We now move on from the upper room discourse to the narrative of events surrounding the plot to put Jesus to death. As we look at the development of this narrative, we need to be conscious of the theological explanations given earlier on in the previous chapters.
John 18:1-27 shows Jesus in full control of the situation; He deliberately hands Himself over to those who came to arrest Him in order to drink the cup of the Father’s wrath against the sin of humankind. The drinking of the cup of God’s wrath brings out the idea of penal substitution – His death on behalf of the people, taking the penalty for the sin of mankind. The sacrificial substitution, satisfying the wrath of God against the sinner, is known as propitiation.
Notice that Jesus knew what was going to happen and He took the initiative in giving Himself up for His ‘sheep’ and protecting them from those who came to arrest Him, fulfilling His promise that He shall lose none of them that His Father has given Him, except Judas Iscariot. Jesus’ power and authority were displayed when He announced Himself in divine language and the armed soldiers and officials fell to the ground, powerless.
Three times He declared ‘I am He’ in the narrative, contrasted with Peter’s denial of Him three times subsequently. Peter wanted to take physical action on behalf of Jesus and he was told to put away his sword; Peter has not understood what was going on and he obviously also did not understand himself fully despite his declaration of willingness to die for Jesus. The other disciples also declared their willingness to die for the master; but all deserted Him when He was arrested.
The subsequent narrative reveals Him being falsely accused; He appears powerless, standing bound in front of those who will resort to physical abuse in the absence of objective proof. It appears to be a desperate picture but in reality, Jesus is advancing towards His death, in full control, in order to fulfil His mission as the ‘Lamb of God’; the divine Son of God is giving Himself up voluntarily (Isaiah 53) and God has chosen to give His Son on behalf of the world.
John 18:28-19:16 reveals two themes throughout the trial of Jesus: firstly the kingship of Jesus, the innocent suffering servant; and secondly the exposure of the motives for rejecting this king.
John focuses on the fact that Jesus’ kingdom was not materialistic and earthly in the gospel and here during the trial, Jesus Himself acknowledged His kingship and pointed that His kingdom is from above.
We see the irony of the Jews’ situation; in order to eat the earthly Passover, the Jews give up the opportunity of partaking the heavenly Passover. It was Passover time during the trial and the true “Lamb of God’ was about to be sacrificed. They were concerned about ritual uncleanness for the Passover; yet the true Passover Lamb was about to be slaughtered by their plotting and engineering and the Passover itself is about to be rendered redundant.
Three times Pilate announced that Jesus is innocent and three times, the Jews demanded that He should die anyway. Here again, we see the irony of the Jews’ situation; in giving up the heavenly king, they affirm their loyalty to an earthly king, Caesar in this case. Jesus had already taught His disciples that He would die by crucifixion (12:32-33) and it was only the Romans who could kill Jesus in this way. Notice how the Jews knew this and they clamoured for Jesus to be crucified by Pilate and asked instead to release Barabbas, an insurgent, knowing full well that Jesus was innocent whilst Barabbas was the one who was guilty of insurgency. The Jews were not interested in justice and they will sacrifice all logic to get Jesus killed.
Jesus’ kingdom is established by truth and His subjects enter the kingdom by listening to the truth He teaches about God. The Jews’ perversion of justice and their insistence that Jesus be killed expose their real position that they were not on the side of truth. Pilate and the Roman officials are also implicated in the rejection of Jesus, since they have heard His claim to be the king of a heavenly kingdom. We must realise that the rejection of Jesus means forfeiting eternal life in heaven and giving allegiance to earthly masters and the evil one. Such a rejection means one is not on the side of truth and not part of His kingdom. Interestingly, Pilate muttered what truth is, and immediately dismissed the desire to find out what truth really is. Instead, for fear that he might get on the right side of Caesar for not ‘punishing’ Jesus who claimed to be king, he knowingly sent an innocent man to be scourged and crucified. The Jews had accused him of not honouring Caesar who they claimed was their only king.
We must affirm that Jesus is God’s king; He is innocent but He is being despised, rejected, oppressed and afflicted by a people intent on rejecting His heavenly rule. The gentiles are also implicated in this guilt; in fact, the whole human race is represented in the rejection of God’s Messiah.
Meanwhile, God’s heavenly king was led away to be crucified on the morning following the Passover meal. Remember, the trial of Jesus is in fact the trial before Jesus; all of us are on trial before the heavenly king. Will we be declared guilty or innocent?