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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, 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.” ~ John 19:4-11
Pontius Pilate was anxious to release the Lord Jesus. Twice in today's text, he declares that he has found no crime in Him. In fact, seven times during this trial, Pilate pronounces Him guiltless. The problem for Pilate was the unrelenting lust of the crowd to crucify the Lord Jesus.
In our text, Pilate presents the Lord Jesus before the gathered crowd as guiltless. He hoped the previous flogging would calm down the blood thirsty crowd. We read in v.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.” Pilate's “not guilty” verdict is, yet again, repeated.
We read in v.5: “When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!’” The crowd could clearly see that the Lord Jesus is helpless, powerless, and beaten. Pilate does not understand that the Lord Jesus is far more than just a mere man. He thinks by mocking Him and showing Him as a bloody and broken well wisher, the crowd will be satisfied.
After another crazy proclamation from the crowd to crucify the Lord Jesus, according to v.6,
Pilate tells the religious leaders, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him." These supposed leaders had the word of God. They had studied it for years on end. And yet, they were blind to the truth that stood before them. The most hardened are those who should have been the most prepared. It is the nature of the word of God to soften the receptive heart. On the other hand, the heart that rejects the word of God is hardened by it the most.
Given all of this, the religious leaders play in to the fulfillment of scripture. Some scholars believe there are more than 300 prophecies about Messiah in the Old Testament. These prophecies are specific enough that the mathematical probability of the Lord Jesus fulfilling even a handful of them, let alone all of them, is staggeringly improbable, if not impossible.
At the end of v.6, Pilate, for the fifth time says, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” And before he’s done he’ll say it a sixth time. But Pilate is a desperate coward and the Jews know it. So they press the issue with Pilate. They are like a group of rabid dogs, unrelenting.
At this point, according to v.7, the Jewish religious leaders appeal to the Law of Moses. In Leviticus 24:16, we read, “The one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall utterly be put to death.” Leviticus goes on to say, “He is to be stoned.”
The religious leaders have finally come up with a crime, and the crime is blasphemy. This is the seventh indictment that they tried. The first six basic indictments had no evidence, so they come to Number Seven. Need I mention the number seven is the number for perfection and fullness in the scriptures? They end up with an indictment that is actually true; He is the Son of God. They kill Him for the truth.
In v.8, we read, "When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid." Fear is the worst motivator ever. This underscores the fact that "fear not" is the most repeated command in the Bible. God wants us to know the kind of hope that has the power to produce joy in us even in painful places. On this day, Pilate knew nothing of the teachings of the word of God. Yet, he factors greatly in its fulfillment by sending the Lord Jesus to be crucified.
There is nothing more magnificent in the Bible than this answer of Jesus to Pilate's angry attempt to impress Him with his power. In quiet dignity our Lord simply replies in v.11, "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above." He means, of course, that God is the source of all authority. Anybody who exercises any kind of power whatever does so by the permission of God Himself.
We do well to remember that the God of all universes is in control of all of life. This aids us in our wrestlings with our struggle with injustice, pain, heartache, cancer, war and death. The Lord Jesus stood before Pilate, facing the injustice of his phony trial, the hatred of the religious leaders and the vacillating weakness of this governor, and say to him in v.11, "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."
That statement, "Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin," of course, refers to the priests. It was the religious leaders who had handed the Lord Jesus over to the Roman governor. The Lord Jesus infers that Pilate is a relatively ignorant man who is unaware of how God operates. But the priests are different. They had Moses and the Law. They had the whole Old Testament. They should have understood the demands of God for justice, love, concern and mercy toward others. The Lord Jesus points out that delivering an innocent man over to this pagan governor to be crucified is indeed the greater sin.
Finally, God planned the redemption of mankind even before time began. The death of the Lord Jesus and His resurrection were the most important events in history. It's no surprise that God would give us signs of His plans throughout Israel's history. The story of the Lord Jesus reveals God's incredible love for us. And throughout the Old Testament, we discover how incredibly thorough his plan for rescuing us was.
