John 19:1-16a
Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3They came up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and struck him with their hands. 4Pilate went out again and said to them, "See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him." 5So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold the man!" 6When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him." 7The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God." 8When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 9He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. 10So Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?" 11Jesus answered him, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin."
12From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, "If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar." 13So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. 14Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" 15They cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." 16So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
Jesus Before Pilate - 2 (John 19:1-16a)
Pilate veers between vicious cruelty and apparent compassion, curiosity and fear. Fear finally triumphs.
The flogging and the sentence
Early in Acts we are told that Pilate had decided to let Jesus go (Acts 3:13); and it certainly appears that he did everything possible to release him. At the end of the last chapter we saw him trying to do this by using the custom of freeing a prisoner at Passover. But the crowd was adamant that they wanted Barabbas, so Pilate had Jesus flogged. He even permitted the soldiers’ crude horseplay, probably hoping the crowd would change their mind when they saw a Jew and Jewish things being so savagely mocked. At this point we’re told that ‘from then on Pilate sought to release him, ’ (verse 12). It was no use; the Jews had little or no concern for Pilate’s scruples and insisted on Jesus being crucified.
Think: What can we learn from Pilate about what is needed to be a good leader?







