-Denial and faithlessness are always within reach for even the strongest disciple.

-Regardless of our thoughts, regardless of our attitudes, regardless of our actions we are a people deeply loved and forgiven, a people with work to do for our master.

-The forgiving love of Jesus is so great that He sees our real personality,not in our faithlessness, but in our loyalty, not in our defeat by sin, but in our reaching after goodness, even when we are defeated.

John 18-19:16 (focusing on verses 19:1 – 16a)

1 WHEN HE HAD finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was an olive grove, and he and his disciples went into it.

2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.

3 So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

4 Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”

5“Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.)

6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

7 Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

8“I told you that I am he,” Jesus answered. “If you are looking for me, then let these men go.”

9 This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”

10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)

11 Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

12 Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him

13 and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year.

14 Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it would be good if one man died for the people.

15 Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard,

16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

17“You are not one of his disciples, are you?” the girl at the door asked Peter. He replied, “I am not.”

18 It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

19 Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.

20“I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret.

21 Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.”

22 When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby struck him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded.

23“If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?”

24 Then Annas sent him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.

25 As Simon Peter stood warming himself, he was asked, “You are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it, saying, “I am not.”

26 One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the olive grove?”

27 Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.

28 Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.

29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”

30“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”

31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” “But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected.

32 This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.

33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

34“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

35“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

37“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

38“What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.

39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”

40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.

19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.

2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe

3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they struck him in the face.

4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.”

5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

6 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.”

7 The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid,

9 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 realize 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 Jews 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 Passover Week, about the sixth hour. “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.

Jesus Before Pilate (Episode 2)
JOHN REPORTS A slightly different version from the Synoptics of what happens next. While the latter say that Jesus was whipped after the trial following Pilate’s verdict (and just prior to the crucifixion), John records that Jesus was flogged during the second interrogation with Pilate. Similarly the Synoptics place the crown of thorns and the mocking of the soldiers after the trial but John records it earlier. That such abuse happened more than once is not unimaginable (pace Brown). But John shows that Pilate has another motive: This preliminary flogging is his gambit to set Jesus free. Luke 23:16 also hints that when the crowd calls for Barabbas, Pilate suggests that Jesus be punished and set free.

Roman law recognized three types of flogging: fustigatio, flagellatio, and verberatio, each representing ascending levels of severity, although it is uncertain if the Gospel’s original readers would have understood these differences. The lowest form (fustigatio) was reserved for troublemakers who simply needed to be punished and warned. The third level (verberatio) was the most severe and served as a part of a capital sentence, generally as a preparation for crucifixion. No doubt when Jesus is prepared for crucifixion in Mark 15:15, this severe beating is what Mark has in mind, and we should assume the same in John 19:16 (although it is not mentioned it would be a part of crucifixion itself). In the present scene Pilate chooses to employ fustigatio, a beating, not only to teach Jesus to be more prudent in the future, but to satisfy the crowds who are demanding his death.

Since the task of flogging generally belonged to soldiers, the same soldiers also begin to mock Jesus and hurt him. The mock crown may have been a woven circular crown of twigs and thorns, pressed down to inflict pain. As a mockery of kingship, it imitated crowns worn by “divine” rulers (whose images appear on numerous coins). It may have been made of the thorny date palm, whose thorns can exceed twelve inches. These are woven together with some of the thorns sticking straight up around the entire crown (like an Indian headdress). This made him look like a god-king with “radiating” beams coming from his head.

When Pilate escorts Jesus outside, his clear intention is to display Jesus in cruel submission, bearing the marks of his punishment, and thereby obtain his release. John’s famous “Here is the man” records Pilate’s words as he tries to evoke sympathy for Jesus’ pathetic state. Jesus is in sore condition; he no doubt is bleeding profusely and terribly bruised. Pilate also announces for the second time that Jesus is innocent, but Pilate’s overture fails when his audience calls for Jesus’ death. We can almost sense Pilate’s anger. Rather than pitying Jesus, the leaders are calling for his crucifixion and in disgust Pilate calls back to them, saying as it were, “If you want a crucifixion, do it yourself; I find nothing to warrant it.” Pilate is trying to avoid responsibility for the death of an innocent man (here Matthew adds that Pilate washes his hands, discharging any responsibility).

The Jewish leaders had earlier played their “political card,” telling Pilate that Jesus was a king. Now they have a religious accusation: If Pilate truly discharges his duties in the province he will uphold local law (when it is irrelevant to imperial interests) and thereby keep the peace. Jesus has broken their law and so must die. According to Leviticus 24:16, “Anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death.”
Was it illegal to claim to be the Son of God? This is hardly the case. The king of Israel enjoyed this title, and it appears for the Messiah in various writings of intertestamental Jewish literature (such as Qumran). But the language veils another worry: by “son” Jesus has said more, implying that he bears the authority of God himself. John 5:18 is explicit: “For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

Pilate’s conversation with Jesus about power compares with the earlier conversation in 18:33 – 38. These are the only episodes where Jesus speaks; in each case Pilate begins with a question that only inspires his frustration and annoyance. Jesus and Pilate talk “past” each other, responding to ideas on utterly different planes. Such misunderstanding is characteristic of discourses and conversations throughout this Gospel. A mundane question discovers a spiritually profound answer but cannot comprehend it. Of course Pilate has the power to crucify Jesus, but (like truth) Jesus’ retort explains the nature of true power: It is derived from heaven (“from above”), and that is the origin of Jesus. The implication is telling. Jesus, who comes “from above,” bears greater power; what power Pilate does enjoy is simply a privilege given (on one level) by Caesar, who ranks above him.

But even here Pilate no doubt misses the double entendre: The real power above both Caesar and Pilate is God, and so Pilate has no grounds for boasting. No one can take the Son’s life away from him. No one! God has permitted Pilate to have this power over Jesus because it is a necessary aspect of what will happen in “the hour.” Jesus must die. In the story Pilate has tried to use what power he enjoys to free Jesus, but it doesn’t work. Pilate is powerless before God’s plan in this hour.

The first conversation ended with Pilate trying to release Jesus; now the same happens again. The nature of Jesus’ answers increases Pilate’s conviction that Jesus’ innocence is compelling and he must be freed. The verb in 18:12 is imperfect, meaning ongoing action (“Pilate kept trying to free Jesus”), but it is fruitless. Suddenly something dramatic happens. The Jewish leaders know they have one more weapon, one more bit of leverage on this governor that will make him pliable, like putty in their hands. “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar.” The last time these leaders “shouted,” they had called for Jesus’ crucifixion; now they shout again, using the same tone with Pilate, suggesting that he likewise will suffer.

The irony of this situation is that these Jewish leaders, who come from a province seething with hatred for Rome, are here chastising the governor for not being sufficiently loyal. But Pilate has reason for worry. Jewish delegations were known to travel to the Roman Senate to complain about the work of governors, putting careers in danger. Pilate has seen this with some of his own friends. Therefore Pilate’s powerlessness is all the more apparent and at once his resolve is broken. The fate of Jesus has returned to politics. If Jesus claims to be a king, no matter the truth, political exigencies demand he be killed.

From this point, things proceed swiftly. Pilate returns to the porch outside with Jesus, where he occupies the governor’s judgment seat (or tribune; Gk. bema) and prepares to render a decision. In a footnote John tells us that this was known as “the stone pavement” and adds the Hebrew note that it was called the “Gabbatha” (which likely means “platform” or “high place”). But the important feature of the note is that as governor, Pilate is now positioned to speak with the voice of his office.

The closing scene is filled with Pilate’s sarcasm. “Here is your king” echoes “Here is the man”, and Pilate now offers to crucify this royal Jewish monarch. The audience of chief priests (the great “shepherds” of Israel) supplies an acid tone to the conclusion and lays the groundwork for their own blasphemy. “We have no king but Caesar” is a direct contradiction of the injunction of the Bible that God alone is Israel’s king and the kings that did reign did so by divine appointment. By rejecting Jesus they have rejected God himself, as Jesus predicted, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him”.

John states that these things take place “at the sixth hour on the day of Preparation for the Passover” (NIV “the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour”).

When Jesus is “handed over” for crucifixion, he is placed in the custody of the Roman garrison that ordinarily handled such matters. Here Mark 15:15b introduces Jesus’ full preparation for crucifixion (although John’s only record of flogging takes place earlier). While Jesus had been given a remedial flogging by Pilate’s men, now the soldiers inflict the verberatio. We can barely improve on the description of Blinzler:

The delinquent was stripped, bound to a post or a pillar, or sometimes simply thrown on the ground, and beaten by a number of torturers until the latter grew tired and the flesh of the delinquent hung in bleeding shreds. In the provinces this was the task of the soldiers. Three kinds of implements were customary. Rods were used on freemen; military punishments were inflected with sticks, but for slaves scourges or whips were used, the leather thongs of these being often fitted with a spike or with several pieces of bone or lead joined to form a chain. The scourging of Jesus was carried out with these last-named instruments. It is not surprising to hear that delinquents frequently collapsed and died under this procedure which only in exceptional cases was prescribed as a death sentence. Josephus records that he himself had some of his opponents in the Galilean Tarichae scourged until their entrails were visible. The case of Jesus bar Hanan, the prophet of woe, whom the procurator Albinus had scourged until his bones lay bare … also makes one realize what the little word phragellosas [to scourge] in Mark 15:15 means.

Three secondary issues (continued)

(3) Peter’s denials
The account of Peter’s denials is not a unique feature of the Johannine story but has parallels in the three Synoptic Gospels. It is profitable to follow the profile of Peter up to this point in John’s Gospel. Unlike Mark’s Gospel, which provides a consistently critical portrait of the apostle’s heroics and shortcomings, John gives Peter a sterling role till now. He was a model disciple and among one of Jesus’ first converts. When many are scandalized at Jesus’ shocking words, he alone stands fast, urging that there is nowhere else to go to find eternal life. Because he respects Jesus deeply, he refuses to let him wash his feet; then, when he learns that this is a prerequisite for discipleship, he asks for a full bath. In the Upper Room when the disciples hear clearly Jesus’ prediction of his coming death, Peter is heroic, refusing to believe he will ever renounce his Lord. In the garden he impulsively, albeit sincerely, tries to defend his master with a sword. When Jesus is led away as a prisoner, Peter follows, refusing to let Jesus undergo this abuse by himself.

But this great profile is overshadowed by his great failing at the high priest’s house. Numerous lessons spin out from this. Despite Peter’s prominence, despite his role as custodian of the faith and leader among the disciples, he can still deny it. This is a warning. Denial and faithlessness are always within reach for even the strongest disciple. I can understand Peter’s denials as he stands by the fire feeling threatened by Malchus’s relative and a circle of soldiers. But does he have to dispatch his faith the moment a young woman at the gate catches his sleeve? We dare not miss the pitifulness of this scene.

But perhaps what stands out in the Johannine story is Jesus’ continued interest in Peter. We will see this again in chapter 21, but can anticipate it here. John reports that Jesus renews his relationship with Peter later when he meets him in Galilee. He is still a man deeply loved and forgiven, a man with work to do for his master.

It was the real Peter who protested his loyalty in the upper room; it was the real Peter who drew his lonely sword in the moonlight of the garden; it was the real Peter who followed Jesus, because he could not leave his Lord alone; it was not the real Peter who cracked beneath the tension and who denied his Lord. And that is just what Jesus could see. … The forgiving love of Jesus is so great that He sees our real personality, not in our faithlessness, but in our loyalty, not in our defeat by sin, but in our reaching after goodness, even when we are defeated.