John: The Rejected King
Notes
Transcript
Exegetical Point: Jesus is innocent, yet the Jews call for his death, and the Roman governor grants their desire after trying to set Jesus free.
Homiletic Point: Jesus is our rejected, afflicted and innocent King, who endured this all for the Father to win us salvation.
Intro
Intro
All of us have found ourselves, I’m sure, in situations where we have the power and ability to change the situation, but we hold back - because we know it is not right to interfere.
This could be in childish squabbles, where you hold back because you know it is better for the kids to practice hashing it out. It’s better in the long run, loving even, to let them learn how to get along.
Men are on average bigger and stronger, than women and children, they have a physical advantages over vulnerable people that they could use to the detriment of others. They have power that is checked and restrained - for the sake of loving others.
In workplaces our bosses/managers have great power over us, including whether or not we still have a job for tomorrow. They often have a whole suite of authoritative power at their disposal, yet it is in the delicate application of these powers that we find the best bosses.
We all, I hope, balk at the idea of people using their powers and abilities wrongly, such as when someone rides roughshod over people when they can get away with it, or bends the system to their advantage or manipulates those around them to get their own way.
When we are on the receiving end of this behavior, we could rightly call out the injustice and be righteously angry with how we have been treated. Yet when we restrain ourselves, turn the other cheek, and suffer ridicule and punishment unjustly we are not without honor. In those situations, we would call the one who restrains themselves, and does not lash out, the “ bigger man” - or woman as the situation requires. You’ve here that language right?
We understand that the one who has the power and ability to respond to the injustice shown to them, and yet is reserved, and even kind to the aggressor, is worthy of great respect. There is a special power in being able to withstand the tide of evil and respond with love. Yes there is a place for correcting injustice, but it is not always our job, or appropriate to take matters into our own hand and respond in kind. Sometimes it’s better to be the Bigger man or woman, sometimes “'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”
Today, as we continue to look into the criminal trial of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, we see Jesus as a loving and patient king - the “bigger man”. Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth - he is God in flesh, and yet he subjects himself to the sham-trial, the shame, the torture, humilliation and rejection - all without letting his overwhelming majesty, power and authority destroy all those who committed these outrageous and heinous acts to the Son of God!
The Apostle John wrote this record about Jesus so that “that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Jn 20:31.
This record of events is not just for historical interest, it is written here so that you may really, truly believe, trust in, put your faith in this one they call Jesus.
Here we see the awesome restraint of the Son of God, and in that restraint - perfect submission to the will of the Father. What he could do is not the focus here, instead it is what he did do, and he did it all for you - to gain salvation for people, like the people who treated him so poorly in this passage.
I’m going to highlight 4 ways that Jesus is treated
Flogged King
Flogged King
Quick recap of the trial so far: Arrest - priest house 1, Priest house 2, Pilate.
Pilate questioned Jesus about his “kingship”, worried about uprisings and challenges to Rome. Jesus allayed his fears, and challenged him, but Pilate dismisses Jesus.
Pilate tried to set Jesus free - he found no guilt. Barabbas.
Now we pick up the story again - Pilate still doesn’t think Jesus needs to die, so he tries to satisfy the blood-lust of the Jews with some corporal punishment:
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
Flogged - probably a “level 1” flogging. Jesus seems to get 2 floggings at Pilates behest when we compare the records. This one was intended to satisfy Jews while still maintaining Jesus innocence.
Mocking Jesus - crown, robes, title
Great irony - He was the king! Our king was coronated in shame and pain - what a stark comparison to the recent coronation of the King of Australia! Ceremony, luxury, beauty, enthroned on a golden chair with a dazzling crown. Jesus was in the dirt, slapped by soldiers, flogged and crowned with thorns.
But, this was a ploy to help Jesus in Pilates eyes - he thought this might be enough of a compromise for the Jewish leaders:
Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
Behold the Man! - Look at him, he’s just a man. No King here - how wrong they were!
The irony - he was “THE” Man - the second Adam - come to do what the first man could not” He was the God-man.
See how for a second time the innocence of Jesus is proclaimed - “I find no charge”
Which leads us to...
Innocent King
Innocent King
Pilate is adamant that Jesus is innocent, But it’s not enough for the Jews
As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
We can be tempted to be contemptuous toward the Jewish leaders - but we would be there just the same, were the HS not at work in us.
In some sense Pilate wants to have nothing to do with it… but he has to judge these cases.
Innocence announced for a third time!
Leaders see that their attempt to get Jesus killed on sedition charges might be flagging, so they try to back it up with Law -
Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
Before you balk at this, remember that it is God’s good law for His OT people. We have been deceived by the world to think such things as blaspheming God is no big deal - especially not one deserving of death! But it is!
Aside: remember that even in our own day there are still blasphemy laws, its just blasphemy against the new-paganism - see what happened to Israel Fullou, if you memory is long enough. There is plenty of language that can get you ostracized or even imprisoned in the present day.
Societies always have their blasphemies, but not all are blasphemy against the true God. Jesus is uttering blasphemy in the eyes of the Jews - but it’s not blasphemy - because it is true!
If it were not true, he would be worthy of death for the things he said.
He was innocent, and interestingly treated as innocent (at least in part) by the Roman governor.
Quiet King
Quiet King
When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer.
Greek & Roman religion had plenty of demigods and humans descended from divine parentage. Pilate starts to grow concerned that he may have a Hercules or a Achilles in front of him - and he doesn’t want to get on the bad side of Jesus divine parent.
Pilate tries to understand Jesus provenance, questioning him.
Jesus won’t respond, fulfilling the prophecy...
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
If you read the servant songs in Isaiah, you will see the the life of Jesus fulfills that whole section. It looked forward to the coming Messiah.
Jesus did not defend His cause, and not because defending oneself is bad - but he was fulfilling prophecy, walking the path to the cross, it probably wouldn’t have changed the minds of those who had set themselves against God.
Jesus silence aggravates Pilate, who responds threateningly to Jesus:
“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
Pilate is trying to use his authority to force Jesus to bend to his will. He is presiding over this case, and he has to make a call on whether he lives or dies!
Pilate thinks this means Jesus should be extra respectful and obedient to himself to get on his good side and convince Pilate of his innocence. But the irony is that Jesus, the one standing before the roman governor, has much more authority than him! Pilate should be submitting to Jesus, not the other way round!
Jesus points out that even though Pilate is in this position, God put him there! Jesus is using a euphemism, “from above” which is an indirect way of talking about God. It is the “will of heaven” so to speak, that Pilate was governor and in office at that time, in that room, discharging his duties.
This does not make Pilate less culpable - God sovereignly ordains all things that come to pass, including who are the rulers of various nations, who are the local officials, who is your mum and dad. Yet no matter what position we are put in, we are called to live in accordance with God’s expressed will.
Although God puts us in these positions, and ordains what happens, we are nevertheless accountable for our actions. We have real volition that makes us really responsible for our actions.
So, even though God put him there Pilate was responsible for what he did in that position. However, although he was culpable, Pilate wasn’t the worst actor on this story. Others were guilty of sinning in this affair.
Jesus says their sin was greater. Spoiler alert, Pilate does hand Jesus over for crucifixion, he does sin by sending an innocent man to to die, and the Son of God at that! Yet, Jesus acknowledges that he is a link in the chain of events, and not the instigator.
I was thinking about an example of this - with you defense folk, imagine an officer who one day receive orders that are morally reprehensible, and this officer must give those orders to those under them. Lets say the officer passes them on. Now, the officer didn’t create the orders but did still give them. The officer is responsible for the action of giving them and thus guilty of sin, yet the officer’s guilt is somewhat less because they were not the creator of the orders. They were put into a corner and pressured to do something terrible.
There are greater and lesser sins. This does not mean that we should go around and categorise them all and work out the lesser or greater. Or that we should commit lesser sins but avoid greater sins. All sin is an affront to God, yet God is Just, and will hold to account to the degree that one has actually inned.
In this case, the Jews, perhaps specifically Caiaphas, has committed the greater sin by handing Jesus to Pilate and pressuring him to kill Jesus.
But Pilate really doesn’t want to kill the quiet king.
Rejected King
Rejected King
So Pilate kept trying to free Jesus, firstly because Jesus was innocent, but secondly because he was afraid Jesus might be divine and he didn’t want to incur the wrath of heaven.
But the Jewish leaders won’t have it - they keep up the pressure to force Pilate’s hand.
From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).
Pilate was a delegate from Rome. And if you know anything about the mechanisms of ancient roman politics you know there was lots of back-stabbing (sometimes quite literally back-stabbing). Anyone who rose through the ranks was on the lookout for betrayal or sedition. Then if you found some reason to suspect somone’s loyalty, you came down hard.
If it turned out that the Jews, who were not happy with roman occupation, sent a delegation off to Rome with a complaint about the governor not acting as a good representative of Rome, then Pilate would be in hot water! It would not be a good look, and even though he suspected that Jesus wasn’t a serious threat to roman rule in Judea. It would be hard to argue the merits of a pardon when the local populace was so set agianst it.
So it was essentially a choice - save my own skin, or save this man whom he did not know or love?
Pilate makes the choice we expect - to save his own bacon. So he comes out to the official seat of judgment in a public place. It doesn’t say he then made the judgement, but that is implied in the next verses. In his capacity as governor, Pilate will pronounce the sentence on behalf of Rome.
But Pilate is not happy about being forced into this situation, he mocks the Jews:
It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.
Pilate mocks the Jews - “here is your king.” a beaten, bloody figure, not handsome or regal.
They respond in disdain - take him away crucify him!
Pilate responds with more taunts, “Shall i crucify your king?” - more irony, Pilate says this mockingly, but it is the truth. He is their king, born of the line of David, anointed by God.
In a terrible moment, they reject Jesus outright!
They reject their true king, the messiah they had hoped for! And instead they substitute a poor copy, the claimed divine son of Rome. Caesar was a “mere” man, yet the man before them was the God-man - the irony!
The Jews should have know better.
How often do we reject Jesus for a poor substitute?
So What?
So What?
Your king is
demeaned and tortured for you
suffered injustice for you
went through with the Fathers plan for you
withheld his wrath for you
and was rejected for you!
He did this so that you could have life!
References:
Carson’s Pillar Commentary on John.