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19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. 3 They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.” 7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.”

• Here Pilate's cruel streak comes out. Odd as this sounds, the scourging (v.1ff) appears to be a fresh strategy to set Jesus free (see v.12).
• Note: Jesus' crown (vv.2-3) may well have been made from the thorns of the date palm. These were up to 12 inches long. The radiate crown would have made Jesus look like a sun-god. This feature is common to Greco-Roman coinage.
• The Romans had three degrees of corporal punishment:
  • Fustigatio (beating) -- the lightest punishment.
  • Flagellatio (flogging) -- more severe.
  • Verberatio (scourging) -- the most severe, often leading to death. This was the punishment Christ endured.
• The crown of thorns is painfully placed on his head, and a purple robe draped over him -- a mockery of his kingship (v.2).
• Further, he is slapped in the face.
• Jesus suffers grievous bodily injury. For a medical account of what Jesus was going through, click here. (Note: this account is easy to read, and eliminates embellishments like the "bloody sweat."
• Again Pilate pronounces Jesus innocent (v.4), uttering the famous words, "Behold the man!"
• This translates to Ecce homo, in the once popular Latin Vulgate translation.
  • Moreover, "Behold the man" indicated Jesus' humanity. 
  • As Beasley-Murray and others have commented, the word has truly become flesh -- torn, bleeding, beaten -- with worse to come.
• Knowing that it is illegal for the Jews to crucify Christ, Pilate seems to rub it in (v.6): "Take him yourselves and crucify him!"
• Note: With the crown on his head and the words the governor uttered, is the situation allusive of Zechariah 6:1-12?

8 Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. 9 He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Pilate therefore said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given 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 release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.”

• The words "Son of God" (v.7) seem to resonate with Pilate, and frighten him (v.8).
• Pilate takes Jesus back into the Praetorium (probably the Fortress Antonia). Pilate resumes his interrogation of Jesus, who does not reply.
• Pilate reminds Jesus who is in charge (v.10-11), and yet Jesus counters that there is a higher authority.
• Who is the one guilty of "greater sin"? Caiaphas, the high priest, seems the most likely candidate.
• From here on, Pilate even more earnestly desires to free Jesus (v.12).

13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but the emperor.” 16 Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

• The Jews push back.
  • Since Jesus pretends to be the King of Israel, he is a political threat to Rome.
  • If Pilate frees Jesus, he is not a "friend of Caesar."
    • This is a technical term. To be a "friend of Caesar" -- an accolade Pilate may already have received -- is an honor.
    • The emperor, Tiberius (14-37 AD) had become suspicious. One did not want to lose his trust.
    • To lose the status of "Friend of Caesar" could be not only shameful, but dangerous. The Jews are threatening the governor.
  • Here is supreme irony! The highest Roman official in the land is accused of lack of loyalty to Rome by a people who detest Rome, and can't wait to be free of its control (v.12).
• Pilate sits on his judgment seat (v.13) at Gabbatha, or Lithostrotos. For a picture, click here.Pilate's attitude is not quite the same as in verses 4-6. There is no hint of ridicule. The Jews would have been awaiting the pronouncement of the sentence against Jesus. Instead...
• Pilate, pronounces, "Behold, your king!" He knows this will gall the priests.
• And yet it seems Jesus is the one sitting in the judgment seat, while Pilate is in the hot seat!
• It is the sixth hour -- very early in the morning.
  • In a few hours the slaughter of the Passover lambs will begin.
  • The Jews will stop working.
  • All leaven (yeast) will be taken out of the houses and burned.
  • Jesus is the Lamb of God (John 1:29,36). For the Passover background, read Exodus 12.
• The response, "We have no king but Caesar" (v.15) is an implicit abandonment of the messianic hope.
  • Once again, the irony is biting.
  • "[The threat] broke down Pilate's resistance. His fear of the sinister and suspicious emperor was even greater than his awe of the mysterious personality of the Accused; his own safety appeared to him more important than a passing triumph over the accusers who were unsympathetic to him" (Blinzler, Der Prozess Jesus, 338).
• And so Pilate finally turns Jesus over to be crucified (v.16).
• From verse 16 onward, many elements of the synoptic tradition are absent: the mocking; the darkness; the cry of dereliction (Mark 15:34); the tearing of the temple curtain; the opening of the graves (Matthew 27:52); and the centurion's confession.
• At the same time, John includes details not in Matthew, Mark, or Luke: the inscription; the quotations in 19:24,28-29,36-37; the address to his mother; and the piercing of Jesus' side.

So they took Jesus; 17 and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 

• Jesus carries his own cross and is crucified at Golgotha, the Place of the Skull (v.17).
  • Plutarch records, "Each criminal as part of his punishment carries his cross on his back" (The Divine Vengeance, 554 A-B).
  • There is also a pertinent Jewish saying: "As one bears the cross on one's shoulders," Isaac carried the wood (Gen. Rab. 56.4, on Genesis 22:6). The symbolism of the sacrifice of Isaac is in the background.
• "There they crucified him" (v.18).
  • The 2nd century Gnostic Basilides said Simon died on cross instead of Jesus (Nag Hammadi documents).
  • This idea (the substitute) seems to have influenced Muhammad.
• The inscription above states his crime, though the wording is remarkable (v.19). What brevity! No macabre or sombre obsession with the gory details of the passion. The paucity of detail is striking.
• He is crucified between two criminals. See Isaiah 53:12.

20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” 

• The Jewish leaders ask Pilate to change the placard so that it read "... I am Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews."
• Pilate refuses. "What I have written, I have written," responds Pilate (v.22).
  • The inscription could have easily been altered (v.21) by adding a single word: eimí  (Greek), sum (Latin), or 'aní (Hebrew).
  • This is his last act of revenge on the chief priests.
  • The inscription in Latin would have read Iesous Nazarenos Rex Iudaeorum, which in Anglican/ Catholic churches is often abbreviated to INRI.
• And yet this is supreme irony: the two men most responsible for the death of Jesus publicly proclaim his Messiahship!
  • Caiaphas unwittingly prophesied that Jesus was the means of redemption for Israel and the nation (11:49-50).
  • Pilate proclaimed that Jesus was the King of Israel.

Thought questions:

• Have I ever sacrificed principle for expedience? Is there a little of Pilate in me?
• Was there another way? Why do I think Jesus had to die -- as opposed to God simply forgiving every sincere person?
• The Christian God became flesh. How is this different from the capricious gods of Hinduism, the aloof Allah of the Muslims, or the serenely detached Buddha?
• Am I still moved by the Crucifixion?
• Reading over Psalm 22 and Psalm 69, can I find the verses that would have been especially meaningful to the early disciples?