Commentaries on John 18:28 – 19:16a

The Trial – Jesus, Pilate, the Jewish Leaders, and Me

“What is truth?”

The scene of Jesus before Pilate can be divided into seven scenes, each marked with a “verb of motion to show that Pilate and/or Jesus comes in or goes out” of the praetorium. Each scene is a dialogue (between Pilate and Jesus or Pilate and the leaders). There is one exception in 19:1-3 when the soldiers, at Pilate’s order, scourge and abuse Jesus. (“There is no verb of motion and no dialogue.”)[1]

The trial begins “as the first light of day breaks”[2] (“It was early” – 18:28).

Jesus, the Light of the world, for the most part, remains inside of the praetorium where it is not yet as bright as the outside.

Jesus’ opponents, the leaders of the people, stay in the physical lights, but remain in darkness. “They have made up their minds that Jesus is an evil doer (18: 30) and must die (19: 6).”[3] As a result, they do not see.

They decide to remain outside of the truth when they choose a robber over an innocent man (18: 40). They even go further into darkness when, in order to accomplish their goal of having Jesus killed, they reject God and declare, “We have no king but Caesar” (19:15). By pledging allegiance to an earthly king, they reject God, and so they reject themselves as belonging to God’s chosen people. (This rejection should be read against the background of the God made with their ancestors. Ref: Deuteronomy 7:6 “You are a people sacred to the LORD, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own” and Jeremiah 31:33 “This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people;” also Ezekiel 37:23)

Pilate moves back and forth between physical light and darkness, and he could not make up his mind. Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?” and yet he goes outside again. He does not appear to stay and wait for the answer (“After he had said this, he went out…”). His question and his leaving is his response to Jesus’ “offer” that “everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (v. 38). He constantly moves from the Light - Jesus, to the darkness outside and back. His bodily movements symbolize his inner turmoil of indecisiveness. He declares Jesus innocent (“I find no crime in him” 19:6), yet he would not free Jesus. He becomes fearful (19:8). He resorts to his earthly power (19:10), and in the end, he caves in to pressure.

It is the trial of Jesus, but he is not on trial. Rather, it is Pilate and the leaders who are on trial against the truth.

Where do I stand in this trial?

Where I stand makes a difference. We know what happened to Jesus when neither Pilate nor the leaders stood for the truth.

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[1] Moloney, Francis, S.D.B., The Gospel of John. Sacra Pagina series. Liturgical Press, 1998, p. 493.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.