The time was drawing near. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, and his last conversation with him made the Roman governor even more anxious to release his prisoner. But it was for naught. Jesus’ innocence was unquestionable, his enemies’ motives were undeniable, and Pilate’s inability to set him free was inevitable. Our text today records Pilate’s final appeal and the incredible declaration by the Jewish chief priests that sent Jesus to the cross.
We should not overlook the emphasis the Gospel writers place on Pilate’s knowledge of the Lord’s innocence. As we have labored to demonstrate in our last two lessons, this is not because Pilate was a virtuous man. The point is not that he really wanted to do what was right or that in his heart he was truly committed to justice. John emphasizes Pilate’s knowledge of Jesus’ innocence to demonstrate that he did not die for his own sins. He died for ours. He died to purchase the Church with his own blood. He laid down his life for his sheep. The injustice of this judicial proceeding was an act of divine justice in securing the pardon and salvation of all who would ever believe.
The Jews wanted Jesus to die because he claimed to be the Son of God, but in the end, he would die for sedition. The chief priests alleged that Jesus undermined submission to the Roman authorities. He claimed to be a king in direct opposition to the Emperor’s claims. To release him would be to tacitly acknowledge his messianic claim and to enable an independence movement which would attempt to place a descendant of David on a restored throne in Jerusalem.
Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, but he was more concerned about keeping his own life than causing Jesus to lose his. If Rome learned that Pilate released a would-be ruler, the governor would not keep his head for long. It was unfortunate, but that’s the way the game was played. Pilate would not lose any sleep over it, but in the end, he would lose his soul.
Christ and Caesar
When the Jewish leaders saw that Pilate was determined to release Jesus, they began to threaten the magistrate. “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend!” It was not subtle. If Pilate did not crucify Jesus, he could expect the religious leaders in Jerusalem to write Tiberius. They insisted the issue was a simple binary. If Pilate showed mercy to Jesus, he could not be considered loyal to Caesar. If he was loyal to Caesar, then he had to condemn Jesus to die. The antithesis between Rome and Israel’s Messiah was absolute.
Of course, in one sense, it is true: there is an antithesis between loyalty to Christ and loyalty to this world. “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad” (Matt. 12:30). “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1Jn. 2:15). You have to make a choice. You cannot synthesize loyalty to the Emperor and loyalty to the Messiah. You cannot name Jesus as king of your spiritual life and Tiberius as king of your secular life. Devotion to Christ as King is absolute. He is the King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords. Jesus does not serve beneath or alongside any earthly monarch.
But in another sense, the sense in which the chief priests are trying to frame the issue, what they are saying is completely wrong. Jesus’ kingdom is not an explicit threat to Rome, not the way they are making it out to be. Oh the kingdom of heaven would eventually topple Rome, to be sure, just as it will outlast and overcome all other kingdoms of men in this world. But Jesus was not the kind of Messiah so many of the Jewish people were waiting for. He was not trying to be another Macabbean general. He did not aspire to sit on Herod or Tiberius’s throne. Such a goal would be far too small! Jesus came to open the way to heaven itself, to redeem his Church, and to save the world. Nothing to be gained in Jerusalem or Rome could ever compare with that.
We said there is an antithesis, and you cannot straddle the fence and serve two masters. But loyalty to Christ does not require one to explicitly undermine or revolt against Rome. There were saints in Caesar’s household in Paul’s day (cf. Php. 4:22). Cornelius was both a centurion and a worshipper of God who became a Christian. There is no reason to think he left Rome’s military service after he was baptized into Christ. Christians are strangers and exiles in the present world, and our citizenship is in heaven, not recorded in Washington D.C. or the state record banks. But while we are in exile away from our homeland, like the Jews in Babylon, we are commanded to build houses, plant gardens, have children, and pray for the peace of the city where the Lord has called us to sojourn (cf. Jer. 29).
One day Jesus would subjugate Caesar, and he will subjugate the President and Legislature and Supreme Court of the United States. The Prime Ministers of China, North Korea, and Russia will bow down and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and they are not. But it will be God who does that, not God’s people. It will be through the influence of truth, the preaching of the gospel, and the return of Christ in glory that this is accomplished. It will not be because believers take up arms. It will not be because Christians agitate and work to overthrow governments. Christians have a powerful weapon in their ability and access to pray, but Scripture teaches us to use this for good and not only to call for fire on the enemies of the Church.
Caesar could not have a better advantage than to be a friend of Jesus Christ. Pilate would never have more loyal and faithful subjects than the disciples of Jesus. It is because we are loyal to the Lord Jesus that we can, in his Name and for his glory, serve well those magistrates and rulers God has placed in authority over us. We know their authority is limited. We know their time has already been determined. We know they can do nothing except what Christ allows them to do. So we serve faithfully, humbly, cheerfully, giving Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.
The King of Israel
Once again we see the irony in John’s narrative. Pilate brings Jesus out and announces: “Behold, your King!” And it is true. Here is the King of Israel, the Son of David, the Son of God. But the chief priests will have none of it. They decry him. They despise him. “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate, perhaps exasperated by their stubbornness, taunts in reply: “Shall I crucify your King?” Every time I read the next line, it’s as though the narrative stops. Time freezes. The world stands still. “We have no king but Caesar!” And it is true. The word of Yahweh spoken to the prophet Samuel has finally reached its ultimate fulfillment: “They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them” (1Sam. 8:7).
Israel had always had a king, and the prophetic regulations given in Deuteronomy 17 about their future monarch did not change that arrangement in the least. After Gideon’s great victory over the Midianites, the people of Israel begged him to become their ruler. But Gideon replied: “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the LORD shall rule over you” (Jdg. 8:23). The Bible is very clear that God was not pleased by Israel’s insistence upon and desire for a king to be like the other nations. He gave them a king, yes, but he punished them for their carnal motives.
Eventually God gave them a king of his choosing, David the son of Jesse. But the Davidic monarchs were not to rule like other kings. Israel was to be a representative monarchical theocracy. That means the kings of Israel were vassal kings, not emperors. They were there to do Yahweh’s bidding, not their own. They were representatives, not of the people, but of God, and their duty was to administer the rule and justice of the kingdom of God. This is why they were to make their own copy of the Book of the Law and keep it with them all the time and read from it every day “that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren” (Deut. 17:18-20).
But this is not the king the Jews wanted. Not in Samuel’s day. Not in Jesus’ day. The chief priests angrily declared, “We have no king but Caesar!” And they spoke the truth. Jesus was not their King. I know what you’re thinking: Jesus is everyone’s King. Yes, in that sense. He is the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. Yes, one day each of these priests will bow down and confess that Jesus is Christ and Lord. But their declaration of loyalty to the Roman Emperor was a true confession of the kingdom to which they belonged. They were not truly part of the covenanted kingdom over which the Son of David reigns. They wanted no part in a representative theocracy over which Yahweh would rule according to his wisdom, rather than theirs. They would rather have a king like all the nations. They would rather belong to a real kingdom, one that has power in this world! And they do. They belonged to that kingdom. And that kingdom, like everything else in this world, would soon pass away, and they would share in its fate.
Conclusion: Who Will Be Your King?
We do have to make a choice after all. We can serve Jesus and still live in this world. We do not have to behave like this world’s enemy in order to prove our allegiance to Jesus. But in the end, if we are loyal to Jesus, this world will view us as an enemy anyway. That’s what they did to Jesus, and that’s what they will do to Jesus’ friends. How ridiculous to see the chief priests so violently outraged, seeking to kill the greatest threat they perceive: the Prince of Peace! But that is the insanity we can expect to meet in this world if we live meekly, quietly, but unapologetically as those who belong to another.
When Joshua gave his retirement speech, he challenged the people to choose.
Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Jos. 24:14-15)
This challenge was similar to the one Moses gave them as he prepared to ascend Mt. Nebo and die. Choose: life or death, blessing or cursing, Yahweh or the gods of this world, Christ or Caesar. It is a choice we make all the time when we honor Christ’s rule or when we prefer instead the freedom we imagine Caesar will provide. But inevitably we will discover that Caesar cannot give freedom at all; his service is slavery, misery, and death. And the rule of Christ that we chafed at, that we sought to cast off? Jesus says:
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matt. 11:28-30)
Jesus did not die because he was a sinner; he died because we are. He did not die because he posed any real danger to the government; he died because they were a danger to him. He did not die because the Jews and Romans did know who he was; he died because they knew exactly who he was--the Son of David, the King of Israel--and they adamantly refused to allow him to rule over them. And because he died, he won. Because he died, we are saved. Because he died, their reign has been overthrown. Because he died, everything they feared might happen, actually has and will. The kingdoms of this world belong to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Rev. 11:15). --JME
