Day 42 – What will you do with your king?

John 19:1-16a

So then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment. They kept saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and they kept slapping him in the face.

Then Pilate went out again, and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him.”

Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”

Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him.”

The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”

Now when Pilate heard these words, he grew fearful. He went into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “Are you not speaking to me? Don’t you know that I have the power to release you and I have the power to crucify you?”

Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. So the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin.”

At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar! Every self-made king rebels against Caesar!”

When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat on the throne of judgment at a place called “The Spread of Stones”, in Hebrew, “Gabbatha.” Now it was the Day of Preparation for the Passover, at about midday. He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!”

They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!”

Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”

The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”

So then he handed him to them to be crucified.

For reflection

Who did the Jewish leaders really want to be their ultimate authority? What about you? What happens if that authority clashes with something you really want, though?