Pilate therefore said to them, Take him, ye, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said to him, It is not permitted to us to put any one to death;
Pilate's first move is to get rid of the case: let the Jewish leaders judge their own prisoner by their own law. Their answer sounds like a legal technicality: they have no power to execute a man. But that reply settled how Jesus would die.
Pilate could see what lay behind the charge.
Pilate tells the Jews to judge the Lord Jesus by their own law. He knew well that the whole matter was religious prejudice, not a major criminal case — and the Romans did not allow the Jews to handle major criminal cases. But before any trial they had already decided that He must be put to death. They could not do this lawfully themselves, so they demanded that Pilate condemn Him to death. More than this, the Lord Himself had foretold that He would die by crucifixion (v. 32), the Roman way of putting a man to death, rather than by Jewish stoning.
Their claim was true. There is even a record of when Rome took that power away.
"It is not lawful for us..." According to the Talmud, the Romans took the right to carry out the death penalty away from the Jews in the year just before this. That was exactly "forty years" before the fall of Jerusalem.
Notice what the admission cost them. Rome's rule was the thing they resented most. Yet here they lean on it, and ask Pilate for a life.
They hated Jesus more than they hated Roman rule. That rule had been unbearable to them. But now they were ready to put up with it and admit to it, if only it would get rid of Him. So they confessed, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death."... What they were really asking for was approval of a sentence already passed on Him. It was a matter of life or death, and Pilate had to decide it.
Their concern for religious rules sits oddly beside what they were asking for.
They are jealous for their ceremonial purity, but they do not care about justice. Judging Him by their own law is not enough for them. They choose to have the Romans put Him to death, for the whole counsel of God had to be fulfilled.
Jewish law knew stoning; crucifixion belonged to Rome. That difference was not an accident of politics.
There was a spiritual reason governing all here. For the curse of the law was to be upon Him, and the public, open sign of the curse was hanging on a tree (Deut. 21:23). But if the Jews themselves had inflicted it, it would have come after death, and its meaning would have changed. Only in Gentile hands could crucifixion serve its purpose.
A Roman evasion and a Jewish demand lock together. Between them they carry out what Jesus had already said about His own death.
Pilate seeks to put the responsibility of judging the Lord upon the Jews. Their reply gives away their fixed purpose. Whatever Pilate decides, they have already concluded that the Lord must die... So Jew and Gentile become the instruments for fulfilling the Lord's own words about the death He was about to die (Acts 4:27-28).
Neither side comes out clean. The hatred and the indifference are not the same, but they end in the same place.
Jew and Gentile unite in denying and rejecting the Lord. The one hates Him and shouts for His death. The other does not care, and hands Him over to death while finding no fault in Him. What a scene! Jewish hatred and Gentile indifference combined, and Jesus, the Holy One, is led out to death.
- Evasion — Pilate saw religious prejudice, not crime. He pushed the case back onto the accusers.
- Admission — "It is not lawful for us" was true. Rome had just taken the death penalty out of Jewish hands.
- Exposure — men careful about ceremonial purity had no problem demanding a death they had settled on before any trial.
- Necessity — stoning was the Jewish penalty. Only Roman crucifixion could hang Him on a tree, the open sign of the curse.
- Counsel — evasion and demand together brought about the death Jesus had foretold. Jew and Gentile were both guilty.
that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spoke, signifying what death he should die.
Outside Pilate's hall, the religious leaders admit they have no power to put anyone to death. John stops the trial story to tell us why that admission matters. Their legal limit, and Rome's method of killing, matched what Jesus had already said about His own death.
Their claim was true, and the rule behind it was new.
"It is not lawful for us." According to the Talmud, it was in the year just before this that the Romans took from the Jews the right to carry out the death penalty — that is, exactly "forty years" before the fall of Jerusalem.
Pilate tried to hand the case back to them. Their answer left Jew and Roman alike carrying out a word neither of them meant to serve.
Pilate tries to put the responsibility of judging the Lord on the Jews. Their reply shows their fixed purpose. Whatever Pilate decides, they have already settled that the Lord must die. But the Romans had taken from the Jew the power to carry out a death sentence, so they have to leave the matter in Pilate's hands. In this way Jew and Gentile alike become the instruments that fulfil the Lord's own words about the death He was about to die (Acts 4:27-28).
Jesus had said in advance how He would die, and He said it more than once. Other faithful men died in other ways. His death would take one form only.
So the word of Jesus had to be fulfilled, showing by what death He should die (verse 32). Compare John 3:15, John 8:28, John 12:32-33; also Matthew 16:21, Matthew 17:12, 22-23. The Jews might stone Stephen in an outburst of religious fury, and Herod might kill James with the sword. But the Jewish chief priests and scribes had to condemn the Son of man, and the Gentiles had to crucify Him.
Crucifixion was not a Jewish penalty at all. That mattered, because the law made hanging on a tree the public sign of the curse.
Crucifixion was not a Jewish penalty: they might hang the dead on a tree, but not the living. There was a spiritual reason behind all of this. The curse of the law was to fall on Him, and the public, open sign of that curse was hanging on a tree (Deut. 21:23). But if the Jews had used it as their own penalty, it would have gone beyond death and changed its meaning. Only in Gentile hands could crucifixion serve its purpose.
Pilate offered them the case, and they pushed it back.
The people refused to take the matter into their own hands when Pilate would have put it there. Even that refusal only serves to fulfil the word of Jesus.
The rule they longed to throw off became the tool they were willing to use.
They hated Jesus more than they hated Roman rule. That rule had been unbearable to them, but now they were ready to put up with it and accept it, if only it would let them get rid of Him. So they confessed, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death." But above and behind it all stood His own words, which could not fail: He showed by what kind of death He was going to die.
Rome supplied the method, and the hatred came from the Jews.
He showed that crucifixion would be the manner of His death. This was the Roman way of carrying out a death sentence. But all the hostility against Him was in the heart of the Jew. So it meant He would die a death of utmost shame, rejected by both Jew and Gentile. They lifted Him up from the earth to throw Him aside in contempt — like a snuffer dropped over a candle, to put out His cause and His Name. Yet the result will be the exact opposite. He who was once crucified is to be the universal and everlasting Object of attraction!
- Word first. Jesus had already said how He would die, and every step at Pilate's door fulfilled that word.
- Word over law. Rome had taken the death penalty from the Jews a year before, so the limit on their power drove the case to Pilate.
- Word over refusal. Pilate tried to give the case back. They refused, and their refusal carried out what Jesus had said.
- Word over method. Hanging on a tree was the public sign of the curse, so only Gentile hands could crucify Him.
- Word over shame. They lifted Him up to be rid of Him for good. He is now the everlasting Object of attraction.