Jesus and Pilate

Encounters with Jesus  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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The Setup

It’s the early hours of the morning. The last supper, the first communion, was the night before. Jesus was betrayed, as He said He would be. Denied, as He said He would be.
He has submitted His will completely to the will of the Father.
He hasn’t slept.
Arrested by Roman soldiers, He has had a trial before the religious leaders, and now has come to the palace - the seat of Roman government in Jerusalem.

The movement

As we read this story together, you’ll see how much movement there is. This isn’t a static conversation but the scene is constantly changing. I want you to pay close attention to what this tragic story shows us about Jesus as He shines in contrast to PIlate - see how
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
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Outside the palace - no clear charge

Outside

28 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”

30 “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”

31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”

“But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. 32 This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.

The people were in the middle of the passover feast. That explains why Pilate was in town. Jerusalem wasn’t where he normally lived, but he travelled in, accompanied by a lot of soldiers, in case anything kicked off during the festival.
It’s a bit like how the police staff up for Notting Hill Carnival, but more extreme when you factor in colonial rule and a massive religious divide.
So Pilate asks for the charges. He’s already sent along a company of soldiers for the arrest, so this isn’t the first he’s heard of it. Most commentators agree that this is Pilate stamping his authority on the scene. He’s not just going to rubber-stamp their court, he’s going to do his own retrial. You can sense the frustration in the response which isn't really a response. “If he weren’t a criminal we wouldn’t have handed him over to you!”
Pilate knows they need him - judge him yourself by your own law! And John tells us something a bit strange here - he says that this exchange, this little power-play, took place to fulfil what Jesus Himself had said about His death. So what had He said?

31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

34 The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”

Inside

Inside the palace - What kind of kingdom? What is truth?

33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate.

Look at the contrast here between their kingdoms. Jesus shows Pilate up - is that your own idea? Pilate tries to distance himself, to put himself above this local rabble. “Your own people handed you over to me”.
Despite Pilate holding all the cards, Jesus is in command of this conversation. Now it’s time to answer Pilate’s question about his kingship. He says His kingdom is not of this world, but from another place. Pilate tries to keep things on a plane that he can understand: “so you are a king then?” And that’s when Jesus speaks about His purpose - the reason He was born and came into the world - to testify to the truth. And He gives Pilate an opportunity - “everyone on the side of truth listens to me”. So Pilate, are you on the side of truth?
Pilate dismisses this. “What is truth?”
Think for a minute about how differently we could say that. He could have asked with genuine wonder. He could have asked with desperation. But what he does next shows that he asks it dismissively, rhetorically.
Outside

Outside the palace - “release Barabbas!”

With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”

40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.

Pilate thinks he has found a way to get this episode done with, and get this awkward otherworldly king off his premises. He’s no threat to Rome - He’s made it clear He’s not planning an uprising. But they choose another instead.
Inside

Inside the palace - beaten and mocked

19 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.

Up until now an actor playing Pilate could have played him as cold, distant, bored even. But now we see the brutality of power. Pilate orders Jesus to be beaten, and turns Him over to soldiers.
I’d like to take you back to a much more pleasant time - a time when this Jesus stood on the side of a mountain and preached to a massive crowd who were desperate to be like Him, desperate to follow Him. He said:

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

And He also said:

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ w 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

And in this passage we see those things done to Him. He was falsely accused, slapped in the face. Later on He will be forced by soldiers to walk a dreadful walk, and they will take his clothes. Today we’re focusing on Pilate in His encounter with Jesus, but I wanted to remind us of how even in this unjust place, Jesus is living out His own teaching. He calls us to nothing that He hasn’t already done.
Luke tells us that Pilate had decided to punish Jesus and then release Him. So this explains something of this brutality, and yet it leaves us with a picture of this man who has decided that Jesus is innocent, yet puts him up for a hazeing by his soldiers.
Outside

Outside the palace - no basis for a charge

4 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.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

6 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.”

7 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.”

8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid,

Why was Pilate afraid?
Was it the determination of the people to kill Jesus?
Was he worried that things were getting out of hand? Remember his whole purpose for being in Jerusalem was to keep things quiet for the feast-time.
Or was it the mention of Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God? That was something a bit beyond some local lad claiming to be king of his small nation. That was something reserved for the Emperor, or reserved for… the gods.
Inside

Inside the palace - whose authority?

9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

11 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.”

12 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.”

We’ll come back to this question of power later on. This passage raises all kinds of questions about Who is really in charge.Jesus tells Pilate that his power is not from Rome, but has been given him from above. For us that’s really encouraging, and really frightening.
The people who want to see Jesus killed play a smart move here - they link Jesus’s kingship to a challenge on Caesar. They know that Pilate can’t be seen to be weak in this area.
Outside
And now, for the final time, we leave the palace

Outside the palace - the judge’s seat

13 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). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.

“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

15 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.

16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

From early morning it has become noon.
The chief priests cry out that they have no king but Caesar.
And finally, Pilate hands Jesus over to be crucified.

Two leaders

I want to focus on the two men in this encounter.
Pilate was a weak leader. He was led by those he was supposed to rule. Ultimately he lived in fear of the ruler who had sent him.
Jesus was strong. Strong enough to be silent in the face of suffering Strong enough to tell the wind and waves to be still. Jesus wasn’t led by those around Him, but He did choose to lower Himself, washing their feet to their shock. Jesus didn’t see the Father as a distant power to be feared, but someone close, someone to be loved and trusted.
​
Pilate was a brutal leader. He casually sentenced Jesus to be whipped. He allowed the soldiers to torture this prisoner, and then he sentenced Him to die in humiliation and extreme pain.
Jesus was gentle. He was someone children were drawn to. He knew when to be quiet. He never used His power to torment the weak. He lifts up the weak. He gives strength to the weary. He came to set prisoners free and bind up broken hearts.
​
Pilate was an insecure leader. He knew that his power could be taken away from him easily. He goes back and forth, inside and outside the palace, unable to make a definitive decision because he’s fundamentally insecure.
Jesus knew Who He was. To return to the foot-washing:

3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Jesus knew His authority. We saw it in His answers to Pilate. He was confident in His Kingship. He was confident in the real source of power and authority, even when He knew He was about to be crushed by the might of the Roman empire.
​
Pilate was a people-pleasing leader. This is linked to his insecurity. Back and forth he goes - wanting to give the people what they want, trying to second-guess his way out of the situation.
Jesus pleased the Father, but He loved people. Loving people doesn’t always mean pleasing them. Jesus spoke the truth to PIlate - offering him the chance to respond to truth by listening to him. Jesus loved, but His love was never people-pleasing.
​
So in this encounter of Jesus with a so-called powerful man, we see the weakness of human power. In the last words He speaks before the cross, we see Jesus’s character so powerfully contrasted with this Pilate.
Today we’ve covered a fairly long story, and in what we’ve just covered there a lot for us to learn, as people who want to follow Jesus. There’s an invitation, for those who love the truth to listen to what He says.
I want to close by looking at what this story has to teach us about power and the sovereignty of God. So a fairly chilled topic!

Sovereignty

My friend’s tattoo says “what’s for you won’t go by you”. The song says “Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be”. My muslim friends say “Insha’allah” - if God wills.
My friend’s tattoo - I love my friend but I hate her tattoo because it’s completely meaningless. It also lacks agency. Who decides what’s for you? Does that same entity make sure it doesn’t pass you by? If there was an entity with that level of power, wouldn’t you maybe want to know what they’re like?
Insh’allah - if God wills. There’s a lot of wisdom in that. James says that we should bear that in mind when we tell other people our plans. (James 4:13-15)

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

But Jesus teaches us that the will of God is not just some unknowable thing that will work itself out inevitably. Jesus taught us to pray:
“your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
​
And then again, just to show you how much He lived out His own teaching, He prayed this prayer Himself in the garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:39)

39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus lived and prayed as though God’s will wasn’t something that was going to grind on relentlessly, but as though it was something to actively pray for, to seek, and to submit to. Not my will but Yours. Not my will but Yours.
​
In the story leading up to Jesus’s death we meet so many people who make evil decisions. Judas sells his friend for thirty pieces of silver. Peter denies his Lord out of fear. The chief priests plot to kill the one sent to save them. Pilate commits an innocent man to be tortured to death in public. But woven through the gospel accounts of all these encounters we see this thread of God’s sovereignty. God is not endorsing the evil, but it is used to fulfil prophecy - to confirm that Jesus is the One we’ve been waiting for.
Jesus said this about Judas in Matthew 26:

24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

And remember back in our own story today, that Jesus was handed over to Pilate so that His death would fulfil what He had predicted Himself?
​
And Jesus says to Pilate in John 19

11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.

This is terrifying and freeing. Why is it terrifying? Well it’s terrifying if, like me, you like to look out at the world and put people into categories of good and bad, right and wrong, just and unjust. If you look at world leaders and think “just you wait”. It’s a heartsink moment to accept that God may have allowed, no, I’m being too soft here - that God may actually give authority to evil rulers for a time. But that’s the political picture painted by our Bible. We see it in the Old Testament where foreign powers are used to bring about natioanl repentance in Israel. We see it in the New Testament where we’re told in Romans that rulers have been appointed by God.
Evil humans - divine outcome.
And that’s the mercy of it. The mercy in this story of Pilate is that even though what he does is evil, and I believe it is, still the redemptive story of God prevails. The power that Pilate has been given is for a time. Pilate is gone. The Roman Empire is gone. But the kingdom of Jesus advances.
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I’m not going to pretend that in those five minutes I’ve sorted out our questions about God’s sovereignty. I don’t want today to be about the intellectual questions. What I want to leave you with is a picture of Jesus, confident in His own authority from the Father, aware of the temporary power given to the kingdoms of this world, and in full submission to the Father’s will for our sake. Pilate tries to twist and hold on to his fragile power, and Jesus lays His down for love. Will you pray with me, not my will but yours be done?
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