Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out Pilate!
The Questions
1) Who was Pilate?
2) Who was Barabbas?
3) Why didn’t Jesus defend Himself when Pilate was questioning Him?
John 18:38-19:16
38 “What is truth?” said Pilate.
After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no grounds for charging him. 39 You have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at the Passover. So, do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
40 They shouted back, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.
19 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and clothed him in a purple robe. 3 And they kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and were slapping his face.
4 Pilate went outside again and said to them, “Look, I’m bringing him out to you to let you know I find no grounds for charging him.” 5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
6 When the chief priests and the temple servants saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
Pilate responded, “Take him and crucify him yourselves, since I find no grounds for charging him.”
7 “We have a law,” the Jews replied to him, “and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was more afraid than ever. 9 He went back into the headquarters and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus did not give him an answer.10 So Pilate said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you?”
11 “You would have no authority over me at all,” Jesus answered him, “if it hadn’t been given you from above. This is why the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”
12 From that moment Pilate kept trying to release him. But the Jews shouted, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Anyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar!”
13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside. He sat down on the judge’s seat in a place called the Stone Pavement (but in Aramaic, Gabbatha). 14 It was the preparation day for the Passover, and it was about noon. Then he told the Jews, “Here is your king!”
15 They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
Pilate said to them, “Should I crucify your king?”
“We have no king but Caesar!” the chief priests answered.
16 Then he handed him over to be crucified.
Then they took Jesus away.
Original Intent
1) Who was Pilate?
Pilate was a prefect or governor of Judea for the Roman emperor during the time of Jesus’ life. When Jesus was on trial, it was Pilate He was brought before. The Jewish leaders had no legal rights to sentence anyone to death. In order for Jesus to be condemned to death, they had to find a way to have a Roman official sentence Him. Pilate was that Roman official. Pilate didn’t want to sentence Jesus to death and tried unsuccessfully to send Him back to the Jewish leaders. Eventually, Pilate’s hand was forced because he feared the crowd. In order to prevent an uprising, he sentenced Jesus to death even though he was not convinced Jesus was guilty or deserving of death.
2) Who was Barabbas?
John 18:40 calls Barabbas a revolutionary. The Greek word used is “lestes”, which literally means a robber or plunderer who typically does so with violence. Barabbas was a criminal in jail for actual crimes he had committed while Jesus was innocently on trial. The crowd had no regard for who either of these men actually were or their reputation; their angry pride blinded them. Barabbas was a tool used by God to fulfill prophecy. Barabbas is the one who deserved to die, yet he walked away a free man while the innocent Jesus was sentenced to death. When Pilate provided his Jewish audience with a choice of men to release, they screamed for Barabbas to be free and Jesus to be condemned. The crowd, incited by the Jewish leaders, finally received what they wanted and Jesus was condemned to death by crucifixion.
3) Why didn’t Jesus defend Himself when Pilate was questioning Him?
During the trial, Pilate provided Jesus with an opportunity to defend Himself. In John 18:33-37 Pilate questions Him several times about His identity and why the people want Him condemned. Each time Jesus offers a different indirect answer. The closest Jesus ever comes to defending Himself is in affirmation of Pilate’s statement that Jesus is a king. However, Jesus is quick to point out that His Kingdom is not of this world and His life’s mission is completely different than the world and its rulers would expect. His life is about love and sacrifice. In John 19:8-11, Pilate again provides Jesus an opportunity to defend Himself. Jesus simply states that Pilate only has power over Jesus because it comes from above (God). Never once did Jesus defend Himself in a way which would bring about His release. Instead, Jesus knows what lies before Him. He embraces His unjust punishment because He has already released His will to that of His Father’s. Therefore, He permits Pilate to sentence Him to death.
Everyday Application
1) Who was Pilate?
Pilate was the Roman official who sentenced Jesus to death. However, Pilate was never convinced Jesus was guilty and deserving of death. He even washes his hands of the decision in an effort to distance himself from condemning this innocent man to die. The King of the Universe stood before Pilate and Pilate handed Him back to the Jewish leaders to be crucified. However, it wasn’t just Pilate who handed Jesus over to be crucified, it was you and it was me. Pilate may have been the government official who allowed the crucifixion, but it was our sins for which Jesus was crucified. Sometimes, I am tempted to think that because I have never committed what we, in American western culture, consider “big sins”, I am not as guilty as others. I think I can wash my hands of Jesus’ death just like Pilate. However, I am just as guilty as anyone else and God doesn’t rank our sins. The reality is, Jesus would have come to die even if it was to pay the penalty for just 1 sin in order to redeem mankind back to Himself. I cannot wash my hands of Jesus’ death any more than Pilate could. He was guilty and so am I.
2) Who was Barabbas?
Barabbas, thief and murderer, was the one who deserved to be condemned. The crowd chose the murderer and thief over the innocent man who lived a life of love. Jesus had the power to free Himself, yet He chose to be the condemned man while the guilty man walked free. When I stop and think on this I am quick to see the connection to Barabbas and myself. I am truly no better than Barabbas, none of us are. We may not be thieves or murderers, but we have our own sins we are guilty of. Romans 3:23 says we all have sinned and Romans 6:23 informs us the penalty of that sin is death. Our sin deserves death just as Barabbas sin deserved death. However, Jesus stood condemned instead of Barabbas while he walked free and Jesus has already died my death for me and for you. As a result, once we invite Jesus to be Savior and Lord of our lives, we walk in freedom. John 8:36 holds the promise that if the Son has set us free, we are free indeed! We simply need to choose to walk in that freedom.
3) Why didn’t Jesus defend Himself when Pilate was questioning Him?
Twice, Pilate provided Jesus with the opportunity to defend Himself. Jesus could have jumped at the opportunity to defend Himself. He could have even freed Himself without Pilate’s permission. After all, He is God! However, Jesus chose to sit, wait, and point His audience, including Pilate, to His sacrificial mission and the Father who sent Him. Jesus knew what He was walking into by neither defending or freeing Himself. However, He also knew He was walking in God’s will. He had submitted Himself completely to what His Father willed, which inherently means He trusted the Father’s heart, even knowing He would be forsaken. I am reminded of the words He uttered in Luke 22:42 when He asks His Father to take the cup He was preparing to drink away, but follows by committing, “not my will, but Yours, be done”. Jesus’ entire life was lived with the end goal in mind. He knew He had come to redeem us back, to pay the price for our sins. Every decision He made through His life was made with redemption and love for us in mind, including His decision to not defend Himself.
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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
Memorize It!
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When you write about Jesus, you say, “He had submitted Himself completely to what His Father willed, which inherently means He trusted the Father’s heart…” This is my prayer today, that I would completely submit to God’s will and trust the Father’s heart, even when His will isn’t what I would choose.
Submit and trust – a reminder I need often!