Skip to main content

290. Jesus First Appearance Before Pilate

Matthew 27:11-14, Mark 15:1-5, Luke 23:1-7, John 18:28-38
Key Verse: Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me."
John 18:37

The Sanhedrin has found Jesus guilty of blasph
emy. This is a crime punishable by death according to Jewish law. The Sanhedrin has a problem. They now live under Roman law as an occupied country. The Romans were willing to endure the petty religious laws of the Jews, but matters of life and death were not matters of petty religion. Jesus had to be found guilty of committing a crime against the state or else Rome really wouldn't care how many religious laws Jesus had broken. Jesus would not be sentenced to death. However, Jesus must die. That was the end game. Whatever it took to accomplish that, the Jewish leadership would not be deterred.

First, they needed to appeal to Pilate who was the governor of the district of Judea, appointed by Rome. It would appear, at Jesus' first appearance before Pilate, that the accusations of the Sanhedrin weren't very impressive. "He doesn't pay His taxes." "He says He's a king!" To make matters worse, the Jews are so concerned that they can continue participating in the observance of Passover week, they insult Pilate by insisting that he come to them, outside, so that they won't be contaminated by going into his home.

Finally, Pilate, wisely removes Jesus from among them to talk with Him privately, face to face. From Pilate's perspective, Jesus appears to have a bit of, what we might call, a Messiah complex, but otherwise, He seems harmless enough. During the interchange Jesus said, 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. And this was his way of dismissing any cause to listen to Jesus. However perhaps Jesus' calm demeanor spoke volumes to Pilate, who was more used to criminals protesting their innocence or begging for mercy. Jesus wasn't anything like them and Pilate is moved by Jesus, so much so that, while he could have humored the Sanhedrin by bowing to their wishes to have this poor, seemingly common Jew put to death, the call for some sort of justice stirs within him and he works toward setting Jesus free.

The Sanhedrin will have none of it, however. They accuse Jesus of stirring up trouble from Galilee to Jerusalem. It is then that Pilate hits on the plan that, if Jesus is from Galilee, why not let the person in charge of that district take care of Him. After all, Herod is a Jew, in town for the Passover just like so many others. Let Herod deal with this ridiculous situation. He is more familiar with the Jewish law anyway. Thinking that he has made a slick move and rid himself of the concern of putting an innocent man to death, Pilate orders that the Sanhedrin take their problem to Herod and let him deal with it since, technically, Jesus is one of his citizens and not really from Judea.

Pilate is the true politician now, trying to please everyone and, in the end, it will get him nowhere. While Pilate has the backing of a power like Rome, when facing the crowd, we see that his convictions are really built on shifting sand. He wants to be popular and he wants to get away from the responsibility of making the tough decision and being firm. How often are we guilty of the same lack of resolve? It ends up not working too well for Pilate, and it usually doesn't end up working too well for us either. It is better to rest on the rock of the truth that Jesus spoke of than the chaos we may see before us. Sand will shift, but rock remains solid.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

211. The Sons of Thunder's Request

Matthew 20:20-28 , Mark 10:35-45 , Key verse: "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." Mark 10:43B-44 In our readings for yesterday, in which Jesus outlined what was about to happen to Him, for His disciples, the passage in Luke ends: "The disciples did not understand any of this. It's meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about." ( Luke 18:34 ) Now, we see just how truly clueless they were. Jesus had laid out a plan before them of pain and suffering and death and now James and John are focused on a promotion. The disconnect is so obvious. It's really not important to know whether James and john came up with this request on their own or if their mother put them up to it. The request was made and James and John thought that they could handle the responsibility that would come with it. What is that saying, "Fools rush in where angels fe...

These Boots are Made for Walking

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-15 These Boots are Made for Walking. Of course, I picked that title because it has a reference to popular culture, and it connects with our text today about “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” I was tempted to play the video of that song, but it’s really not amenable to worship. If you remember that old song, it was quite confrontational. The singer had a righteous complaint against a boyfriend or spouse who was cheating on her. She’s not going to put up with that, and the song goes on to say, “One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you!” And that “take a stand” bravado made her a hero! It was a #1 hit in 1966. I mention it because it has one interesting parallel and one major contrast with the message of grace and forgiveness. That parallel is this. God has a righteous complaint against the entire human race for cheating Him out of the loving relationship He desires with us. As the God who created us, he h...

186. Ten Healed, Or One?

Luke 17:11-19 Key Verse: Then He said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." Luke 17:19 At last, Jesus has left the crowd behind and again is continuing His journey toward Jerusalem. His path takes Him and His disciples along the border of Judea and Samaria, between the pure Jews, and the hated half breeds of the day. On His way, Jesus encounters an interesting group of people. We only learn the nationality of one of them and, though we don't know the nationality of the others, because Jesus sends them to the priests in Jerusalem we can probably assume that at least some of them are Jews. Isn't it interesting that through leprosy, a disease that causes much suffering, the dividing wall of hatred has come down for the sake of companionship? We encountered one leper earlier on our Journey. Lepers were the dreaded untouchables of the day. Their disease cut them off from all they loved. It was a very lonely life. No wonder these people had ...