OUR FATHER WHOSE SON WAS WOUNDED IN OUR PLACE

The book of John chapter 19 verses 1 - 16 records the continuation of Pontius Pilateˋs interaction with Jesus who had been brought to him for trial.

Pilate could not find any fault in anything Jesus had said or done. In an unjust but prophesied manuever,  Pilate tried to avoid having Jesus put to death by having Him scourged and then presenting Him as having been punished to show Jesusˋaccusers that Jesus was harmless to them. Pilate was hoping to placate the religious leaders  by doing this and then he would release Him.

Jesus was brought out so the crowd could see Him and Pilate again declared that He found no fault in Jesus but seeing Jesus in a bloodied condition galvanized the religious leaders all the more to call for His crucifiction.

The route of scourging that Jesus endured was foretold in the book of Isaiah chapter 53 verse 5 as a costly provision of God that was made to exchange our injuries and physical afflictions for Jesusˋ health and thus the passage says;

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

Jesus, after being flogged by the Roman scourges, was now going into deep shock in response to the physical trauma that had been inflicted on Him. In this state, a person goes in and out of lucidity and pain from injuries fades in and out as the body tries to make it possible to defend against or escape the circumstance.

Jesusˋ enemies pressured Pilate to crucify Him saying that Jesusˋ crime of equating Himself with God was a capital offence.

Pilate was agitated because the Jewish leaders were so commited to having Jesus killed that they were willingly abandoning their own national identity and strongly aligning with their foreign occupier and declaring they had no king but Ceasar.

Pilate went back to Jesus and asked Him where He was from (probably to refer the matter to that region's district magistrates) but Jesus refused to answer Pilate. Pilate, in effect, said to Jesus, ˋCanˋt you see I am trying to help you? Refusing to answer my questions is not helping your causeˋ.

1 So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. 2 And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. 3 Then they said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck Him with their hands.

4 Pilate then went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.”

5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”

6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.”

7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”

8 Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, 9 and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.

10 Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”

11 Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

12 From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.”

13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”

15 But 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!”

16 Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away.

Jesus, in response to Pilatesˋ claim to being  Jesusˋ only hope, told Him that the only power that Pilate had over Him was power given to him from above and those (the chief priests) who had handed Him over to Pilate was guilty of a graver sin than the sin of putting an innocent man to death. 

Pilate recognized that there was a great moral infraction being engineered under his watch and he desperately did not want to have any part of it but with the unrelenting political pressure being applied by the leaders of Judea, Pilate ultimately washed his hands of the matter ( recorded in Matthew chapter 27 verse 24 ) and at around noon, surrendered a badly injured and innocent man to be executed by Roman crucifiction.

Have mercy on us O God.

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