Mocking and Crucifying the King

John 19:1-16

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

1 So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. 2 And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. 3 Then they said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck Him with their hands.

4 Pilate then went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him."

Pilate's Decision

5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the Man!"

6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!"  Pilate said to them, "You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him."  7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God."

8 Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, 9 and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But Jesus gave him no answer.  10 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?"  11 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."

12 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."  13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!"

15 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!"  16 Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away.

Finally the time arrived for Jesus the Christ, the perfect sinless Lamb of God (Isaiah 52:7, John 1:29, Acts 8:32-33), to be led to the slaughter as a willing self-sacrifice for our sins.  They mocked the King of the universe with taunts and piercing thorns before piercing His hands and feet as predetermined (Psalm 22:16, Zechariah 12:10, Revelation 1:7) to fulfill all things related to our salvation from sin’s just penalty we are all due.  They put a royal purple robe on Him with that painful piercing crown and paraded Jesus around to mock further as they hit Him and told Him to prophesy to them.  They did not believe Jesus could really prophesy nor did they see Him as the true King over all creation; they mocked the Lord of all in utter rejection and disbelief.  Even after such scourging and unwarranted mocking, Pilate still found Jesus to be innocent as he led Him so arrayed before them to display their own decision to kill their guiltless King.  They refused to crucify Jesus themselves but forced the Roman government to do their dirty work for them as they yelled, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”Jesus was to die as they found His truth a lie that He was the Son of God.  This truth pierced the heart and conscience of Pilate with fear and dread at the thought of possibly putting a deity to death.  He asked Jesus once more who He was and where He came from, threatening his earthly authority over the omnipotent One seemingly holding His fate in his hands.  Jesus told him plainly that he only had power allowed by God and the sin lay in those handing Him over to Roman justice who rejected Jesus and not he himself.  Though Pilate then tried to free Jesus, the crowd accused him of making Jesus king over Caesar to manipulate him into doing as they demanded by questioning the loyalty of Pilate.  This worked and he passed the sentence of judgment on Jesus Christ as Pilate exclaimed, “Behold your king!”  The mob. Died again for His crucifixion as the swore loyalty to Caesar as their only king as they denied their true Sovereign.  They took Jesus away from the judgment to the cross of the cursed tree for the slow and painful execution of the King of creation.  We see here how rejecting God’s Son and His rule over us only seems to eliminate the source of condemnation; we know now how the account ends as our King is not judged by us but we by Him who died for our sin’s judgment even as we all as Adam’s descendants falsely accuse our Savior in our mocking and denial until He draws us to Himself and opens our blind eyes and deaf ears to the truth that He is the Son of God (John 3:18, 11:27, 20:31, 1 John 5:13).  Amen!