John 18:37-40 (NIV)
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”
They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.
Pilate had to deal with all kinds of people in his role as governor and was a shrewd judge of people. He dealt with thieves and brigands on an almost daily basis, and Jesus was clearly not one of those. From time to time, he had to deal with religious zealots who believed that God had called them to overthrow the Roman government and restore rule to the kings of Israel. That was the charge that had been leveled against Jesus. But Jesus did not strike Pilate as a religious zealot.
In his questioning, Jesus had just told Pilate that He was in fact a king, but a king whose kingdom was not of this world. That sounded insane, but as Pilate met Jesus’ level gaze, he saw no insanity in those eyes. What he saw was something completely other than insanity, something that he had never seen before. And it made him desperately uneasy.
His follow-up question was more of a statement: “So you’re saying that you are in fact a king.” And Jesus’ answer was strongly affirmative: “You say I am a king and you are right – in fact, I was born to be a king.”
This whole situation was getting stranger and stranger. Jesus claimed to be a king, but not the king of the Jews, who was trying to overthrow the authority of Rome. Instead, He was clearly saying that He had been born to be the king of an otherworldly kingdom. Pilate had no idea what to do with that.
And then Jesus stated, “I have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.” So, Jesus was a philosopher! That at least made some sense. It seemed like everyone in the empire was a philosopher those days. Everybody claimed to have some great insight into ultimate truth. With a flippant “What is truth?” he left the room without waiting for an answer to talk to the Jewish leaders.
Pilate wasn’t sure exactly who or what Jesus was, but he was sure of one thing: Jesus was clearly no threat to the empire or the Emperor. It was just as evident that the chief priests were trying to railroad Him out of jealousy (Matthew 27:18).
It was then that an idea struck him. For years, in order to engender peace with the Jewish leadership, the governor had released one prisoner at the Passover feast. And Pilate had continued that tradition when he took office. He would offer them an obvious choice: he could release Jesus, the “King of the Jews,” or he could release Barabbas, an unsavory brigand who he was sure nobody wanted to see back on the streets. But to his amazement and dismay, when he made the proposal, the chief priests chose to have him release Barabbas!
Father, who Jesus was was clearly making an impression on Pilate. But he was now enmeshed in the political intrigue that surrounded Jesus’ conflict with the religious leaders. And, at this point in the process, he had no real idea of how far that intrigue would ultimately drive him. Jesus stated that everyone who is of the truth listens to His voice and, by implication, obeys what He says, even when it goes against popular opinion or political correctness and expediency. Help me Lord, to always listen, and to always obey, no matter what the cost. Amen.
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