June 21, 2012 – John 18:28 – 19:16

The word Truth was mentioned so many times in Christ discourses leading up to His arrest, it really set the stage for the question by Pilot, “what is truth”.  There is no answer to Pilot’s question, only the question from the world represented by Pilot, to God.  The answer was given before, Christ is the Truth. 

There are several lines that stood out while I was reading that I thought showed people’s motivation or intentions. 

18:28 – “they themselves did not enter the praetorium, in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover”.  Look at what they are concerned about.  They are plotting to kill an innocent man and they are concerned with not entering a place so they won’t be ceremonially unclean.  If you ever need an example of what the difference Christ was talking about when He taught that you need to be clean on the inside and the outside is of no concern or when He talked about the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders.

18:30 - “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.”  They don’t answer the question because their answer is their jealousy and longing to keep power. 

19:15 - “We have no king but Caesar.”  The Jews are to have no King but God.  This was just part of the Office of Readings with the house of Gideon saying that his family would not be made king because God was to be Israel’s king.  The Jews have turned 180 degrees away from God in order to fulfill their own desires, turning their back on God and allying themselves with the king of the world instead of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.