The Coward’s Defense (John 18:28-19:16)
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jeremy_2_05-28-2026_090849: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith. These are 10-minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts.
We're in the final hours of the earthly life of Jesus before he is about to be killed. Last week, we looked at Peter, one of his key disciples, who denies him three different times. When the stakes are rising, everything's getting more intense, Peter isn't able to follow through with his good intentions.
And today, we're gonna see the interaction between Jesus and the Roman governor named Pilate. And in particular, we're gonna see how Pilate tries to make himself feel better about what he's ultimately going to allow to happen.
This is John 18, beginning in verse 28 Jesus' trial before Caiaphas ended in the early hours of the morning. Then he was taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor. His accusers didn't go inside because it would defile them, and they wouldn't be allowed to celebrate the Passover. So Pilate, the [00:01:00] governor, went out to them and asked, "What is your charge against the man?"
"We wouldn't have handed him over to you if he weren't a criminal," they retorted. "Then take him away and judge him by your own law," Pilate told them. "Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone," the Jewish leaders replied, and this fulfilled Jesus' prediction about the way he would die. So here you can see Pilate trying to downplay this, trying to deescalate this, and then he realizes he's got a bigger problem on his hands.
He just wants them to handle it, but they're saying, "Look, we can't kill him," and Pilate's realizing they're not looking for punishment. They're looking for an execution, and he knows because of this, this is a high-profile person. He's going to have to manage this well or else the region could be in jeopardy and the political unrest, and he could be in jeopardy in his role as well as governor.
And so in the verses that follow, he's got to be very careful how he navigates this. John 18:33, [00:02:00] Then Pilate went back into his headquarters, and he called for Jesus to be brought to him. "Are you the King of the Jews?" he asked him. And Jesus replied, "Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?"
"Am I a Jew?" Pilate retorted. "Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my kingdom is not of this world."
Pilate said, "So you are a king?" Jesus responded, "You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into this world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true." "What is truth?" Pilate asked, and then he went out again to the people, and he told them, "He is not guilty of any crime.
But you have a custom of asking me to release one [00:03:00] prisoner each year at Passover. Would you like me to release this King of the Jews?" But they shouted back, "No, not this man. We want Barabbas!" Barabbas was a revolutionary. Here we see the crowd mentality, right? Pilate is trying to say, "Look, I want nothing to do with this," and yet the crowd is growing.
This intensity is building. It's essentially a mob mentality now. We often think when there are a lot of people that believe something that it must be more true because of how many people believe it. In fact, much of what we consider orthodoxy today, are just because the most people at that time agreed with that, and they might have had the influence, and so they made that the proper view to believe something.
And the minority views were labeled as heretical. And so the people who believed those views were often killed as heretics. And so we often think that it's objective. They just looked [00:04:00] for truth. And yet we see that often these are political decisions that are made, and they're made based on influence and power and who can sway the most people.
And sometimes, as we're seeing here, the more people follow something, the more people rally around something, the less true it can be. In fact, oftentimes a mob mentality can cover up what is actually at work here, and that's what we see, that they're not looking for the truth about Jesus. They're looking to have him killed, and they will do whatever they need to get that accomplished.
John nineteen, verse one: " Then Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. The soldiers wove a crown of thorns, and they put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. 'Hail, King of the Jews,' they mocked as they slapped him across the face. Pilate went outside again, and he said to the people, 'I'm going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty.'
And then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the [00:05:00] purple robe, and Pilate said, 'Look, here is the man.' When they saw him, the leading priests and the temple guards began shouting, 'Crucify him. Crucify him.' 'Take him yourselves and crucify him,' Pilate said. 'I find him not guilty.' The Jewish leaders replied, 'By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.'
When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever." Here we see the cowardly way of the world to try and absolve ourselves of guilt because we lack the courage to do otherwise. Notice how often Pilate is drawing attention to the fact that he does not find them guilty. He finds them innocent, and he wants nothing to do with this.
And yet because of this mob, because of this crowd, Pilate's going to support them. Pilate's going to use his role to help them get what they want. Verse nine, " He took Jesus [00:06:00] back into the headquarters again, and he asked him, 'Where are you from?' But Jesus gave no answer. 'Why don't you talk to me?' Pilate demanded.
'Don't you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?' Then Jesus said, 'You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.' Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted, 'If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar.
Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar.' When they said this, Pilate brought Jesus out to them again. Then Pilate sat down on the judgment seat on the platform that is called the Stone Pavement, in Hebrew Gabbatha. It was now about noon on the day of preparation for the Passover. And Pilate said to the people, 'Look, here is your king.'
'Away with him,' they yelled. 'Away with him. Crucify him.' 'What? Crucify your king?' Pilate asked. [00:07:00] 'We have no king but Caesar,' the leading priest shouted back. And then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified." So the crowd wins. Pilate pretends to keep his innocence, pretends to be separate than this, above this, and yet he uses his power and his authority to enable this to happen.
It would not be possible unless Pilate went along with it. And even though he knows this is the wrong thing to do, he's more afraid of what this might mean for him. Now, as I think about this moment, as I think about Pilate's actions here, I wanna ask us a question for today. What things are you supporting that you don't agree with?
Yeah, that's essentially what it boils down to. Those moments where we are actually supporting something, enabling something, even though we go, "Well, I don't agree with it." And what we often say is, "This is the lesser [00:08:00] of two evils." You ever use that line? It makes you feel better. Like, "I'm only choosing this 'cause it's the lesser of two evils."
And yet what that often hides is the fact that you are still supporting something. You are still enabling something to happen. What the world needs are people who will refuse this, who will look this in the face and say, "I will not participate." And yet the reason we don't is the same reason Pilate didn't, is 'cause we know it would probably cost us something.
And the Jewish leaders are very clear about this. " You're no friend of Caesar if you allow this man to live." And that's what we often get in that situation as well. It's going to cost me something. I'm going to lose something if I don't go along with this. And so we do, and then we try and make ourselves feel better in the process.
I'm reminded of what the theologian William Cavanaugh has written. He says, "A true social order is not based on defeat of enemies, but on identification with [00:09:00] victims through participation in Christ's reconciling sacrifice." We've seen all throughout the Book of John that Jesus is modeling the way of God.
This is the way in which you live to experience what God has for you. And here we're seeing that it requires participation in sacrifice with Jesus in order to work against the forces of evil. Will we follow that way and participate in the suffering and the sacrifice of God, or will we choose the route of Pilate and hide behind our cowardice and find all sorts of ways to explain it away?
I believe that Jesus is looking for people who will join him in sacrifice and work against evil. I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
