Nothing But Excuses - John 19:1-16

©Copyright October 17, 2021, by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

One of the biggest hindrances to growth in the faith is our tendency to make excuses. We seem to be allergic (as a society in general) to taking responsibility for our actions. It is always someone else’s fault or the fault of our circumstances, or it is ‘just the way we are (in essence, blaming God). When confronted with some problem, we all tend to turn it around and point out the issues in the other person. We don’t like to confront our own guilt.

You will be hard-pressed to find people who were better at making excuses than the people in the spotlight of our text today: The Roman Governor Pilate, the Jewish religious leaders, and the people of Jerusalem. They made one excuse after another as they presented Jesus to Annas, Caiaphas, and now Pilate. These leaders also made excuses.

As we look at some of these excuses, let’s not forget that this whole situation was part of God’s plan to redeem us. This does not mean the people involved are off the hook. However, as we look at the actions of these people, do not let it to overshadow what God was doing in and through these circumstances.

In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul said, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” It is no accident that the events in Jerusalem we are looking at, all took place at the time of the Passover. In fact, we see the true meaning of the cross within the context of Passover (and visa versa). The Passover lamb was to be a lamb without blemish. The blood of that lamb applied to the doorposts of that home meant the angel of death would pass over than home. This is a picture of Jesus, the perfect lamb of God dying to save us. His blood shed on our account delivers us from eternal punishment.

In the Jewish celebration of Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, the High Priest was to place his hands on the head of the animal to be sacrificed, as a way of symbolizing the transfer of sins to the animal whose death would allow the people to escape God’s wrath. The Old Testament images pointed to what took place at the cross. God’s timing is perfect. The drama of redemption which was played out for centuries in the Temple was now to be played out on the cross of Jesus.

Remember these words of Jesus,

9 He took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked him, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave no answer. 10 “Why don’t you talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?”

11 Then Jesus said, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”

Jesus was a willing participant. He could have stopped things at ANY time. However, He was standing in our place. He took the punishments that we deserved. However, the fact that these things were fulfilling God’s plan of redemption does not mean we are not held accountable for the choices we make.

Let’s look at some of the excuses of the people who condemned Jesus.

The Excuses of Pilate

Jesus was brought to the office of Roman Governor, Pontus Pilate. The Jews didn’t have a strong case, but they knew which buttons to push with Pilate. He was already in a fragile position with His job. Pilate tried to get rid of the problem by letting King Herod deal with it. Herod sent Jesus back. He was warned by his wife not to have anything to do with the condemnation of Jesus. Pilate was in a tough situation, but he is still responsible to act in an honorable fashion. In this, he failed.

The One thing our text points out to us (John 18:39, 19:4,6). After a thorough investigation Pilate drew the conclusion, “I find Him not guilty.” Pilate knew Jesus was not guilty, yet He still had Him sent to Herod, then had him brutally whipped, mocked, and beaten.

The Roman practice of whipping was a horrific form of abuse. It was administered by one who was an expert at inflicting pain (like all those people on TV shows who are experts at getting people to tell them what they want to know.) The whips were made from leather onto which bone fragments of bone and pieces of metal were attached. There were different intensities of flogging. Even if Jesus received the lightest flogging his skin would be torn and he would suffer terrible pain.

The crown of thorns was likely thorns of some length. As they beat and mocked Him, these thorns would be pressed further into his skull. It must have been excruciating. Why would these men do such things? It is because they had so little regard for the Jews. They relished opportunities to mock and beat them. It reminds us of those who ran the termination camps during World War II. They may claim they were only following orders, but their actions showed the depth of their hatred and depravity.

After all this, Pilate offered Him as the prisoner to be set free (why was he a prisoner if he was not guilty?) He may have thought the sight of Jesus being beaten would make the crowd feel kindlier toward Jesus. However, the hatred of men, stirred by the fear of some leaders, is more depraved than we can fathom.

Pilate made a big scene about washing his hands to say he was free of all responsibility for the death of Jesus but verse 16 says, “The Pilate handed him over to be crucified.” The Judge, knowing the prisoner was not guilty, sent him to the cross.

If we had Pilate here with us today, I suspect we would hear all kind of excuses:

1. I did everything I could do to save Him. That’s not true. Pilate was the One person who had the power to save Him with just a word. However, in fear, He refused to do what was right.

2. If I set Him free there might be a riot, I would lose my job, and possibly be executed myself. After this fiasco with Jesus, Pilate lost his job anyhow and was sent into exile. Where leadership demanded courage, Pilate cowered to the crowd.

3. I was just giving the public what they wanted. This is a failure in leadership. Sometimes leaders are called to do what is right . . . even when it is not popular.

It is easy to poke fun at Pilate, but we must look at our own lives and confront the excuses we make in our lives for

· Failing to speak up for Christ

· Not doing what the Bible tells us we should do

· Following the path of greed rather than generosity

· Encouraging hatred rather than understanding

Excuses of the Jewish Religious Leaders

In verse 6 and 7 we read,

6 When they saw him, the leading priests and Temple guards began shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

“Take him yourselves and crucify him,” Pilate said. “I find him not guilty.”

7 The Jewish leaders replied, “By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.”

The Jewish leaders indict themselves! First, they said they knew Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. They had been waiting for and teaching about when God would send one like a Son of God to come to rescue and save His people. Jesus came saying He was that man! Instead of sitting down with Him (as Nicodemus did) and listening to Him, they reacted to the fact that Jesus wasn’t exactly what they expected. He was critical of the religious leaders. They took offense.

The evidence was overwhelming. Jesus healed sick people, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, and even brought people back from the dead. He walked on water and fed 5000 people with 5 loaves and two fish! None of this is mentioned to Pilate.

Jesus offended the religious leaders. He did not abide by the status quo. They did not care about the evidence! They were only concerned with getting rid of this one who they said was causing trouble.

We are told that even Pilate was troubled by the prospect that Jesus could be God in human form. The Romans believe in a bunch of gods. Those gods would occasionally come down to earth to do some damage. Pilate showed Jesus more respect than the Jews.

After examining Jesus one more time with the same conclusion we read.

12 Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted, “If you release this man, you are no ‘friend of Caesar.’ Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar.”

13 When they said this, Pilate brought Jesus out to them again. Then Pilate sat down on the judgment seat on the platform that is called the Stone Pavement (in Hebrew, Gabbatha). 14 It was now about noon on the day of preparation for the Passover. And Pilate said to the people, “Look, here is your king!”

15 “Away with him,” they yelled. “Away with him! Crucify him!”

“What? Crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the leading priests shouted back.

The Shema, recited often by every Jew is from Deuteronomy 6:4,

Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. [emphasis mine]

The Jewish Religious leaders, the guardians of the Law, the representatives of God to the people, shouted back to Pilate “We have no King but Caesar?”

We can hope these men did not believe what they were saying. They were manipulating Pilate. There words backed Pilate into a corner. They were making him look like he was backing someone other than Caesar, a crime of treason. But . . . the leaders said, “We have NO KING BUT CAESAR.”

If a Christian leader got up before the crowds and promoted the worship of Allah or Buddha or called the writings of Confucius as authoritative as the Bible, we would be horrified. We would consider that person to be someone who had denied the faith. In fact, even if someone renounced their faith to avoid pain or persecution, we might be a little more understanding, but we would still question their faith. You can’t say you believe in God alone, and then say you have no God other than someone or something else. This was blasphemy!

Can you imagine the excuses of these religious leaders?

1. “It was a political maneuver; we didn’t mean anything by it.” We weren’t talking literally! Political candidates today can be undone by some statement they made decades ago. People are right to think that what you say, you mean.

2. It was a matter of National Security. They believed Jesus was a false teacher so they might claim they had to do what needed to be done to protect the nation from the teachings of Jesus. If you are using lies and manipulation to lead people you are leading them in the wrong direction! The real false teacher is YOU.

I can’t help but wonder what causes such hard-heartedness? What traits in these men must we guard against lest we harden our heart? I can think of three things.

Arrogance. It is possible to be so convinced you are right, that you are no longer open to any other position (Afterall, you are right). We must remain teachable and open to correction, or we will not grow. When you combine arrogance with power (as with the Jewish religious leaders) you will protect what you believe with force.

Fear is another cause for a closed mind. There are times we are afraid of the consequence of a truth. In this case, if Christ is who He said He is, then they have been wrong, and they must submit to the Lord. I think this is the case for people today, they resist the message of Christianity because it means they would be accountable to God, which means they must change the way they have been thinking and living all their lives.

Hurt. We don’t see it in this case, but it is common among us. People have been hurt in a church situation or by someone who calls themselves a Christian and they build a shell around their heart to keep from being hurt again. Perhaps you are one of those who has said, “I am never going to let this happen to me again.” As a result, hurt people tend to become hard-hearted as a defense mechanism.

People may feel the Lord let them down by not preventing something bad that happened. They become calloused and resentful. They do not consider that God might be doing something they cannot see.

Our challenge is to look at our own heart. Have we become hardened? Have we stopped listening to others because we are comfortable in our own beliefs? Are we protecting our beliefs with such tenacity that we have stopped listening even to the Word of God if it tells us we are wrong? The only way we can avoid being like these religious leaders is to remain open to instruction from the Word of God.

The Power of Peer Pressure

13 When they said this, Pilate brought Jesus out to them again. Then Pilate sat down on the judgment seat on the platform that is called the Stone Pavement (in Hebrew, Gabbatha). 14 It was now about noon on the day of preparation for the Passover. And Pilate said to the people, “Look, here is your king!”

15 “Away with him,” they yelled. “Away with him! Crucify him!”

As we think about the crowd at Pilate’s home, we need to remember that this is still morning. It is likely that most of the crowd was made up of those who were trying to get rid of Jesus. The followers of Christ, those who were likely cheering Him on Palm Sunday, may not have even known what was going on at Pilate’s home. There were no news broadcasts, text messages, or any other quick way to get word out. I cannot imagine most of the people who were cheering Him on Palm Sunday being the same people who now ask for his death.

But this still begs the question, doesn’t it? How did these people justify calling for the execution of someone who was not guilty of anything? What excuses might they make?

1. We were submitting to our teachers. The Bereans in the book of Acts were commended because they diligently checked what they were being taught by the Bible itself. People believe all kinds of wrong things because they will not read the Bible for themselves. We have a responsibility to think for ourselves. We cannot blame others when we stand before the Lord’s Judgment seat.

2. Everyone else was shouting. This is the argument about peer pressure. We are told to ALWAYS do what we know and believe is right, regardless of the testimony of the world.

Conclusions

In John 19 verse 14 it says, “It was now about noon on the day of preparation for the Passover.” This seems to conflict with other accounts that have Jesus in a supernatural darkness on the cross from noon until 3:00 p.m. How can both be true? The simplest answer I found makes a lot of sense: These people did not have precise ways to tell the time. They did not have watches, cellphones, or anything else. So, when they said it was “about noon” that could mean a few minutes before noon or an hour before noon.

The point this morning is that human nature tends to make excuses. The Lord calls us to take responsibility for our own lives. When we stand before Him, excuses will not resonate with Him. Part of coming to Him is to come with a pure and open heart.

May I be so bold as to ask, “What excuses are you using to explain why you are not following Him more seriously? What excuses do you give for not reading your Bible? (Not enough time? You don’t understand?) What excuses do you make for not sharing your faith or for not attending worship regularly? (Others are better at it than you are? You don’t have time? You like to sleep in on Sundays?) Your excuses may make you feel better, but they do not fool the Lord. What you are really saying is: “It just is not that important to me.”

When it is “just not that important” that we seek and spend time with the Lord and His people, we are drifting. Our hearts will become hard. We are becoming more like the religious leaders of Israel and the people who yelled for the crucifixion of our Lord. We need to stop making excuses and begin taking responsibility for our lives. Excuses will not matter to the Lord. The only thing that matters is whether or not we truly followed Him or only professed to do so.