JOHN 18:39-19:6 PILATE SAID TO THEM, "YOU TAKE HIM AND CRUCIFY HIM, FOR I FIND NO FAULT IN HIM."

John 18:39 "But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews?" 40 Then they all cried again, saying, "Not this Man, but Barabbas!" Now Barabbas was a robber. So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. 2 And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. 3 Then they said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck Him with their hands. 4 Pilate then went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him." 5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the Man!" 6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him."

 Here we see how the Romans would pacify the Jews by releasing someone convicted of crimes to them on the Passover.  Pilate hopes he can finally get Jesus set free and His blood off his hands.  But the Jews have outmaneuvered Pilate again and they have told the crowd to ask for Barabbas the robber.  Pilate scourges Jesus, mocks Him, puts a crown of thorns on His head, and a Kingly purple robe on Him and yet the crowd still will not feel sorry for Jesus, they want him killed.  He finally tells them to behold the Man, in other words look at this pitiful fellow, don’t you want Him to be released and they cry out Crucify Him, Crucify Him.  Then for the second time Pilate tells them I find no fault in Him.  Jesus has done nothing wrong for Him to be convicted of and especially crucified, so Pilate says if you want Him crucified, you do it.

 And then we come to verse 39 and John picks it up from there. And this is the story of Pilate's inability to get rid of Jesus. May I make a spiritual point at this time, and I'm going to remind you of it at the end? You have here exactly what every man has to face, listen to it, an ultimate decision about what to do with Jesus Christ. Pilate tried every single thing he could to get rid of Jesus and he couldn't get rid of Him, God forced him to make the decision himself. And so he will every man.

In Leviticus 24:16 it was blasphemous for a person to call himself a king in Judaism.  Under a theocracy for you to say you were a king if you weren’t a king was guilty of death.  That’s a religious law and a religious system under Caiaphas.  A political law, if you call yourself a king, you’re fighting against Caesar as the true emperor king.  So both of these charges now of sedition raise it way high and Pilate’s going to have to do something about it. 

So, Pilate's really got two options on his hands. Now he's a man of some justice. He's not any kind of average commoner, this guy's a pretty sharp guy or he wouldn't be placed in such a position by Rome. And to his benefit we should say that he's got some sense of justice. They bring to him an innocent man and he's faced with two options. All right, the man is innocent, I could let Him go. That would be right cause He's innocent. But I let Him go, I've got a Jewish revolution, word goes to Caesar and I get either removed or my head removed because Tiberius didn't tolerate messing around. Tiberius Caesar was quick. And when he saw something he didn't like, it was over and he happened to be the emperor at that time. And so, Pilate had the option of doing what was right and losing his job and maybe his head because the Jews would undoubtedly revolt, or he had the option of doing what was wrong, executing an innocent man, and therefore cross‑graining all the Roman justice and judgment that he had ever learned and crucifying his own soul because in some sense he had a morality. So he had two choices ... either save your soul or save your neck.

Now, there's something kind of vague about your soul. There's nothing vague about your neck. Right? So when it gets down to the nitty‑gritty, chances are you'll go for your neck. You know, that's what's going on in our world today? And Jesus said: "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?" Fools, people live for money, pleasure, sex ... whatever. And they crucify their souls.

Well, that was Pilate's option. And his neck was so tangible, you know. And so they had him where they wanted him. And with that in his mind, he has just tried to get this thing over with by saying to the Jews ‑ I find no fault in Him. But then he's faced with another problem. He doesn't know what to do with Jesus. He can't give Him back or he's going to have this whole problem on his hands, so he now begins a process of figuring out schemes to get rid of Jesus, see, out‑the‑back‑door deals. First thing he thinks of ‑ Oh, let's see, this is Luke 23 and this is the second phase of the trial which John skips, but Luke picks it up. He says ‑ Jesus is originally from Galilee, right? Nazareth of Galilee. Herod is the chief cheese in Galilee. Herod also happened to be in Jerusalem at this time. Pilate says ‑ I'll pass the buck to Herod. So Luke 23 verses 4 to 12 says he sends Jesus over to Herod. Herod looks at Jesus a while, soldiers mock Him, beat Him a little bit, then Herod says ‑ Take Him back to Pilate. And Pilate is stuck again.

All right, as we move into the trial in verse 39, I'm going to show you three things: Pilate's failing proposals, Pilate's fatal panic, Pilate's final pronouncement. And here we see the absolute dissipation and destruction of a human being. And by that I don't mean Jesus ... I mean Pilate. By the time this deal is over you're going to see a raving maniac, a man who has momentary insanity ... Pilate. He completely loses it.

 39 "But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews?" Mt 27:15; Mr. 15:6; Lu 23:17

Hoping to strengthen this suggestion, Pilate offered to bargain with the Jewish leaders. It was a custom at Passover for the governor to release a prisoner and please the Jews; so, why not release Jesus? Or, he could release Barabbas; but why would the Jews want Barabbas set free? After all, he was a robber (John 18:40), a notorious prisoner (Matt. 27:16), a revolutionary and a murderer (Luke 23:19). Who would want that kind of a prisoner turned loose?

Incredible as it seems, the crowd asked for Barabbas! The people were persuaded by the chief priests and elders (Matt. 27:20) whose religious convictions did not motivate them toward justice and equity. National feelings always increased during Passover, and a vote for Barabbas was a vote against Rome. Even though Jesus had been a popular figure among the people, many of them no doubt were disappointed that He had not led a popular uprising to overthrow Rome. Perhaps they had even hoped that His “triumphal entry” a few days before would be the start of Jewish liberation.^[i]

At this point, Pilate seems to have an inspiration. Perhaps they would settle for a victory in principle. Pilate could appease them by declaring Jesus guilty, and then graciously releasing Him to them, as was his custom at Passover. In this way, Jesus would not be put to death, but He would have been declared guilty. It was a sort of compromise, which gave both sides (the Jews and Pilate) a token victory. The Jews could boast that Pilate had declared Jesus guilty; Pilate could be at ease that he had not crucified an innocent man. And so he put the matter before the Jews. Should he release Jesus to them on this Passover? If Pilate expected this ploy to work, he had greatly underestimated how determined the Jews were to kill Jesus. In John’s Gospel, the name “Barabbas” seems to appear out of nowhere, mentioned first by the Jews. One senses that some orchestration has already occurred behind the scenes.

Now, there was a custom evidently that Pilate had with the people. It may have begun before Pilate was the governor; that every year at Passover they would release from the jails of the Romans one Roman prisoner, a Jewish criminal who had been taken by Rome in prison. Now it is very obvious that this was a concession on the part of Rome to the people because the other gospel writers tells us that the people had the right to choose who it was that they desired to be released. And so Pilate in his little brain begins to think ‑ Aha, it's Passover time and they get to choose whomever they will to be released. And he thinks here's my out. I'll offer them Jesus.

When the Jews approached Pilate, to request the release of a prisoner, he leaped at the chance to release Jesus in this way, but they immediately rejected this proposal, insisting rather that Barabbas be released to them. I do not think that all of this happened spontaneously, but rather that it was planned by the Jewish leaders, and then the crowds were persuaded by their leaders to carry out this plan. It may have appeared spontaneous to Pilate. It was probably designed to look this way. But from the beginning, the Jews sought to gain the release of Barabbas, knowing that Pilate’s desire was to release Jesus. In my opinion, they were skillfully removing this option.

They don't want Barabbas. Barabbas was the scum of the earth. I mean, nobody wanted Barabbas. I mean, this wasn't any little petty guy, this guy was a real notorious criminal. And besides that, the other Gospels tells us that he was a revolutionary, he had been involved in an revolution. The other writers also indicate to us that he had murdered and here it says in verse 40, at the end: "...Barabbas was a robber." And the Greek word is bandit. This guy was a highwayman.

Likely, the highwaymen always frequented the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. And you go down that road, it's just a steep road going down into the desert where Jericho is, and the highwaymen always hid along ‑the way. This guy was a bandit, murderer, rebel, the whole routine. And so Pilate puts him up there with Jesus.

Even Mark’s account leaves room for the view that the idea of releasing Barabbas originated with the Jews, rather than Pilate.

Mark 15:6-15 During the feast it was customary to release a prisoner to them, whom they requested. 7 A man named Barabbas was imprisoned with rebels who had committed murder in a riot. 8 Then the crowd came up and asked Pilate to carry out the custom for them. 9 So Pilate asked them, “Do you want the king of the Jews released to you?” 10 (For he knew that the chief priests had handed him over because of envy.) 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. 12 So Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you want me to do with the one you call king of the Jews?” 13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!” 14 Pilate asked them, “Why, what has he done wrong?” But they shouted more insistently, “Crucify him!” 15 Because he wanted to satisfy the crowd Pilate released Barabbas for them. Then he had Jesus flogged and handed over to be crucified

 40 Then they all cried again, saying, "Not this Man, but Barabbas!" Now Barabbas was a robber. Lu 23:19; Ac 3:14

It is interesting that some manuscripts refer to Barabbas as “Jesus Barabbas,” and thus the question of Pilate, as rendered by the NET Bible: “Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Christ?” (Matthew 27:17).

If you could do a black and white image of Jesus, you would see the negative and positive image in the person of Barabbas.  Even the name is a word play.  Barabbas means son of the father, not really the son of the Father, but of the Devil, delivered up the Son of THE Father

Suffice it to say this, Barabbas is guilty of the very charge they falsely weigh against Jesus Christ.  So even in their release of the prisoner Barabbas we see redemption occurring, because Barabbas deserved to die.  Jesus is innocently dying.  Jesus is falsely accused.  Barabbas is accurately accused.  The irony in the Gospel of John continues to unfold at many levels.

Barabbas is a very, very important individual because, you see, he exemplifies to us the depravity of man. Here is the best in the universe, God incarnate, and the worse in humanity and whom to men choose? The worst. So typical.

 Well, Pilate’s going to try another tact.  That one didn’t work, so he’ll try another one and he’s going to punish Christ and see if that sort of takes the sting out of the Jew’s attitude toward who this Jesus is. 

You see, this is the fickle mood of the mob and this is exactly what you have right here in Mark chapter 15, it tells us what happened. I'll read it to you. Mark 15:11 says: "But the chief priests stirred up the people that he should rather release Barabbas unto them." Guess who stirred the people up? Religious leaders ... Barabbas, Barabbas, Barabbas ... you know. That's people for you ... sheep, witless, following their leaders. What does the Old Testament say? "Like people, like priest," Hosea, that's what he said. So the chief priests, supposed to be the leaders, we want Barabbas. And all the people chime in and they want Barabbas and Pilate can't believe it. So typical of men.

Well, why did they choose Barabbas?" Well, Barabbas was insurrectionist, the Bible tells us that. And it is very possible that they wanted Barabbas released to start an insurrection. Maybe they figured this was their leader, possible. Kind of interesting that they brought Jesus to be condemned because of His insurrectionist and then wanted an insurrectionist back so they could have an insurrection. Well, needless to say, Pilate is dumbfounded at this point and in Matthew 27, fitting in the slot right here, Matthew says "Pilate looked at the people and said, What then shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?" And you want to know something? That's a profound question. And you know something? That wasn't just a question on Pilate's lips, that was a question that came out of his aching torn heart. What do I do with Jesus? He had to release Barabbas and he's still stuck with Jesus...failing proposal. And when he said ‑ What do I do with Jesus? ‑ The Bible says they screamed in frenzy ‑ Crucify...crucify... crucify.

John 19:1 So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. Mt 20:19; 27:26; Mr. 15:15; Lu 18:33

Pilate is sinking at this point. His dilemma is unresolved.

So he comes up with another proposal, verse 1: "Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him." Now this is an effort at compromise. Luke 23:16 tells us that Pilate had said before this ‑ I will chastise Him and release Him. That's good intentions. So now he says ‑ I'll scourge Him. This is a great example of a coward, isn't it? What are you going to scourge Him for, what did He do? Why you going to beat Him, what did He do? What's His crime?

No crime, I'm just going to do this to pacify the people so I can get rid of Him. You see, he figured if he beat Jesus up and mutilated Him that the people would say ‑ That's enough, that's enough. And if he beat Him up and mutilated Him and made Him look like anything but a king, maybe they wouldn't hold on to that accusation that He was a king. And so, the Bible says he scourged Him.

It's hard for us to imagine scourging. A Roman scourge was a stick, thick and it was wrapped in leather. At the end of it were leather thongs of some length and in the end of those leather thongs were held bits of brass and lead and bone filed to sharp points. The victim was then either stretched flat on the ground with his back up, or tied to a post, hanging, or strapped suspended from the ground. And then the man who was accustomed to doing it and knew how well to do it would lash the back 40 times with the scourge. And from what we understand, the back was torn and lacerated to such an extent that even the deep seeded veins and arteries and sometimes even the entrails and the inner organs were exposed. It was a total shredding of the back.

This was such a horrible torture that no Roman citizen, no matter how great his crime, could ever undergo scourging. It was forbidden. And it gives us some indication of why Jesus died so soon upon the cross, because He was beaten so raw before He ever got there and the loss of the blood before He ever made it to the top of that hill with His cross would have made His death much more rapid than it would have otherwise. And so, Pilate thinks if he does this it will pacify the people, but he doesn't understand beast of prey, does he? He doesn't understand that when you wave a little blood in front of them, that doesn't pacify them that only makes them more hungry.

The flogging was done with a whip-like device and on the many tongs of the whip were embedded pieces of metal and/or bone.  There are three levels of scourging and flagellating a person and we would see a bare backed person tied to a post and he’d be whipped.  A flagellation is not like a whipping in the west.  A flagellation would shred the flesh and muscle tissue clear down to the bone.  All the way around the abdomen it would often disembowel a person and many people died just from this scourging.  This is not a little whipping.

 You know the verse in Isaiah 53 “By His stripes you were healed” and when you cut across a scourge on the back of a person the first time, you lay red ribbon shreds of blood and tissue right away.  By those stripes you and I are healed.  He’s a bleeding hemorrhaging mess when He comes out of this scourging.

Isa 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

2 And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe.

The crown of thorns, then, is put on His head.  Typically, depending on how you grew up, you saw a picture of Jesus Christ carrying a cross with maybe one or two inch thorns in His brow and blood sort of down His face in different degrees.  That’s partly true, but there’s at least two more things we don’t often think about.

 The first is Genesis 3:18, the thorn is the result of the curse.  And so now Jesus Christ who will be cursed on a cross is beginning to pay for the curse with the very crown of thorns on His head.  So He breaks the curse that happened back at the fall. Ge 22:13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

And secondly, and more importantly, and frankly probably obscure to most of us, is then the oriental kings, if you look at old pictures, art works, you’ll see oriental kings with these spires off their head with radiant coming off the top of their head.  And typically they’ll be larger in the middle and sort of taper off.  That’s their deity, their god deity type things, their human gods on earth as a king. And so we have a palm thorn, which would be very different than the crown of thorns we think of that would be up to 12 inches long, and again, it’s a mock crown.

 So we have this shredded, hemorrhaging Christ, then a purple robe’s going to be put on him.  And so we have the crown, is jammed on His head, this mocking Him as this would-be king.

 3 Then they said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck Him with their hands.

Now you see, if you can even imagine this kind of thing. In Fort Antonius where Jesus would have been, the very pavement that they believe is the base of the fort, is well preserved, on that floor are etched little Roman figures in the stone. And they're there, because the Romans use to play a game. When they had all these prisoners waiting down there to be crucified, they teased them. You see, the Romans had always played games about kings. They had a game, Flaccus tells us, that they played with idiots and imbeciles. They would catch them and they would dress them up like kings and they would sit them up on places and they would mock‑worship them and they got great entertainment out of making fools out of idiots. And the Roman soldiers liked to play this game, too, where they'd take one of their prisoners and they'd make a king out of him and his great crowning event would be when they nailed him to the cross and dropped it in its hole. And so they're playing the game with Jesus and it fits because He claims to be a king and Pilate's going to use it and so he lets them play it. And they get Jesus down there and they cram the thorns into His head, it's a mock crown and they throw and old faded robe on Him and they tell Him He's a king and they stick a phony scepter in His hand and they sit Him up. And then Matthew tells us they walked by and first of all they spit all over Him. And then when they've done that they beat Him in the face with their fists. And they made a caricature of Jesus as a king. The irony of it is that they just didn't know, did they? That indeed He was a King. King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

You say, "this is so horrible. Why did Jesus have to suffer all of that?" Number one, I think the fact that He claimed to be God was one great reason why they couldn't let up on and they went to such extremes and punishment because, you see, Romans 8:7 says: "The carnal mind is hostility against God." You see, an unsaved man despises the fact of God. And men are opposed to God. And so, you have here this violent reaction against Jesus' claim to be God.

Another reason He suffered so greatly is because men are such vile sinners. you read Romans chapter 3 if you want a good identification of humanity. They're throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues they have used deceit, their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways. How do you like that for a definition? Jesus suffered because men are cruel and vile.

Thirdly, Jesus suffered so greatly because this is Satan's hour, the hour of darkness. Don't you remember that why back in Genesis, the Bible tells us the serpent was going to bruise His heel? And don't you remember that Jesus said in Luke 22 verse 53, He said: "This is your hour and the power of darkness?" Who's the power of darkness? Satan. This is Satan's hour and he was giving all his shots.

Fourthly, I think Jesus suffered so greatly because He was bearing punishment for our sin and He ... and our sin deserves every possible punishment conceivable, and He bore it all.

Read Isaiah 53

 4 Pilate then went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him." Joh 18:38; 19:6

Again Pilot tries to appease the crowd.  He’s going to bring out this beaten, pathetic figure with a purple robe mocking royalty on Him and this ridiculous crown of thorns on His head and he’s going to tell them, “This is what you’re worried about?  This is the threat?”  And that’s why he has Him scourged.

 5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the Man!"

Dripping with sarcasm.  Who is Jesus Christ?  The man-God incarnate.  “Behold the man of God!”  No, “Behold the man that I’ve shredded to nothing and, let me jab you one more time, your king of the Jews.  He’s no threat to anyone.  I find Him innocent.” Well, Pilate’s efforts don’t work.  Verses six and seven, it enrages them.  They are unhappy and they scream out, “Crucify, crucify!”

6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him." Ac 3:13

Then verse 6, in desperation Pilate says unto them: " You take Him and crucify Him," "for I find no fault in Him."  It really says Yourselves, you, take Him, I, I, even I find no fault in Him per the Greek

Pilate says ‑ You kill Him. Pilate gives them the right of execution in a Roman fashion now. Desperately wants to get rid of Jesus. But you see, they don't want him to get rid of Jesus cause that lets him off the hook and they've got Pilate right where they want him and they're not about to let him get away. And so, Pilate's effort doesn't make it. " You take Him and crucify Him," and for the fifth time he says, "I find no fault in Him."

They don’t want justice, they don’t want a fair court, they don’t want a fair hearing, they want Him dead. 

Now, Pilate’s response is interesting, because he knows they can’t crucify Him, so it’s clearly a taunt.  “Well, if you don’t like what I’ve done, you bring Him to me with the deck stacked, you want me to just sign off on your condemnation and execute Him, then you go crucify Him.”

 He continues to taunt them and mock them all the way down.

 John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.

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“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32

The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions.

^[i] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Jn 18:39). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.