John 19

John 19:1-16 . JESUS BEFORE PILATE--SCOURGED--TREATED WITH OTHER SEVERITIES AND INSULTS--DELIVERED UP, AND LED AWAY TO BE CRUCIFIED.

1-3. Pilate took Jesus and scourged him--in hope of appeasing them. (See Mark 15:15 ). "And the soldiers led Him away into the palace, and they call the whole band" ( Mark 15:16 )--the body of the military cohort stationed there--to take part in the mock coronation now to be enacted.

2. the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head--in mockery of a regal crown.
and they put on him a purple robe--in mockery of the imperial purple; first "stripping him" ( Matthew 27:28 ) of His own outer garment. The robe may have been the "gorgeous" one in which Herod arrayed and sent Him back to Pilate ( Luke 23:11 ). "And they put a reed into His right hand" ( Matthew 27:29 )--in mockery of the regal scepter. "And they bowed the knee before Him" ( Matthew 27:29 ).

3. And said, Hail, King of the Jews!--doing Him derisive homage, in the form used on approaching the emperors. "And they spit upon Him, and took the reed and smote Him on the head" ( Matthew 27:30 ). The best comment on these affecting details is to cover the face.

4, 5. Pilate . . . went forth again, and saith . . . Behold, I bring him forth to you--am bringing, that is, going to bring him forth to you.
that ye may know I find no fault in him--and, by scourging Him and allowing the soldiers to make sport of Him, have gone as far to meet your exasperation as can be expected from a judge.

5. Then Jesus came forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!--There is no reason to think that contempt dictated this speech. There was clearly a struggle in the breast of this wretched man. Not only was he reluctant to surrender to mere clamor an innocent man, but a feeling of anxiety about His mysterious claims, as is plain from what follows, was beginning to rack his breast, and the object of his exclamation seems to have been to move their pity. But, be his meaning what it may, those three words have been eagerly appropriated by all Christendom, and enshrined for ever in its heart as a sublime expression of its calm, rapt admiration of its suffering Lord.

6, 7. When the chief priests . . . saw him, they cried out--their fiendish rage kindling afresh at the sight of Him.
Crucify him, crucify him--(See Mark 15:14 ).
Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him; for I find no fault in him--as if this would relieve him of the responsibility of the deed, who, by surrendering Him, incurred it all!

7. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by oar law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God--Their criminal charges having come to nothing, they give up that point, and as Pilate was throwing the whole responsibility upon them, they retreat into their own Jewish law, by which, as claiming equality with God (see John 5:18 and John 8:59 ), He ought to die; insinuating that it was Pilate's duty, even as civil governor, to protect their law from such insult.

8-11. When Pilate . . . heard this saying, he was the more afraid--the name "SON OF GOD," the lofty sense evidently attached to it by His Jewish accusers, the dialogue he had already held with Him, and the dream of his wife ( Matthew 27:19 ), all working together in the breast of the wretched man.

9. and went again into the judgment hall, and saith to Jesus, Whence art thou?--beyond all doubt a question relating not to His mission but to His personal origin.
Jesus gave him no answer--He had said enough; the time for answering such a question was past; the weak and wavering governor is already on the point of giving way.

10. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not to me?--The "me" is the emphatic word in the question. He falls back upon the pride of office, which doubtless tended to blunt the workings of his conscience.
knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?--said to work upon Him at once by fear and by hope.