Pilate in this Gospel asked for the charge. The immediate response is not a statement of the charge but an accusation of Jesus being a criminal or literally “one who does evil.”

Such a charge was undoubtedly intended to gain the attention of the Roman governor. Messianic claims swirled around Israel in the post-Maccabean period and were only put to rest after the second Jewish uprising with the defeat of Simon Bar Kokhba (A.D. 135).

In each Gospel the question begins with the emphatic Greek su (you!): “Are you …?” which suggests that Pilate could well have been astonished that Jesus was claiming such a title. Jesus hardly had an army, and he certainly had not led an uprising against the Romans as a rebel king might have been tempted to do. What kind of a king was this?

Jesus’ kingdom is not a piece of land on earth or involved in earthly power and domination.

Jesus’ kingdom is directly related to the concept of the kingdom of heaven and the reign or authority of God. It is both a proleptic reality now and a future expectation yet to come in its fullness. Although this kingdom does not have its source in the world, it is nonetheless active in the world. But since it is related to God, it draws its power from a source external to the world. Moreover, its task is one of transformation in the world (cf. 20:31) so that its citizens will authentically represent God or Heaven here on earth.

Jesus’ mission was to integrate truth into life. That is the reason the text here defines people who are of truth as those who hear the voice of Jesus. Hearing or obeying Jesus is not the same as affirming correct ideas. The Pharisees and legalists in Jesus’ day were very precise in their theological formulations, but God was remote for them. Moreover, they schemed his crucifixion in their correctness because they missed hearing the voice of God. That can still happen today. What Jesus did in this story was confront Pilate with himself and with the genuine nature of truth.

For politically motivated people, truth is frequently sacrificed on the altar of expediency. Many politically oriented people pretend they are interested in truth. But Pilate summarizes his politically oriented life pattern with the haunting question: “What is truth?” The implications of that question are exceedingly far reaching for any person.

For Pilate that question was an attempt to resist taking Jesus’ statement seriously in his own life

The choice was either to release Jesus, whom he knowingly called “the King of the Jews,” or the scoundrel and thief, Barabbas. Mark goes further in 15:7 and identifies Barabbas as a murderer and an insurrectionist. This Barabbas was hardly the kind of person Pilate thought the Jews would desire to have loosed on their society. The obvious alternative from his point of view was the healer, wonder worker, and prophet-type king. He must have smirked at the choice he gave to the people. But Pilate had not calculated on the scheming way in which the Jewish leadership had readied the group outside the Praetorium to answer him. Pilate’s shrewd plan was undone by the leadership when the people chose the scoundrel and rejected the King.