John 19:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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John 19:1

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Christ took our humiliation.We saw in the previous chapter the hearings culminating in Christ being brought before Pontius Pilate. Christ had been charged with three main offences that are recorded in the Gospels. They are not the offences the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees really intended to charge him with, but these were the offences they felt would count before the Roman procurator and would secure the sentence of death. So they brought false charges, civic charges rather than religious charges. The first was that he had stirred up the nation to rebellion. Well, that was obviously false as anybody knows who knows anything about the Gospel record, but that was the first charge, he stirred up the people to civil rebellion, against Rome, against Caesar. The second ridiculous and absurd charge was that he had forbidden people to pay their taxes. The one account we have of Christ in connection with tax paying was the exact opposite of this of course. The third charge was that he made himself an earthly, civic king or ruler, which of course would be an outrage to the Roman command and authority. The three charges were plainly absurd, and no evidence was brought and Pilate pronounces, I find no fault in him at all.There is tremendous fault with Pilate, because if he found no fault in him at all, why did he not acquit him and discharge him? But he makes this declaration of Christ’s innocence not once but at least four times without an acquittal, with releasing the prisoner. What is the matter? What is going on? Well, he is frightened, intimidated by the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees. Pilate’s own position as procurator of the region is precarious, and if he is reported back to Rome by the Jewish leaders and rulers too much, he will be deposed, which ultimately happened to him. But that is what he feared. These men are quite powerful and very cunning. So while he is angry and he knows these are ridiculous charges and he declares him not guilty, at the same time he is too intimidated to release him. Instead he tries a different way of securing the release of Christ by inducing some pity for him. And that is what you read of next.The Roman scourging was carried out with an implement that had a short handle and attached to that handle were a number of leather thongs. At the end of those leather thongs were pieces of sharp metal and they say sometimes bone, but mainly metal. The idea was this, that these would cut the person who was being flogged or scourged. The body would either be tied to a post but most of the experts say no, there was a sort of stone slab over which the body, front down on the slab, would be put, and the hands and feet tied to rings set in the stonework beneath. In that condition a series of executioners (because the flogging was performed by those who would carry out the execution, that was the practice) would set about flogging the person. And we are told by old authorities that once one became tired another would take over and continue. This was so savage that people often died under this kind of flogging and deep wounds were laid open and tremendous blood and horrific injuries. The idea of flogging was something like this: if you put a person to death then they escaped punishment. We want this person to die but we also want him to be punished. So there must be the most terrible flogging preceding the punishment.

Application

It is the same today. We have all been as it were in that great mob, that crowd that shouted against Christ. Because it has been true of all of us that this life, our present prosperity and fame and fortune, meant much more to us than anything spiritual. We are persuaded of the same arguments quite easily by people. We are told that being a Christian man or woman will bring us into a ridiculed minority in these days, and will spell trouble for us. Listen to these preachers, they are calling you sinful. They are telling you, you need redemption and forgiveness. They are telling you, you have no status before God and if you died now you would go to hell.

Questions

What was Pilate trying to achieve? Pilate has already offered them, according to custom, the possibility of the release of Barabbas, another prisoner who was a robber and a murderer, or Jesus Christ, and the people having chosen Barabbas, Pilate tries once more to have Jesus Christ delivered from crucifixion and death. Pilate could well see that the charge against Christ was due to the sheer envy of the chief priests and the scribes, and he was being used by them. The Jews were an occupied people, they were not allowed to execute anybody and so they wished to make use of Pilate. Now scourging often, or invariably, we are told by the experts, preceded execution. And Pilate seems to be trying to scourge Christ as though to execute him in the hope that this preliminary scourging would lead to a wave of compassion among the people. After all, many in that crowd had been healed by Christ. He hoped that by carrying out the first stage of the procedure (the scourging) then the second stage (the execution) would not be necessary.

Buy why were the crowds so easily led and turned round? Whatever did the chief priests say to them? They had time to work that crowd. There were 71 members of the Sanhedrin Council, and maybe many of them were engaged in this attempt to persuade the crowds to shout for the release of Barabbas and the execution of Jesus Christ. They would have been saying to the people – ‘He falsely made himself the Son of God.’ ‘If he is allowed to continue will bring the Roman authority down upon us. People will follow him in large numbers, it will look like insurrection and the Romans will react and there will be devastating consequences for the Jews in Jerusalem and elsewhere.’

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John 19:1 Commentary and Bible Study