Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hello, I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And today on reading the Gospel, we are studying the event, the second trial before Pilate. This is found in all four Gospels. We find it in Matthew 27, verses 15 to 31, in Mark, chapter 15, 6, 19 in Luke, chapter 2313 through 25, and finally in John, chapter 18, verse 39 through 19, verse 16. Follow along with us in the book of John as we read beginning in chapter 18, verse 39.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: You have a custom, said Pilate, that I should release one man for you at the Passover.
So do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? They cried out again, not this man, but Barabbas.
Now, Barabbas was a robbery.
Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe.
They came up to him saying, hail, King of the Jews, and struck him with their hands.
Pilate went out again and said to them, see, I am bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no guilt in him.
So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold the man.
When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, crucify him. Crucify him.
Pilate said to them, take him yourself and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: The Jews answered him, we have a law. And according to the law, he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you will not speak to me. Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered him, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. From then on, Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, if you release this man, you. You are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at the place called the stone pavement, and in Aramaic, gabbatha.
Now, when it was the day of preparation of the Passover, it was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, behold your king.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: And.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: And 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. So he sent him over to them to be crucified.
This is a sad event, and we're moving on. You know, our next event is the crucifixion itself. And these are not happy events to talk about.
In this event. I kind of take pity on Pilate because it seems like he doesn't want to try Jesus. It seems like he's looking for every excuse to get out of that trial that he doesn't find him guilty. He doesn't want to. But the pity only goes so far because ultimately, while he finds Jesus innocent, he allows Jesus to be crucified.
And he had, as he said he had the authority to stop it.
And so this is a. I do think Pilate is guilty. But as Jesus said, the sin is not as great as those who handed Jesus over to him.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: Look, he had good intentions. But as a great preacher from Chicago here, Dwight Moody, said, the way to hell is paved with good intentions as well as in business. Right. His ideas have to be translated into actions. His good intentions had to be built on a strong character and the courage to execute those good intentions.
What I heard in these words is that tension of fears in his life in.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: On one side, he was afraid of his own moral conscience.
He found no guilt in Jesus Christ, and he said it at least a couple of times.
And on the other side, he was afraid for his job to remain as governor. And the Jews put it in such a way that if a person proclaims himself to be a kind of king, that person is against Caesar.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: So if you let him go, that means you are against Caesar.
In addition to this, we have a couple of details. In the Gospel of Matthew, when Pilate's wife had a dream during the day about Jesus Christ, and she sent word to Pilate while he was sitting in his full authority as the judge and governor. Do not do any harm to this man. Because I had a dream, and I have suffered in that dream.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: You see those fears coming from all angles, and they are blending into Pilate, a man of multiple fears.
Do we experience those kind of contradictions, contradictory fears in our lives?
[00:06:41] Speaker A: I think we do all the time. And like you said, it comes down to the character. The chief priests made a statement. It is better that one man die. And they were willing to sacrifice Jesus to save the nation.
Here. Pilate's willing to sacrifice Jesus to save himself. Now, whether it's his job or his life, I believe he is probably fearful for his life with the Jews around him. But even if it's your life, are you going to sacrifice someone else to save your own life?
Is that what God is calling us to do?
[00:07:17] Speaker B: The deepest love is to give yourself or to sacrifice yourself for the benefit of a friend. Jesus Christ said, and this is the essence of love that is built on selfless love. Right?
Serving other centered love.
He is the other way around.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So we see Pilate doesn't find fault in Jesus.
He tries to release him. The Jews won't allow that, so he flogs him. He puts a crown of thorns on his head. Herod had already arrayed him in purple and everything, sent him down like a king. And then he sends him out, hopefully so the crowds can see, okay, I beat him up.
He's not the person who you guys think he is. He's had his punishment. Will you let him go? And they said, no. So he brings him back in, and he keeps trying to placate the crowd. Well, what if I release to you this man Barabbas? You know, it's a tradition. We release someone. And so I can release Jesus or I can release Barabbas, who, according to Luke and John, we find out Barabbas is not only a thief, he's also a murderer. And he led a rebellion. And putting the pieces together, I wonder if Barabbas was part of the band of thieves that ended up on the cross, if the three crosses that were on Golgotha that day were supposed to be Barabbas and the two other thieves, that, that. That maybe it was a robbery that went wrong and. And someone died. And. And so he is the worst of them. He's the ringleader. And. And God and Pilate's like, okay, they're gonna kick this guy out. They're. They're gonna definitely want Barabbas to be crucified so that I'll get to release Jesus. And. And so he tries that.
And the crowd's like, no, we want Barabbas. We want the murderer. We want the thief. We want. We want that guy. We don't want Jesus.
What had to go through their minds, you know, earlier in the week, they're throwing down their clothes, waving palm branches, saying hosanna to the son of David, welcoming him into Jerusalem as a king. And now they're willing to crucify this innocent man.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: Your question was, what was in their mind?
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: When you allow evil thoughts and plans to take over your thinking, your dreams, your planning, your life, you stop thinking after A while you justify it before. And after that, you just go full steam ahead to execute that plan. The execution is more emotional than rational.
And I think that speaks very loud for our human nature. Five days before, the same crowds was ready to receive Jesus Christ as a king. Five days later, they are crying, crucify him. We have no other king than Caesar.
And by saying that, they denied the leadership of God.
The Jewish nation was established in the time of Moses and later Joshua and the Judges and the kings as a theocracy.
That means God is the actual leader of the nation. And God speaks through prophets, through prayers, through the written word and so on.
And now they kind of rejected that or over and over until it was just by themselves. And they are an easy prey for the evil one.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Yeah. So Pilate brings Jesus back in and he says to him, will you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you or crucify you?
And Jesus says, you only have authority based on what is given you from above. So then Pilate seeks to even still get out of it. So, so in Matthew, it says he washes his hands, which is a symbol saying, this man's blood is on. On you. And in Matthew, the. The people say, yes, it's not only on us, but on our children and the children's children, like they're willing to take Jesus blood on the next generations.
And so Pilate hands him over and again. Pilate thinks he's removing himself. But Pilate had the duty to protect. Yes, the duty to, if he found someone innocent, to make them innocent. That one person shouldn't go to jail just because the crowd wants him to.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Sin is not only when you do something wrong. Sin is when you abstain from doing what is right or appropriate, what is in your power.
And this is how sin is being defined at least once in the letter.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Of James in this story, what I find is both the crowd and Pilate not being able to stand up to their convictions or stand up to their morals going along. Not having a strong character.
And this is a problem that we all can face. You know, the. The most important thing we have is not our home, our job, our wealth, everything. The most important thing we have is our character. How do we treat others? How do we act?
[00:13:09] Speaker B: And this is where Jesus Christ stands out.
And even Pilate himself said in verse five, behold the man. When we forget who we are and what should we be like, we should behold Jesus Christ, behold the man. He defines our humanity.
He sets the standard for our speaking and for Our silence for our behavior. He's an example for us. And this is the good news, the gospel that I see in this passage.
Jesus Christ is our example even in the most difficult moments of his trial.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: So he's our example.
But if we try to do this on our own, we will fail absolutely. He also has sent a helper who will help us. And when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, he gives us the character of God. He gives us the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. And we've talked about this time and time again. When we're faithful in the little things, when we do right in the little things, it helps us to be able to do right in the big things. And so there should never be a time in our lives as Christians where we say it's okay to sin. Here we should always stand for right so we don't find ourselves in situations like this where we are making catastrophic failure in our decisions. Let's pray. Father God. As we see Pilate and the crowds getting to a point where they're crying out, crucify him, it's easy to step back and say, well, that's not me.
But if we're honest, if we do not stand faithful to you in the little things, we cannot expect to stand for you in the big things. And so I pray that you will help us to build characters where we, where we are constantly standing for the right when we are trying to uplift and help others. Please do that work in us that you say you'll be faithful to complete. And may we be loving and kind to those around us. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: Amen.
