Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 444
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
18:29–19:9
be allowed to celebrate the Passover. So Pilate, the governor, went out to
them and asked, “What is your charge against this man?”
“We wouldn’t have handed him over to you if he weren’t a criminal!”
they retorted.
“Then take him away and judge him by your own law,” Pilate told them.
“Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone,” the Jewish leaders replied. (This fulfilled Jesus’ prediction about the way he would die.)
Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be
brought to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him.
Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about
me?”
“Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests
brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?”
Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my
followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish
leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”
Pilate said, “So you are a king?”
Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came
into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that
what I say is true.”
“What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and
told them, “He is not guilty of any crime. But you have a custom of asking
me to release one prisoner each year at Passover. Would you like me to
release this ‘King of the Jews’?”
But they shouted back, “No! Not this man. We want Barabbas!” (Barabbas was a revolutionary.)
Then Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. The soldiers
wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe
on him. “Hail! King of the Jews!” they mocked, as they slapped him across
the face.
Pilate went outside again and said to the people, “I am going to bring
him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty.”
Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
And Pilate said, “Look, here is the man!”
When they saw him, the leading priests and Temple guards began shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
“Take him yourselves and crucify him,” Pilate said. “I find him not
guilty.”
The Jewish leaders replied, “By our law he ought to die because he called
himself the Son of God.”
When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. He took Jesus
back into the headquarters again and asked him, “Where are you from?”
