Behold the True King

BEHOLD THE TRUE KING 

A Reflection on John 18:28-19:22 for Good Friday

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: April 18, 2025

Series: Good Friday

Note: Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

I invite you to turn to John 18, and I want to share a few thoughts with you from the latter part of John 18 and first part of John 19.

Before I start reading, just a little bit of context. In John chapter 12, Jesus was anointed by Mary of Bethany and then made his acclaimed entry into Jerusalem. In John chapter 13, he washed the disciples’ feet and went on in chapters 14 to 16 to give them instructions, promises and encouragements. In John chapter 17, Jesus prayed for his followers, both his immediate followers and all who would come to follow him in due course. And then as we get to John chapter 18, Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested by the Jewish religious authorities and brought to trial before the high priest. And once the Jewish religious leaders had reached their verdict upon Jesus and pronounced him guilty, then they marched him over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. And that's where I want to pick things up.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

I'm going to read John chapter 18 beginning in verse 28 through chapter 19, verse 22. Holy Scripture says:

18 ²⁸ Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.²⁹ So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” ³⁰ They answered him, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” ³¹ Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” ³² This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

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.

19 ¹ Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. ² And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. ³ They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. ⁴ Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” ⁵ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” ⁶ When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” ⁷ The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” ⁸ When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. ⁹ He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?”¹¹ Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

¹² From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” ¹³ So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha.¹⁴ Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” ¹⁵ 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 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus, ¹⁷ and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. ¹⁸ There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. ¹⁹ Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”²⁰ Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. ²¹ So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” ²² Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” (John 18:28-19:22)

This is God's word and it is for our good. Let's pray:

Father, I thank you for this holy account of the suffering of our Lord, and I pray that you would bless our hearts and our minds and our lives with it this evening. In Jesus’ name, amen.

THREE LESSONS FROM THE PASSAGE

Well, there's a lot here, and it's not my intention to unpack it all. But I do want to call your attention to a few lines of thought that I think are profitable for us to reflect on.

Several ironies reveal the sinful heart of mankind

First, I would like you to notice how several ironies in this passage reveal the sinful heart of mankind. In chapter 18, verse 28, the second half of verse 28, it says, “They themselves [the Jewish religious leaders and their officials] did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.” Just think about that. They were so concerned that they wouldn't be defiled so that it wouldn't interrupt their celebration of the Passover, that they were careful not to step foot into the physical space of the pagan ruler. And yet, though they exercise that kind of care, they are in the very process of desecrating the Passover Lamb. We know from John chapter one that Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) This is an exercise in missing the point on their part.

Go down to verse 31, the second part of verse 31: “The Jews said to him [Pilate], “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.”” Now here, these Jewish religious leaders are concerned about the constraints of Roman law. Under Roman law, there were some limitations placed upon them in terms of their ability to carry out capital punishment. So they're concerned about the constraints of Roman law, while they are in the very process of despising the living word of God. Again from John chapter one: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2) Again, they're completely missing the point. They're missing the Word made flesh, the embodiment of truth, who is standing before them.

And then if you go down to the end of chapter 18, in verses 39 and 40, they would prefer to have Barabbas, a robber and insurrectionist, released, while they want to put an innocent man, who had been actively involved in healing other people and bringing life to other people, to death. They want to kill the innocent one. As we go through the Gospel of John, we learn about Jesus healing a paralyzed man, healing a blind man, and then raising Lazarus from the dead. He didn't come to steal and kill and destroy. He came to give life. And yet the one who came to give life is the one that they want to put to death.

And then going on into chapter 19, just a couple more ironies from these Jewish religious leaders. They say in chapter 19, verse seven, “We have a law, and according to that law he [Jesus] ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” “We have a law” – yeah, they did. They were the recipients of God's law. They had God's law. And they had their own understanding and interpretation and application of that law, but they had God's law. But here's the thing. If you use God's law as a justification for putting to death God's beloved Son, then your heart is far from God. Jesus spoke about this generation when he said that though they honor me with their lips, their hearts are far from me (Matthew 15:8). Their hearts are far from God, far from God's word, far from God's Son, far from God's will. There are blinders over their eyes and they do not understand what they are doing.

And finally, in terms of these ironies, you come to verse 15, where the chief priests answered at the end of verse 15, “We have no king but Caesar.” Now this is political speak and high hypocrisy. They hardly feel affection and loyalty to the emperor of Rome. Nevertheless, in the name of their allegiance to the Roman emperor, they are in the process of putting to death the true king. In fact, they're in the process of putting to death the God-Man. And I was thinking about contrasting that with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the well-known account from the Book of Daniel. Those three faithful Jewish men in Babylon were so devoted to the idea and the principle that we have no king but God, that in the name of their allegiance to the God of heaven, they would not honor, they would not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue, they would not pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar, and they were willing to die for that commitment that they had to the Lord. And yet in this generation, these Jewish religious leaders, in the name of their allegiance to a human king, are willing to put the God-Man to death.

And so you can just see the picture of outward religiosity and outward respectability and outward power and influence, that is a sham. For the heart is so inwardly corrupt and far from God.

In fact, it's very interesting that these Jewish religious leaders who were entrusted with the word of God, and were entrusted with the promises of God, and were entrusted with the covenant, and were entrusted with the ministry of the temple –  if anyone should have been able to recognize the pure and spotless Lamb who had appeared before them, it should have been them. And yet Pilate, who's no saint, had more discernment than they did. At least he recognized, “I find no guilt in him.” (John 18:38; see also John 19:6) He said that twice, and he wanted to release Jesus (John 19:12).

The final irony that I want to call your attention to concerns Pilate. While Pilate carries significant political authority in this passage that I read – I mean, he's kind of the chief political ruler among the characters that are mentioned here – he is very ill-composed. I mean, he was already afraid, and when the Jews told him that this Jesus had “made himself the Son of God” in John 19:7, it says in John 19:8, “When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.” And yet Jesus, the true king, the humble servant king, who even acknowledges that Pilate has some real authority over him because the Father above had granted it (John 19:11) – Jesus is utterly composed, trusting the Father and speaking the truth.

The unusual nature of Jesus’s kingdom (John 18:33-38)

And that leads me into the second line of thought that I want to share. Focusing on chapter 18, verses 33 to 38, I want you to notice the unusual nature of Jesus kingdom.

Pilate is inquiring about Jesus’s kingship. And Jesus says in verse 36, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And let's just pause right there. “My kingdom is not of this world.” This world, this world of humanity, particularly this world of sinful humanity, has a way of drawing the lines and organizing itself and authorizing certain people to exercise power and recognizing those who have been so invested with power. And of course they have a way of taking up arms and implementing their strategies in order to conquer new territory or defend the territory that is already theirs.

Well, Jesus’s kingdom doesn't operate out of the foundation or out of the framework of this present world. His kingdom comes from a different place. In fact, he says in verse 37, “[For] this purpose I have come into the world”. He came into this present world, not to be validated by this present world, not to be authorized by this present world, not to be recognized by this present world, but rather to address this present world with the values of his own kingdom, which of course have come from another place.

And of course, when your kingdom is not of this world, that means that you employ different weapons. See, Jesus says, going back to verse 36, after saying, “My kingdom is not of this world”, he said, “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.” When they came to arrest him in the earlier part of chapter 18, they came with “weapons” (John 18:3). And Peter thought, I can play this game, right? So in chapter 18, verse 10, “Simon Peter, having a sword” – there's this worldly weapon, right? – “Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear.” And Jesus didn't think to himself, well, now I feel safe, now I feel like we're marching to victory! He told Peter, Put your sword into its sheath” (John 18:11). Elsewhere, Jesus said that “all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52)

The weapons of Jesus's kingdom are of an entirely different sort. And if you wonder what sort of weapon it is that comports with Jesus’s kingdom, well, that becomes very clear in verse 37 when Jesus says, “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.” The kingdom of Jesus is centered on truth, divine truth, God's truth. And this should not surprise us. Going back to the beginning of the Gospel of John, it was the Word, the eternal Word, the all-sustaining word – it was the Word who became flesh (John 1:14). And John 1:18 told us that Jesus came in order to make the Father known – and he makes the Father known in words and deeds. And the emphasis here in John 18:37 is on the fact that Jesus is bearing witness to the truth.

How you respond to Jesus doesn't tell me anything about Jesus. How you respond to Jesus tells me everything I need to know about you, because it reveals whether or not you're of the truth. Jesus said, “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Those who do not listen to his voice are necessarily not of the truth and not participants in his kingdom.

It's interesting, by the way, to make a connection between this passage and Deuteronomy chapter 17, verses 14 to 20. You don't need to turn there. I'm not going to read it, but I encourage you to read it sometime. The end of Deuteronomy chapter 17 reveals God's design for the kingship of Israel – God's design, God's model and intention for the true king. And what's interesting is that it becomes very clear in that very passage that the sort of king that God is looking for is not a king who is clever and sophisticated in the weaponry and resources of this present world. A true king, a good king, a God-pleasing king, wouldn't multiply his army, wouldn't multiply material wealth, wouldn't multiply wives. He would do one thing: He would meditate on the Torah of God. He would meditate on the instruction and the teaching of God. And he would walk obediently to God's instruction. God would fight the king's battles, because the true king's kingdom would come from a different place, not from this present world. Well, of course, Israel and Judah, they had many kings who, while some were relatively good, they all fell short. But here stands before us the true king. Jesus is the ideal king that was envisioned at the end of Deuteronomy chapter 17. His whole life was taken up with meditating upon the Father's words and delighting in his Father's words – and then out of that, teaching others and sharing the word of the Lord with those around him and calling upon others to follow him. Jesus is the true king.

He said many things. Everything that he said bears witness to the truth. He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Back in John 13, he said to his people, love one another in the same way that I have loved you (John 13:34). Elsewhere he taught us to rejoice in persecutions and to forgive those who have offended us and to even love our enemies and pray for those who mistreat us. We have to follow all of his words.

When “Pilate said to him [Jesus], “What is truth?””, we would like to know the tone in which he said those words. But I don't think Pilate is asking a philosophical question, nor do I think he is existentially earnest to get to the bottom of the question. That's not Pilate's world. Pilate's world isn't a world of earnest truth. His world is one of power, influence, leveraging. That's what the kingdoms of this world do. That's what Pilate did. He was a pragmatist. He wanted to know if it would work. He wanted to know if it was useful for achieving his goals. But Jesus comes and sets out an entirely different agenda.

The unusual nature of Jesus’s coronation (John 19:1-22)

The third line of thought that I want to share with you – going into chapter 19 – is the unusual nature of Jesus's coronation. It's really interesting if you just think about the development that spans these 22 verses from chapter 19. In verse two, Jesus is crowned and “arrayed … in a purple robe”. And in verse 3, he is hailed, honored. And then in verse 18, it says, “There they crucified him” – so they lifted him up on the cross. And then finally there at the end of the passage, he is proclaimed king of the Jews (verses 19-22).

Well, that's the language and the logic of coronation, isn't it? He was crowned, he was arrayed, he was hailed, he was lifted up to his throne, and he is proclaimed king. It is a coronation.

Now what's interesting is that from the point of view of the human participants, it's all a mockery. It's all a sick joke, right? I mean, it's a crown of thorns intended to inflict pain. He's hailed as king in verse three, but then he’s struck, he's hit.

He’s lifted up and proclaimed king. But Jesus really wasn't claiming to be the king of the Jews in the way that the Jewish leaders and Pilate were understanding that concept. Jesus wasn't making a play for the earthly political throne of the empire of Israel. That wasn't his message. That wasn't his priority. But the Jewish leaders had to convince Pilate, had to convince Rome, that Jesus was a dangerous political figure. So they had to get Pilate and other Roman people thinking that Jesus was somehow going to make a play for the throne, that he was a threat to their political stability. So Pilate's actions here – Pilate is really rubbing it in to these Jewish religious leaders.[1] He's like, ‘Here's your king. Here's your pathetic, weak, crucified king. That's your king, Jewish people.’

And yet, we know that Jesus is the true king, not only of Israel, not only the rightful heir to the throne of David, but he's the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and the King of all peoples.

So even though from the perspective of the human participants this coronation is a mockery, from God's point of view and from our point of view as believers, this is actually a beautiful and glorious coronation because here stands among us the true king who came to serve. Here stands among us the true king who came to lay down his life for his people. Here is the humble, the obedient servant, the one and only man who was ever completely and wholly devoted to the Father's will. He said, “I have come to do your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7). And he was “obedient to the point of death” even to the point of death on a shameful and inglorious cross (Philippians 2:8). Let me share a quotation with you from a commentator named F. F. Bruce, who wrote, “The Crucified One is the true king, the kingliest king of all; because it is he who is stretched out on the cross, he turns an obscene instrument of torture into a throne of glory and “reigns from the tree””.[2]

And it's interesting, you know, just to think about what King Jesus actually did after he was lifted up on the cross. He made provision for his mother (John 19:26-27). He asked the Father to forgive his persecutors (Luke 23:34). He promised eternal life to the repentant thief (Luke 23:39-43). This is your king, making requests and issuing decrees from the cross-throne. And on the cross, he purchased all the benefits of the new covenant with his blood. He finished all the work that the Father had given him to do. He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). And to his very last breath he trusted the Father, even to the very last moment, saying, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46)

So this is a picture of the true king, the King who brokers not in worldly power or worldly weapons, but the King who came to declare the truth, to embody that truth, and ultimately to lay down his life as a sacrifice for sin, so that people with corrupt hearts – like those Jewish religious leaders, like our hearts – could be redeemed. Our hearts are just as corrupt as theirs [the religious leaders’] are, right? It's not like they're the bad guy, for we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And while they're doing all this mockery and rejection, and while they’re completely missing the point, Jesus is staying on point in order to win for himself his bride.

Let's pray. 

Father, I thank you for this passage from the Gospel of John, which just gives us a little bit more insight into the character, the life, the sacrifice, the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I just pray that as we continue this service of song and celebration, that you would continue to impress the glory of your grace upon our hearts. In Jesus’ name, amen.

ENDNOTES

[1] See D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (T/he Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991: p. 611.

[2] Quoted in D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (T/he Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991: p. 611.