John 19:6-9 (NIV)
As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”
The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer.
While Pilate was contemplating what to do with Jesus, he received a letter from his wife warning him not to have anything to do with Him and telling him that she had had a troubling dream about Him – a bad omen! (Matthew 27:19) So, Pilate was unprepared and dismayed by the crowd’s reaction to the battered and bloodied Jesus, dressed mockingly as a king in a purple robe and crown of thorns: “Crucify! Crucify!”
His first response was somewhat snide and dismissive: “You take Him and crucify Him if you want Him to be crucified. I have examined Him and have not found Him guilty of any crime.” And that should have been the end of the matter.
Btu the chief priests, out of anger and fear that their plans were unraveling, tipped their hand. It wasn’t for sedition that they had brought Jesus to Pilate for his condemnation. It was for blasphemy, a violation of Jewish law. He had claimed to be the Son of God, tantamount to claiming to be God Himself. (John 10:30-33)
Pilate was stunned speechless at this. Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God? That was vital information! Why had it been withheld from him until now? His mind instantly went to all the stories he had learned as a child about the days when the gods and their offspring lived among human beings. And if they were treated badly by the people, things turned out disastrously! He wasn’t sure that he believed those old stories, but here was a miracle worker who claimed to be the Son of God just like in the stories; a man who had invaded his wife’s dreams and who had just told him minutes ago that He had a non-earthly kingdom. It all fit!
White-faced, Pilate turned and walked back inside and had Jesus brought to him. His question was direct: “Where do you come from?” After he had ordered Jesus to be beaten, and after he had allowed Him to be humiliated, he was filled with dread that Jesus would say that He really had come from heaven, and that Pilate, his family, maybe even the whole city of Jerusalem was about to be leveled by God’s wrath. But, to his frustration and dread, Jesus looked him in the eye and said…nothing.
Father, it seems that since people couldn’t understand Jesus, their darkened minds being unable to grasp His words or to see the real power behind His miracles, many of them reacted with fear rather than reverence. It was fear that determined the chief priests to destroy Jesus, to eliminate what they could not grasp or control. Pilate, on the other hand, was filled with awe that turned his fear in a different direction, making him determined to set Jesus free (John 19:12). Lord, help us to always take Jesus at face value, and to let those things we don’t understand drive us to worship, not fear. Amen.