Once, there was a boy who thrived on being the loudest in the room. Let's call him Pip. He enjoyed teasing classmates, making fun of their mistakes, and mocking their habits. Pip believed his humor was sharp and that no one would ever notice how he made them feel.Will it be well when He searches you out? Or can you mock Him as one mocks a man? (Job 13:9)
One day, during a school event, Pip targeted a quiet, kind student who had recently struggled with a personal loss. The student's name was Jesse. Pip made a cruel joke about Jesse’s situation, expecting laughter and a quick escape from the awkwardness. Instead, Jesse’s friends stepped in, and Pip’s own friends, who had been quietly watching, began to turn against him.
The mockery spread like wildfire — not because the joke was funny, but because it was unfair. Pip’s reputation took a hit, and he found himself isolated. Jesse, the student he mocked, later approached Pip, not with anger, but with a calm reminder. “Respect is earned, not taken,” Jesse said.
The Jews answered him (Pilate), "We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But Jesus gave no answer. Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?" Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin." From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar." When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgement seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" But they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!" Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away. (John 19:7-16)
We have seen from the Scriptures prior to this passage that Pilate was quickly losing control of the situation. "That's the feeling we get at verse 12 in this passage," writes NT Wright.
"Pilate is in charge. He's the governor. His word is law. He can kill people if he wants to; he can let them go if he wants to. He could order the troops to kill the chief priests themselves, if he thought he could get away with it. And when he decides that he really does want to let Jesus go, we assume he is going to be able to do it. But the one constraint on Pilate is what people think of him back in Rome. Roman governors down the years were regularly prosecuted for maladministration. Provinces and cities would take their case to Rome, insisting on justice against the man who had been ruling them in Rome's name. There were famous instances of ex-governors paying heavy penalties. Under the empire, if the emperor decided someone was a nuisance, or surplus to requirements, he was quite capable of sending a message advising the man to commit suicide, to save his soldiers the bother of killing him themselves."
With this constraint to his absolute power in the back of his mind, Pilate now hears from the Jews that this Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God. Theologian Leon Morris wrote, "He can scarcely be called a religious man, but the news that his prisoner had made divine claims scared the governor…every Roman of that day knew of stories of the gods or their offspring appearing in human guise.”
Pilate had commanded that Jesus be flogged, and now he learns that Jesus had made a claim of divinity? Was this truly a son of the gods? Pilate was terrified upon hearing this. Quaking in his boots, he went back into the palace and demanded to know where Jesus had come from.
Jesus made no response. He didn't have to. Despite all of Pilate's bravado, putting up a brave front, he knew in his heart of hearts that Jesus was in control of the situation here. Pilate presses on. "Are You not speaking to me? Don't You know that I have the power in this situation?" Jesus probably smiled a wry smile at this. "You have no power here," He said. "You can only do what God has prescribed."
Warren Wiersbe writes, "Fear and anger often go together. When we are afraid we are weak, we go to the other extreme and try to appear strong. This is what Pilate did as he reminded Jesus of his Roman authority. But his statement did not demonstrate his power; it demonstrated his weakness. For if he had the authority to release Jesus, why did he not do it? He condemned himself with his own boastful words."
At this moment, Pilate was no longer acting as judge. He began acting as a prosecutor. However, he was not prosecuting Jesus; instead, Pilate began to pillory the priests who accused Jesus. Pilate showed his true feelings, not only for the high priests, but for all the Jews.
He began to mock them.
Pilate had already allowed his soldiers to place a royal robe on Jesus. They had also placed a makeshift crown on His head, albeit not one of honor, but of torture. Pilate then takes Jesus out to the seat of judgement. William Barclay writes:
The scene comes to an end by saying that Pilate brough Jesus out; as we have translated it, and as the Authorized Version and Revised Standard translate it, Pilate came out to the place that was called the Pavement of Gabbatha--which may mean the tessellated pavement of marble mosaic--and sat upon the judgement seat. This was called the bema, on which the magistrate sat to give his official decisions. Now the verb to sit is kathisein, and that maybe either intransitive or transitive; it may mean either to sit down oneself, or to seat another. Just possibly it means here that Pilate with one last mocking gesture brought Jesus out, clad with the terrible finery of the old purple robe and with his forehead girt with the crown of thorns and the drops of blood the thorns had wakened, and set Him in the judgement seat, and with a wave of his hand said: "Am I to crucify your king?" The apocryphal Gospel of Peter says that in the mockery, they set Jesus on the seat of judgement and said: "Judge justly, King of Israel." Justin Martyr too says that, "They set Jesus on the judgement seat, and said, 'Give judgement for us'." It may be that Pilate jestingly caricatured Jesus as judge. If that is so, what dramatic irony is there. That which was a mockery was the truth; and one day those who had mocked Jesus as judge would meet Him as judge--and would remember.
Instead of calling out Pilate for blasphemy or hypocrisy, the Jews answered politically. "We have no king but Caesar," they said, reminding Pilate that he was being watched carefully from Rome. In doing so, the Jews wounded the heart of God yet again. Wiersbe writes:
When Israel asked to have a king, and God gave them Saul, the nation rejected God the Father (1 Samuel 8:5-7). When they asked for Barabbas, they rejected God the Son. Today, they are rejecting the pleading of God the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51; Romans 10:21). Yet there will come a day when they shall see their King, believe, and be saved (Zechariah 12:10-11; Matthew 24:30; Revelation 1:7).
What will you do with the claims of Christ? Will you crown Him King of your life, or will you hold him in derision? Will you mock Him, or make Him Lord? Many will take the politically correct line, looking over their shoulder at their cohorts, their careers, or their cultures, fearing rejection by the world's standards. Others may hold to their religious background or heritage, rejecting Jesus as just another false god. I pray that you, dear reader, may embrace Christ as Lord and Savior, and follow Him whatever the cost may be. No matter the consequences in this life, we will receive our reward in heaven.
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