Thank you, Tony, for reading this sad and painful portion of Scripture. Yes, we know Jesus needed to suffer and die, but to see the callous disregard for truth and the lack of respect for human dignity should be painful for us. Let us reflect together on the text titled “The King of the Jews.”
Observing the REACTIONS of the participants in this scene from Jesus before Pilate, we are motivated to reevaluate our embrace or rejection of The King of the Jews.
The First REACTION is,
The Leaders’ Calumny
Some of you might be saying to yourself, “I don’t know what the word calumny means.” Before I give you the definition, let me share something important: Bible teaching should be both spiritually inspiring and intellectually stimulating. You should be exposed to familiar truths in fresh language, while also learning something in the process.
The definition of calumny is the act of uttering false charges or misrepresentations of the truth that are maliciously calculated to harm another’s reputation. If you were listening when Tony read our Scripture text, you heard that this is what the Jewish leaders did.
Since Mark’s Gospel is selective in the details it provides, we will also include some observations from the other Gospels. Jesus had been illegally arrested, condemned, and beaten the previous evening. He had been put under oath to answer Caiaphas’ question, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” When Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven,” they immediately and unjustly condemned Him to death.
To lend an air of legitimacy to their actions, the Sanhedrin gathered early in the morning to formalize their sentence against Jesus. As we noted earlier, they could not carry out a death sentence. They needed the approval of the Roman authorities, specifically Pilate. So, early in the morning, they bound Jesus and escorted Him to Pilate.
Arriving at Pilate’s judgment hall, most likely the fortress of Antonia, they began to accuse Jesus before him. Here is John 18:28-32 to give us a more complete picture of what is happening.
“Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?” They answered and said to him, “If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.” Then Pilate said to them, “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.” Therefore, the Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death,” that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what death He would die.”
Naturally, Pilate wanted to know the charges. In Luke 23:2, they said, “We found this fellow perverting the nation…” Addressing Jesus as “this fellow” was a derogatory way of speaking and showed their disdain for Him. Their use of the words “we found” implies that they went through the legal procedure of a trial. Perverting the nation means that Jesus was an agitator, an insurrectionist disrupting the nation from its peaceful course.
The second accusation is that Jesus forbade giving tribute to Caesar. Some of the very same men who earlier asked Jesus about this exact subject may have been in that crowd of accusers. They knew what Jesus had said, and so did the leaders, the ones who had sent them to try to trap Jesus. In Luke 20:19-26, Jesus told them to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. The context makes it clear He was telling them to pay their taxes. But though they knew the truth, not one of them spoke up – calumny.
And then the third accusation from Luke’s record says he is a Christ-King. The name Christ would’ve meant nothing to Pilate, so the Jewish leaders shrewdly tacked on the word king. He is forced to deal with this one, since neglect on his part in this case would involve him in a dereliction of duty towards the throne of the Caesars, for Jesus was accused by the Jews of setting himself up as a king in opposition to Caesar.
“A Christ-king, one who capitalizes on the Christ-hopes of the Jews and is therefore vastly more dangerous than any ordinary pretender to the throne of Israel, would be like Herod the Great and men who had only political interests. Pilate and anyone who was slightly acquainted with the Jews knew of this Christ-hope of theirs. This charge is made in the last, the climax, and throws light on the other two.”[1]
However, these claims are entirely unfounded and are not mentioned in either of the two earlier court sessions. These religious leaders are asking for Jesus’ death based on outright lies. But that is the nature of calumnious, unconverted men who hide behind the façade of religion.
The Next REACTION is,
The Crowds’ Cacophony
A cacophony is a chaotic mixture of sounds. Some shouted one thing and others shouted something different. If you want to know what this may have sounded like, look up a video of recent violent demonstrations against law enforcement in some of our major US cities.
The crowd in Pilate’s court increased by the minute. That’s the way the mob spirit works. Matthew’s record informs us that Pilate was the one who brought Barabbas to the attention of the crowd. In doing so, he unwittingly lowered Jesus to the same class as this murderer. Surely, he could convince the crowd to choose Jesus over such a vicious criminal.
As we’ll see, Pilate was convinced that Jesus was innocent. According to John’s record of these events, Pilate takes custody of Jesus from the Temple guard and brings him into the praetorium, also known as the judgment hall. Since the accusation that Christ was a king was the basis of the other two accusations, it is the only one that Pilate addressed. We will address Pilate’s cowardice as the final reaction to Jesus as the King of the Jews later.
As Pilate interrogates Jesus, the crowd becomes impatient. In verse 6, the verbs are in the imperfect tense, showing that the release of a prisoner at Passover was an annual custom.
Matthew and Mark tell us that the chief priests had their representatives scattered through the crowd, inciting the release of Barabbas and the death of Jesus. The word for incitement or stirring up, as it is used in other places, is “earthquake.”
Religious zealots are among the most passionate activists. Look at the ridiculous things done by earth-worshippers, climate-change fanatics, social justice warriors, and anti-natalists! The mob spirit defies logic and rationality. It feeds on anger and other raw emotions.
This crowd before Pilate had been whipped into a frenzy of religious fervor, and there was NOTHING that was going to satisfy them other than the death of Jesus!
Barabbas was a notable inmate in Pilate’s prison because he was a true agitator, stirring up sedition against Rome. He was guilty of the very charge Jesus had been accused of. And in the process of stirring up the sedition, he had committed murder. Pilate should’ve known his audience better than he did. Many in this crowd saw Barabbas as a patriot; someone fighting to free them from the oppressive tyranny of Rome. In the popular way of thinking, those actions would’ve been more in line with the Messianic views of the crowd than the teachings and actions of Jesus.
Pilate’s attempts to exonerate Jesus and set Him free are to no avail. The frenzied mob becomes louder, more implacable, and more dangerous by the minute. In Luke’s record, they accuse Jesus of stirring up sedition in Judea, Galilee, and Jerusalem. Pilate was quite aware that many of the seditious movements against Rome began in Galilee.
Matthew is the only Gospel writer to record Pilate’s final attempt at absolving himself of Jesus’ death. When he saw he had lost the crowd, he called for water and washed his hands before the multitude. We have no record of this ever being a pagan rite; however, it is observed in the Hebrew Scriptures in places such as Deuteronomy 21:6 and Psalm 26:6, among others. He said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: you see to it.” This recalls these words, “just saying so doesn’t make it so.” Pilate could not erase his guilt.
However, the crowd’s response is horrifying. “His blood be on us and on our children.” That cry has haunted the Jewish people for the past 20 centuries. We know that the blame for the crucifixion of Jesus lies on all of us because of our sin. Yet there were the religious authorities of that day asking for that bloodguilt to be assigned to them and their offspring. Their thirst for blood caused them to lose touch with rationality.
The cacophony of this crowd leads us to the final reaction to The King of the Jews.
The Final REACTION is,
Pilate’s Cowardice
Pilate begins his examination of Jesus by asking the pivotal question, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus’ answer is brief: “It is as you say.” Then, as the religious leaders hurled their false accusations against Him, Jesus remained silent. To Pilate, this self-restraint was incomprehensible. He has never seen a prisoner like this. He considers a remarkable man, not a political pretender.
“Pilate kept on asking Him, saying, Are you not answering even one thing? Behold how many things they accuse you of. But Jesus still answered not even one thing, so that Pilate was amazed.” Pilate was sure of Jesus’ innocence and saw through the envy of the religious leaders. But he hoped that Jesus would answer these charges to relieve him of the burden.
Luke records five instances where Pilate declares Jesus’ innocence. He brings Jesus out of the judgment hall and states his conclusion to the crowd. His conclusion is the opposite of the Sanhedrin. But he fails to follow through on his decision. Legally, he should have released Jesus and dispersed the crowd, by force if necessary. His failure to do so eventually led to his capitulation to the Jewish leaders.
Pilate had missed his chance to resolve this case justly. Now, he faces a dilemma. He had hoped Herod would rule on Jesus’ case; that way, Pilate could escape responsibility for making the decision. But Herod wasn’t called a “fox” for nothing. He was too cunning to accept the responsibility to judge Jesus as guilty or innocent.
In response to Pilate’s question about what he should do with Jesus, the cries of the crowd grow louder and more strident. “Crucify Him at once!” Luke states this cry was made repeatedly. Pilate responds with another question, “Why, what evil has He done?” This question invites an explanation. There is wrongdoing implied in your demand for punishment. What are your reasons? But a mob has no reasons to give beyond its own will, and the only answer is a louder and wilder clamor. Their demand was “Crucify Him at once!”
We gather from the text that the crowd is increasing. This is logical because many were expecting Pilate to follow the custom of releasing a prisoner on the feast day. Yet when they came to the judgment seat, there was the Nazarene on trial. Pilate may have falsely assumed that many in the crowd would be sympathetic to Jesus. He was about to get a rude awakening!
In Luke 23:14-16, Pilate rehearses the charges in judicial language. He condenses the three charges into one major one: “perverting the nation.” He reminds them that no evidence has been produced to support the charge, either to him or to Herod. Therefore, the prisoner is in no way worthy of death. Nothing wrong with those statements, but Pilate shows his weakness by making a proposition to the crowd. “I will scourge Him and release Him.”
Judges don’t make propositions to be accepted; they proclaim innocence or guilt. By Pilate’s own words, Jesus is innocent; therefore, to scourge Him would be illegal. We don’t know precisely what Pilate was thinking, but he feared the Jewish leaders and the Roman government that had given him his position as governor.
By scourging Jesus, he may have hoped to arouse some sympathy for the prisoner among the crowd. After all, scourging was a brutal whipping that was life-threatening. So, Pilate added cruelty to his cowardice.
What can we learn from the reactions of these people to Jesus, the King of the Jews? First, we must avoid misrepresentations of the truth that are designed to damage another person’s reputation. Twisting someone’s words to achieve our desired goals is something the Scriptures repeatedly warn us against. A false witness who speaks lies is one of the seven “abominations” listed in Proverbs 6:19. Unfortunately, this is all too common among those who profess to know and follow Jesus.
Next, beware of the cacophony of the crowd. The mob spirit is not relegated to the time of Pilate. It is still very much in evidence today. Those who participate in such things are often completely oblivious to the consequences of their choices, and when confronted, have no response other than to shout louder, just like they did for Jesus’ crucifixion. Witness the recent calls on college campuses to “globalize the intifada” or chant slogans that call for the extermination of the Jewish homeland.
Pilate’s cowardice? Ultimately, we should not compromise our conscience, even if we believe it will benefit us. When Pilate declared Jesus to be innocent, he should have ended the whole affair and released Him. Yes, I know that God predetermined this act, but the reaction of each person or group in this drama was responsible for their own choices. Pilate compromised his conscience because he hoped to appease the leaders and save Jesus’ life. However, that compromise ultimately led to his failure on both counts and a lasting stain on his reputation.
Each of these participants failed in their reactions to Jesus as the King of the Jews. I close with a recording of the late S. M. Lockridge, “He’s My King.”
[1] Lenski, R. C. H. (1961). The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel (pp. 1103–1104). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House.
