HOST: Ron House
SPONSOR: Start2Finish
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 yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that 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 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 a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 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 delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus,
John reveals that, before He was led away to be crucified, Jesus was scourged. This seems to have been part of Pilate’s plan to secure Jesus’ release, thinking the Jews would be satisfied to see Jesus suffer this agonizing beating at the hands of a Roman soldier. The instrument used for scourging was a short whip made of leather strips, each one with some material (such as bone or metal) attached to the end. As the flagellum was brought down against the tightly stretched skin of the back, each strand of the whip caused deep lacerations and excruciating pain. The Jews had a law that a man could not receive more than forty lashes with a whip. To assure that they did not violate that law, their practice was to stop at thirty-nine. But Jesus was not scourged by the Jews, but by the Romans who had no such law. Jesus was completely at the mercy of the soldier wielding the flagellum. As He stood before the Jewish crowd one last time, beaten and bloody, weakened by dehydration and loss of blood, the Jews mercilessly demanded that Jesus be put to death, adamantly declaring, “We have no king but Caesar!”
What is the significance of the Jews’ statement: “We have no king but Caesar”?
Don’t forget to pray and have a great day!
