Reflective Bible Study

Of all the gospel writers to share about Jesus’ trial before Pilate, the gospel of John includes the version that may be my favorite. Matthew and Mark both share similar, very abridged versions, while Luke goes into details about how Pilate sends Jesus to see Herod, who then sends Jesus back.

However, the gospel of John is the only gospel that includes an actual conversation between Pilate and Jesus. All the other gospel writers simply include one question and one response Jesus gave. In John’s gospel, we learn that there was a brief discussion, but what is amazing in this discussion is not the discussion itself, but a subtle shift ended up happening that turned Pilates focus.

The passage opens with Pilate asking the Jewish leaders, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” (v. 29)

The Jewish leaders sidestep the question by saying, “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” (v. 30)

The Jewish leaders give no charge or accusation, but instead simply press Jesus’ guilt. This simple detail is one that by itself makes this case unique. But a subtle shift happens during Jesus’ conversation with Pilate, because when we read Pilate’s verdict at the end of their conversation, we see something that is easy to miss.

Following their conversation, Pilate comes out and addresses the crowd of Jewish leaders by saying at the end of verse 38, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” But Pilate doesn’t stop there. He continues by saying, “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’?” (v. 39)

Now, Jesus would have been a free person had these leaders not arrested Him, so it makes no rational sense for Pilate to offer to release Jesus as though He was a prisoner. If Jesus was unjustly arrested, then He should be released as a separate action aside from the custom of releasing a prisoner. It is in these two verses that we see the shift from Pilate believing Jesus is innocent to assuming His guilt.

In this way, we come to the big realization I had when reading this passage: While Pilate eventually bends to the crowds demands for crucifixion a few verses later, in these two verses, Pilate becomes just as responsible for Jesus’ death as the Jewish leaders themselves. The Jewish leaders may have been the ones to arrest Jesus, but Pilate, in assuming His guilt from His status as a prisoner when he directly says that he finds no fault in Jesus, also is just as responsible because he chose to not set Jesus free.

In this passage Jesus’ death is not only because of the Jewish leaders present, but the gentile leaders as well. In this way, both groups of humanity (Jews and Gentiles) are responsible for Jesus’ death on the cross.

From Jesus’ birth story until the time of His baptism when He was 30 years old, very little is known about Jesus. All we have shared in the gospels are transition statements, except for one story that only the gospel of Luke includes. This event is when Jesus staying in Jerusalem after the Passover festival while Mary, Joseph, and their extended family head back home. It is only after a full day’s travel that Mary and Joseph realize that Jesus isn’t with their group of travelers.

Once Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the temple, we see an interesting idea within Mary’s question to Jesus, and in Jesus’ response. On finding Jesus in the temple, Mary asks Jesus, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” (v. 48)

Jesus responds to Mary by saying, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (v. 49)

What is fascinating to me is that at the age of twelve, Jesus had shifted His perspective from simply seeing Joseph and Mary as His parents to seeing God as His true Father. Mary calls Joseph, “your father” in her question, but Jesus responds with the phrase “My Father” in a way that refers to God.

At age twelve, Jesus already understood His uniqueness, and Mary and Joseph probably had shared with Him the miraculous events surrounding His birth. At that point, Jesus may have even remembered some of the time they spent in Egypt or the moving trip back to Nazareth.

But the big takeaway that I see in this idea for all of us is that regardless of how old we are, we can see God as being our Father, and we can place Him in this role in our lives.

If there was ever a moment that, as a group, the Pharisees felt defeated by Jesus, it is probably in this passage. There are plenty of places where we read about questions or tricks that they unsuccessfully challenged Jesus with, but following the event in this passage, we read a very revealing phrase that only John includes in his gospel.

Following the great celebration where Jesus rides a young donkey into Jerusalem, John includes a little side-note about who the crowd was, the crowd’s response, and the Pharisees reaction to what was happening. John tells us, “Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. So the Pharisees said to one another, ‘See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!’” (v. 17-19)

While the Pharisee’s statement is interesting, the really big lesson we can learn is from the crowd itself.

John tells us the crowd started with those who had witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus, and they were the biggest evangelists of Jesus in that region. John says that, “Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign [resurrecting Lazarus], went out to meet him.” (v. 18)

This leads us to one of the big things we can learn in this passage/event: Personal evangelism has always been one of the most effective ways of sharing. It was this way in the first century, and it is still this way today. A solid network of dedicated fans can draw more people in than the best mass-marketing efforts available. In Jesus’ case, His network of fans prompted the Pharisees to say that it felt like “the whole world has gone after Him!” – The more we lift Jesus up – pointing people to Him and what He has done for us – the more effective our evangelism and sharing will be.

In the event we are looking closely at in this journal entry, we come across all four gospels including Peter’s big failure on the night Jesus was arrested. This was an event Jesus predicted would happen just hours before, and it happened just as Jesus said it would.

This leads us to a question that has implications for us all: Would Peter have denied Jesus if Jesus hadn’t said anything? Or in other words, did Jesus’ prediction change the course of the events of that night and take away Peter’s free will to choose a different path?

These are questions that we must answer if we want to understand more about God’s nature, and these the questions are found in the heart of the idea of predestination – which can be described as God knowing whether someone will be saved or lost before they are even born. Does predestination take away a person’s freedom of choice?

We could frame what happened in this event a different way.

Jesus knew Peter’s future. Jesus knew who Peter was and what Peter would become in the coming years. Jesus also knew Peter was about to make the biggest mistake of his life – one that he would regret for the rest of his life.

Jesus knew that regardless of the details surrounding how Peter chose to deny Him, Peter was going to directly separate himself from Jesus at three separate points. Nothing Jesus would say or not say would change that – however, by saying what would happen, Jesus offers Peter a warning and a direct, personal reason to place even more faith in Him when their relationship would be restored in the coming week(s). And, by giving Peter the clear warning on the front end, Jesus helps Peter break some of the pride in His heart, because if you fail in a huge way, right after Jesus warns you about it, you basically don’t deserve the prestigious position as leader of the disciples.

Perhaps Peter had let his position as the vocal one in the core group of three disciples get to him. In many ways, he was the unofficial leader of this group of Jesus followers – and a “second-in-command” position like this likely had allowed some pride to creep into His heart. A huge failure after a direct warning and prediction about it had the potential to re-humble the most famous of Jesus’ disciples.

Jesus does know the future, but just because Jesus can see our actions and choices before we make them doesn’t mean that He is predestining us to make good or bad decisions. Jesus didn’t want Peter to deny Him, but it would have happened whether Jesus had said something or not.