Day 41 – What has he done?

John 18:19-40

Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.

Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I always taught in the synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always meet. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. Look, they know what I said.”

When he had said this, one of the officers present slapped Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?”

Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, make a statement about what was wrong; but if I have spoken correctly, why did you strike me?”

Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You aren’t also one of his disciples, are you?”

He denied it and said, “I am not.”

One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”

Peter denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed.

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, the Roman Governor’s palace. It was early, and they didn’t enter the Praetorium themselves, to avoid becoming ceremonially unclean – they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate went out to them and said, “What charge are you bringing against this man?”

They answered him, “If this man weren’t an evildoer, we wouldn’t have delivered him to you.”

So Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.”

The Jews said to him, “It is illegal for us to put anyone to death,” This fulfilled the word of Jesus, which he spoke, signifying the kind of death he was about to die.

So Pilate went back into the Praetorium, called Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

Jesus answered him, “Do you say this by yourself, or did others tell you about me?”

Pilate answered, “I’m not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done?”

Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is from a different place.”

So Pilate said to him, “You are a king then?”

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. I was born for this, and came into the world for this, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

After saying this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. So, do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”

Then they all shouted back, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was an insurrectionist.

For reflection

What does it mean to you that Jesus is a leader whose purpose is to bear witness to the truth?