In defiance of all the evidence, Nicodemus’ legal colleagues decided to secure their short term in office in a petty political position by eliminating Yeshua altogether.
From John 18:
Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons…
- Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him,
- And led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year.
- Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people…
- The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his doctrine.
- Then led they Jesus…unto the [Roman] hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.
Oh yes, early. Hustle Yeshua in and out privately before the adoring public gets wind of this.
- Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man?
You can imagine him with a napkin in his hand, brushing toast crumbs from his mouth just like he intends to brush off this annoying interruption on a day that would develop into major turmoil with the Jewish sectarian crowds for the Passover alone, not to mention those zealots against Rome.
They / The Rulers Of The Jews – answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee.
Hustle, hustle! Just take our word for it and get on with it!
Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. [Why are you bothering me!?]
The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death;
Oh, I knew today was going to be rough! Then clearly leaving the back room negotiations to blow back the irritation onto his adversaries,
Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again and called Yahweh’s Savior and said unto him [in an annoyed tone of voice with that stiff upper utterly bored patrician manner], Art thou the King of the Jews?
Yahweh’s Savior answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?”
As with Nicodemus previously, and with the thief later on that same day, even in the midst of his own suffering, Yahweh’s Savior remains focused on his purpose of bringing salvation to each individual he encounters.
Pilate answered [spit out in disgust], Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?
Yahweh’s Savior answered, My kingdom is not of this world.
The unequivocal statement of the spiritual nature of his kingdom was absolutely understood by Pilate, raised in paganism and acknowledging the godhood of Caesar.
if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews [the religious leadership, not the whole nation]: but now [emphasis added] is my kingdom not from hence.
The clear and terrifying implication is that his kingdom would be established at some future point when will there be awful retribution for this travesty of justice.
Pilate therefore [he’s getting very nervous] said unto him, Art thou a king then?
Pilate is no longer posing the question on behalf of the Jews, but asking for himself. About 30 years ago Augustus Caesar’s good friend and ally Herod the Great believed in a king rising out of Israel to such an extent that he massacred an entire generation of babies. If this guy can both satisfy Israel’s longing for a local king and align himself with Caesar this could be the end of his miserable posting in this god-forsaken province…
Now that he is ready to deal with the real issue , the Savior cuts to the heart of the matter. Pilate is not facing a mere political accusation by jealous Jewish leadership in the backwater province of Judea, but a real challenge to Caesar’s claim to be the son of God with power to rule the world.
Yahweh’s Savior answered, Thou sayest that I am a king [putting the full responsibility for this travesty of justice right on Pilate’s shoulders – along with the political fallout from the assured ensuing rebellion by his followers].
The Savior doesn’t get sidelined with distracting debate. He responds to actions which speak louder than words. Pilate after all is taking him seriously enough to interrogate him, he didn’t shoo the Jews away.
To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? {Sophistry, trying to sound clever but really evading the issue.]
And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all… [admitting that he knows the truth!]
will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?
Referring to this itinerant preacher as their king is deliberately antagonizing the rulers of the Jews. No doubt because they are making his bad day even worse, and because Jesus himself made him feel foolish and powerless. This seals the Savior’s fate.
Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man!…
Then Pilate therefore took Yahweh’s Savior, and scourged him
This after judicially declaring him innocent. Pilate has totally lost all self-control and is using displacement coping mechanism against his rising anxiety against this unsettling individual.
And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him with their hands.
Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Yahweh’s Savior forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe.
And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! [thinking their blood lust might be assuaged at the sight of this broken human being.]
When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, [on the contrary, their blood lust was inflamed] saying, Crucify him, crucify him.
Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.
The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid [this is exactly what he feared]; and went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Yahweh’s Savior, Whence art thou? [Are you divine?!!!]
But Yahweh’s Savior gave him no answer.
Because Pilate has all the data he needs to conclude for himself – all the signs and miracles the Savior had done, the Jewish rulers’ rivalry against him and Pilate’s own knowledge of the long-standing rivalry between self-serving politicians and religious leaders.
Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
You can hear his voice shrilling up an octave as his anxiety skyrockets and he begins overcompensating to shore up his customary high society aplomb.
Yahweh’s Savior answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. [Can you believe it? Assuaging his adversary’s anxiety.]
And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him.
Bear in mind, he is using up his precious time negotiating with his quislings on the annual most turbulent day in Judea because he half-way believes that this man is indeed the son of God. After all the Caesars rose from obscurity to immense power with claims of divinity.
but the Jews / Rulers cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend [but his enemy, accomplice to treason]: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.
When Pilate therefore heard that saying [as a pragmatist he fears Caesar of Rome more than the God of Israel], he brought Yahweh’s Savior forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
And it was the preparation of the Passover:
And there we have it. The chief priests who are supposed to be supervising the great sacrifice are at the ultimate sacrifice, in God’s unbreakable plan.
and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him!
Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? [Politically antagonizing them.]
Pilate makes them pay for forcing him to do their dirty work by forcing them to make a political concession. And so they yielded themselves servants to Caesar.
Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified…and two other with him, on either side one, and Yeshua in the midst.
And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was Yeshua Of Nazareth The King Of The Jews.
This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.
Pilate answered, What I have written I have written. [You got what you wanted but you are going to pay for it.]
- And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. [Choice one – self-centered objectives.]
- But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God [choice two], seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Yeshua, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:39-43)
In spite of the most extreme circumstances casting doubt on his identity, this common criminal believes that Yeshua is the Promised Savior who will resurrect and restore creation to original wholeness in God’s Kingdom.
And that’s what it takes – fearing God’s righteous judgment on sin and accepting the Son of God as your savior from the consequences of of your un-right-eous acts.
Turning to God’s Salvation usually only happens when we come to the end of our ability to find a way out of our problems. In Nicodemus’ case he faced an existential crisis when he was forced to make a choice between
- participating in further corruption of a system of law on which he depended for eternal life, or
- trusting that the so-called YHVH’s Savior of Nazareth was indeed who he said he was – the main character in all of the Mosaic law from Genesis to Malachi.
It ended well for Nicodemus, who took the most public stand possible – separating himself from the corrupt rulers, honoring the teacher who had been unjustly put to death, and accepting Jesus as his lord and master in the process.
“And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple / student of our Savior, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Yahweh’s Savior / Yeshua / Jesus…And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Yahweh’s Savior / Yeshua / Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. [In today’s currency, costing about $200,000] Then took they the body of Yahweh’s Savior / Yeshua / Jesus…as the manner of the Jews is to bury.” (John 19:38-40)
What could possibly drive these two men from the extremes of society – a law-breaking criminal and a law-abiding ruler – to give a public testimony of their belief that this Yeshua was the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Son of God as he died? There is only one possible explanation – faith in God’s word to send a savior from sin.
“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
- He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
- Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
- But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
- All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
- He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living:
- for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
- Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:
- by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities…because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53).
Kingdom Come 