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Bible passage

John 19:1–16a

Jesus sentenced to be crucified

19 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ And they slapped him in the face.

Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.’ When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’

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 Jewish leaders 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. 10 ‘Do you refuse to speak to me?’ Pilate said. ‘Don’t you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you?’

11 Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’

12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, ‘If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.’

13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.

‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews.

15 But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’

‘Shall I crucify your king?’ Pilate asked.

‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered.

16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

The crucifixion of Jesus

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.

Word Live 104

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Violence, mockery, attempted vindication and renewed accusations follow thick and fast in today’s verses. From the soldiers’ sneering (v 3) to Pilate’s indignant boasts of power (v 10), the passage turns on the subject of sovereignty. 

We find ourselves on the sixth day of the Jewish week, the creation day on which God made living creatures and then humankind to co-reign with him (Genesis 1:24–28). From the start, man was meant to have his Maker as king, to be his ambassador, exemplifying and exercising his rule on earth. As God’s people wandered from him, a succession of anointed leaders was appointed to mediate his ways and words. But that wasn’t enough: Israel rejected God’s reign in favour of a human king (1 Samuel 8:7).

Now we see humankind, the creature made in his image, using its God- given authority to kill the Creator and obliterate his perfect Image. With cries of ‘Crucify!’ and declarations of allegiance to Caesar (v 15), the chief priests bring this biblical storyline to its darkest hour. Yet, while his people reject it and Pilate fails to recognise it, Jesus – the true Man – shows us what it looks like to fulfil God’s invitation to rule with him. Life here and now is our opportunity to join him and practise for eternity (Revelation 22:5). 

Author
Cath Butler

Respond

Think of the coming day. How might you step into co-reigning with God (Revelation 22:5)?

Bible in a year

Read the Bible in a year:  Deuteronomy 27,28; Romans 7

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