Pontius Pilate (John 19:1-16)
Rev. David French
04/06/22

“I saw a woman today who finally became hard as wood all over.” A French doctor named Guy Patin wrote these words in 1692. This is the first clinical description of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, or FOP, a disease that slowly and irreversibly turns people into solid bone. The disease imprisons the entire body—back to front, top to bottom. Ligaments, tendons, and muscles solidify as the body becomes as hard as cement. The rogue gene of FOP has one goal—slowly harden the body until it’s dead.

We’re wrapping up a sermon series called Witnesses to Christ. Today, we meet Pontus Pilate. Pontius Pilate is one of the most notorious people in history. He’s right up there with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Osama bin Laden. The Apostles’ Creed includes these words: “suffered under Pontius Pilate.”

Pontius Pilate had an acute case of spiritual FOP. Only in Pilate’s case, the gene went straight to his heart—back to front, top to bottom. And spiritual FOP has one goal—slowly harden our hearts until we’re spiritually dead.

We don’t notice it at first, we never do. At first, our priorities are just a little mixed up. But then, very slowly, and before we know it, we stop reading God’s Word, we stop praying, we stop repenting, and we stop trusting Jesus. Then the day comes when words such as Jesus, Holy Communion, Bible study, Baptism, worship, Easter, and salvation have no impact upon us at all. That’s because spiritual FOP has one goal—slowly harden our hearts until we’re spiritually dead. Pilate knows.

According to a Latin inscription found in 1961 on the Mediterranean coast, Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea for ten years—from AD 26 to 36. Pilate was from a middle-class family. Don’t forget that, it’ll be important later. Pilate was from a middle-class family. 

History records that Pontius Pilate served in the Roman army in Germany. One year, while on leave in Rome, he married an upper-class Roman woman named Claudia Procula. Claudia was the granddaughter of Caesar Augustus—the Roman emperor. So, Pilate was now a part of the royal family! Because of that connection, Pontius Pilate was given a position he would never have gotten in any other way. What position did Pilate get? You guessed it, Governor of Judea.

The posse, led by Judas, arrests Jesus on Thursday night. Jesus then stands trial before Annas, Caiaphas, and finally before the Sanhedrin which you can think of as the Jewish Supreme Court. They accuse Jesus of blasphemy because blasphemy was punishable by death. But still there’s a problem. 

The Jews can condemn a man to death, but they’re not allowed to carry out the sentence. Before Jesus can be executed, the Jews must get permission from 
 Pilate. That’s his part in all this. That’s what John records. “Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning” (John 18:28).

They brought Jesus to the Roman fortress Antonia. It’s about 6:00 in the morning and they’re all there. The chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, all of them. And they have Jesus right where they want Him. Soon they’ll have Pilate right where they want him.

Pilate asks a few routine questions like, “What’s this man done wrong?” The Jews don’t answer directly. Why? Because there’s no Roman law against blasphemy. The Jews can’t say, “This man claims to be the Messiah,” because Pilate would just wave his hand and that would be that. After all, Roman history tells us that Pilate didn’t like the Jews. Pilate didn’t understand the Jews. And Pilate didn’t waste his time in religious debates with the Jews! Pilate’s heart was becoming harder by the minute.

Pilate questions Jesus. He asks, “Are you the King of the Jews?” (John 18:33). The all-important word here is king. King means one thing to the Jews, Messiah. It means something else to the Romans, military ruler. Jesus answers Pilate, “You say that I am a king” (John 18:37). Which means, “Yes, I’m a king, but not the kind of king you’re thinking of.”

The chief priests want to guide Pilate into thinking that Jesus is a revolutionary leader, and so a threat to Rome. It doesn’t work, because Jesus tells Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Then He tells Pilate, “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37). Pilate cynically says, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Pilate’s heart is becoming as hard as cement. He has Jesus scourged, just short of death. But the crowd wants more. They want the Christ killed. 

And so, the Jews play their trump card. They say to Pilate, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend” (John 19:12). Pilate knows exactly what they mean. The Caesar, the king, named Tiberius at the time, was sick. He was always suspicious and often violent. 

Suetonius—a Roman historian—tells us that Tiberius could turn on his underlings like a savage. Tiberius wouldn’t like getting news about a riot in Judea, especially when Judea’s governor was appointed only because of family connections. Besides Pilate was, after all, just middle class.

The Jews blackmail Pilate, pure and simple. And it works. If the choice had been between Jesus and the Jews, Pilate would let Jesus go. But that’s not how the Jewish leaders frame the issue. Their blackmail makes it a choice between Jesus and Rome. That’s Pilate’s predicament. 

People will do many things to save their job, their status, their reputation. People will do many things to save their skin, even having an innocent man put to death by crucifixion.

Pilate asks, “Shall I crucify your King?” (John 19:15). But this King isn’t the military type looking for a battle. No. This King is the suffering and bleeding type, looking for us. He’s the King who cleanses sin-stained hearts. The King who heals deep brokenness. The King who calls us out of darkness into His marvelous light. The King who triumphs over death. The King who knows the exact place and time of His execution and still goes there that He might save us.

The chief priests answer Pilate, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15). Things are getting out of hand. A Jewish riot would end Pilate’s political career. So he caves in. Pilate has Jesus executed. Nailed to a cross by His hands and feet, lifted up and left to hang between heaven and earth. Why did Pilate do it? His heart was hard.

Do you see Pilate’s pattern? “What’s in it for me?” That’s what we see throughout John 18–19. “What’s in it for me?” That’s Pilate’s pattern. Pilate is climbing the ladder of success. Pilate cares only for himself and is discarding anyone who gets in his way.

That’s the same pattern we follow more often than we care to admit. We’re all, finally, not that much different from Pilate. “What’s in it for me?” It’s an essential ingredient for a hard heart. And a hard heart is like a wrecking ball. It mangles marriages, it kills kids, and it finishes off families and friends. Spiritual FOP is killing the human race.

Is your heart hard? Is it callous? insensitive? indifferent? dead? It’s not too late! Our heavenly Father will create in you a new and clean heart, a heart that is spiritually alive. That’s His promise for you in Christ Jesus. In Ezekiel (11:19): “
 I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.” God, our loving and merciful God, He will take away our cold stony, stubborn heart and give each of us a new warm, tender, and loving heart. Which means our hearts will beat again! 

In His name, Amen.