"28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” 30 They answered him, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” 31 Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” 32 This was to fulfil the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.
33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. 39 But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 40 They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber."
John 18:28-40
It is noteworthy to see how throughout the record of the trial John's emphasis is so consistently on Jesus' claim to be a king: see 33, 36, 37, 39; also 19:3, 12, 14, 15. His point and purpose must surely be to show us that it is a king who is going to the cross. And this is the message: only one who is a Divine King could ever be able to deal with the gigantic and terrifying problem of sin as we have seen it unfolded in this chapter. Only He could deal with such intractable issues.
The dialogue with Pilate is charged with drama. One wonders what made the governor ask the question he does in 33. Where did he hear the phrase, 'the king of the Jews?' Did he know about Jesus' Messianic claims, or had the high priests in a brief interval, explained what they were charging Jesus with? Jesus' answer in 34 can be interpreted in two ways (i) simply as a challenge from Jesus to expose to Pilate that He knew the high priests had falsely accused Him to the governor - as if to say, 'You could hardly have thought that up for yourself, Pilate?'; or (ii) perhaps Jesus was saying, in effect, 'Are you really getting some true glimmer in your inmost heart as to Who I am? Have you discerned this yourself, Pilate?' - as if, even in that crisis-ridden situation, Jesus were seeking to draw him to faith. Our Lord's disavowal of any earthly pretensions as a rival to Caesar must have sounded strange and perplexing to this calculating Roman, and it seems clear that he was conscious of being out of his depth in the discussion. This seems to be the force of his puzzled question in 37a, and our Lord's answer in the rest of the verse is pregnant with challenge for him as if appealing to something that had awakened in his heart and conscience. That was the critical point for him; and almost before he realised it, it was past, and cynicism won the day in him (38). He turned from the agonising personal encounter to abstract speculation and, having done so, he conceded the battle for his soul to the dark powers that took the ascendant in him. We shall look at the reasons for this in tomorrow's Note.