John 19:1-16

The Trial Continues (John 19:1 a).

John has made clear in chapter 18 that, in facing His trial by His fellow Jews, Jesus had nothing to hide, although no details of their actual attempts to find prosecuting witnesses or of the charge of blasphemy has been given. In the examination before Annas Jesus has simply pointed to the proofs that He was unblemished. That is John's emphasis, that the Lamb was open to examination before the High Priest and was found to be without blemish.

Again before Pilate John was concerned rather to show that as far as the final legal authority was concerned Jesus was innocent. He was not particularly trying to show the Judaisers as guilty, although in the circumstances how could he avoid it? For guilty they were. But what mattered to him above all was that Jesus was the unblemished Lamb, and the Messiah..

It would, of course, be foolish to blame the Jewish nation as a whole for the behaviour of the Judaisers. Indeed had they known of the situation many Jews, especially the Galileans gathered in Jerusalem, would have rallied to His support. It was the chief priests, aided by others who were antagonistic to Jesus, who bore the main responsibility. And as Ezekiel made clear, every man is responsible for his own sin. For these men were not thinking of the Jewish nation in what they did. They were thinking of themselves, of their own prestige and positions, and of their own prospective prosperity. Their actions were the actions of a ruling elite. And what they did only Jesus could have forgiven.

Pilate, on the other hand, had come to the conclusion that Jesus was not guilty of any charges against Him. However, he also was not prepared to come to a position where he stood firmly against the wishes of the Jewish leaders. He had done this previously in the past, rather foolishly and brutally, and the consequences had not been good for his reputation, and Tiberius Caesar was a very suspicious man. Thus Pilate felt that he dared not put himself in a position where they could again appeal against him to Caesar with accusations that he had allowed a dangerous ‘pretender to the throne' to go free. So as far as he was concerned, justice had to come second to what was best for him.