Suffered under Pontious Pilot

John 18:28–19:16 Mark 15:1-15

Then we get to the center part of the creed where if you number all the words in the Latin form you will find that exactly three fourths of the words used in the creed are devoted to the

So why this phrase—suffered under Pontius Pilate—in the middle of three fourths of the Apostles’ Creed? Four valuable words are used here. second affirmation of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t focus on what Jesus taught but it focuses on who He is and what happened to Him

Strange, isn’t it, that Pontius Pilate’s name should be mentioned in a creed of the church? It does, I think, 4 things.

Orthodoxy

To remind us of the Historical aspect of Christ’s suffering

This creed is also following the pattern set by the Apostles for when they began to speak of these matters, they speak of the birth, the death, then the resurrection of Jesus which are the essential truths. Now in the creed we go from Jesus’ birth to jumping 33 years to when He suffers under Pontius Pilate, but even as we do it we find ourselves not only with a historical Mary but a historical man who is humanly speaking is in charge of this moment whose name is Pontius Pilate. He is a real historical person in charge of this moment in Jesus’ life. In other words, the real death on a cross, the real burial, would never have happened, humanly speaking without Pontius Pilate. As we saw from the reading they could have held their own trial but they wanted a death on a cross which is fulfilling a prophecy—that He would suffer upon a tree. They said they couldn’t do without Pilate, why? It is because Pilate is persona publica—he is the one who is appointed by the ruling authority in the providence of God in the Roman Empire. The emperor Caesar has put this man in authority right here so all of the military, legal, political, economic power can see he is in power as he sits in that stone pavement seat called Gabbatha. There is all of human authority and Jesus will not get to that cross humanly speaking unless Pilate allows Him to go there. He will not be buried in a tomb unless Pilate allows it to be done. He will not suffer unless Pilate authorizes it. Pilate is the pivotal moment in history of the work of redemption. Humanly speaking will take on more meaning in just a few more minutes. All of the prophecy in Isaiah 52 and 53 is being fulfilled when it says He is being despised, rejected, forsaken by man, crushed under the wrath of God and suffered under Pontius Pilate.

Here I’m making this as a historical point and yet up until 1961 this was denied. All these critical theologians and critical commentaries said there was no outside record other than the Scripture of any governor named Pontius Pilate and said it was another myth. They wanted to be shown somewhere in Roman history where his named was used. Later on that was found but they had denied his existence until 1961. Some Italian archeologists were digging around the area of Caesarea by the Sea. Why is that area important? It is because it is one of the areas that Herod the Great built one of his palaces and after his death it became the governor’s headquarter. The governor’s headquarters was not in Rome or Jerusalem. The governor would go there to stay in Herod’s son’s old palace but he would live in Herod’s grand palace. In 1961 right outside in a trash heap they uncovered a stone that said ‘temple dedicated to Tiberius the emperor by Pontius Pilate.’ There it exists, a real historical figure. The key is, in that moment in that place he is Rome. He is the one appointed by the Caesar to enact the laws of Rome.

Jesus will go through six trial—three Jewish and three Gentile. In our Scripture reading from John 18 we were given a summation of the three Gentile ones. First Jesus was sent to Pilate and when he found out Jesus was a Galilean he sent Him over to Herod. Herod was glad to see Him because he had heard a lot about Him but he didn’t want Him in his courts either so after he mocked Him he sent Him back to Pilate and told him he had to do something about it for he couldn’t pass the buck somewhere else. So Herod says to Pilate ‘what will you do’ and this is where we get to our second point/reason.

To remind us of the Providential aspect of Christ suffering

Acts 2:23“23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”

Here is the takeaway. This is what you are saying when you say the statement ‘suffered under Pontius Pilate’—the historical and official moment as Jesus stood before Pilate reveals who is sovereign, who is innocent and who is going to suffer that the guilty might not only be forgiven but declared guiltless and innocent. Without this pivotal hinge moment in history that official declares it and sets in motion everything else that is coming in this creed—crucified, dead, buried, descends to the place of the dead, risen on the third day, ascends back into heaven—none of that humanly speaking would have ever happened without the sovereign allowance and sovereign decisions of Pontius Pilate, yet we see in the very trial that it’s not Pilate that is sovereign, but it’s God that is sovereign. Who is in control? It is not the accuser or the judge but the Accused One—is sovereign in the trial, is sovereign in appointing the one at the trial (Pilate) who would not be there without His authority. Please remember that.

To remind us of the Theological aspect of Christ’s Suffering.

suffering servant in Isaiah

there is the suffering of the Lamb. Not just, of course, the suffering of the ignominy of His trial, but the reference in verse 1 and again in verse 15 that He was delivered up (in verse 1), delivered up by the Council. They bound Jesus and led Him away and delivered Him over to Pilate. And then again, as a kind of bookend in verse 15, so Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.

Mark has used this word on many occasions now in the Gospel of Mark. It has become something of a technical term. The choir sang it, in fact, this evening from Romans 8. “He spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all.” It’s the same word. It’s the word that’s used in the Greek translation of the story of Abraham and Isaac, that Isaac was spared…but God did not spare His own Son. He’s being delivered up. But especially in verse 15 it is of course the reference to scourging.

The Roman flagellum, cords on which were tied bits of bone and lead — 39 lashes across Jesus’ back, until His back was torn to shreds. Eusebius records martyrs under the flagellum with inner organs and arteries being exposed, some even dying from it. Our Lord, our sweet Savior, bruised and battered and bleeding, and bits of flesh hanging from His back, and they mock Him. Soldiers — a whole battalion of soldiers mocked Him, having lost all sense of dignity. They put a purple robe on Him, which must have turned bright crimson with the blood that flowed from His back, and a crown of thorns upon His head. Why the crown of thorns? Because in the irony of all, thorns was the symbol of the curse that would come in the very Garden of Eden, and here is the One who is to undo that curse. He will bear those thorns in His own crown.

Isa:“He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement due to our peace was laid upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we’ve turned every one to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth.”

To remind us of the Spiritual aspect of Christ’s Suffering

Notice that Jesus never says ‘I’m innocent’ even though He is innocent, because there is another court in place, in session and it is the Divine court of God’s judgment and He is not innocent because He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf (II Corinthians 5:21). Our sins and the wrath of God is laid upon Him. The court system that can’t do what it ought to do is sovereignly being used for what God appointed it to do—that He would go to the cross and pay for our sins that we could have everlasting life. It is obvious who is in control here. It is the sovereignty of God and the sovereign Jesus, the One who is standing in the place of judgment. His innocence is seen all through the trials. Jesus never defends Himself. Why? The Romans system of justice is incapable of even doing what is right but the Divine court of justice is making another transgression—the Guiltless is taking the place of the guilty so that the guilty might be declared innocent. For [1] There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Because [21] For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (II Corinthians 5:21). God put Pilate right there at this pivotal point to accomplish the Divine imperative—the Messiah would save sinners to the glory of God at the cross. As the hymn says; Were you there when they crucified my Lord, Were you there when they crucified my Lord, Oh sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble. It is this One (Jesus) that goes to that cross and suffers—my wrath for my guilt and seals my pardon with His blood because in my place He is the One who stood for me.

especially in verse 11 in the story of Barabbas, this custom that at Passover they would come and they would ask Pilate to release someone in prison as a token of Pilate’s clemency. And there’s a man, Barabbas…he’s an insurrectionist, he’s a murderer, a violent man who has, in the cause perhaps of zealotry, killed…justly condemned. And the crowd asks for Barabbas to be released. “And what will you have me do with He who is King of the Jews?” Pilate said. “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” they said.

And you see it, my friends. It’s as clear as day, isn’t it, what behind the scenes is being taught us here in symbolism: that the guilty one is being let free, and the innocent One, of whom Pilate himself said “I find no fault in Him”, is condemned to death. Is that not substitution? He died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God; that in order for you and me to hear those sweet notes of covenant blessing, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” In order for those words of covenant blessing to come to us, He would say to His Son, His only Son, “The Lord curse You. The Lord make His face to turn away from You”; in order for us to know peace and blessing, forgiveness and reconciliation, and fellowship with God and the hope of glory, and the assurance of sins forgiven, His only Son is condemned, and He will be taken from His place and lifted onto a cross and crucified until He is dead.

According to Origin (who is not always to be trusted), but according to Origin, Barabbas’ full name was — and it’s not unlikely — his full name was Jesus Barabbas. There’s a choice for you. Who will you have, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus of Nazareth? And here is Jesus of Nazareth, and He is going to Calvary as our substitute

And that’s our most basic confession tonight, that Jesus died for me, that He bore this suffering that my sins deserve, that my guilt deserves.

“God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be reckoned the righteousness of God in Him.”

Jesus Barabbas or Jesus of Nazareth…who will you have tonight? Who will you have? Who will you have this weekend, in all of its sorrow? Who will you have to wash away your sins? Who will you have as you lay your head down on the pillow tonight and ask God to give you quiet sleep and rest? Who will you have, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus of Nazareth? Who will you have when the storms are raging all around and life makes no sense, and sorrows abound and your heart is breaking? Who will you have? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus of Nazareth? What’s your soul saying tonight? I will have Jesus of Nazareth, because my only hope in life and in death, in the grave, is in Jesus of Nazareth, that He died for me, that He bore the unmitigated wrath of God against Him for me, that He died to win for me the rights and privileges of adoption, so that tonight I may say I am the child of King. “With Jesus, my Savior, I’m the child of a King.”

Are you saying tonight in the midst of all the sorrow and all the pain and all the hurt, “Crown Him!”? Is He the King of the Jews? Yes, He’s my King! He’s my Lord! He’s sitting on a throne in heaven as much now as He was on Friday morning, and He always will be King…King of Kings

OrthoPraxy

To remind us of the Pedagogical/practical aspects of Christ’s suffering.

This phrase is also in the Apostles Creed to remind us that just as Christ Suffered, we will suffer as well.

The Christian life is one of Suffering.

Just as Jesus suffered before Pilot, Herod, and all the Jesus we will suffer as well.

2 Corinthians 1:3–7 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.”

Romans 8:16–17 “16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

1 Peter 2:21-23- For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

The Christian has a source of Comfort

Christ is our Comfort

2 Corinthians 1:3 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,”

Suffering and affliction are in this passage

But it is set against the comfort God provides.

While we share in many of the same afflictions of the world, we do have a resource - The Source of Comfort- God.

Christians are our Comfort

2 Corinthians 1:4 “4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Paul expresses the value of shared affliction and suffering (5-8)

The church is a body and we share affliction

1 Corinthians 12:26 “26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

2 Corinthians 1:11 “11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.”

Paul ends this section with an appeal to pryer.

if we know one another is afflicted, we must pray.