And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, Thou sayest it.
This questioning belongs to the trial that followed the betrayal and the appearance before Herod, when Jesus was condemned and humiliated. He stood bound as a prisoner in the judgment hall of Pilate, the Roman governor, with a guard of soldiers around him and the hall filling with spectators, after the Jewish leaders had condemned him and come to have the sentence confirmed and executed. The judges of the Sanhedrin, priests, rulers, elders, and mob stayed outside and refused to enter for fear that contact with Romans would defile them and keep them from the Passover, blind to how murderous hatred was defiling their hearts and to how Christ as the real Passover lamb made their rejection empty the feast of meaning.
Pilate was called in haste from his bedchamber at an early hour and first looked on Jesus without friendliness, determined to finish quickly and to deal with magisterial severity with one the Jewish authorities were anxious to try and punish in haste. Jesus showed calm dignity under indignity, with no sign of guilt or fear and no boldness or defiance; his goodness, nobility, calm and dignified bearing, and heaven-marked countenance were unlike any other prisoner Pilate had seen, made a favorable impression, and roused Pilate's better nature. What Pilate had heard of Jesus and his works, what his wife had told him of the Galilean prophet who cured the sick and raised the dead, and rumors from several sources returning like a dream led him to resolve to demand the Jews' charges against the prisoner.
Pilate asked Jesus whether he was the King of the Jews, and Jesus answered that Pilate had said so. The answer affirmed his kingship without directly explaining it, and it did not mean he was leading a revolt, seeking an earthly kingdom, or seeking earthly kingly honors, for his kingdom was not of this world. Caiaphas, the priests, and the other accusers treated the answer as an admission that he sought to establish a throne in Judah in opposition to Caesar.
Jesus stood before Pilate as an innocent man, and Pilate, along with Herod, recognized that the accusations were unsupported and that he was innocent, viewing the charge as part of a plot to destroy him. In private Pilate asked the question again, and Jesus asked whether Pilate spoke of himself or had heard it from others, giving him a chance to examine his own conviction. Though the multitude had once hailed him as king, he was now condemned and humiliated, and the reversal shows how fickle public favor is, preparing the disciples not to base their faith on the crowd's opinion of him.
This questioning belongs to the trial that followed the betrayal and the appearance before Herod, when Jesus was condemned and humiliated. He stood bound as a prisoner in the judgment hall of Pilate, the Roman governor, with a guard of soldiers around him and the hall filling with spectators, after the Jewish leaders had condemned him and come to have the sentence confirmed and executed. The judges of the Sanhedrin, priests, rulers, elders, and mob stayed outside and refused to enter for fear that contact with Romans would defile them and keep them from the Passover, blind to how murderous hatred was defiling their hearts and to how Christ as the real Passover lamb made their rejection empty the feast of meaning.
Pilate was called in haste from his bedchamber at an early hour and first looked on Jesus without friendliness, determined to finish quickly and to deal with magisterial severity with one the Jewish authorities were anxious to try and punish in haste. Jesus showed calm dignity under indignity, with no sign of guilt or fear and no boldness or defiance; his goodness, nobility, calm and dignified bearing, and heaven-marked countenance were unlike any other prisoner Pilate had seen, made a favorable impression, and roused Pilate's better nature. What Pilate had heard of Jesus and his works, what his wife had told him of the Galilean prophet who cured the sick and raised the dead, and rumors from several sources returning like a dream led him to resolve to demand the Jews' charges against the prisoner.
Pilate asked Jesus whether he was the King of the Jews, and Jesus answered that Pilate had said so. The answer affirmed his kingship without directly explaining it, and it did not mean he was leading a revolt, seeking an earthly kingdom, or seeking earthly kingly honors, for his kingdom was not of this world. Caiaphas, the priests, and the other accusers treated the answer as an admission that he sought to establish a throne in Judah in opposition to Caesar.
Jesus stood before Pilate as an innocent man, and Pilate, along with Herod, recognized that the accusations were unsupported and that he was innocent, viewing the charge as part of a plot to destroy him. In private Pilate asked the question again, and Jesus asked whether Pilate spoke of himself or had heard it from others, giving him a chance to examine his own conviction. Though the multitude had once hailed him as king, he was now condemned and humiliated, and the reversal shows how fickle public favor is, preparing the disciples not to base their faith on the crowd's opinion of him.