6 When 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.” 7 The 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.” 8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 So 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?” 11 Jesus 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.”
12 From 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.”
There is a tremendous amount of irony in the exchange between Pilate and the chief priests in verses 6 and 7.
As we’ve seen, Pilate was trying to do whatever he could to release Jesus, so he brought this beaten man before them, hoping that they would have at least some sympathy and drop the whole affair, but instead they demanded that Jesus be crucified. Once more, Pilate tried to avoid responsibility, so he told them to crucify Jesus themselves.
Their reply to Pilate was, “We have a law, and according to that law He ought to die because He has made Himself the Son of God.” (John 19:7) The first part of the irony is that the Jews appealed to Roman law, a system they hated, to uphold their own law, and secondly, they demanded Jesus’ death for claiming to be the Son of God, something which Jesus had consistently proven to be true throughout His three years of public ministry.
John gives the reason for writing his Gospel in 20:30-31. “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” Notice John’s emphasis on the signs or miracles in verse 30.
Jesus said to the Jews who tried to stone Him for claiming to be God in chapter 10, “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:37-38)
In other words, Jesus was saying to them, “What more proof do you need?” By proving He was who He said He was, and using supernatural signs and wonders to validate His claims, the chief priests ignored the evidence which was staring them in the face, and insisted that Pilate do as they demanded.
It just didn’t occur to the Jewish authorities that it was not blasphemy for Jesus to claim to be the Son of God, when that was clearly just who He was.
Pilate, being a pagan gentile, had no understanding of the Jewish faith, so he would not have been familiar with what we know today as the Old Testament, nor would he have had any interest in Judaism. His job was to just keep the Jews in line and prevent any threats to Roman rule.
John wrote in verse 8, “When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.” Why would he have been afraid? Firstly, Pilate was already aware of Jesus’ reputation as a miracle-working preacher, but being a Roman, he was also highly superstitious.
In fact, in Pilate’s mind, the claim that Jesus was some sort of divine man or a god was more likely to be possible than it was to the Jews. The Romans had many pagan gods, and the belief that these gods could appear to human beings was not unusual.
So Pilate asked Jesus in verse 9, “Where are you from?” He wasn’t asking which town Jesus lived in. This was a question about Jesus’ alleged divine nature, and Pilate was afraid because if Jesus really was a supernatural being, Pilate did not want to be responsible for mistreating Him or even having Him executed. Being a superstitious man, Pilate feared judgment from the gods.
Jesus though, refused to answer, which infuriated Pilate. Several reasons have been given for Jesus’ silence. Some commentators agree that there really was nothing to say which would satisfy Pilate’s pagan beliefs. We must remember that Pilate had already declared that Jesus was innocent, yet he handed Jesus over to his soldiers to flog Him.
A lesson for us here is that if we continue to harden ourselves to the truth of who Jesus is and why He came into our world, there may well come a time when He will stop speaking to us as it were, and the opportunity for us to understand and receive the Gospel and the salvation it brings will be lost.
Paul wrote about this very thing in Romans 1:18-25. “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honour Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!”
That is a very dark place to be - a place where the human heart becomes so dark, that God gives us over to the lusts of our hearts, so that we cannot see the light of Christ and the hope of salvation He brings.
All four Gospels emphasise Jesus’ silence before Pilate. This is a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7, “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.”
This was a huge insult to Pilate, the most powerful man in the land. “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” (John 19:10)
We need to take careful note of Jesus’ reply to Pilate in verse 11, as it addresses an issue which is becoming increasingly relevant in our day. “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.”
What obligations do we have as Christians to accept and submit to the authorities God has placed over us? The Bible gives us clear answers on this.
Paul writes in Romans 13:1-7, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honour to whom honour is owed.”
In section 4 of chapter 23 of the Westminster Confession of Faith it says, “It is the duty of people to pray for magistrates, to honour their persons, to pay them tribute or other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority, for conscience’s sake.”
Jesus acknowledged that Pilate did have authority over Him as the civil ruler, but He also made it clear that the authority Pilate had was granted by God. Christians are to obey and respect the civil authority of the land. According to the Bible, this obligation applies not only when we agree with its policies but also when we disagree. For instance, we might not agree with the taxes we pay or the purposes for which those taxes are used. But when the question of paying taxes was put to Jesus, He answered by holding up a Roman coin, which had Caesar’s likeness stamped on it. “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” He said in Matthew 22:21.
Secular rulers receive their authority by God’s sovereign rule and are to be respected and obeyed as far as possible, and if we’re honest, this does challenge us. Not just for us in our context here and now, but there have been and there are unscrupulous rulers all over the world and throughout history. The reason for this is human sin.
This does not mean we should not speak out against unjust laws, but we are to do so respectfully and with dignity. Paul instructs us in Colossians 4:5-6, “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” The “outsiders” Paul refers to in verse 4 are non-Christians.
The reality is that the world is watching us. We serve a God of love, and we are to reflect that love in how we treat those with whom we do not agree.
It must be said though, that there are limits to worldly authority and our obligation to obey it. Jesus told Pilate that God is a higher authority than all human governing bodies, and we are to refuse to obey civil rulers when our obedience to God’s Word is at stake.
The challenges the disciples faced in the early days of the church are well documented.
In Acts 5 the apostles were locked in prison for preaching the Gospel but were miraculously freed by an angel. So what did they do? They went straight back to proclaiming Jesus Christ.
“Someone came and told them, ‘Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.’ Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, ‘We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.’ But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him at His right hand as Leader and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.’” (Acts 5:25-32)
“We must obey God rather than men.”
No government has the authority to legislate laws which directly oppose the laws of God, and we need to be prepared to make some challenging decisions in the future. Will we disobey human laws which defy God’s authority, even if it means being punished by the authorities?
R. C. Sproul wrote, “The Bible urges Christians to be models of civil obedience wherever possible. We honour Christ by praying for those in authority over us and for being submissive and obedient to their rule. We are to bend over backwards in our civil obedience. We must obey the magistrates unless they command us to do that which God forbids, or keep us from doing that which God commands. In both of these cases, we not only may, but we must disobey those in authority.”
Martin Niemöller was a German theologian who spoke out against the Nazis in the 1930’s. He was put in prison for this, and a Christian friend visited him one day, saying that the authorities had agreed to release him if he recanted. He urged Niemöller to stay silent about the government, which would guarantee his freedom. He asked Niemöller, “Why are you in jail?” Niemöller’s famous reply was, “Why aren’t you in jail?”
Pilate was clearly unsettled by Jesus’ words to him in verse 11, and John writes in verse 12, “From then on Pilate sought to release Him.”
Pilate feared Jesus, but he also feared the Jews. They said to him, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend.” Pilate was faced with a choice. Should he stand on the side of truth and release Jesus, or hand Him over to the Jews?
We need to know that the time is coming when we are going to have to decide whether we are going to obey God or man. When man’s laws conform to God’s laws, there is no problem, but in this ever-darkening and evil world, more and more laws are being passed which deny the truth of God and His authority over those very people He has sovereignly placed in those positions. And we, like Pilate, will be forced to choose whom we will serve.
Pilate chose badly, because he feared not only the Jews, but Tiberius Caesar too, who was the Roman emperor at the time. The Jews said to him, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” (John 19:12)
Secular historians of the time record that the Jews had previously sent complaints about Pilate to Rome. Tiberius Caesar was a notoriously volatile character, and he was particularly cruel in dealing with anyone who opposed him, so Pilate was very careful to not upset him. J. C. Ryle wrote, “He would rather connive at a murder to please the Jews, than allow himself to be charged with neglect of imperial interests and unfriendliness to Caesar.”
So how does all of this apply to us in our day? What are we to learn from the conversations between Jesus and Caesar against the backdrop of God’s eternal plan of salvation in the midst of such injustice?
Jesus gives us an example of the fear of God that will equip us to resist the temptations of worldly compromise and sin. It is by fearing God that Christians are able to resist the fear of man, which empowers us to faithfully proclaim the Gospel to the lost, and to stand firm against ungodly rulers and ungodly laws.
But as we know, this is a lot easier said than done.
We are working our way through the Psalms in our Wednesday Bible study, and just over a week ago we read Psalm 56:11. “In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Immediately, one of our ladies said, “A lot!” And she’s right. It is hard to obey God rather than man, and it is going to become harder, not easier.
This is why we need to look to Christ. In His humanity, He was always fully aware of the Father’s sovereignty over every detail of His life. Now of course, our level of intimacy with God will never match that of Jesus, for the reason that our walk as Christians remains tainted by our sin, but God is just as sovereign over our lives as He was over Jesus during His earthly life.
We know the words of Psalm 23 so well, but do we honestly, truly believe the the Lord is our Shepherd, and that He does protect and guard His own?
Jesus said to His disciples in Luke 12:4-5, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear Him who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him!”
As Jesus stood before Pilate, He knew that Pilate could do to Jesus only what God allowed, and that same truth applies to us. Jesus knew that God’s will would be done, and so He entrusted Himself to His Father. This is how Christians can be delivered from our fear of man. It is because we know we are loved by a sovereign, all-powerful God who has promised to care for and protect us.
If we want to avoid the fear of man, we need to familiarise ourselves with the promises of God given to us in the Scriptures. We must become people of the Word. James Boice wrote, “To want to do the right thing is not enough. We must know what the right thing is, and there is no way to know that apart from God’s specific revelation of His standards in the Bible.”
In our relative, anything-goes world in which we can invent our own distorted definition of the truth, we have to know what the real truth is, and it is in the Word of God where we find all we need to live faithful lives of obedience to Him.
As we surrender our lives and wills to God, we begin to learn what Paul meant in Romans 8:28 when he wrote, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” Notice that Paul doesn’t say that all things are good, because they very clearly are not, but we’ve read the last page of the book, and we know that at the end of the day, when all is said and done, God will still be on His throne, as He works all things together for good.
In the Old Testament Daniel’s friends were thrown into a furnace because they refused to bow down to the gold statue of King Nebuchadnezzar, so he said to them, “‘If you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?’ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.’” (Daniel 3:15-18)
As we know, God supernaturally intervened and they were spared from the flames on that occasion, but we have no guarantees that God will spare us from all kinds of suffering and pain for our faith. Countless Christians have been martyred for their faith down the years, but we have the glorious hope of the resurrection life, because Jesus Himself has conquered death and the grave.
So the answer to the question, what can man do to me, is indeed, a lot. But as Peter said to Jesus in John 6:68-69, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus calls us to obedience to His Word, both when it is easy and when it is difficult. He was obedient to the Father’s will, and it because of that obedience even to death, that we can be reconciled to God. That is the wonderful promise of the Gospel.
Paul wrote in Romans 8:18, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
In the ESV translation, there is a short introductory note at the beginning of each book of the Bible, and this is what is written in 2 Timothy: “This was the final letter written by Paul as he awaited execution in a Roman jail. Despite all that Paul was facing - death, the end of his ministry, abandonment by most of his friends for fear of persecution - he faithfully directed his spiritual son Timothy to the hope that is in Christ. As he exhorted Timothy to boldness, endurance, and faithfulness in the face of false teaching, Paul showed his customary concern for sound doctrine.”
And in the final chapter of this short letter he wrote, “I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:6-8)
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 19:6-12
What did the Jews mean in their reply to Pilate in verse 7?
Why was Pilate afraid? (See verse 8)
Jesus acknowledged that Pilate had authority over Him, but He also made it clear that this authority was given by God.
What does this teach us about the need to be upholding our rulers in prayer?
Read Romans 13:1-7
How, as Christians, are we to respect, honour and pray for those in authority when a) we might not agree with some of their laws, and b) when secular laws command us to do what God forbids or keep us from doing what He commands?
How have you personally been conflicted by secular laws which are a clear violation of the Law of God?
How should we prepare ourselves for the inevitable challenges which lie ahead for Christians in a pagan country?