This morning we are continuing our look at the final hours of our Lord’s earthly ministry. Last time, we were with Jesus as He is on trial before Caiaphas, the high priest; a formal hearing before the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin. We know from passages like John 11:53 of course that the trial before Caiaphas was all for show. The Jews had already determined to kill Christ. The verdict of death was a foregone conclusion. The only problem was that under Roman imperial law, the power to execute someone no longer belonged to the Sanhedrin, to the Jewish ruling council. For the death sentence, they have to go to Pontius Pilate.
And so beginning in John chapter 18 verse 28 and running through John 19 verse 16, which is our passage for this morning, we have the second of Jesus’ two trials. The first was a religious and ecclesiastical trial, but now we have a civil trial, a secular trial, before the civil authority. And what is really striking as you read through this section of John’s gospel, as we’ll do in just a moment together, is the very distinct impression you get that there are in fact two trials taking place at the same time here. Certainly there is the trial in the story – the trial of Jesus of Nazareth and Caiaphas and his cronies drag Him to the praetorium, this seat of imperial government in Palestine, but as we watch Pilate interacting first with the Jews and then with Jesus back and forth between His accusers and the accused, we begin to realize that while there is the trial in the story, the trial of Jesus, the story itself is a kind of trial. And it’s not actually Jesus who is in the dock as the accused. It’s Pilate and Caiaphas and the leaders of the Jews who face prosecution before the tribunal of Almighty God.
And so as we work through the material here in John 18, I want to approach it with that in mind. I want to think about it as a trial. And so we’re going to consider, first of all, the indictment in chapter 18, 28 to 32. Then secondly, the witness, in 18:33 to 38. Then, the deliberation, 39 through 19:12. Then the verdict, in 19, verses 13 through 16. Then finally we’ll go back to chapter 18:39-40 and note the possibility of clemency. Okay. So that’s our approach; that’s the outline. The indictment, the witness, the deliberation, the verdict, and the possibility of clemency. Before we read the text and then consider those headings, let’s pause again and pray and ask for the Lord to help us. Let us all pray.
O God, open our eyes by the mighty work of the Holy Spirit. Unstopper our ears. Take away hearts of stone and give hearts of flesh. Plow up the stony ground that the seed of the Word, planted in our hearts today, may bear much fruit for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Romans – excuse me, I keep saying the wrong thing today! I wonder what that’s about! Anyway, John 18 verse 28. This is the Word of God:
“Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. So Pilate went outside to them and said, ‘What accusation do you bring against this man?’ They answered him, ‘If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.’ The Jews said to him, ‘It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.’ This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.
So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’ Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’
After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?’ They cried out again, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a robber.
Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’ When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, ‘Crucify him, crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.’ The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.’ When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, ‘Where are you from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, ‘You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.’
From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, ‘If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.’ So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, ‘Behold your King!’ 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.’ So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.”
Amen, and we praise God for His holy Word.
The Indictment
Jesus’ ordeal in the home of Caiaphas the high priest, it seems, has lasted all night. Verse 28 of John 18 makes plain that Caiaphas and his conspirators show up first thing in the morning Friday morning at Pilate’s home. Luke 23:1 says the whole company of those who worked through the night to condemn Jesus dragged Him to the praetorium. So the stage is set. Can you see it? We have Jesus and Caiaphas and the leaders of the Jews and the officers and Pilate, who comes to his front door to find out what all the fuss is about. All the principles are present. The court is now in session and our trial can begin.
And we start first of all with the indictment. The indictment. Caiaphas and his co-conspirators have brought Jesus to Pilate for what they expect will be quick, summary judgments. They’re not allowed to kill Jesus, so they need Pilate to do it for them. But look at verse 28 again. It’s early morning, “They themselves did not enter the governor’s quarters, so that they would not be defiled but could eat the Passover.” Now that’s an extraordinary statement and I want to reflect on it with you in just a moment, but put a pin in it in terms of its significance because I want to deal with an apparent contradiction here between John and the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. All the gospels, I think, are very clear in speaking of the Last Supper as a Passover meal. But if the Last Supper is a Passover meal and Jesus has already eaten it the night before with His disciples, what does John 18:28 mean when the Jewish leaders don’t want to contract ritual impurity and be disqualified from eating the Passover? It seems like they haven’t had Passover yet.
Well the easiest explanation is to realize that in several New Testament sources, as well as in contemporary Jewish sources outside of Scripture, the phrase translated as, “eating the Passover,” can actually refer to more than eating only the Passover meal on the night of Passover, but any of the sacred meals in consequence of the sacrifices that took place the whole night over the extended festival that included both Passover night and the Festival of Unleavened Bread, often simply called for short, Passover. And so eating the Passover could refer not just to the Passover meal, which happened on the night of Jesus’ betrayal, but to any of the other meals throughout the extended Festival of Unleavened Bread. That’s just a quick by the by to note that the gospels are internally consistent. There is no contradiction in the Word of God.
But the key thing to see in this verse is the way that John exposes for us clear as anything the hypocrisy, the staggering hypocrisy staggering in the hearts of the Jewish leaders. To be sure, they are bringing their charges against Jesus to Pilate but John, the author of the gospel, has filed his own indictment against them. Hasn’t he? They’ve schemed and plotted to murder Jesus. They’ve collected false testimony and created a farce of a trial until their hatred of Him has finally boiled over and the beatings began. They spit in His face, and with sticks and clubs and with their own fists they brutalized Him. But for all the wickedness of what was, after all, only a few short hours before, now all of a sudden they are too holy even to step across the threshold of Pilate’s headquarters, lest they contract ritual defilement from being in a Gentile’s home.
Now that of course meant that Pilate had to come out to them. He asks them in verse 29, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” And again, look at how they reply. It really is astonishing, isn’t it? “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered Him to you.” You see what they are saying? “We are men of honor and dignity and integrity. We are pious men. We are holy men. The mere fact that we have brought Jesus to you should be enough for you to know that He must be a crook! If Jesus wasn’t bad news, do you really think people like us would waste our time bringing Him to you?” They’re hypocrisy is impossible to miss. Isn’t it? What is the charge that the Gospel writer lays at their feet? He indicts them for religious hypocrisy. They stand accused of thinking that holiness is a matter of ritual purity and it needn’t’ touch the heart. John indicts them for thinking that mere religion can be a refuge for anyone from the judgment of God.
You remember how the Lord Jesus taught us that it is not what goes into a person that makes them unclean, but what comes out of them. Because, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” The heart is the real issue. They don’t see it at all. Instead, they are busy straining out gnats while swallowing a camel. They are worried about ritual impurity while conspiring to commit murder. They wash the outside of the cup while the inside is still filthy. Mere religion, you see, mere externals is no vaccination. It offers no immunity whatsoever from the wickedness of the human heart. And here it is now, in all its ugliness for everyone to see, except of course Caiaphas and his lynch mob – like every lynch mob in human history, they think themselves completely righteous. And that’s the terrible danger in mere religion, after all. Isn’t it? It embraces a form of godliness while denying its power. It offers just enough piety to salve the conscience, allowing us to kid ourselves and deceive ourselves and tell ourselves our sins don’t really matter, even while we reproach others. The terrible indictment. Do you see it in the text? If such a charge were leveled against you – religious hypocrisy – I wonder if it would stick. Mere religion – a form of godliness, denying its power, straining at gnats while swallowing a camel. The indictment.
The Witness
Then secondly, notice the witness who speaks to the case that John is bringing. It’s obvious, isn’t it, that Pilate is not at all impressed by Caiaphas’ bluster, and so he tries to dismiss the whole thing. “Take Him yourself and judge Him by your own law,” he says. But the Jews then remind Pilate, not for the last time, that only he can execute someone. Pilate simply cannot get out of this quite so easily it seems. So he begins to cross examine Jesus in earnest. “Are You the King of the Jews?” verse 33. “Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You over to me. What have You done?” verse 35. And at first Jesus, by way of reply, begins to probe Pilate’s motives in verse 34. We’ll come back to that in a few moments.
And then he answers Jesus’ questions more directly in verse 36. Would you look there with me, verse 36? “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, My servants would be fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but My kingdom is not from this world.” “If your concern, Pilate, is that I am some sort of revolutionary, some sort of insurrectionist trying to overthrow the rule of Caesar, well then you have misunderstood the nature of My kingdom completely. It is a spiritual kingdom. It does not advance by earthly means or by means of violence.” Pilate now thinks he’s got Him. “So You are a king?” he says. Look carefully at Jesus’ answer. Verse 37, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world.”
Alright, so here it is now – Jesus’ mission statement. Here is the kind of king He is. Here is the nature of the kingdom He brings. Here is how it will advance in the world. “I have come into the world,” He says, “to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.” Jesus here stands accused before Pilate, but He doesn’t act as if He is the one on trial at all. Does He? He acts like a witness bearing testimony in the prosecution, actually of both the Jewish leaders and Pilate Himself. He was born, He says, He came into the world “to bear witness to the truth.” His kingdom advances through the truth. Jesus who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” who is “the Word made flesh,” John 1 tells us, who is “full of grace and truth” – He rules over all who listen to the truth. “Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.”
Pilate’s famously rhetorical reply, “What is truth?” drips with cynicism and dismissal. He has no time for truth. He has to deal with political realities. And right now he knows he is in a precarious political situation. How is he going to navigate the increasingly shrill demands of the Jewish leaders right in the middle of Passover? The city is packed for the festival, religious fervor is high, tensions with Rome are profound. We can almost see him rolling his eyes and laughing in disdain and shaking his head of all this talk of truth.
And yet, all the cynicism notwithstanding, his question does sound remarkably contemporary to our ears, doesn’t it? “What is truth?” After all, we no longer ask “Is it true?” What do we ask now? We ask, “Is it true for me? Is it true for me?” Trust has become relative and malleable and personal. Think about Oprah telling Meagan to “speak her truth.” Alright, so now as Christians, as we try to bear witness to Christ in such a world where truth is malleable and relative like that, we are met with, “Well, that may be true for you. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad it’s true for you; it’s just not true for me.”
And what do you do with that? It can be very discouraging. What do you say to that? Do you get drawn into a prolonged, philosophical debate about the nature and the location and the meaning and the character of truth? Well certainly there’s a place for that. I find it helpful to remember two things. First of all, remember Jesus is truth. He is the truth and all His words are true. So speak His words and point to Him. He is the truth and no one can deny Him. And then secondly, speak those words, the words of Christ, the Word of God, holy Scripture, speak the Word resting on the amazing promise of verse 37. Amazing promise – “Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.” Pilate can’t hear it. Caiaphas and his cronies can’t hear it. But “Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.” It’s not our job to prove the truth or even to persuade other people about the truth. It is our job to proclaim the truth. Everyone who is of the truth will listen to the voice of Jesus Christ speaking in the Gospel. Do not be dismayed by the relativism of our culture. Preach the Word, in season and out of season. Tell them the truth as it is in Jesus and He will, He will draw His people to Himself.
The Deliberation
The indictment. The witness. Then thirdly, the deliberation. In the story, Pilate deliberates as all judges must. Actually, he squirms and wriggles like a worm on a hook trying desperately to get out of condemning Jesus. Doesn’t he? You will perhaps have noticed the way John structures his account around Pilate’s constant coming in and going out. Did you notice that as we read it? He comes out to Caiaphas in 18:29. Then he goes back into the praetorium to examine Jesus in verse 33. Then he goes back out again in verse 38 and back in in 19 verse 1, only to go back out again in 19 verse 4. In and out, back and forth between Jesus and His accusers. And every time he interviews Jesus, he sees Christ’s innocence very clearly. And he goes back out and reports, “I find no guilt in this man,” verse 38. “I find no guilt in Him,” chapter 19 verse 4. “I find no guilt in Him,” chapter 19 verse 6. The issue is not ambiguous in Pilate’s mind. Three times over the text exonerates Jesus from the lips of His earthly judge. He is innocent, innocent, innocent, John wants us to see. But every time Pilate attempts to dismiss the case, the Jewish leaders insist that Jesus be condemned.
And so John’s depiction of Pilate oscillating back and forth between the praetorium where Jesus was being held and the courtyard where the Jewish leaders had gathered really mirrors brilliantly His internal vacillation between two moral positions. His conscience says, “Release Jesus.” His constituents say, “Kill Him!” His personal ethics say, “Exonerate Jesus.” His political enemies demand that he crucify Him. And so Pilate is stuck, isn’t he? He’s stuck.
In 18:39 he appeals to the annual tradition of releasing a prisoner at Passover; probably he hoped this would be an easy, “Get Out of Jail Free” card, not for Jesus but for him. He could release Jesus and be done with the whole mess. That backfires badly when the Jews demand the release of Barabbas the robber. Pilate then has Jesus beaten in the opening verses of chapter 19 and then he presents Him to the Jews, bloodied and broken, a mockery of a king in His purple robe with His crown of thorns in verses 4 and 5. Surely now that He has utterly humiliated and beaten Jesus this will be enough, this will satisfy them and they will move on. But when they see Jesus they cry out all the more, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” When he suggests in verse 6 that they take Jesus themselves and crucify Him, again they remind him only he can pronounce the death sentence. It has to be Pilate’s decision. There is no way out. There is no escape. He has to decide. He must decide. And so must you and so must I! There’s no putting it off. This man, “Behold the Man,” He demands an answer. What will you do with Jesus Christ?
One more interview with Jesus in 19:9-11 yields really no more answers for Pilate. He attempts – do you see this – he attempts to bully Jesus, reminding Him of his authority. “I can release You or I can crucify You. You’d better speak up!” Look at Jesus’ reply. Even here in the maelstrom of accusation and violence as it swirls all around Him, He’s like the eye of the storm. He is utterly calm, and with complete clarity He says, “Whatever authority you have has been delegated to you by Almighty God alone.” Jesus is aware that all that is happening now is part of God’s sovereign plan and purpose. But He’s also clear with Pilate, isn’t He, that for all the sovereignty of God at work here it offers no refuge for Pilate. “Because God is sovereign does not mean, Pilate, that you are not responsible.” So He says, “He who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” Right? So Judas has more guilt in this matter than Pilate. Caiaphas has more guilt in this matter than Pilate. But Pilate still has plenty of guilt in this of his own to bear. “Others may be more guilty, but you’re still guilty.” Jesus just will not let Pilate off the hook any more than the Jews will outside baying for Jesus’ blood.
It’s interesting to me the last thing Jesus says to Pilate is to insist on Pilate’s personal responsibility, because actually that’s the same note that sounds in the first thing that Jesus says to Pilate. “Do you say this” – when he asks if Jesus is a king – “Do you say this on your own, of your own accord, or have others told you about Me and said it to you about Me?” The question of course is rhetorical. Jesus is only here talking to Pilate at all because of other people’s accusations. What Jesus is really pressing on Pilate is the obligation to deal personally, seriously with His claims and His mission. Who is He? “Make up your own mind, Pilate, who I am and what you will do with Me.” He can’t hide behind his office and say, “You know, I’m just doing my job.” He can’t appeal to the sovereignty of God as an excuse, as if divine providence robbed him of personal responsibility. He cannot coerce a chargeable confession from Jesus to make his life easier and settle the issue. It slowly becomes apparent to Pilate that really no matter how he tries to wriggle out of it, there is simply no way to avoid the demand that Jesus makes of him, makes of every single one of us, to decide what we will do with this man. What will you do, what will you do with Jesus?
According to chapter 19 verse 8, as the reality of the situation dawns on Pilate, he is overtaken by fear. And that fear, in fact, proves to be a stronger voice than the cries of his own conscience. He resolves to reject Jesus, to deny and to condemn Him. He does the easy thing, the safe thing; not the right thing. In consequence, actually to this day, Pilate is known by millions of Christians the world over because of the words of the Apostles’ Creed. The Church across the ages have thundered out the sentence, the verdict – “I believe in Jesus Christ who suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Pilate’s name is now infamous. He, in history, he is remembered for having made the wrong choice, you see. Which way will you decide? What choice will you make?
The Verdict
The indictment. The witness. The deliberation. Very quickly, notice the verdict. Pilate actually resolves to attempt to release Jesus but the crowds just won’t let him get away with it, will they? Chapter 19 verse 12, “If you release this man you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” There is no escape for Pilate. He will have to make a decision. And don’t miss how careful John is to record exactly where and when it takes place. He says it is, “The day of preparation of the Passover,” that is, the day of preparation is the day before the Sabbath, Saturday. And it’s the great Sabbath that falls in the middle of the extended Passover celebration. So all this happened Saturday morning, he says, “about the sixth hour.” About 9 o’clock in the morning. Sorry – Friday morning, 9am.
We all remember, I’m sure, exactly where we were, what we were doing, who was with us when 9-11 took place. It’s just etched, seared into our memories. Isn’t it? John is saying Good Friday, 9am, is a moment never to forget. It was then that Pilate backed into a corner from which he could not escape, passed the death sentence on the Lord Jesus Christ; a mortal man condemned to death, the Son of God – 9am, Friday morning. Pilate, mockingly, presents Jesus to the crowd as their King. “Behold, your King,” he says. And when they scream all the louder for His crucifixion he begins to play to the crowd. That’s what I think is really happening here. “Shall I crucify your King?” He’s like a warm-up act before the main event. And look at what they say. Verse 15, “We have no king but Caesar!” No king but Caesar. It is actually the final rejection of God’s Messiah in favor of a Roman emperor who claimed to be a god. While Jesus is condemned by the cries of these evil men, we see, don’t we, in the text, these same cries condemn them.
And let’s really be clear about the picture John is painting here. John has been a good prosecuting attorney, he’s laid out the indictment, he’s brought the witness, he’s presented to us the duty to deliberate carefully, and now the verdict is in. Pilate is condemned, Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin are condemned, but get this now, carefully – they’re not condemned by us. We’re not the judges or the jury here, for whose verdict John is writing. No, John’s gospel is the record of the divine verdict. Almighty God Himself is the Judge, and if we are anywhere in this story it’s not as the judges or as the jury. Rather, we stand in the dock beside Pilate and Caiaphas and the mob. “Behold the Man upon the cross, my sin upon His shoulders. Ashamed I hear my mocking voice, call out amongst the scoffers. It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life; I know that it is finished.” The guilt of those accusing Jesus really shines very clearly in these verses, doesn’t it?
But we need to understand our place is right there amongst them; right there amongst them. We stand like they, by nature under the divine sentence, like them, guilty of rebellion and disobedience and unbelief, of seared conscience, of fearing men rather than God. And with every petty act of rebellion, understand what we are really doing. We are saying with them, adding our voices to theirs, “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! I want my way, my pleasure, my own rule! I do not want this Man to rule over me!” We are the guilty ones – me, you.
The Possibility of Clemency
But there is hope for clemency. There is an offer of pardon. Back up and look at 18:39-40. Pilate, remember, wants to release a prisoner. He hopes it’s Jesus. He has two candidates – one will live; the other will die. Will it be Jesus of Nazareth or will it be Barabbas the robber? The Jews, of course, scream for Jesus’ death. They want Barabbas set free. The name, “Barabbas,” you may know, means “son of the father.” The symbolism isn’t very difficult to notice. Barabbas deserves condemnation just like we deserve to be condemned, but he lives. And Jesus, the innocent one, dies. Look, God will never wink at sin, never. He doesn’t simply let us off the hook. All sin must be punished. And either you will pay for it yourself forever in hell or you will have Jesus Christ pay in full in your place at the cross. But in order for you to receive such clemency, you must come to recognize you’re not righteous like Caiaphas and the high priests professed, neither can you avoid responsibility as Pilate sought to do. You are as guilty as Barabbas. You must own your sin and come to Christ, the true King, asking Him for mercy. “Lord Jesus, take my place and set me free,” and He will. There is clemency for you, but only in Him. Will you trust yourself to Christ?
Let’s pray together.
Father, thank You for the Lord Jesus who has borne in His body on the tree our sins. By Your grace, O Lord, bring us back to Him. Help us to see the true ugliness of our sin, our hypocrisy, our attempts to shirk responsibility, to evade our obligations, all the ways in which we say, “Away with Him!” instead of bowing before Him. Instead, bring us like Barabbas to recognize the condemnation we deserve, and casting ourselves upon Christ anew, O Lord give us life, give us pardon, give us clemency. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.