Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Flogged — Pilate was still trying to find a way to release Jesus.

His ploy with Barabbas had failed...He still doesn’t believe Jesus to be guilty of anything deserving a death sentence and knew the Jewish authorities were attempting to manipulate him to their own ends.

So…he has Jesus brutally flogged (worst of the three types of flogging) believing this might be enough punishment to satisfy the demands that Jesus be punished.

Flogging was a horrible kind of torture.

While Jewish law limited the number of strokes to 40 the Romans were not under such limitations.

We have no idea how many times Jesus was struck with a whip knotted with sharp pieces of bone or iron.

He was stripped naked and beaten until the two men doing the flogging were too exhausted to continue or until their superior told them to stop.

But this wasn’t enough for the soldiers.

They sent one of their servants into a nearby field to gather thorns (there would be no such plants within the city) so they could make a crown to put on his head.

They put a purple robe on Him...mockingly hailed Him as King and slapped Him in across the face…a sign of contempt.

Jesus was left physically shattered by all of this abuse.

Many men died from this brutal form of flogging.

In this devastated state, Pilate brings Jesus before the Jewish officials and crowd.

“Here is the man” —

“I find Him not guilty” — Pilate announces his verdict as he presents the physically devastated Jesus before them.

His desire was that they see Jesus as a harmless, pathetic man.

“Look, here is the man!” — Here is the beaten, torn, pathetic looking man whom you find so threatening.

Pilate presented a Jesus dripping with blood and dressed as a clownish king asking the obvious question, “Can such a man be a threat to you?

He does not deserve death!”

He mocks Jesus and ridicules the Jewish authorities in the same breath.

“Crucify him!

Crucify Him!” — The chief priests and temple guards begin to shout for the crucifixion of Jesus.

Flogging was not enough…they wanted Jesus eliminated.

“Crucify Him yourself” — At this point Pilate is frustrated and annoyed.

He is disgusted with the rulers and is angry at their attempt to use him as a pawn in their own little squabbles…a squabble which had absolutely nothing to do with Rome or him.

He dismisses them with the words, “Go crucify him yourself.”

This of course is a sarcastic taunt.

The Jewish officials knew full well

The Jewish leaders now fear they are losing the day.

They are now unsure Pilate will follow through with their intentions for Jesus…that Pilate might let Jesus go.

So they change tactics and turn the tables on Pilate.

“By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.” — They had stressed the political component of their case up to this point, thinking it would be most damaging to Jesus and lead to His crucifixion.

Now they are pressing a theological point and in so doing they uncover their true motives for opposing Jesus.

“A Roman prefect was not only responsible for keeping the peace but was to maintain local law as well.

So the Jews reference a point of law they want Pilate to grasp.

We have a law does not refer to Torah as a whole but to one statute, presumably : ‘anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death.

The entire assembly must stone him.

Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.’

Carson, D. A. (1991).

The Gospel according to John (p.

599).

Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.

“More Afraid” — The Romans were very superstitious and Pilate, upon hearing these words became extremely concerned.

Up to this point we see Pilate as cynical and blunt…a man more concerned with putting the Jewish officials in their place than seeking any kind of real justice for Jesus.

Now we see a different side of the man.

Pilate now realizes that he might have gotten himself into something he didn’t understand.

Carson, D. A. (1991).

The Gospel according to John (p.

599).

Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.

As a superstitious man Pilate feared that if Jesus was actually the son of some kind of god then he had just had a son of god whipped.

This literally put the fear of God or fear of a god into the man.

Pilate rushes back inside the Praetorium where Jesus is and begins to question Him anew.

“Where do you come from?” — Pilate desperately wants to know the answer to this question now.

But Jesus has no response for him.

The fact we see Jesus respond to anything at all at this point is a testament to His strong constitution and iron willpower.

Pilate rushes back inside the Praetorium where Jesus is and begins to question Him anew.

“Why don’t you talk to me? Don’t you realize I have power?”

— The silence of Jesus irritates Pilate.

He begins to raise his voice, his fear getting the best of him now, and asks Jesus if he understands that Pilate has the power to release or crucify Him.

“You would have no power...” — Jesus, beaten and battered, musters the strength to give Pilate a lesson on power.

All human authority is derivative in nature, not absolute.

Pilate rules in Palestine, but is accountable to higher Roman authorities.

He would have been answerable to the Roman legate in Antioch, and to the Emperor and the Senate in Rome.

Ultimately, however, human authority comes from above, i.e., from God Bryant, B. H., & Krause, M. S. (1998).

John ().

Joplin, MO: College Press Pub.

Co.

All human authority is derivative in nature, not absolute.

Pilate rules in Palestine, but is accountable to higher Roman authorities.

He would have been answerable to the Roman legate in Antioch, and to the Emperor and the Senate in Rome.

Ultimately, however, human authority comes from above, i.e., from God

“The one who handed me over to you...” — Judas, Caiphas and Pilate all acted under God’s sovereignty.

But the one who took the initiative to get the ball rolling on His arrest and thus turn Him over to Pilate has the greater guilt…Judas and Caiphas

“Pilate tries to release Jesus” — Pilate was now convinced that Jesus had done nothing deserving of death…he had been duped by the Jewish officials to partake in a kangaroo court and condemn an innocent man to die…and that man might possibly be the son of a god…He wanted nothing to do with any of this and was determined from that moment on to find a way to release Jesus.

The Jewish Pivot — Seeing that a condemnation from Pilate was slipping through their grasp, the Jewish leadership throw up one last legal “Hail Mary” and seek to blackmail Pilate into giving them their way.

“If you let this man go you are no friend of Caesar” — This was a threat.

They had now played Caesar into a corner and there was no way out...

What defence of himself could be possibly give to a somewhat paranoid ruler, against the charge that he had failed to convict and execute a man arraigned on well-substantiated charges of sedition—brought up on charges put forward by the Sanhedrin, no less, the highest court in the land and known to be less than enthusiastic about the Emperor’s rule?

What defence of himself could be possibly give to a somewhat paranoid ruler, against the charge that he had failed to convict and execute a man arraigned on well-substantiated charges of sedition—brought up on charges put forward by the Sanhedrin, no less, the highest court in the land and known to be less than enthusiastic about the Emperor’s rule?Carson, D. A. (1991).

The Gospel according to John (p.

602).

Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.

Carson, D. A. (1991).

The Gospel according to John (p.

602).

Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.

Pilate decides he has no options.

In order to save his own neck he must condemn Jesus to die.

He sat down on the judgement seat (bema seat)…in affect this convenes court…the legal proceedings have now proceeded to a session of court and the judgement…this Bema seat was an elevated bench upon which pronouncements were made in the Roman system.

When sitting on this seat his verdicts have binding, legal force.

Pilate knows he cannot escape the political trap that has been set for him, but he taunts his hated opponents once more.

Without a trace of remorse for the shame and scorn that both he and his opponents are heaping on Jesus, he mockingly acclaims Jesus, as if at a coronation: Here is your king.

Pilate knows he cannot escape the political trap that has been set for him, but he taunts his hated opponents once more.

Without a trace of remorse for the shame and scorn that both he and his opponents are heaping on Jesus, he mockingly acclaims Jesus, as if at a coronation: Here is your king.

Pilate is no fool.

He is perfectly aware that the ostensible allegiance of the Jewish authorities to Caesar (v.

12) is no more than political hypocrisy deployed to ensure that he will condemn Jesus to the cross.

By this acclamation of Jesus, he simultaneously throws up with bitter irony the spurious charge of sedition in their face, and mocks their vassal status by saying that this bloodied and helpless prisoner is the only king they are likely to have.

But again, the Evangelist sees still deeper irony.

Like Caiaphas before him (11:49–52), Pilate spoke better than he knew.

The long-awaited king of the Jews stood before them, and they did not recognize him

“Pilate is no fool.