No King but Caesar

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:

1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.

4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”

But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”

7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”

13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.

“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. (John 19:8-16a, NIV)

REFLECTIONS:

Last December I wrote a devotional on this chapter, focusing primarily on Pilate's declaration: "Here is the man!" (verse 5). If you're interested, you can read it here. In an effort to suck some more marrow out of this passage, today we'll primarily focus on verses 8-16. But first, a story…

[It might seem a little irreverent to use a sports analogy to describe the passage in which Jesus is condemned to crucifixion, but it's what comes into my mind at the moment.]

Having spent my childhood years in Houston, I was a huge Houston Oilers fan. For years and years, I had cheered and supported a team that was mediocre at best, and time and again found myself heartbroken at the end of the season. But, something seemed to be different during the season of 1992-1993. The Oilers were pretty darn good that year. In fact, on the last game of the season, they had defeated the Buffalo Bills by a score of 27-3 to reach the playoffs. And, here they were, facing the Bills again, this time in the Wild Card game. During the first half of the game, the Oilers totally dominated the Bills. At halftime, the score was 28-3. Immediately after halftime, the Oilers scored again. Houston now had a commanding 32-point lead, 35-3. But then, things began to change. The Bills returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, cutting the deficit to 35-10. They kicked an onside kick, which they recovered and promptly turned into another score. The extra point made the score 35-17. To save myself the pain of recalling all the details, let me summarize what happened: the Oilers unraveled and the Bills took advantage of every mistake. Guided by backup quarterback, Frank Reich, the Bills scored several touchdowns and eventually took the lead, 38-35. Miraculously, the Oilers evened the score and sent the game into Overtime. But… this game was destined to cause heartache for Oilers fans everywhere. The Oilers turned the ball over and the Bills eventually kicked a field goal to win the game, 41-38. I was totally devastated. Even this day, many years later, I am still stunned by it all. I cannot help but think of that one pivotal moment when the game began to swing away from my favorite team. Houston had what seemed to be an insurmountable lead, and I was certain that they were going to win. But then, almost in the blink of an eye, things changed. And Oilers fans everywhere were left grieving.

That is the feeling I get at verse 12 in today's passage. Pilate is in charge. He's the governor. His word is law. He can kill people if he wants to; he can let them go if he wants to. Heck, he could order troops to kill the chief priests themselves, if he thought he could get away with it. And when he decides that he really does want to let Jesus go, we assume that he is going to be able to do it.

But then something changed. The one constraint on Pilate is what people think of him back in Rome. Down through the years, a number of Roman governors had been prosecuted for poor administration of their districts. Provinces and cities would take their cases to Rome, insisting on justice against the man who had been ruling them in Rome's name. There were famous instances of ex-governors paying heavy penalties. Under the empire, if the emperor decided one of his deputies was a nuisance of any kind, he was quite capable of sending a message advising the man to commit suicide, to save the soldiers the bother of killing him themselves.

The threat of what Caesar might think is the secret weapon the chief priests have been keeping up their sleeves all along. They didn't know whether they would have to use it, but when they realize that Pilate is wavering, and then has decided to let Jesus go, they bring it out. "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar" (verse 12). And from that moment Pilate is lost. What will people in Rome think? He can hear their sneers. You mean you had a man in front of you on a charge of making himself a rebel king—and you let him go? What sort of governor are you? Don't you know you are supposed to be looking after Rome's interests? What is Caesar going to think of all this?

Pilate had been afraid when he heard the chief priests say that Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God (verse 7). He was even more afraid when they pulled out this trump card (verse 12). From here on out, he has lost the argument. But, along the way, we discover something important about the nature of authority. Jesus—who remains silent about himself at this point—is still prepared to explain to Pilate how God's providence works. And we also discover, more darkly, something startling and sad about the corner into which the chief priests have painted themselves.

Jesus doesn't challenge the authority that Pilate has over him. He merely informs him that it comes from above, from God (verse 11). Like many Old Testament writers, Jesus accepts that even pagan rulers and empires hold their rule under the ultimate authority of the one true God. Now, that isn't to say that God, or his followers, need to approve of everything these pagan rulers do; it only means that God, in his sovereignty, takes the energy and organization of even wicked people, and makes it bring at least some order into the world. That is partly why the apostle Paul could say what he did in Romans 13:1-7. If Jesus could acknowledge even Pilate's authority, clearly a Christian view of secular power has to acknowledge some wiggle room and not to quickly construct a black-and-white scheme in which some leaders are good and others, if not most, are evil.

Jesus warns Pilate that, although he holds delegated power, this doesn't mean that there isn't real evil afoot. But this is a million miles from the corner that the chief priests have painted themselves into. The real sting of this passage comes at the end. In order to reject the claim that Jesus is the true reflection of their one true God, the chief priests find themselves driven back into the arms of the pagan empire. "We have no king but Caesar," they declare (verse 15).

What a devastating thing to hear, especially coming from the lips of the official representatives of Judaism. The Scriptures, songs, and revolutionary slogans of Judaism had spoken for hundreds and hundreds of years of its God as the true king, of the coming Messiah as God's true king, and of pagan rulers as shams, pawns of wickedness, and a bunch of trumped-up idolaters. But, now, the chief priests are declaring allegiance to Caesar. What would Isaiah have said to these chief priests? How would they feel, next time they heard the psalms sung in the Temple? What would they say to the crowds, many of whom had supported Jesus precisely because they believed that he would be the King who would set them free from Roman oppression?

These questions still linger today. They still float in the hazy air of our puzzled world today. Who is the world's true lord? What kind of authority do governments have, and how does that relate to the authority of God? Many times, when people don't want Jesus as Lord, they find themselves driven—like the chief priests—into some form of pagan empire.

These pagan empires come in all shapes and sizes. It may appear as totalitarianism which claims divinity, and hence absolute authority, for itself. Sort of like what we saw in the days of Nazi Germany or in many of the Islamic nations in our world today. Or, it may appear as a liberal democracy (or democratic republic) that banishes "God" from its system altogether, and then regards itself free to carve up the world to its own advantage without restraint of any kind. Either way, the choice becomes stark…

Are we with Pilate—nervously allowing himself to be maneuvered into a dangerous compromise?

Are we with the chief priests—pressing home a political advantage without realizing that we are pushing ourselves towards complete capitulation?

Or are we with Jesus—standing silent and serene, continuing to reflect the love of God into this muddled and tragic world?

PRAYER:

Beloved Savior, strengthen us to follow your example the standing strong, silent, and serene in the face of opposition. Through the power of your Spirit, inspire us and direct us into a way of life that delights to lay down our lives for the good of others and the expansion of your kingdom. We long to glorify you and your Father by declaring with our lips and our lives that we believe in the one true God, the King of heaven and earth.

WHO AM I?

I am Tres Sansom, and I suppose I am destined to cheer for mediocre football teams. Just about the same time that the Oilers broke my heart in that game against the Bills, I had the privilege of meeting Michael Irvin, who at the time was a receiver for the Dallas Cowboys. He came to visit me a number of times in rehab, and we struck up a friendship that lasted for a couple of years. This led me to begin cheering for the Cowboys. After the Bills destroyed the Oilers, they went on to make it to the Super Bowl. In that game, the Cowboys got some measure of revenge (for me) by demolishing the Bills, 52-17. The Cowboys went on quite a run during the early- to mid-90s, winning three super Bowls in four seasons. But, since that time, they've been a mediocre team. It seems that each year they do just enough to keep me hopeful that they will be successful, but they inevitably crumble and cause me pain. Ugh! In my frustration, I've pulled out so much of my hair that I no longer have any.