John 18:33-40

John 18:33-40

Therefore Pilate again entered into the governor’s palace and called Jesus and said to Him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”  And Jesus answered, “Do you yourself say that or did others say that regarding me?”  Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I?  Your nation and chief priests handed you over to me.  What did you do?”  Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not out of this world.  If my kingdom was out of this world, my assistants were fighting in order that I should not be handed over to the Jews.  But now my kingdom is not from here.”  Therefore Pilate said to Him, “Therefore You are a king.”  Jesus replied, “You say that I am a king.  I have been born into this and into this I have come into the world: in order that I should witness to the truth.  All the ones who are out of me hear my voice.”  Pilate says to Him, “What is truth?”  And after saying this he again went out to the Jews and says to them, “I find no basis for condemnation in Him.  But your custom is in order that I should set one person free for you all in the Passover.  Therefore do you all wish that I should set free to you all the King of the Jews?”  Therefore they cried out again while saying, “Not this one but Barabbas!”  And Barabbas was an insurrectionist.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

In John’s account, Pilate really sounds like a person caught off-guard by the suddenness of Jesus’ arrest and the immediacy to his execution.  His question, “What did you do?” reads much like an astounded parent who hears that his kid got suspended from school for a week without ever hearing that there were any problems in the first place!  In this Gospel, John is intentionally painting Pilate as a person who is caught between choosing the right thing – and risking rebellion – or choosing the wrong thing – and while appeasing the Jewish leaders having to deal with his own conscience after the effect.  We are supposed to feel for Pilate in the Gospel of John, because we often find ourselves in the same place.  We find ourselves going through life minding our own business and suddenly Jesus, our faith, or our lifestyle are under attack.  Then we have a choice to make – sometimes a very difficult one at that.  We are to pity Pilate so that we can make our own will more resolute.  We are to pity Pilate so that we commit to not making the same mistake.

Have you ever been caught off-guard and had to make a tough decision that would put you at odds with others?  How did that go for you?  Why are decisions about faith and the people around us often difficult?

Second Thought:

There are two points that Jesus makes in His first speech about His kingdom not being from this world. 

• The first is the obvious point.  His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom and not a worldly kingdom.  If Jesus had come to set up a worldly kingdom, God the Father and His angels could have easily made that happen.  They didn’t.
• The second point is rather subtle, but important.  Remember the Garden of Gethsemane story?  What did Peter do in the garden?  He cut off the ear of Malchus, didn’t he?  Why does Peter do this?  Peter acts that way because he still hadn’t yet gotten what God was up to in Jesus.  Peter does fight for Jesus, but He picks the wrong fight.  Jesus is confessing to Pilate – and more importantly, to us! – that occasionally His own followers pick the wrong fight.  Rather than fight for the spiritual kingdom, we sometimes fight instead for a worldly religious one.  It happened to Peter, it happens to the best of us.

Have you ever fought for a religious kingdom instead of a spiritual kingdom?  What is the difference between those two things?  How do you know the spiritual from the religious?

Third Thought:

Jesus has struck a chord with Pilate.  We can tell that Pilate has been reached because Pilate asks the question, “What is truth?”  There have been some who say that Pilate asks this question in jest or in mocking of Jesus, but that conclusion just doesn’t make sense here.  If Pilate was mocking Jesus, why would he go out to the Jewish leaders and say that he finds no guilt in Jesus?  If Pilate was mocking Jesus and was looking forward to crucifying Him, there is no point for him to declare Jesus’ innocence.  The fact that Pilate feels compelled to declare Jesus as innocent demonstrates that Jesus’ words have gotten to Pilate and caused him to think about his life.

What does it say about Pilate’s character for him to declare Jesus’ innocence to a crowd that brought Him in seeking His crucifixion?

Passage for Tomorrow: John 19:1-7