Text: Mark 16:2-8

The King on Trial

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.

John 18:33-38

The last hurdle for the Jewish leaders, the one standing between them and victory over Jesus was the very man whose job it was to keep order and peace in the region, the man who represented the Roman Emperor. His name was Pilate, and in order for the Jewish authorities to silence Jesus, they needed his permission.

Look, let’s be honest; if Jesus wasn’t such a high-profile figure, they would just have killed Him, but Jesus was too well known by this time. No, they had to be legal and proper.

You would expect Pilate to be eager to do away with Jesus after the way He came into town, and don’t think for a moment that Pilate didn’t know all about that, certainly the Jewish leaders would have expected him to be a pushover, yet we can easily see from these verses that Pilate didn’t want any part of this.

The most amazing thing about this entire story, at least for me, is that Pilate examined the accused, after hearing the charge and found Him innocent of being a threat to Rome. Remember, it would be Pilate’s neck if Jesus was turned loose and then raised a rebellion against Rome, and Pilate found Him innocent.

Maybe he thought Jesus was just a nut. Surely, he knew that a nut who can stir a crowd is the most dangerous threat of all to the peace. Maybe he just thought that this was another religious squabble in the Jewish camp; they were famous for their squabbles, but the people had welcomed Him as their King only a few days before.

Whatever Pilate’s private thoughts might have been, he clearly didn’t see Jesus as a threat. If He were some kind of king, He had persuaded Pilate that His Kingdom wasn’t a worldly one that could possibly threaten Roman government. Isn’t that interesting in contrast to the views of the Jewish leadership, who saw Jesus as a threat in this world on so many levels? Again, please bear in mind that these were the very people who either knew, or with reasonable diligence, they should have known exactly who and what Jesus was.

For Pilate, the situation was becoming dire, for he feared that these crazy Jews would riot if he let Jesus go, so in the end Jesus was sent to the cross. We could say here that the fate of Jesus was sealed, but in reality, the power behind all of these political games was the one whose fate had been sealed.