John 19:1-14 Mob Rule
1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. 2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple garment; 3 and they came unto him, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they struck him with their hands. 4 And Pilate went out again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him out to you, that ye may know that I find no crime in him.
Is this how they used to interrogate people? You scourge them, a horrific penalty, you slap them around a little, you mock them, ridicule them. This whole thing confuses me, is Pilate saying “hey you can see we have gone through the entire interrogation protocol and have not found anything”? A lot of people are shocked at the lawlessness we are seeing today, this tells me it can get a lot worse.
5 Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold, the man! 6 When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Take him yourselves, and crucify him: for I find no crime in him.
This is mob rule. The judge has ruled that he found no crime in Him and yet He will be sentenced to death in the next few minutes.
7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
So these are “law abiding” Jews demanding the crucifixion of an innocent man?
8 When Pilate therefore heard this saying, he was the more afraid; 9 and he entered into the Praetorium again, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Pilate therefore saith unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to release thee, and have power to crucify thee? 11 Jesus answered him, Thou wouldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath greater sin.
Wow, Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth; But the righteous are bold as a lion. This statement by the Lord is bold as a lion. Jesus is Lord, He has heard of the unrighteousness, but now He has come down to see for Himself. This is like the CEO of some company pretending to be a lowly employee to learn what is actually going on in His company. Pilate is probably used to these people cowering before him and here is someone letting him know that God’s wrath will be poured out and Pilates cowardice before this mob is not as great a sin as that of the religious leaders violating the law and lying about it. Proverbs 28:2 For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof; But by men of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged. When the land is ruled by this mob mentality there is transgression. It takes understanding of the law, of righteousness, and knowledge of the facts to keep the state from sailing onto the rocks and being destroyed.
12 Upon this Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou release this man, thou art not Caesar’s friend: every one that maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. 13 When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment-seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
We see this all the time, we saw this in the last election. Think about it, what was the major reason that many people voted against Trump? I’m not talking about those who actually voted for Biden because they support abortion or some other agenda of his, I’m talking about those who voted “against Trump”. They wanted peace. They felt that Trump was responsible for stirring up all kinds of hatred and reactions. They just wanted it to stop. Proverbs 28:3 A needy man that oppresseth the poor Is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food. People, just like Pilate, will justify all kinds of oppression because “they need peace”. But ask yourself, since Biden has been elected has there been any rain, any blessing?
14 Now it was the Preparation of the passover: it was about the sixth hour. And he saith unto the Jews, Behold, your King!
Three times this chapter refers to “the preparation”. This is a reference to Jewish tradition of preparing for the feast of unleavened bread, the day before the feast is the preparation, you aren’t allowed to be working on the sabbath (the feast day is considered a sabbath) so this day is called the preparation. But I’m going to ignore the Jewish tradition because that is only a shadow, what we are witnessing here is the true preparation. Jesus is the incarnate word full of grace and reality. This is the reality of the preparation. Proverbs 28:4 They that forsake the law praise the wicked; But such as keep the law contend with them. 5 Evil men understand not justice; But they that seek Jehovah understand all things. 6 Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, Than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich. So what is the preparation? How could I know what the “preparation” for the Passover is if I don’t know what the Passover is? The root word for Passover is the word for stand, it signifies that God is about to stand over the house to prevent it from being broken into and robbed. The avenging angel is coming to take vengeance on the cruel and abusive people and the blood on your doorpost indicates that you were not one of the abusive ones, rather you were one of those that had been abused. If you praise the wicked who are calling for Jesus to be crucified then you are one who has forsaken the law. If you are contending with those calling for the crucifixion of Jesus then you are one that keeps the law. To keep the law refers to keeping it under trial, when the pressure is on. The evil ones calling for Jesus to be crucified don’t understand justice, they claim they are keeping the law. Pilate also doesn’t understand justice. If you are one who is easily swayed and goes whichever way the wind blows then you don’t understand justice. You may think “you have a good heart” but your heart is deceitfully wicked and you don’t even know it. This crucifixion is perverse in its ways. Who cares if these are the religious or political leaders of the country, they are all about to suffer God’s wrath and judgement. I would much rather be poor and able to stand before the judgement seat of Christ than to be rich and condemned at the Great White Throne judgment.
So let’s apply this to today. The second impeachment of Trump, that was not justice, that was wicked. Accusing 75 million people who voted for Trump of insurrection because the FBI engineered a false flag operation, that is not justice, it is wickedness. Recently the court in Manhattan is doing outrageous attempt to find anything that they can pin on Trump or Giuliani. Those that are keeping the law are contending with the powers that be concerning the truth, concerning election fraud, concerning censorship, concerning the use of vaccine passports, etc. They understand how all of this is moving towards a totalitarian regime of the Antichrist. They understand that what is going on is perverse and even if they lose their job, are excommunicated from society, imprisoned or even killed it is better to be able to stand before the Lord’s throne than to be cast into the lake of fire with the wicked.
This is what the preparation of the Passover does. It separates out those who will be judged for their sins from those who are covered by the Lord’s blood. It separates out those who like Moses would prefer to be poor and walk in integrity than to be perverse. It separates those who know Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth, from those who are deceitfully wicked.