True Colors in Black and White

God’s people would please take
their Bibles and turn to the Gospel of John. We find ourselves
in John chapter 19. John 19. You know the context. Jesus has
been in the midst of what we have referred to as the injustice
system. It started first in religious
courtrooms, specifically Annas, who had been a high priest who
very unjustly drew Jesus to himself first, ultimately sent him to
Caiaphas, another unjust scene, a courtroom scene, where Caiaphas
unjustly judged Jesus, and then finally sent him the next morning
before the Sanhedrin the Jewish court system. Likewise, the secular
court system was no less unjust, and we began in Pilate’s courtroom
as Pilate examined Jesus. Pilate didn’t have any vendetta
against Christ. It was the Jews who brought him
into the courtroom, and it was the Jews who pushed the matter,
even to the end of this very passage that we’ll consider this
morning. Pilate at one point tried to shirk off and shuffle
off the responsibility we called it It was almost like a hot potato
game that he was playing with the Savior. He wanted to be rid
of this challenge that he had in judging Christ and he was
wise enough in that but Herod wanted nothing to do with it
and sent him immediately back to Pilate and That’s where we
find ourselves in John 19. John 19, beginning in verse one. Pilate then took Jesus and scourged
him, and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and
put it on his head and put a purple robe on him. And they began to
come up to him and say, hail, king of the Jews, and to give
him slaps in the face. Pilate came out again and said
to them, behold, I am bringing him out to you so that you may
know that I find no guilt in him. Jesus then came out wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold,
the man. So when the chief priests and
the officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify, crucify. Pilate said to them, take him
yourselves and crucify him for I find no guilt in him. The Jews
answered him, we have a law and by that law he ought to die because
he made himself out to be the son of God. Therefore When Pilate
heard this statement, he was even more afraid. And he entered
into the praetorium again and said to Jesus, where are you
from? But Jesus gave him no answer.
So Pilate said to him, do you not speak to me? Do you not know
that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify
you? Jesus answered. You would have
no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. For this reason, he who delivered
me to you has the greater sin. As a result of this, Pilate made
efforts to release him. But the Jews cried out saying,
if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone
who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. Therefore, when
Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down
on the judgment seat at a place called the pavement, but in Hebrew,
Gabbatha. Now, it was the day of preparation
for the Passover. It was about the sixth hour.
And he said to the Jews, behold, your king. So 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 they handed him over to them
to be crucified. It is difficult at times in life
to read character, to really know people, to really know them
as they are. A friend of mine once said, time
and truth go hand in hand. It takes time to get to know
people. It takes time to see them in various circumstances.
It takes time to really watch how they handle their own weaknesses.
That’s why I always, various projects that we’re in, I love
working side by side with men. I love working in the trench
with them. I love taking on various projects
with them because that’s when you see men as they really are. You need to see a guy when he
hits his thumb with a hammer. Time and truth go hand in hand.
And that’s what we have in this passage. I have entitled this passage,
True Colors in Black and White. You begin to see people in true
colors in this passage, and you see it not with any shade or
tone, you see it in black and white. You see people for exactly
who they are. You see Pilate for who he is.
You see the Jewish religious elite for who they are. You see
the soldiers for who they are. But I hope if there’s nothing
else, you see Christ for who He is. True colors in black and
white, you see the natures of both man and God revealed in
this passage. First of all, the first glimpse
that we have is that Pilate chastises Jesus as guilty even though he
was entirely without sin. Look at John chapter 19 verse
1. It says that Pilate took Jesus
and scourged him. It isn’t a word that we use in
our culture much anymore, thankfully. Scourging was commensurate with
Roman capital punishment. When a prisoner was found guilty
of a capital crime, that crime worthy of death, they were scourged,
they were beaten. In this particular section of
scripture, there are a lot of scholars that think that there
were actually two scourgings. I don’t believe that any person
would have survived two of these kinds of beatings. Roman citizens, this punishment
was so grave that Roman citizens were exempt from this particular
form of punishment, even if they were found guilty of murder,
a capital crime. It was a brutal undertaking.
It was inflicted by a whip of multiple leather straps attached
to the end of a stick. Each one of those leather straps
was often woven with pieces of bone or even metal. And that
as they struck, they would tear the flesh. Under the Roman means
of scourging, the prisoner was often stripped completely, tied
around a stake with leather straps and then beaten. This very often preceded immediately
crucifixion because crucifixion was a timely and time-consuming
affair. And oftentimes, this scourging
was so brutal that they didn’t even need to go through with
the crucifixion. prisoners often died just at
the scourging. And all of this was done to a
man whom Pilate himself had declared three times was innocent. You say, why would Pilate have
done this? Why would Pilate have gone through
with this plan of giving Christ the beating of all beatings if he was completely innocent?
Pilate seems to have this idea that if he mistreats this prisoner,
if he beats them within an inch of his life, if he shows the
Jews just how violent and how hateful he can be towards a prisoner,
maybe, just maybe, he can be let off of this extra task of
sentencing him to death. That’s what Pilate seems to want
to avoid. that if they saw Jesus bruised
and beaten, gasping for his last breath of life, perhaps they
would be content to say enough and to let him go. Jesus knew that he was going
to endure this. Do you realize that? This doesn’t
catch Jesus by surprise. In Luke’s gospel, as they are
advancing towards Jerusalem as a band of followers, he turns
to them and he says, we are going to Jerusalem, and all the things
which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man
will be accomplished. And I’m sure the hearts of the
disciples welled with anticipation, what things? For he will be handed
over to the Gentiles. He will be mocked and mistreated
and spit upon. And after they have scourged
him, they will kill him. And the third day he will rise
again. Jesus knew exactly what he was walking into. Jesus knew
that this was coming even when he yielded up his hands to a
rest there in the garden. This, of course, was prophesied
thousands of years earlier. Isaiah 53, He was pierced through
for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being
fell upon Him. And by His scourging, we are
healed. Are you in there? When it says that He was pierced
through for our transgressions, have you even acknowledged your
sin? Have you acknowledged your need of a Savior? Have you acknowledged
that this scene was for you? He was crushed for our iniquities.
Have you acknowledged your own sin being what it is? I love
the way Ralph Venning, the Puritan, said it. He talked about the
sinfulness of sin. We don’t have any idea how bad
and how ugly sin is until we see what God was willing to pay.
Sent His own Son for this. Pierced for our transgressions.
Crushed for our iniquities, the chastening for our well-being
fell upon Him that there would have been no well-being without
this scene. By His scourging, we are healed.
Are you healed? There are people that talk about
healing all the time. There are people that put more
focus on their physical frame than anything to do with their
spiritual lives. There is no healing. There is
no forgiveness of sin. There are no other alternatives
of Securing peace with the Holy God other than through his son
the Lord Jesus Christ which endured this scene prophesied through
the prophet Isaiah given by the Spirit of God the third member
of the Trinity Christ knew exactly what he was about to endure and
Peter looking back on it can easily look back and talk about
this scene. He knows it graphically now.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we
might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds
you were healed. Is that true of you? Look at verse two. It gets worse. The beating has concluded. Thankfully, Jesus is still alive. And the soldiers, it says, twisted
together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and put a
purple robe on him. And they began to come up to
him and say, Hail, King of the Jews. give him slaps in the face. I’ve seen various models, various
suggestions of various thorn bushes and the crowns that possibly
could have been made from materials that were very prevalent in the
area. Herod has already shown a hatred towards this prisoner. Pilate is simply following suit.
And the Roman soldiers are just doing what they see is permissible
now in their mistreatment of this
soldier, throwing a purple robe around him in mockery. Making this thorn of crowns in
mockery of his royalty this purple robe a mockery of his royalty
Everything that was done here was done to ridicule our Savior
This is us that he’s going to pay for here But they’re also pouring a hatred
on this idea of him being a king and For the Romans, they indeed
only had one king. But the other part of what they’re
mocking here is this whole idea of the messianic hope of a messiah,
of a king who is going to come. And there were many Jews who
believed it. And for the Romans to do this,
to march Jesus out wearing a thorn crown and a purple robe, no doubt
stained with his own blood, To do this was to mock the very
Jewish religion and to say, some king, some king, and then never
even pause to consider that this was indeed the king of all kings. It’s likely that Pilate called
for this mockery, but later the soldiers will reinvigorate this
activity before they crucify Jesus But it says here, the soldiers
began to come up to him. And you almost get this understanding
from the English language that they started to come up to him
and they paused. They didn’t pause. It literally
means they kept on coming. They came to him in waves. Each
soldier seemed to want to take his turn at abusing this prisoner. as if they were paying some kind
of strange homage to a king. They thought they were being
creative and cute and funny. This actually fits very nicely
with Pilate’s current plan. Pilate’s whole goal here was
to put Jesus forth and to have the soldiers mock and mistreat
him fit perfectly into his plan. Hopefully this would appease
their hatred. They would see this abused prisoner. They would see how weak and feeble
he was. That he was absolutely no threat
to Pilate. He was no threat to Caesar. He
was no threat to any earthly throne. He couldn’t possibly
be the insurrectionist that the Jews had suggested he was, it
actually fits right in with Pilate’s plan. But in this, we already begin
to see Pilate’s true colors. We begin to see in black and
white just how evil Pilate is. Pilate’s willing to abuse an
innocent man only to seek away a creative evil way out, even
though Jesus Christ was entirely without sin, spotless, unblemished. But you know what? That isn’t
a problem that is isolated just to the Jews and just to the Romans
of Christ’s day. It’s a problem in our day. It’s
a problem here this morning. how few people there are that
really, truly treat and respond to the Lord Jesus Christ, not
just as royalty, but as the King of Kings. He is Lord of all. 20 years ago or so, there was
a great dispute of this idea that you could defer taking Jesus
as Lord. You could take Him as Savior
now and defer taking Him as Lord later. People, we don’t ever
make Jesus Lord. He is Lord, whether you like
it or not, whether you receive Him as such or not, He is Lord,
He is the King of kings, He is the sovereign over all the universe. But there’s another thing that
becomes very plain in this passage. The true natures of man and God
are revealed not only when Pilate chastises Jesus as guilty, even
though he was entirely without sin. Secondly, Pilate introduces
Jesus as king, even though he is eternally sovereign. Look
at verse four. Pilate came out again and said
to them, behold, I’m bringing him out to you so that you may
know that I find no guilt in him. Now this light likely served
as some kind of a dramatic pause, a build-up if you will. What
is he going to do by bringing Jesus out that’s going to show
that he is innocent? At least in Pilate’s eyes. Jesus
then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
This was exactly what Pilate had designed. This is exactly
the scene that he was looking forward to. bringing Jesus out
dressed as an abused clown king. He’s no king at all in Pilate’s
eyes. And he wants the Jews to see
that he is no king at all. Pilate brings him out and says,
behold the man. He’s no king at all. He’s a mere
man and a weak one at that and a battered and bruised one. If
he was a king, if he was some kind of supernatural being, why
didn’t he step in and advocate for himself? Why didn’t he do
anything for himself? This is a continued pattern by
Pilate, this back and forth, retreating into his chambers,
then advancing out to speak to the Jews. He does it at least
six times in this setting. back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth, and it serves as a silent metaphor for Pilate’s
vacillation on this whole matter. Back and forth, back and forth,
innocent, guilty, innocent, guilty, innocent, guilty. He wanted them to see that this
was no king. When he came out and said, behold,
I’m bringing him out to you so that you may see that I find
no guilt in him. I don’t see a man that is any
threat to my governorship. I don’t see a man that is any
threat to Herod’s reign and rule. I don’t see a man that is any
threat at all to Caesar. One pastor said it this way.
that our blessed Lord should have meekly submitted to be let
out after this fashion as a gazing stock, as an object of scorn,
with an old purple robe on his shoulders, a crown of thorn on
his head, his back bleeding from scourging, his head from thorns,
to feast the eyes of a taunting, howling, bloodthirsty crowd is
indeed a wondrous thought. shocking to our senses. And He did it for you. 2 Corinthians 8 says, Though He
was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor. He became poor in
all things, certainly poor even in His power. He yielded up Himself
to these brutal men. The concluding thought of This
pastor is since the world began, the sun never shone on a more
surprising spectacle for both angels and men. Here is the sovereign
of all the universe, God himself in the flesh, beaten nearly to
the point of death and standing before a mocking crowd. It is
absolutely an unbelievable scene. Look at verse 6, so when the
chief priests and officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify,
crucify, even the horrific sight of this abused prisoner, the
presentation of which Pilate had hoped to turn their hearts. Quite obviously, from a human
perspective, this was no king. But even this sight only fans
the flames of their hatred of Jesus in them. There is no compassion
in them, there is no mercy. Pilate throws up his hands. Take
him yourselves and crucify him. For I find no guilt in him. Pilate gives up. Pilate gives
in. This weak and vacillating man,
finally, even though he tried to stand on principle, even though
he tried to extract himself out of this, finally, when it’s all
said and done, he gives up. Initially, he had a sense of
justice, at least a desire to seek right and wrong, examine
the prisoner, At times throughout this whole thing, there seems
to have been a tone of sympathy or pity towards this prisoner.
He seemed to at least have some kind of a degree of respect for
Jesus as a person to bring him in and to speak to him face to
face. For the first time, the Jews
cry out their command to crucify. And that ultimately tips the
scale for Pilate. It’s not even the Jews as a crowd,
as a people, it’s the chief priests that are crying out for this
torture. And it literally says they kept
on shouting. It was a chant that was going
on. Luke records here that he asked
them The third time, what evil has this man done? Did I miss
something here? I have found in him no guilt
demanding death. Therefore, I’m going to punish
him and release him. I find no guilt demanding death.
Three times he had pronounced him innocent. And I get the sense
here that the crowd already senses Pilate’s weakness. They sense
blood in the water. And if Pilate can be coerced
into beating and mistreating an innocent man, it’s just a
few incremental steps, isn’t it? To pressing him to murder
the very crucifixion that they seek. Look at verse 7, the Jews
answered, we have a law. The Jews had a lot of laws. They
had a lot of laws that they paid little attention to, their own
little rules they were very fastidious about. But the law, the law of
God, which was first and foremost about justice and righteousness,
we have a law and by that law he ought to die because he made
himself out to be the son of God. and see this goading by Pilate
to the Jews, behold your king. It stirs their hearts to its
evil extreme. And they finally bring out the
real charge against Christ. They’ve never said this before,
not to Pilate. They had brought up all these
little civil crimes. They suggested that he was seditious,
that he was an insurrectionist, that he was a rabble rouser.
It never brought this charge. That he was the son of God, Herod
could, or Pilate rather, could care less about this particular
charge. Up to this point, the Jews had
deceitfully kept their religious concerns and convictions to themselves. They’d said nothing about blasphemy
up to this point. Here’s their case for blasphemy.
Leviticus 24 16 this is the law that they likely had in mind
the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put
to death all the congregation shall surely stone him the alien
as well as the native when he blasphemes the name Yahweh he
should be put to death but Jesus on multiple occasions had claimed
to be God himself John 5 18 John 8.53, John 10.33, over and over
again, Jesus didn’t shy away from saying, I am the Son of
God. And so we begin to see Jesus’
true colors as well, don’t we? We see Jesus as the very Son
of God that He claimed to be willing so much to even die for
that truth. thinks he’s being cute by walking
him out and introducing him as a king when Jesus had been king,
had been sovereign, the sovereign of the universe throughout all
eternity and will be. There’s a third scene that we
see. Not only that Pilate chastises
Jesus as guilty even though he was completely without sin, he
introduces Jesus as king even though he’s eternally sovereign
And thirdly, he presses Jesus as some kind of enigma, as a
mystery, even though he has always clearly declared himself. Look,
if you would, at verse eight. Therefore, when Pilate heard
this statement, he was even more afraid. When he heard this whole
idea about Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God, remember, there was a message
that Pilate received during the course of this trial from his
wife, who had a dream, Basically his wife had a heads-up. Don’t
touch this man have nothing to do with this guy Pilots already on edge. He’s
a superstitious man Says that he entered into the
praetorium again the prison and he said to Jesus where where
are you from? Where did you come from? What
are you doing? What who are you? I? Jesus gave him no answer, and
Pilate has no other recourse. Pilate’s between an impossible
rock and a hard spot. He’s got the Jews pressing him,
pressing him, pressing him, and he’s got a, according to his
own judgment, an innocent prisoner in front of him. And they’re
saying these things about him, and Pilate here is just trying
to get from Jesus a little information. We can empathize with Pilate
here a bit, And Pilate snaps. Do you, verse
10, do you not speak to me? Do you know who I am? Obviously, Pilate didn’t know
who Jesus was. Do you not know that I have authority
to release you and I have authority to crucify you? And Jesus’ reply
is classic. The very word of God. You have
no authority over me. unless it had been given to you
from above. And he’s not talking about Caesar, he’s talking about
God Almighty. Romans 13, God puts those in
place, in positions of authority. And this is Christ’s final word,
his final reply to Pilate. And basically what he declares
to Pilate is God’s absolute supremacy over all things. Pilate was just a tool in God’s
hand. Pilate was just carrying out
and doing what he had the authority and God-given authority to do. Pilate has no more authority
over Jesus than any other man, except that God had given him
that authority. This was all woven into God’s
sovereignty. What Jesus is pointing out here
is that God is overall and that an earthly governor can only
do what God allows that earthly governor to do and no more. Pilate
is limited, entirely limited. Caiaphas is the one that bears
the greater guilt. Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest,
is the one that had given him over to these Jewish authorities. Pilate actually has the audacity
to come before Jesus and suggest that he’s curious, that he doesn’t
know who Jesus is. He’s never taken the occasion
to even look or to ask or to inquire. He suggests that Jesus
as a mystery, when Jesus himself had declared himself, he came
to reveal God in the flesh. I mean, if you Pause and think
about it. Here’s Pilate sitting face to face with God. Not a representative merely.
God in the flesh. There’s a fourth and final vision
of true colors. Colors of people and God, where
we see them as they really and truly are. Number four, Pilate
condemns Jesus as a murderer, even though he is the giver of
all life. Look, if you would, at verse 12. As a result of this,
Pilate made efforts to release him, but the Jews cried out,
saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar.
Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. And with that statement, they
set the hook on Pilate. They know they’ve got him. They switched their tactics from
these religious charges to now back to the idea of sedition,
back to the idea of an insurrection, back to the idea of some kind
of a threat to Caesar’s throne. Pilate doesn’t need trouble.
He doesn’t need drama. He doesn’t need this. And they
know exactly what they’re doing. They know exactly that they have
Him. Look at verse 13. Therefore, when Pilate heard
these words, that’s it. He brought Jesus out, sat down
on the judgment seat at a place called the pavement. And he’s
doing, he’s there to render final judgment on the matter. He’s
going to give them exactly what they’re asking. But he’s going to do so not because
Jesus was guilty, not because he was guilty of any crime, not
because there’s any legitimacy to his supposed insurrection
towards Caesar. He’s doing so for one reason,
and that is to appease the Jews. He’s doing it for political purposes. It turns our stomach a lot of
times, doesn’t it, to see the political machinery in action,
see people doing things only because of their associations
and not based on propriety, not based on principle, not based
on right and wrong, just doing things because this is what the
particular crowd wants me to do. This is exactly what Pilate’s
doing. Oh, but let’s not forget this
is a religious high and holy day. Look at verse 14. Now it
was the day of the preparation before the Passover. And what
John does here is bring us back into focus. God is providing
the lamb. God is providing the sacrifice
that humanity needs for their sin. It was the day of preparation
for the Passover, it was about the sixth hour. And he said to
the Jews, behold your king. This is one last shot by Pilate. An attempt to belittle their
idea of this messianic king. So they cried out, away with
him. Away with him. Crucify him. Pilate said to them,
shall I crucify your king? I get the sense here that Pilate
is incensed. Pilate is furious at the position
they put him in. And all of these statements that
he’s making now would have just incited the Jewish religious
authorities to the extreme. And the priests, in this classic
blasphemous lie of an answer, The chief priests answered, we
have no king but Caesar. That perhaps is the biggest lie
in all of the Bible. One pastor called it the depths
of degradation as reserved for the chief priests. Sooner than
acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, they proclaim that a
heathen emperor is their king. And in so doing, they essentially
obliterate the idea of a coming Messiah. They only have one king,
and that king is an earthly king, a heathen king that goes by the
title of Caesar. Absolutely blasphemous. Matthew’s
gospel picks up on the hypocrisy of that final moment before Pilate,
Matthew 27. When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing
nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and
he washed his hands in front of the crowd saying, I’m innocent
of this man’s blood, see to that yourselves. Well, he didn’t wash
his hands of anything. It was a gesture. It was a way
of saying to them that you have brought this about. You’ve put
me in an impossible spot. You have found him guilty. I have found him innocent. But
nonetheless, in the end, Pilate gives him over to exactly what
they wanted. It was a political mover and
nothing more. Pilate condemns Jesus as a murderer,
giving him the worst possible sentence, even though Jesus Christ
is the giver of all life. That’s how John’s gospel started,
remember? In him was life. Not only life, as I look out
and I see precious little children, He is the giver of life, but
he’s also the giver of eternal life. That’s exactly why he came. That’s the whole message of John’s
gospel, is that Jesus came that they might have life and might
have it abundantly. It’s eternal life. And here’s
Jesus standing before a weak, limited human authority who is
condemning him to death as a murderer, the very one who came to bring
life. Would you just glance down at
one last verse? Verse 16. So then, He handed Him over to
them to be crucified. Throughout this entire section,
that little pronoun, them, has pointed to the Jews. Verse 5,
Pilate said to them. Verse 6, Pilate said to them,
Over and over again throughout this section That pronoun points
to the jews. And so when it says he handed
him over to them to be crucified The nearest antecedent would
be the jews Now we know that the Romans were the ones that
did the crucifixion, but this is John’s device, I believe.
It’s been well established that the Jews had no authority to
exercise capital punishment. The Romans, including Pilate,
even though they have the authority, don’t have the cause. When John utilizes the pronoun
here, he’s creatively pointing the finger at the Jewish authorities.
Whatever actions, whatever particulars, whatever players, by whatever
means, when it was all said and done, Jesus Christ was crucified
at the demand of the Jewish authorities. And we see their true colors
as well, don’t we? Black and white. Black and white. What do you see of yourselves? What does God see? Would you humble yourself before
Him? A merciful God. We know that
we stand before a God who sees everything in full color. And He sees everything in black
and white. That there is no salvation outside of Christ. Outside of
the Son that He sent. and that it is blasphemous to
think that we can work our way, do enough good things, go to
church often enough, give enough money away, do enough kindnesses
to put God in some kind of debt to grant us salvation. When he sent his son to endure
this brutal treatment for sinners, Lord God We know that you see
us as we are. And that if we have not placed
our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, not in our works, not
in our denomination, not in our good deeds, but in Jesus Christ
alone for salvation, then our true colors show that we are yet in our sin. Lord God, we thank you that.
For many. You have drawn them to salvation.
You have shown them their sin and their desperate need of a
savior. You have revealed to them that without. Jesus Christ. None would ever be saved. But
that simple faith in a loving savior. Saves for eternity. Faith alone, in Christ alone. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.
Amen.