A King Like No Other

John 18:28-19:16

Sermon Title – Text

Please stand for the reading of God's word.

John 18:28–19:16 NIV

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.” Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” “But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die. Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face. Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

As a 28-year-old student pastor, there are some typical feelings and thoughts that go through my mind. Perhaps it’s the position, perhaps it’s my own perceived perception of others, but I sometimes feel less. I don’t always feel as if my job is taken uber seriously. Not to say anyone in particular has said this, but it is often how I feel. Maybe it’s because in 19 days, a part of my job is providing something called a Nerf Night for a bunch of 6th- 12th graders, where we play really loud music and run amok in the entire church building with the lights turned off, black lights everywhere, and super loud music blaring through multiple speakers. Maybe it’s because when I was in youth ministry, a normal Wednesday night might have included wrestling in a baby pool filled with canned beans and mashed potatoes. They really meant “and other duties not listed as seen necessary in my job description.

Blame it on my years in seminary courses, my need to please others, or to be taken seriously, but in all honesty, I think it is because I want to control what people think of me. Which I know is a lost cause, because anyone in leadership will inevitably do something that will cause others to stumble (like Jim Shelburne requesting we change the carpet after he leaves).

But in all reality, I think it is deeper than that. I think this need, which surfaces in small ways, is a seed of self-preservation. I like this job. In fact, I love it. And I want to be seen as a good pastor; I want to be seen as a good person, and I want to be seen as someone who knows what he is talking about. I want to be seen as more than I am. I want to preserve what I have. And in doing so, grasp for control. I take what has been given to me and try to control it with my actions and choices. Underneath it all, its not just insecurity, its self preservation.

When sin entered the world, what is the first thing that humanity did? We hid. We who were once fully secure and blameless, naked and unashamed, became clothed in fig leaves, self-preserving ourselves in fear of what others might think. We tried to protect ourselves. The very reason we ate from the tree, was because we didn’t trust God’s power to proctect us. So we took it into our own hands and do our best to keep the delusional power we think we have through self preservation. We didn’t trust God with power over our lives, and in direct cause lost it. We try to preserve ourselves, and in essence lose ourselves. When you disconnect from life itself, you die. Its that simple. Life feels like hell, when you walk away from life.

And as we step into our 38th week of this series (I actually counted this time) (there I go again protecting my image), step into a world not much different than our own. Just last week, Lennie spoke of the ever zealous Peter, who spoke boldly in front of his peers, and the Lord said, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Denies Jesus not once, not twice, but three times, self-preserving his image and life for a peasant girl warming herself by the fire, and those surrounding it.

As we enter the last few hours of Jesus’ life before the cross, we come across an interesting character. As our anchor text this morning starts John 18:28-29: “28 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor.”

The Jewish leaders have done their best to trap Jesus within a charge they could punish him under by taking them to Caiaphas the High Priest. Yet their plans are stumped by Roman law. So they take Jesus and place him before the Roman governor of the land.

In AD 6, the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus placed a prefect in Samaria and Judea to place direct rule of rome over the region. In AD 26, this Roman prefect was none other than the infamous Pontius Pilate.

Pilate was an interesting man, to say the least. When he took office, he aimed to impress the Emperor and gain favor by hanging shields bearing the emperor’s image inside the Jewish temple. The Jewish community was outraged and demanded their removal, but Pilate refused, even threatening to kill them. Desperate, the Jews laid on the ground with exposed necks, but Pilate, fearing for his career or life, eventually relented. Later, he angered the Jews further by building an aqueduct in Jerusalem with temple treasury funds, sparking riots. Despite the chaos, he refused to back down.

Or, simply put, scholar and Pastor Mark Moore tells us that Pilate was a self-seeking political opportunist who disdained the Jews.

 He did not like them, nor respect their customs or ways, and found them to be a nuisance. And not only did he find the Jews troublesome, but they also had more than once now made his position as prefect put in question by the emperor.

It is with this leverage that the Jewish leaders enter into this conversation. A group of men, looking to self-preserve their way of life, take Jesus as prisoner to a political power who also wants to preserve his way of life.

John 18:28-32 says this: “By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. “ Let’s pause here for a second… Here is a group of men, ironically not entering the Gentile palace so as not to cause themselves to be defiled before the Passover festivities on Friday, the day the lambs are sacrificed in the temple, because they still want to participate in glorifying God, yet they are the ones handing over Jesus to Pilate. CRAZY.

29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” 30 “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”

Pilate, likely aware of Jesus and his ministry- in fact, it was likely his troops who went to arrest Jesus- sees right through the religious leaders’ attempt to wrongfully charge Jesus and states “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” Yet the leaders have already thought this through: “But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected.”

Luke 23:2 states the religious leaders adding “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king”

So Pilate does what any good Roman would do, and takes Jesus into the palace to question him. He doesn’t want this case, yet it seems it has been thrust upon him. A minor squabble could be handled by a lesser position, but a claim to be a king? This has to be dealt with. So, Pilate asks him the politically loaded question: “Are you the king of the Jews?” As one might expect from Jesus, he answers Pilate with another question. “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” Jesus is already asking Pilate to make a judgment of him. Is he a threat to Rome? Or is he the messianic king of Israel?

35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

Jesus responds as Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message Paraphrase. “My kingdom doesn’t consist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But I’m not that kind of king, not the world’s kind of king.”

Then Pilate said, “So, are you a king or not?” Jesus answered, “You tell me. Because I am King, I was born and entered the world so that I could witness to the truth. Everyone who cares for truth, who has any feeling for the truth, recognizes my voice.”

What started out as a judicial questioning quickly became a moment for evangelism. Here Jesus stands, at the hardest few hours of his life, on trial for something he did not commit, and he chooses in this moment to tell Pilate the truth of who he is. He said, “I am not a king like you define a king. I have not come here to bring forth my kingdom through violence. I am not like the world’s kind of king. I am here so that I can testify that I am alone and the truth. It is I who am the way and the life, and the truth to life everlasting.”

Yet Pilate, in his self-assumed sophistication and self-preservation, misses the point completely. Jesus and Pilate are speaking on completely different planes of thought, and Pilate Cynically responds, “What is truth?”

Pilate isn't willing to listen to what Jesus actually has to say. He isn’t trying to understand him. He is only interested in himself and his position. Is this man a threat to me? If I handle this incorrectly, what will it do to my position? He is not interested in objective truth, but rather speaks like a post-modernity-thinking 21st-century Western thinker and claims there is no such thing. Yet the facts are clear. He doesn’t see any validity in the religious leaders’ claims.

He steps back outside again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” 40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!”

Matthew gives us a little more information on Barabbas, claiming him to be in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. This wasn’t a question of good and bad; in fact, Barabbas was likely seen as a hero to many Jews. Capital punishment of this sort was reserved for political revolutionaries, and that is likely what Barabbas was.

Mark and Luke mention that “While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.” 20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded {stirred upMK} the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.18 With one voice they cried out, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!”

Pilate’s wife sends him a message of a dream and Jesus’ innocence. Pilate, being a Roman, believed in gods just not the God, and understood dreams to be a common way of receiving messages. His emotions have to be stirred up. Here was this crowd shouting “Hosanna in the highest! The messiah is here!” on Sunday, and now 5 days later they are shouting for his death. He has stated it multiple times: Jesus is innocent, and now it seems clear there is something otherworldly at play here. But his sense of justice gives in to pressure and position.

            Reason and justice are thrown out the window. How can I get this crowd to calm down, he asks himself? It was at this point that Pilate had Jesus beaten. Maybe he could gain the pity of the crowd if they saw how measly this man who claimed to be a king really was.

            John 19:1 “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.” Pilate takes Jesus back inside and gathers all of the soldiers. They throw him around, strip him naked, and tie him to a pole where his back muscles would be taut. The soldiers then used a flagellum, also called a “cat of nine tails.” It was a short wooden stick with (often) nine thong strands attached to it. At the end of each strand was tied something sharp like bones, metal, pr glass. The purpose was not to lash out quickly so as to inflict welts and torture. Like a cat who has caught a mouse, the joy is not in the kill but in the torture of its victim.

Over and over again they swung this weapon, ripping open Jesus’s back. Blood splattered everywhere as they raked Jesus’s back, exposing muscle and bone.

And then, Jesus’s coronation was instituted.

The soldiers, out of pure mockery, placed a crown upon Jesus’s head. Not of gold. Not covered in jewels and majesty. But a twisted crown of thorns that pierces his head. The pain was likely liminal compared to the flogging he just received, but the capillaries in the skull must have caused him to bleed profusely.

            A robe of purple, the color of royalty, was laid across his ripped back, and a rod was placed in his hand like a ruler’s scepter, which they then ripped out of his hand and struck his head repeatedly, causing the crown of thorns to go deeper and deeper into his head.

            “Hail the King of the Jews!”  They shouted as they bowed, stood, and spat in his face.

Pause

“Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

“Here is the man!” Here is the man, the true image of God. Here is the man who was born of a virgin in a stable. Here is the man who brought truth into the world. Here is the Passover lamb! Here the word of God himself. Who was there in the beginning and will be there in the end. Here is the man who knows you intimately. Who sees through your self-preservation. Who sees through all that you have done, or that has been done to you. He sees through all the darkness, because he is light himself. He is the man who looks at you and sees a scared little child, hiding in the corner, trying to protect itself. Here is the man! Look at him and see your living, breathing, and bleeding God. The King of Kings.

“Crucify! Crucify!” They shout. “He has claimed to be the Son of God.”

“Where do you come from?” (Pilate must have screamed at Jesus in frustration and fear. ) But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

Power is an interesting thing. Recent studies have actually brought to the surface something we probably all instinctively have felt, but was never fully attested to as true. Power leaks empathy. The more power you have as a human being, the less empathy you have for those under you. Primarily, as an individual experiences increased power, they become increasingly less aware of other people’s perspectives. How? Our brains are equipped with what are known as mirror neurons. These neurons are stimulated by seeing, hearing, or even imagining someone doing something. It could be physical activity, body language, or a facial expression that stimulates corresponding mirror cells as an observer. Are you hearing what I am saying? The more time you spend with people, the more you will have empathy for them. The less time you spend with them, the less empathy you will have for them.

Are you hearing me? Here is Pilate, hung up in his fancy palace, annoyed and flustered by this trivial man standing before him, clearly brought forth by the envy of religious leaders looking to keep their position. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t want anything to do with this. He is conceded, in his power and his position, and lords it over the Lord himself.

Jesus responds, “You have no power over it me if it were not given to you from above.” Not to imply that Pilate has no choice in the matter, but rather that God is in control. God has all the power. If he wanted to stop what was happening, he would; Pilate is merely a pawn in the redemption story that God has been playing out since Genesis 3:15. Pilate is powerless before God’s plan in this hour. He has only delegated authority.

He knows he is innocent, but what is he to do? The religious leaders have one final trick up their sleeves. They yell aloud for all to hear, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”

The irony of this situation is insane. Here are Jewish leaders, who are actively being oppressed by the Roman Empire, chastising the Roman governor for not being sufficiently loyal. By rejecting Jesus, they have rejected God himself. All to maintain the life and the power they have been given by God himself.

As one commenter notes, “Friend of Caesar” was an official title bestowed on select persons such as senators who showed marked loyalty and service to the emperor. If Pilate is not a friend, he is an enemy of Caesar, and Emperor Tiberius had a firm reputation for eliminating his enemies swiftly.

            Pilate is in charge here. He is the governor. Who he wants to kill will be killed; who he wants to let go will be let go. Back and forth we have gone, in and out, of the palace, every time returning more and more convinced that Jesus is innocent. He is this close to setting him free, but only one thing keeps him from doing so. What people would think about him back in Rome.

His power has leaked all empathy, and his self-preservation is on full display.

            He sits down at the judge’s seat. And says, “Here is your king,” But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”  “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. 16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

Over and over again, Pilate asks Jesus the loaded question, “Are you a king? Are you what they say you are? Are you a king?”

And the truth is we know Jesus is king. We have the benefit of knowing this from the beginning. We see who Jesus actually is.

 He has all the power, because he is power. But his power is equal to his love. His power does not leak empathy; his empathy propels his power.

Jesus is the king of kings, a king like no other.

Let me say that again: Jesus is the king of kings, a king like no other.

Do you see the difference between Pilate and Jesus? Jesus knew exactly who he was. He didn’t need to self preserve. He knew his positon. He knew his worth. He knew how much he was loved. He knew who his father was, and he knew where his power came from. Not by grapsing. Not by tring to make himself look good.

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Because-, and hear me and hear me good, the way of the kingdom is not self preservation but self-sacrifice. The way of the kingdom is not self-preservation but self-sacrifice.

Church, do you see where we are no different than Pilate? No different than the religious leaders. The clothes you buy, the car you drive, the house you live in- is there not some part of you that wants to be seen as successful and put together? What a time to be alive that our self-preservation can be blasted online for all to see and judge. Are you not trying to protect yourself through that post? The image that you want other people to see?

It’s no wonder the practice of confession has been lost on the evangelical church. We don’t want our dirt to be in the open. We don’t want our church friends to think less of us. To think we are any less holy than them, or any less spiritual than them. We, like Adam and Eve, are obsessed with self-preservation.

But our king. The King of kings and lord of lords. Willing walked like a lamb to be slaughtered as a sacrifice for you and me.  

He willingly offered his life for you…and for me.

The way to live, given to us by the author of life itself, is to give your life away.

The way of the kingdom is not self-preservation but self-sacrifice.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

Don’t hear me wrong. Here is the nuance in what I am saying. Jesus isnt saying to act like you are worth nothing, and everyone is worth more than you. I am not saying the way of Christ is to act like a floor mat and let people walk all over you. What I am saying is that through the worth and the inheritance given to us by God himself, you knowing your worth and how much you are loved should give everything in your life to make others feel the same way.

The more we try and grasp the good gifts God has given us, the more they control us. The more we try and hold on to the power we have, the more we will lose it. The way to life is the death of the false self. To stop believing that you are in control. To stop trying to protect yourself, and trust that the God of the universe, who came down to be with his creation, to show us his empathy for us, died so that we could live.

The king of kings is a king like no other, and he didn’t come with a sword swinging to protect himself. He came with open hands, ready to receive the death we all deserved, so that we could be with God.

It’s all about him. The king.

Do you trust him enough to put your life in his hands? Even if it means dying to yourself? Or are you too busy with your fig leaves?