“Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him. Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?””
John 18:33-35 NLT
In many ways, Pontius Pilate was in an unenviable position. Appointed to govern the Roman province of Judaea, the Jews who lived there never made his life very easy and he and his officials and soldiers were always suppressing trouble somewhere under their Roman jurisdiction. The difficulty that the governing authorities had to face into was based on the Jewish religion and its support by the population, support that was often fanatical in its application. So there always seemed to be an uprising going on somewhere, or a religious feast or some other custom that the Romans had to be sensitive of. Jesus even had a potential revolutionary in His own band of Twelve – Simon the Zealot. The Jews were desperate to be a self-governing nation and the political situation was fragile, so fragile that both the Romans and the Jewish leaders took extreme care most of the time to avoid provoking each other.
So here was Pilate, summoned from his headquarters in the early hours of the morning to meet with a crowd of vociferous and aggressive Jewish leaders. They refused to enter his headquarters because of their customs, so he had to go out to meet with them. Pilate was walking a tight rope. The emperor in Rome, who was Tiberius at that time, would not have been pleased to hear about another problem in this province so Pilate was being careful to not provoke an issue. On the other hand who was the boss here? Anyway, he had Jesus brought in to him, and he started by asking the question “Are you the king of the Jews?” In Matthew’s Gospel he recorded that Jesus’ answer was “You have said it”. John recorded something else that Jesus said, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” But in it all, Pilate was probably shaking his head in disbelief, because a Man, albeit the One we know as Jesus, God’s Son, was before him on trial for saying something innocuous and hardly worth being on trial for, let alone deserving on being put to death. Pilate was no fool, and he was accustomed to all sorts of people being brought before him for sentencing, but he had never met anyone like Jesus. Hence his question, “What have You done?”, his attempt at trying to elicit information from Jesus, information that would help him understand what had so upset the Jewish leaders. He had heard the accusers, and now was trying to hear and understand the accused.
In many ways the Gospel accounts of the trial of Jesus are sparse with the details. But enough information is there to enable us to build a picture of the events of that momentous evening and night. And through them we can see clearly the clash of two kingdoms and feel the comfort to know that we are on the winning side. The devil and his kingdom were represented by the Jewish leaders, something we know because Jesus had pointed it out to them in an earlier conversation, which we can read in John 8. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “ … “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me. Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me! For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:42-44). Jesus came to reveal to His people, the Jews, the Kingdom of God. He said to Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3). In the Beatitudes there are many allusions made by Jesus to the Kingdom of God or Heaven. God’s Kingdom is founded on principles that are, for the most case, the opposite of the kingdom of the world.
We pilgrims are in a suspended state, living in and between two kingdoms. On the one hand we are children of God, living as citizens in His Kingdom, but on the other hand we are part of the earthly kingdom, subject to all of its laws and challenges. The two kingdoms are incompatible and we seek God daily to help us live as His children amongst a people who are children of the devil and citizens of his kingdom. But we cannot be a citizen of both kingdoms, because the two are irreconcilable. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:19-20, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”” That night before Pilate Jesus proclaimed that He was the King of God’s Kingdom and He has been ever since. And we know that the King gave His life for the sake of His Kingdom – there is no greater sacrifice than that.
Dear Lord Jesus. How can we ever thank You enough, You the King of all kings and the Lord over all lords. We praise You today. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 