John 18:33-40--My Kingdom Is Not of This World

John 18:33-40
English Standard Version

My Kingdom Is Not of This World​
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.

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Pilate, who was about to wash his hands of the situation with Jesus, has just heard from the people that “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” (Luke 23:1).  This is where the story picks up in most Matthew, Mark, and John--when Pilate starts to question Jesus about this charge brought against Him by the Jews.  Every single one of the gospels points out this question that Pilate asks Jesus because it is this offense that Rome deems worthy of a trial and potentially capital punishment.

Jesus did not really answer the charge against Him.  Instead, He seems to say that Pilate and the people are the ones giving Him that title (we see it nowhere else other than in the story of the Magi in Matthew 2:2 where they come to Herod and ask, "Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?"--a title that disturbed Herod because he was given that exact title by Rome, though he was a fake king, not even a Jew, and to hear that someone had been BORN King of the Jews was a threat to him and his family.)  Jesus did call Himself the Christ, and He did allow people to call Him the Son of David (a Messianic title that showed that He was the rightful heir to David's throne and the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant), but you will be hard-pressed to find a place where Jesus refers to Himself directly as king and I don't think you'll ever see or hear Him use the title "King of the Jews" for Himself.  So, Jesus' answer to the charge seems to be, "You are putting words in my mouth that I never said."  Jesus claims these are the words of the people and the words of Pilate.

Pilate seems to balk at this idea that somehow he was recognizing Jesus as the King of the Jews because, he was not a Jew and had no place to consider the question of who their king would be, and secondly, he didn't really care as long as that "king" was loyal to Caesar and to Rome and would not rebel against them.  Pilate seems to get the idea that the chief priests and Jews simply hate Jesus and are looking for anything that will stick at this point and Pilate asks, "What have you done [to make them hate you]?"

Jesus again doesn't answer the question being asked because He's being asked to give testimony against Himself.  Instead, Jesus steers the conversation back to the topic of His kingship.  Jesus admits that He is a king, but that His kingdom is not of this world (I'd assume Pilate would know that Jesus meant that He was divine by this statement).  Jesus said that if His kingdom were of this world, then His servants/subjects would have been fighting for His release or starting a rebellion or insurrection of some kind so that He would not have been turned over to the Jews.  This makes total sense to Pilate because he's already experienced the powder-keg that was the politics of the Jews and realized that it takes very little to get them amped up to the point of rebellion.  In fact, it is a former rebellion where Pilate lost control of the people that sets the backdrop for this story because he's trying to keep the same thing from happening again, because he was told by Rome that the next time he lost control, he was going to be recalled to Rome to face either trial with a certain outcome of either disappearing into political prison or being executed, and most Roman leaders would rather commit suicide than face what we would call a court martial.

Pilate does not miss the fact that Jesus admits in this statement that He is a king, and asks Him more directly, "So you are a king?"  Jesus gives probably the only direct answer to this question of identity that Pilate asks (interestingly enough, it is also a question of identity that He answers directly to the high priest--see Matthew 26:63-65).  Jesus is not at all ashamed of who He is and answers these questions in such a way that continues to move things forward according to His timetable.  Jesus did not accidently admit to being a king.  He wanted to have this conversation about His identity with Pilate.  Jesus says that it was indeed for this reason, for Him to be a king, that He was born and that He came into this world (again, to bear witness to the truth.  Jesus then makes the same identity claim that He has made to the Jews (not about Himself, but about the Jews and about Pilate at this point).  "Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."

Jesus just answered the question that Pilate had asked of Him.  What was it that He had said or done that made the Jews so angry?  The answer was two-pronged.  Jesus told people His true identity with all the "I AM" statements we have gone over in the book of John.  The Jews could not accept that Jesus was who He claimed to be.  Second was that Jesus told people who they truly were and which kingdom they truly belonged to and that they would be judged on how they treated Him and how they responded to His words and His works.  They did not like being told that they were murders, thieves and liars (notice these are basically the same charges that Barabbas is guilty of when we get to him in another verse or two.  In fact, he is truly an insurrectionist, probably one of the Zealots, trying to overthrow Rome).  Pilate's response to Jesus is less than stellar and shows the condition of Pilate's heart when he asks, "What is truth?"  It's a good question, but it was not a sincere question, because I think if it was a sincere question, Jesus would have told Him what He told the disciples in John 14:6, "Jesus said to him [Thomas], “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”"

Pilate goes back out to the Jews (remember they remain outside the residence so that they don't become unclean) and delivers his verdict.  Pilate declares Jesus "not guilty" of any of the charges that have been brought against Him.  That should have been the end of it, but God has a bigger plan and there is something huge that is about to happen here that most of us miss.  We are about to see penal substitutionary atonement play out right before our eyes.  Pilate wishes to keep the people from revolting and wants to convince them to come to the same decision that he has made, so he takes advantage of the fact that he usually releases a prisoner to them at Passover and thinks he'll kill two birds with one stone--make a show of releasing a prisoner, but also get rid of Jesus and put the choice of releasing Him on the people instead of on him so that he won't get blamed for it.  It's a savvy political move on his part.  However, he doesn't expect that the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews would stir up the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released instead--a man who was a thief, a murderer, and an insurrectionist (most likely all three men were to die on the crosses that day because the other two men are also described as thieves, robbers, and murderers.  It was likely Barabbas who belonged on the center cross that day.)  The same people who cried out "Hosanna" a week earlier now cry out "Give us Barabbas" and when Pilate asks what then he should do with "The King of the Jews" they yell "Crucify Him, Crucify Him."  Pilate even tries to say "But I find no fault with the Man" and they get all the louder and more agitated to where Pilate fears that they will riot.  Pilate seems to come to the same expedient solution that Caiaphas did, "14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people." (John 18:14).  Pilate knew it would be his kingdom and his life at stake if he let this mob get out of control, so to appease the crowd he handed Jesus over to be beaten, flogged, and crucified, but he also tried to wash his hands of the matter to say "This Man's blood is on you and your children"

We'll end today with these verses from the book of Matthew to show where things ended up.  Praise God that He gave many of these people a second chance at Pentecost and didn't leave this as their epitaph (though we will see this come back up again a few times in the book of Acts and it is important to see that the chief priests and religious leaders took responsibility here).


Matthew 27:24-26
English Standard Version

Pilate Delivers Jesus to Be Crucified​
24 So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves.” 25 And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.