October 21, 2023
Criminals Who Question Criminals
“So Pilate said to them, ‘Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.’ The Jews said to him, ‘We are not permitted to put anyone to death,’ to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die.” John 18:31-32 (NASB)
Today we see criminals seeking the endorsement of another criminal. The problem is when one criminal (Pontius Pilate) even sees something wrong. Their true intention was drawn out and it became apparent to a criminal who hated the Jews how wrong it was. This is proof that there is no loyalty among thieves.
“So Pilate said to them, ‘Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.” Pilate drew out the true intention of the Jews, who said, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death.” They determined to find Jesus guilty before the trial was even completed showing their true intention not to give Jesus a fair trial. He was convicted in their minds before the trial. They wanted Jesus dead. “… to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die.” Hughes says this so well concerning this passage, “John tells us that Jesus even controlled the kind of death that awaited him. The religious leaders could have gotten away with a vigilante stoning of Jesus, just as they would do with Stephen a few months later. True, there would have been some momentary trouble, but they could have pulled it off. But Caiaphas, the high priest, wanted Jesus crucified. He wanted him to be displayed to the people as cursed. Deuteronomy 21:23 says, ‘Anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.’ Caiaphas thought if Jesus was crucified, the Jews would look at him and say, ‘He cannot be the Blessed One, he’s a cursed imposter.’ Caiaphas failed to remember or did not know that Jesus had prophesied his mode of death when he said, ‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up’ (John 3:14). It never entered Caiaphas’ diseased mind that he was fulfilling prophecy. Jesus was in control! Jesus was not on trial—Pilate and the Sanhedrin were!”[1] The Jews knew they could not execute a person (by crucifixion) without the permission of the Roman government. Crucifixion was not a Jewish punishment. It was a Roman execution. Crucifixion was carried out by orders from the governor. This death would have been reserved for “… the most cruel and disgraceful crimes for slaves, rebels, and low criminals such as pirates, assassins, deserters, but not for Roman citizens. Jesus on account of His Messianic claims must have appeared to the Roman governor as a rebel. [P. S.].”[2] If left to the Jew's court power, they could have only stoned him to death. This is the death Stephen would suffer in the future recorded in Acts 7:1-5. The Jews learned from this event how to get rid of the disciples without further intervention from the Roman government.
I can’t imagine today where this could ever happen. A warning flag should have gone up when even Pilate didn’t want to get involved. The religious leaders hated Jesus. The Jews wanted Him dead. Pilate wanted Jesus to go away. The Jews wanted Jesus’ death to be of the cruelest. The sheer horror of the impending execution would be turned into total victory over darkness. You and I will never know what suffering on a cross today is like. Thank God today for His gift to you at Jesus’s cost!
[1] Hughes, R. K. (1999). John: that you may believe (pp. 422–423). Crossway Books.
[2] Lange, J. P., & Schaff, P. (2008). A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: John (p. 564). Logos Bible Software.