Pilate's Dilemma - John 18:28-40

John 18:28-40

©Copyright October 10, 2021 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

This morning we continue our look at the “trial” or better, the “mock-trial” of Jesus. It is likely that those Sanhedrin members who were sympathetic to Jesus (such as Nicodemus), found their invitation to the trial “lost in the mail.”

In our text in John 18 today we are still in the early hours of the morning. It wasn’t the middle of the night (Pilate would not have stood for this) but it must have been first thing in the morning because by noon, Jesus was on the cross. By around 3:00, he was dead.

Once again, John’s account is somewhat truncated. If we put the chronology from all the gospels together, we see there were actually two visits to Pilate. In the first visit, summarized by some of what we read here, Jesus is brought to Pilate. Pilate upon talking with Jesus, recognizes his arrest is more political than civil. He knows the Jewish leaders are threatened by Jesus and he wanted to find a way out of this tense situation. When Pilate learned that Jesus was from Galilee, Pilate thought he should send Jesus to Herod, who ruled over Galilee. It would be like the Supreme Court sending a case back to a state court to be decided.

Herod was in town for Passover and welcomed Jesus because he thought he might get to see one of the miracles that he had heard so much about. But Jesus said nothing (Remember, this is the same guy who executed the cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist). Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate (like a “hot potato”). He also wanted no part in this matter.

Somewhere in the drama of this morning, Mrs. Pilate sent a message to her husband to tell him she had a dream about Jesus. She told her husband he should have nothing to do with Him because it was going to end badly. Pilate did all he could to set Jesus free. Let’s look at the text and then we will look at some interesting back story for this account.

28 Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas ended in the early hours of the morning. Then he was taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor. His accusers didn’t go inside because it would defile them, and they wouldn’t be allowed to celebrate the Passover. 29 So Pilate, the governor, went out to them and asked, “What is your charge against this man?”

30 “We wouldn’t have handed him over to you if he weren’t a criminal!” they retorted.

31 “Then take him away and judge him by your own law,” Pilate told them.

“Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone,” the Jewish leaders replied. 32 (This fulfilled Jesus’ prediction about the way he would die.)

Pilate didn’t want to get involved from the very beginning. He was not on good terms with the Jewish people. After the dream of his wife, he was determined to get out of this mess. He offered to help the leaders “save face” and “release” Jesus as the prisoner to “get out of jail free” as part of a yearly custom of Pilates’. The Jews refused.

Many contend Pilate was “on probation” with Rome. The Roman Empire allowed each nation they conquered to have a measure of freedom. This was so they would have peace in the empire (wars are expensive) and secure a more willing tax base. Unfortunately, Pilate had twice created problems rather than solve them.

One time he had his soldiers march into Jerusalem at night and erected numerous shields with images of Caesar on them. When the Jews woke up in the morning they were horrified. The Bible was clear, there were to be no graven images in Israel. In the past, when Israel had tolerated such images, they paid a steep price in judgment from God.

The Jews went to Pilate and demanded he withdraw the images of Caesar. Pilate refused. This protest went on for 7 days! Pilate finally had enough. He had soldiers surround the people, telling them to disperse, “or else.” The Jewish faithful, as one man, fell to the ground and exposed their necks saying, “Go ahead and kill us!” Pilate had to give in lest he cause a riot leading to fury in Rome.

In the second incident, Pilate improved the public water system by building a path for water to enter the city of Jerusalem via an aqueduct. That sounds good, but he paid for it by stealing money from the temple funds! This money was devoted to God! Josephus (a Jewish historian) said “many thousands of people” came out to protest forcefully. Pilate sent soldiers in disguise into the crowd with their daggers hidden under their cloaks. When the people refused to give up their protest, Pilate threatened to use force. The people stood their ground. Pilate gave “the sign” and the soldiers attacked but more aggressively than he intended and there was a great massacre with many others wounded.

Pilates’ job was perhaps hanging in the balance. He had to work hard to keep peace, or he would be called back to Rome. This is the background for our account.

The Hypocrisy of the Jewish Leaders

The Jewish leaders who had just had their own mockery of a trial, take Jesus to the headquarters of the Roman governor. We are told, “His accusers didn’t go inside because it would defile them, and they wouldn’t be allowed to celebrate the Passover.” These guys were careful about not defiling themselves by entering the residence of a Gentile but had no trouble planning to kill an innocent Jew, their own Messiah!

All along we see this same tunnel-vision. They all felt they were doing “what they had to do” to protect Israel from this “false teacher.” However, none of these wise men (except for Nicodemus and perhaps a few others) stopped to ask, “Is it possible that this IS the Messiah as He claims to be?” This is called majoring on the minors and minoring on the majors.

This is a vivid picture of how a person can give the appearance of being a very religious person and completely miss the point! It is possible to be a person who goes to worship every week, sings in the choir, takes up the offering, leads the singing, teaches Sunday School, listens only to Christian music, gives generously, and can even recite all the books of the Bible flawlessly, and still miss the point.

It is not the externals that get us into right relationship with God. It is the heart. We can look very religious, proper, and Christian on the outside, but if Christ has not captivated our heart, if we do not see Him as the only One who can rescue us from the consequence of our sinful life, we are not believers at all, we are mere pretenders or merely “fans” of Christ.

The irony of this whole story is the fact that Pilate seems more interested in who Jesus really is than the Jewish religious leaders! They had made up their mind before any real examination.

The Examination of Jesus

33 Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him.

34 Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?”

35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?”

36 Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”

37 Pilate said, “So you are a king?”

Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”

Pilate examined Jesus and you get the feeling Pilate is looking for ANYTHING he can get that will allow him in good conscience to condemn Jesus to death. If Jesus seems to be a threat to Caesar, then he can perhaps sentence him to death. And I think this is what motivates the first question: “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus first assessed Pilate. Jesus wanted to know if Pilate’s questions were honest questions or simply legal questions. Pilate ignored Jesus. He asked, “What have you done?” Jesus does not answer the question. Of course, the real answer would be, “I came to deliver God’s message and they didn’t like the fact that I did not fit the mold of what they thought their Messiah would be.”

There is a warning here for you and me: any time we think we have it all figured out we may find ourselves missing the truth entirely because we could be looking in the wrong direction. The Lord told us to listen and to watch. We need to pay attention and listen to what the Word of God is saying.

Jesus did not deny that He was a King. He IS a King, but he told Pilate that his Kingdom is not an earthly Kingdom and those who belong to His kingdom do not fight the same way people of this world fight. Jesus declared He was not trying to build an earthly empire . . . He was building something spiritual and eternal. He is not trying to conquer people; He is working to convince people. In 2 Corinthians 10 Paul wrote,

3 We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. 6 And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient. (2 Cor. 10:3-6)

In the discussion on the armor of God we are told the weapons of God’s people are truth, peace, salvation, faith, righteousness, and the Word of God.

As followers of Christ, it is important that we remember that the battle we are in is different from the battles being waged in the world. There will always be the temptation to resort to earthly tactics: power, force, intimidation. Our weapons are a godly character and the truth of God’s Word. It may feel like our weapons are weak compared to the weapons of the world . . . but the weapons of Christ have far more power than anything the world can muster.

The gospel message isn’t about power or force . . . it is about truth. Jesus said he came to testify about the truth. This provoked Pilate’s question: “What is Truth?”

38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, “He is not guilty of any crime. 39 But you have a custom of asking me to release one prisoner each year at Passover. Would you like me to release this ‘King of the Jews’?”

40 But they shouted back, “No! Not this man. We want Barabbas!” (Barabbas was a revolutionary.)

The world in which we live defines truth differently than the way the Bible defines truth. The Bible looks at truth as an objective, immovable standard. It is the like the truth of how long one foot is, or one inch. It is a standard by which other things can be measured.

It is common for those who reject the notion of truth to define truth in one of two very popular ways. The first is in the way of pragmatism (or utilitarianism). Pragmatism is defining truth by what works. People who cheat on their partners, for example, have been known to say: “But it meets my needs” or some have even said, “It has saved my relationship with my spouse” or simply, “It makes me happy.” This is not an argument of right and wrong, it is an argument about what works . . . for me. Of course, this assumes you actually do know what is best for you.

Pilate approached the trial of Jesus pragmatically. He was trying to get rid of this political “hot-potato” by first declaring Jesus innocent. Second, He sent Him to Herod. Third, He had Jesus whipped within an inch of His life. Fourth, He offered to pardon Jesus and set Him free along the lines of the customs of Passover. His actions were not about justice, they were about getting himself off the hook in a bad situation. He was seeking a pragmatic solution to the problem. They all failed.

The second approach to truth is relativism. The relativists are the ones who say, “What’s true for you, may not be true for me.” Truth in this case depends on what you personally feel about a particular statement of truth. So, truth can change according to circumstances. It may be wrong to cheat in one circumstance but OK in another. James Montgomery Boice tells the story of a flight he was on,

the woman seated next to him learned that he was a Christian minister. She began to bring out all her objections about Christianity. First she spoke of original sin, how it made no sense and how she would not accept it. Boice simply replied to her, “I see, but is it true?” Next, she went on to the idea of judgment and hell, how uncivilized and amoral all of it was. “I see how you feel, but is it true?” he replied. She went on to the next topic and then the next, each with the same response. Finally she erupted with her great distaste for everything taught in the Bible, how it wasn’t modern or appealing to her way of thinking. As Boice began to open his mouth one last time, she exclaimed, “Oh, I know, I know, none of that matters. ‘Is it true?’ you are going to say!”[1]

Pilate asked the right question, but it may be that he didn’t think such a thing as omjective “truth” existed. If Pilate had asked the question sincerely, I believe Jesus would have explained that truth is found in every word spoken by God. To those who say truth “doesn’t matter,” we must remind them that our lives are built on core truths. The question needs to be: “are our core truths really true? Even those who believe there is no absolute truth are building their lives on the absolute truth that there is no absolute truth. Some truth is at the foundation of every life. If we are not careful, we will build on truth that will not stand in the end.

Pilate knew Jesus was not guilty of anything. He had one more avenue to try to set Jesus free: He could try to set him free with the yearly prisoner release program. However, it backfired when the people rejected this idea and instead requested the release of a criminal by the name of Barabbas.

We know little about Barabbas, John later tells us he was a bandit. Mark, Luke and even Acts 3:14 call him a murderer. It is likely he was a political terrorist. That is really all we know about him. The Leaders of Israel encouraged the crowd to ask for Barabbas instead of Jesus. This is how much they hated Jesus.

Pilate, leery of a riot, gave in and condemned the innocent Jesus to death on a cross.

Conclusions

This is a historical account, but it can still teach us some practical lessons. Hatred, Bitterness, Jealousy and all their cousins are poisons that destroy us. William Barclay observed,

Nothing in this world warps a man’s judgment as hatred does. Once a man allows himself to hate, he can neither think nor see straight, nor listen without distortion. Hatred is a terrible thing because it takes a man’s senses away.[2]

We see this clearly in the actions of the religious leaders of Israel. They hated Jesus because he went against the status quo and as a result, didn’t even listen to Him. They were filled with so much of the poison of hatred that they turned their back on the Messiah they had been waiting for all their lives! This is a warning to us. When we see hatred seeping into our lives, we must remove it infects everything we do.

We see an example how best to respond to opponents. Jesus said nothing to Herod, He answered the direct questions of the Jewish religious leaders and also answered the questions of Pilate. Jesus told the truth, but He didn’t elaborate. If there had been a true desire to know and understand, Jesus would have taken the time to explain to one who was seeking Him. Jesus asked questions and gave short answers. When you are facing people who are hostile to you or to the gospel, the more you listen and ask questions, the better. Much of the time it is simply better to be quiet. If we are quiet, we will not give ammunition to those who oppose us. It is foolish to waste words on someone unwilling to listen.

We see what Jesus endured for us. Why did Jesus put up with all of this? He endured the ridicule, the beatings, the whippings, and the brutal experience on the cross so we could be forgiven and have new life! His sacrifice was a payment for our sin. It is true that in one sense, we sent Jesus to the cross! His was an astounding act of love that opened up the possibility of glorious life beyond the grave.

So here is a remaining question: Are you grateful? Do you appreciate what He has done? Have you received this gift and trusted Him for salvation and new life? That is the appropriate response! This gratitude should be what motivates our worship and our service. Salvation is a free gift, but it is not a gift without value. As they say, grace is free, but it is not cheap.

As believers, we should be the most grateful and humble people in the world. We have been forgiven because of a gift given to us by Christ. It is a gift we did not earn but was given to us out of grace and mercy. When you feel your life has little value; when you feel no one sees you or cares about you; when you see no reason to be positive or hopeful . . .remember the Lord and the way He suffered out of love for you. You have never been seen as more precious than when Jesus went to the cross. Hold and proclaim this truth to anyone who will listen. It is a message the world desperately needs to hear.

[1] Richard D. Phillips, John, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, 1st ed., vol. 2, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2014), 518. [2] William Barclay, ed., The Gospel of John, vol. 2, The Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster John Knox Press, 1975), 234–235.