John 19:6, commentary and pictures

The chief priests and officers, stirred by the priests, rulers and elders, cried out for Him to be crucified, and Pilate answered that they should take Him and crucify Him themselves, for he found no fault in Him. His reply was not a finding of guilt but a despairing, angry challenge to their cruel and unreasonable fury, for he found no grounds to condemn Jesus and they lacked authority to carry out a death sentence, having already scourged Him in hope that suffering would satisfy the crowd. Jesus was sinless, faultless and perfect, God veiled in humanity, and Pilate's admission was a public declaration by a heathen judge establishing His innocence as part of God's appointed purpose. Though Pilate knew Jesus was innocent and knew what was right, to appease the mob and save his own office, position and honor he handed Christ over to be crucified rather than stand by his conviction. The leaders could point to no condemning act in Christ's life, but His goodness stirred their jealousy and hate until rejection of light hardened their hearts, and their cry was the climax of Satan's malice working through priests and people, leaving all who hear to choose Christ's side rather than join His opponents.

Trial Cry and Reply

When the chief priests and officers saw Him they cried out, Crucify Him, crucify Him, stirred to it by the priests and rulers and elders, and Pilate answered, Take ye Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him. The demand was for crucifixion while the judge himself declared no fault in Him, setting vengeful demand against recognition that He was guilty of no crime deserving death. Some who joined in that demand for His crucifixion later heard the apostles.

Pilate's bidding to take and crucify Jesus was not a finding of guilt but a despairing challenge wrung from him by cruel, unreasonable fury. He had found no grounds for condemnation, and they lacked authority themselves to carry out the death sentence. He spoke in despair and frustration and in anger, still holding Jesus innocent in his judgment. He had already ordered Jesus scourged, hoping that suffering would satisfy the crowd, yet the demand to crucify continued.

He declared Jesus innocent and without fault repeatedly, twice and even three times, knowing He had been delivered for envy, yet the cry for death went on and the unjust sentence followed. The accusers could prove no guilt, but Pilate yielded and handed Him over to a cruel death. Those who had wanted to make Jesus king soon chose Barabbas instead and cried for Jesus to be crucified. The demand swelled into the cry of a great multitude following Him to Calvary, many mocking and deriding while others wept and recounted His praise. Those He had healed of infirmities and raised from the dead declared His marvelous works with earnest voice and asked what He had done to be treated as a criminal, while many who only days before had attended Him with joyful hosannas and waving palm branches as He rode triumphantly to Jerusalem shouted His praise then because it was popular and now joined the call for His death because that was popular.

The cry belongs to the condemnation and the road from Pilate's hall to Calvary. On that road Judas's death left the crowd quieter and made some recognize that retribution was coming upon those responsible for Jesus' blood. The priests loudly demanded that He be crucified though Pilate had found no fault in Him, and after the resurrection their demand stood in stark contrast to the soldiers' testimony that the crucified Jesus was the Son of God.

Christ Declared Innocent

John 19:6 presents Jesus as sinless, faultless, and perfect in humanity, even as men claiming great righteousness joined in demanding His death. He combines humanity with divinity as God veiled in humanity, the Son of the living God and the Prince of Life. He had done so much good for the very people given over to rage against Him. His humble, travel-worn appearance concealed a heart of divine love, yet His works had shown Him to be the Lord of life and glory.

Pilate's admission in the verse is a public declaration establishing that Christ had committed no fault. It is the testimony of an irreligious heathen judge to the innocence of Christ. That publicity, point after point and scene after scene of humiliation at the Passover, was part of God's appointed purpose.

Despite Pilate's stated judgment that He was innocent, Jesus was condemned as a malefactor and gave Himself up to be killed on the cross. His public condemnation and death were part of God's appointed purpose. The verse exposes the contrast between Christ's innocence and the determined hostility of the priests and rulers who persisted in demanding His crucifixion. Some who joined in that demand later heard the apostles.

Pilate's Unjust Condemnation

Pilate knew Jesus was innocent and knew what was right, yet to appease the angry mob he handed Christ over to be crucified, choosing to sacrifice an innocent life rather than stand by his conviction because he feared losing his position and honor and sought to save his own office. He knew Jesus had been delivered for envy and twice declared Him innocent and without fault, yet he condemned Him. He declared before scornful accusers that Jesus was faultless, the Son of the living God, yet gave Him up to be derided and crucified, letting spikes be driven through His hands and feet and Him be hanged on the cruel cross to save his own office.

By claiming power to crucify and to release, Pilate made himself responsible for the condemnation of Christ, for the cruel scourging, and for the insults offered before any wrong was proved against Him. Appointed to administer justice, he refused to do it and delivered an innocent man to murderers for a most ignominious and cruel death. Washing his hands and saying he was innocent of the blood of this just person did not make him guiltless or cleanse his conscience. Had he used his power and position to protect Christ he would not have been held guilty for His death, though Christ would still have been crucified. His public declaration that he found no fault in Jesus stands even as he ordered Him scourged and delivered Him to be put to death.

Pilate yielded to the priests and rulers and to the crowd rather than uphold justice and protect Jesus, and he should have firmly defended Christ and refused to condemn Him. His first retreat from justice in allowing an innocent man to be scourged was a cruel act that brought lasting remorse. His wavering allowed the crowd to overrule him and led to his ruin, illustrating how compromising with evil for self-interest carries a person into guilt. His failure to act on his conviction brought him a guilty conscience and lasting infamy, and his conduct became an example followed by judges who surrender justice to public pressure.

Pilate's own declaration of Christ's innocence would testify against him at the judgment, as would the guilty act of those to whom he delivered Jesus.

Leaders' Hostile Rejection

The leaders could point to no act in His life to condemn, yet men claiming great righteousness joined in demanding the death of the sinless One. His goodness and humble, self-denying life, and the attention His works drew, stirred their jealousy and hate until they treated the innocent One as deserving death. Their rejection of light and unbelief hardened their hearts until they called for His crucifixion, with the chief priests and elders stirring the crowd to the cry. Rejecting light left them under Satan's control, until good appeared evil and evil good, darkness for light and light for darkness.

Their cry for crucifixion was the climax of rejection, prompted by Satan whose malice worked through priests and people against Jesus. It was directed against One whose mercy and love revealed God's character, and it reveals the malice behind the world's rejection of the Redeemer. By that rejection the verdict exposed Satan and his synagogue leagued against divinity, rejecting and dishonoring Christ as far as combined human and satanic power could. Satan led the mob in abusing the Saviour while demanding Jesus' death and Barabbas's release, choosing a robber and a heathen king in place of the Prince of Life and withdrawing from the divine theocracy. That cry helps expose Satan's character before the universe.

The religious leaders' demand for His crucifixion exposed the injustice and oppression of their religion. Their appeal to human religious law to demand the death of One declared faultless shows how religious authority joined to civil power can use law to oppose God and persecute those who remain loyal to Him. The demand exposed hypocrisy cloaked by a garment of religion, contradicting their grand Passover ceremonies and revealing imposing religious dress covering hearts needing the molding of the Spirit of God, mingled with selfishness, fraud, discontent and unholy passions. The cry against the holy Prince of heaven shows what people do when they are not under the control of God's Spirit and are moved by Satan.

The priests loudly demanded His crucifixion and joined that cry with the declaration that His blood would be upon them and their children. They made that demand after deliberately choosing Barabbas, a choice that would mark their character as long as life should last. The invoked blood would indeed come upon them as the blight of God's curse, never ceasing to torture the hearts of the speakers. Jesus never spurns the true penitent, but He hates such hypocrisy.

Example Warning and Future

The hostility that cried for crucifixion could not prevent Christ from completing His work, and He endured rejection, suffering, insults and outrage with meekness and calmness, without murmuring, without retaliating, and without using His divine power to escape. In that patient endurance He left His followers an example of how to bear trials and reproach, and His faithfulness under the test helped prove false the charges Satan had brought against God. The disciples had been prepared beforehand for this humiliation and for the fickleness of people who had once followed Jesus, so that the crowd's rejection would not take them by surprise nor make their faith depend on public opinion.

The same rebellion and hatred shown toward Christ will be present at His second coming. If He came again as humbly as the first time, reproving sin and commending virtue and holiness, many would cry out against Him, and even more would reject Him. Before His return infidelity and denial concerning Christ as the true Messiah and Saviour will grow, with Satan using his skill to deceive even more effectively than at the first advent. The scene also represents the spirit of those who will oppose God's people in the coming crisis, showing what people do when they are not under the control of God's Spirit but are moved by Satan.

The cry sets those who reject Christ against those who stand with Him, making it a matter of personal responsibility to choose Christ's side rather than the side of His opponents. Encouraging transgression by example brings accountability to God. Those who now dishonor God, deny their Saviour, and are disloyal to Him would have joined the cry to crucify Him if He were present on earth in human form among them.

Remembering this innocent suffering calls believers to serve God with all their hearts, to lay hold on Christ by faith for strength and grace and power to follow on to know the Lord, and to keep warning neighbors and winning souls to Him. The account of how Jesus was in the world and hung on the cross with spikes driven through His hands and feet is to be told as testimony to those in the world, while impurity and sin are overcome by the blood of the Lamb. A crowd's cry to crucify can also represent the persecuting, accusatory influence of people who join a popular attack on someone already burdened and opposed, warning against adding suspicion, envy, jealousy and faultfinding to another person's trials.