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The Gospel of John, The Period of Consummation, Part IX, John 18:39-19:1-3 - Lesson 186
Read Verses John 18:39,40, But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.
We have seen that Pilate desired to release Jesus and gave every opportunity to the Jews to do so.
On at least seven occasions he declared "I find no fault in him."
Little did Pilate know that what he said could be said about no other man on earth.
Pilate was urged by his wife to have thou nothing to do with that just man.
He tried on several occasions to get others to judge Christ sending him to Herod and telling the Jews to judge him according to their law.
In spite of all these attempts Pilate was the one to sentence him to death.
As we read in Acts 2:23 Christ was ... delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ... and by wicked hands ..was..crucified and slain:
God's will could not be thwarted by Pilate.
Pilate continues to attempt to release Jesus Christ as we enter Chapter 19 where we read.
John 19:1-3, Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.
The scene is in the hall of judgment.
The Jews are still outside while Christ is inside with Pilate and the Roman soldiers.
Pilate desires to release Jesus and he thinks that if he punishes him sufficiently the Jews will relent and permit his release.
He had said I will chastise him and release him.
Jesus Christ was not a Roman citizen and Pilate was not concerned with offending Jesus Christ because he had no powerful friends to intervene for him.
So Pilate scourges him which means that he flogged Jesus Christ
He intended to present to the crowd a mutilated Christ, one that will invoke sympathy on the part of the crowd.
He was probably stripped, tied to a post and brutally flogged with rods or a leather whip.
Most likely the whip had pieces of iron or bone tied to the ends of the thongs.
By this treatment of Jesus Christ God intended to reveal the depths of human depravity.
This was God manifest in flesh and Pilate was the instrument of fallen man who hates God.
God was delivered into the hands of men and this is what man in his depraved heart did to the one who created him.
The soldiers join in with ridicule of him who his accusers called king.
They made his punishment a game dressing him in a purple robe, probably a military cloak, with a makeshift crown made of thorns.
Interesting that thorns are a symbol of the curse.
Then they took turns giving him blows to his face and his body.
This was great sport to the Romans who had no love for the Jew.
Hail, King of the Jews! Hail, King of the Jews! Hail, King of the Jews! as they danced around and continued to smite the Lord of glory. Now Pilate was again prepared to present a bleeding Jesus Christ to the crowd. |