In the Beginning: The Book of John

(John 18:38b-40; 19:1-4 [HCSB])

38b After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no grounds for charging Him. 39 You have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at the Passover. So, do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews? ”

40 They shouted back, “Not this man, but Barabbas! ” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.

19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had Him flogged. 2 The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and threw a purple robe around Him. 3 And they repeatedly came up to Him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews! ” and were slapping His face.

4 Pilate went outside again and said to them, “Look, I’m bringing Him outside to you to let you know I find no grounds for charging Him.”

Barabbas was not the revolutionary

The scene with Barabbas is a foretelling of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Jesus takes the place of a criminal, a revolutionary, a sinner. But the real revolutionary was not Barabbas; a real revolutionary does the unpredictable, the unimaginable, and often the unpopular and unconventional.

What is the definition of revolutionary?

1 a : of, relating to, or constituting a revolution

<revolutionary war> b : tending to or promoting revolution c : constituting or bringing about a major or fundamental change <a revolutionary new product>

In this way, and by definition, Jesus is far and away the more authentic revolutionary. His means are nonviolent and His heart is pure. Overthrowing an existing regime by violence is the conventional method; overthrow by persistent sedition or by engaging in a relentless “inside job” is far more unconventional.

One may ask, “How is Jesus different than any other social activist?” How is He any different than Gandhi or Martin Luther King?

1.) He is God.

2.) He preceded them all.

3.) He laid down His life; it was not taken from Him.

4.) He was resurrected, and continued His ministry for 40 days. Let me repeat … He rose from the dead AND it was chronicled.

This is how we treat our God: we flog, crown with thorns, slap and ridicule Him.

Yes, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

(John 19:5-11 [HCSB])

5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man! ”

6 When the chief priests and the temple police saw Him, they shouted,

“Crucify! Crucify! ”

Pilate responded, “Take Him and crucify Him yourselves, for I find no grounds for charging Him.”

7 “We have a law,” the Jews replied to him, “and according to that law He must die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”

8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was more afraid than ever. 9 He went back into the * headquarters and asked Jesus, “Where are You from? ” But Jesus did not give him an answer. 10 So Pilate said to Him, “You’re not talking to me? Don’t You know that I have the authority to release You and the authority to crucify You? ”

11 “You would have no authority over Me at all,” Jesus answered him, “if it hadn’t been given you from above. This is why the one who handed Me over to you has the greater

Here is the man

We may not scream “Crucify! Crucify!” but we do crucify Him by our behavior whenever we sin, and whenever we are unrepentant. These are sins of omission. Omitting honesty and repentance prevents spiritual growth.

We have laws, too, and are creating new ones with increasing frequency; laws can be and should be beneficial, however, many of our laws are nothing more than amendments intended to legitimize what was once unthinkable.

There are many who would like to see Jesus, or at least the memory of Him, killed off, because He presents a very inconvenient and difficult challenge to anyone whose heart is convicted by sin, though unwilling to change.

Pilate was certainly convicted, and his wife more so (see Matthew 27:19), but he was in no position to do anything that would jeopardize his standing as provincial governor and “friend of Caesar.” Pilate’s life was in the balance, and he knew it; and not unlike us, in the end, he was more interested in his own flesh than his eternal soul. This is why Pilate is such an attractive antihero. We can relate to his choices.

But we have to understand that all of this was preordained so that Jesus could become the Lamb of God and the sacrifice for all. This is why Jesus makes it clear that regardless of the choices made by Pilate, Herod or the Sanhedrin, the Authority by Whom this was unfolding would not, and could not, be deterred:

“You would have no authority over Me at all,” Jesus answered him, “if it hadn’t been given you from above.

Our choices never deter God.

(John 19:12-17 [HCSB])

12 From that moment Pilate made every effort to release Him. But the Jews shouted, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Anyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar! ”

13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside. He sat down on the judge’s bench in a place called the Stone Pavement (but in Hebrew Gabbatha). 14 It was the preparation day for the Passover, and it was about six in the morning. Then he told the Jews, “Here is your king! ”

15 But they shouted, “Take Him away! Take Him away! Crucify Him! ”

Pilate said to them, “Should I crucify your king? ”

“We have no king but Caesar! ” the chief priests answered.

16 So then, because of them, he handed Him over to be crucified. Therefore they took Jesus away.

17 Carrying His own cross, He went out to what is called Skull Place, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.

Here is your king

As mentioned in the last lesson, Pilate was more afraid of losing the favor of Caesar than he was his soul. It is doubtful that Pilate, in his classical polytheistic faith, even considered the soul important. It was more likely he was concerned about fate and karma, and he certainly detected bad karma in the way an innocent man was being railroaded by his own people.

In Pilate’s offering up of Jesus to the crowd, he was using sarcasm to (hopefully) make his point that Jesus was a man to be pitied in his current pathetic state, not crucified. Temple leadership did not acquiesce. They were adamant that Jesus was neither king nor messiah.

[Rewind to 1052 B.C.] After the Old Testament passage when Israel demanded Saul be crowned king, and God was abandoned by His people (1 Samuel 8:4-9), one can only imagine how the Father must have felt when His chosen people once again paid homage to Caesar, a god made of flesh and blood …

Pledging allegiance to Caesar was an easy way to leverage Pilate. However, there were other reasons to apply pressure to the Governor. He was vulnerable, the Pharisees were jealous and were pressed for time. Even though Hollywood has often painted Pilate as sympathetic, and the Sanhedrin as vicious and evil, all had the same freewill that you and I have. Poor choices were made, and yet God was glorified! God always wins!

In our sin we have all condemned our Savior to not only a violent death, but the added insult of carrying his own cross to Golgotha. That would be comparable to having a man carry a shovel to the cemetery so that he could dig his own grave prior to being executed.

Are we shovel carriers or cross bearers?