is the Hebrew Yehoshuah which means Yahweh (or Yehovah ) saved. Yeshua (shortened from the longer Yehosuah) Hebrew for our English Jesus, is the exact same name.] In this chapter of Zechariah, the high priest Joshua is crowned with a double crown to indicate that he is both high priest and king. This was something NOT allowed by God in the Old Testament. The high priest was from the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron. The kings were all from the tribe of Judah. Here, however, this high priest is symbolically crowned as a king, indicating he has both offices. God instructed Zechariah to do this symbolic crowning and then to proclaim: Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the LORD; Yes, He shall build the temple of the LORD. He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both. (Zechariah 6:12-13) BEHOLD THE MAN. This one who is crowned symbolically as both a priest and a king is the prophetic representation of the Messiah. At the end of these verses it says that the counsel of peace shall be between them both. This means the One wearing this crown ultimately will bring both offices together. Yeshua is the only one who can do this. He is our High Priest, and He is also our King. The passage in Zechariah is prophetic of Jesus ultimate positions, and here Pilate s words echo this passage and should have piqued the interest of all the Jews who knew the Tenach, the Old Testament scriptures. Over and over and over again, the events of Jesus suffering and death fulfill one prophetic passage after another. Those Jews who were paying attention would have certainly seen that He is indeed the Messiah, sent to pay the price for the sins of the world. 6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him! Pilate said to them, You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him. 7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God. Obviously the Jewish leaders and the frenzied mob are not satisfied with what Pilate has done to Jesus. They want Him dead and gone from their lives, not mutilated but alive. They scream out their desire for His death, which only Pilate can authorize. RockofAges.org 3 The Book of John, Chapter 19, Part 1: Verses 1-16

4 Pilate responds angrily, telling them to essentially, go do it yourself! But both he and they know they cannot do that, by order of Rome. Pilate insists he can find nothing wrong, no fault, in this man, and he cannot authorize such an unfair sentence. Even Rome had its sense of justice. If Jesus was innocent, he should have been released. If He was guilty, He should have been executed. But Pilate knew the truth. Jesus was not guilty, and did not deserve death. He tried, but could not avoid the death sentence. As we said before, he could do nothing to stop what God had already planned. We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God. Now the Jews are providing their testimony of Jesus guilt, according to their standards. He had claimed to be the Son of God, and in fact, God Himself. According to Levitical law (Leviticus 24:16) this was blasphemy, and was punishable by death but only if it could be proven. That little step was omitted here. In their minds, it was already proven, since they could not imagine that this Man was the Son of God. They didn t want to believe it, so it wasn t so and Jesus was therefore guilty of blasphemy. The Jews are sort of reaching at this point. Pilate is putting up a resistance to doing what they want him to do. They are throwing all their evidence and influence into the ring here. Only the Gospel by Matthew records for us the fact that Pilate was so unnerved by this insistence of killing an innocent man that he washed his hands of the whole affair. This was a symbolic gesture to indicate that he would not be responsible for the blood of this guiltless man. When he did this, the people made a dangerous and horrible indictment against themselves by saying His blood be on us and on our children. (Matthew 27:25) 8 Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, 9 and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, Where are You from? But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Then Pilate said to Him, Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You? 11 Jesus answered, You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin....he was the more afraid,... It isn t clear exactly what Pilate was afraid of here. There are a couple of options. The Romans worshipped every possible god under the sun. They didn t want to offend any of the gods of those they had conquered, or their own, so they just adopted them all. Perhaps Pilate was afraid of what Jesus had said, about His claim of being God. There were stories of the gods appearing in human form. The Romans would not have wanted to offend the Jewish God, for fear of retribution. His wife had warned him not to have anything to do with this man because of her dream, and perhaps he is superstitious as most Romans were. He wanted to find out more about this man now. Was he, after all, dealing with a god? The other option is that we know Pilate was literally skating on thin ice with Rome as the governor of Judea (secular records make this clear). He was responsible for a number of riots and nasty little incidents in this region and knew he had to really watch himself and not make any big mistakes with the people of Judea. Killing an innocent man just may cause another riot. Pilate is not happy here. He is in a very ugly corner. RockofAges.org 4 The Book of John, Chapter 19, Part 1: Verses 1-16

5 Where are You from? But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate once again tries to figure out exactly who this prisoner is. Is he a god? Is he just a deluded crazy man? Is he guilty of anything? When he asks where are you from? he is trying to determine if Jesus is a god from above. Because Pilate is spiritually blind and not really seeking the truth, he cannot know or understand that this man is indeed not just a god, but THE God from heaven. Pilate has already asked this, and Jesus had already answered. There was no need for Him to answer again. Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You? Pilate is incredulous at Jesus silence. He tries to remind his prisoner that he, the Roman Governor, has the power to put Jesus to death. He wants Jesus to defend Himself here. You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Jesus answers with a powerful statement that reminds all of us of His sovereignty. God is in control. He is allowing this debacle for His purpose, to provide the sacrifice that would make us clean before Him. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin. This is an interesting statement. Exactly who is Jesus referring to? Was He trying to assuage Pilate s conscience in this matter? The one who delivered Jesus to Pilate could include everyone from Judas to Annas and Caiaphas, even the entire contingency of religious Jews. In reality, however, it was every one of us. Sin, and sinners, are what delivered Jesus to this moment before Pilate. 12 From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. 13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar s friend. Pilate really doesn t want to kill this man, and tries every way he can to wash his hands of this whole matter, but the Jews won t let him. Pilate knows the dilemma he faces. And the Jews use it against him, because they know too. Caesar had informed Pilate of his precarious position earlier. Now the Jews rub it in, reminded Pilate that if he doesn t do this, he will once again be in trouble with Caesar, and then they provide the reason. Being in trouble with Caesar wasn t just a bad mark in your record, it was a not-so-subtle disappearance. Pilate is afraid. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. And here is why Pilate would not be a friend of Caesar. Jesus indicated He was a king, and in the Roman Empire, there was no king but Caesar. The Jews were using every trick in the book to get Jesus killed. They say that Jesus is opposing Caesar, and it s Pilate s job to get rid of Him. Jesus is now accused of being anti-caesar, and this shocked Pilate into quick action. He could not risk another delegation to Rome with a new complaint that could place his life and career in jeopardy. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. This statement from the Jews about Pilate not being a friend of Caesar literally stuns him into action. He can t afford to play this game any longer. The Jews have made a direct threat against him, one he knows they will use to his demise. Which of Pilate s fears was greater? To offend a Jewish God, or Caesar? To the Romans, Caesars were gods. Obviously Pilate fears Caesar more than anything else. He has no where to turn at this point, and hurries the proceedings along by moving out the official place of judgment for the Roman tribunal. RockofAges.org 5 The Book of John, Chapter 19, Part 1: Verses 1-16

6 14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, Behold your King! 15 But 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! 16 Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away. Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover,... The spring feast of Passover was not just one day, but an entire week of festivities, meals and traditions. This week started with the day of Passover (Nisan 14), which began at dusk the night before (the night Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples, taught them and prayed in the garden prior to His arrest). Passover is one of the seven ordained feasts of God, and is designated as a Sabbath or a day of rest. The very next feast in the cycle is the next day, Nisan 15, the feast of Unleavened Bread, also a designated Sabbath. As this time before Pilate unfolds, it is the day of Passover, and there was plenty to prepare for, including the next feast day, beginning at dusk that night (Unleavened Bread). Because both of these days are Sabbaths, no customary work could be done on those days, so an effort is made to hurry things along. [We should also note that in this week, what we call Holy Week, there are four distinct Sabbaths. There are three high holy days (ordained feast days, Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits), all Sabbaths, and the weekly Sabbath (Friday evening to Saturday evening.) We won t take the time right now to delve into this, but it is important to know this in order to understand that Jesus did not die on Friday. This error came into the church as a result of misunderstanding which Sabbath was referenced. Remember there are four of them just in the span of less than one week.]...about the sixth hour. There is some discussion about this reference to the time of day. The Gospel of Mark says that Jesus was crucified on the third hour. The Jews reckoned their time differently than the Romans. The time of day was always referenced from dawn, which for us would be about 6:00 am, generally. The 1 st hour would be 7:00 am, 2 nd hour 8:00 am, third hour 9:00 am, etc. Some think Mark s reference includes all the time with Pilate, the scourging, etc. This Gospel then marks the time when he was actually placed on the cross, about noon. If this is correct, Jesus was only on the cross for 3 hours before He died, and there was darkness during this entire time. (Matthew 27:45) All the Gospel writers are in agreement as to the exact time of Jesus death the ninth hour past dawn, or 3:00 pm in the afternoon. This was the exact moment the Passover lambs were slaughtered in the Temple. Coincidence??? Hardly. The true Passover Lamb was slaughtered and died at this precise moment. If this is a reference of time based on Roman reckoning, the sixth hour would be the same as our 6:00 am. It seems more likely that the process before Pilate (including the sending of Jesus on to Herod, and several encounters with the Jews before the ultimate sentencing) would have made this moment more midday than early morning. Additionally, it is unlikely that Jewish writers would reckon time by Roman time keeping, especially since these passages fulfill the ancient scriptures and coincide with the exact moment of the sacrifice of the Passover lambs. We remember that the scriptures are Jerusalem-centric. That is, they revolve around the city of God, the ways of God, the people of God. RockofAges.org 6 The Book of John, Chapter 19, Part 1: Verses 1-16

7 It was not uncommon for those condemned to die on a cross to linger for days in horrible agony. The fact that Jesus was dead within perhaps only three hours is remarkable, but also testifies to His condition when He was actually nailed to the cross. The horrendous beating beforehand left Him near death, even before hanging on the tree. Behold your King! This is another of those well-known sayings of Pilate. He tries one more time, vainly, to appease the Jews merely by the horrible beating given to Jesus. His appearance would have nauseated anyone by the sheer brutality inflicted on Him. Pilate hoped that would have been enough for them. But perhaps Pilate is also mocking Jesus, and the Jews, at this point. He has already made up his mind that he will be condemned to die, and is just going through the motions of the Passover prisoner exchange. It seems obvious that Pilate does not believe that Jesus is a king of anything. The people call out for Jesus death. Perhaps some of the voices that shouted here to crucify Him, crucify Him, were among the same ones who shouted something far different just four days ago. When Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem on a colt, they cried out Hosanna! Humanity is fickle, even toward God. How His heart must have been breaking here. Shall I crucify your King? This is either one more plea for some sanity among the religious Jews, or Pilate simply mocking all of them. Really, do you really want me to kill your king? It isn t difficult to imagine the sneer on Pilate s face when he said this. Scriptures tell us that Pilate knew in his heart that Jesus was innocent and did not deserve death. Repeatedly we are told that he knew it was because of envy that the Jews delivered up Jesus to be killed, that he knew this prisoner was innocent and he couldn t find any fault with Him and was previously willing to release Jesus on a several occasions. He had even set his mind on letting Him go (Acts 3:13). But instead, Pilate gave the order to crucify Yeshua, the Lamb of God. Pilate didn t have the moral fortitude or courage to release Jesus. He washed his hands of it, but in the end he couldn t find a way around this man s death. He was afraid and angry at the Jewish leaders, and even more fearful of what would happen to him should Caesar get involved with this. Although brutal dictators, Rome was noted throughout the world for its sense of justice. Every Roman official had a statue of Janus a 2-faced god, one face facing one direction, and another the opposite direction. This was a reminder to them to always look at both sides of an issue. In Roman courts, justice was served. Not always mercy, but justice. But in the case of Jesus trial before Pilate, there was absolutely no justice, or mercy, only fear for personal well-being. According to Roman rule, if Jesus was innocent, He should have been released. To subject Jesus to such a brutal beating was completely illegal. In the end, Pilate acted only because he was afraid of what the Jews could have done to him if he didn t kill Jesus. We have no king but Caesar! When Pilate said behold your king, he spoke the truth. Jesus is the King of the Jews. He is the King of Kings. But the people responded with a resounding rejection of their King. The chief priests took it even farther, bringing more guilt on their heads and in a way, speaking in line with an old prophecy found in the book of Zechariah. For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD. But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand. (Zechariah 11:6) Zechariah is prophesying about the fall of Jerusalem that will happen only forty years (70 AD) after these people shout their allegiance to Caesar, not Yeshua. The people shout they only have Caesar as a king, and that king, the king of Rome, will destroy them and their city in just a few years. This is a scathing epitaph for these people. In the remainder of this chapter we will see Jesus crucified, shedding His blood for us. RockofAges.org 7 The Book of John, Chapter 19, Part 1: Verses 1-16