John 18:30

Pilate, the Roman judge, must go out to the Jews to ask what their accusation against Christ was. In answer they have no accusation at all. They proudly tell Pilate that he should treat Christ as a criminal simply because they brought Him to Pilate (v. 30)! If Pilate had done what was right, he should have declared the prisoner free, for there was no specific charge against Him.

We now read of an indictment with four counts. First, the Lord was a criminal (John 18:30). Second, He made Himself a King (33-37). Third, He declared that He was the Son of God (19:7). Fourth, He spoke against Caesar (12). Heavy charges indeed! Were they true? Could the Jews prove them? Could Roman law even take notice of them?… Now Pilate knew well that the Jews had handed the Lord over to him out of envy. He knew that He was no criminal.

Pilate may be a hard-hearted man of the world. But at least he makes some show of justice by asking what the accusation against Christ is. In their answer, the Jews act as if they were such upright men that it is an insult to suggest they would bring the Lord before the judge if He were not a criminal.

Pilate felt that there was no proper case for him, and asks for a definite accusation (verse 29). They dodge this by an affected or real offence at his question, as if they could not be unjust (verse 30). The governor would have been glad to throw the responsibility on the Jews. They betray their own settled decision: Jesus must die. Death could not lawfully come at their hands, so it must come by the hand of lawless men.

They did not want to defile themselves, so that they could eat the Passover (verse 28). At that very moment they were handing over the true Passover Lamb to be sacrificed. Scruples are not conscience. We must not violate scruples, if we have them, but conscience looks to God and to His word. Conscience did not stop the Jews buying the blood of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. But a scruple stopped them. They would not put the money Judas threw back into the treasury of God in the temple, because it was the price of blood.

The Jews might stone Stephen in a burst 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… Man everywhere must prove his guilt to the last degree. God's Word must be fulfilled to the letter, with God Himself cast out in shame from His own earth… Yet it was the deepest moral glory.

As soon as he admits that he is justly condemned, he turns to that blessed One hanging beside him. He gives the sweet testimony, "This man has done nothing wrong." Here he contradicts the whole world outright. He takes issue with the chief priests, elders, and scribes, who had handed over the holy One as a criminal. They had declared, "If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you." But the dying thief declares, "This man has done nothing wrong."