Sermon 3457. All Are Guilty
(No. 3457)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1915.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Pilate said unto them...'Let Him be crucified.'" Matthew 27:22,23.
THIS morning we heard the shouts of "Hosanna!" It was very delightful to us to behold the multitude marching with the Kingof Zion through the streets of Jerusalem, welcoming Him with glad acclaim. But the shouts of "Hosanna" had hardly died awaybefore they were followed by the cruel note, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Or, as the text puts it, "Let Him be crucified!"Clearly in this case the Vox populi was not the Vox Dei. The one is fickle and shifting, the other is fixed and steadfast.The voice of the people is changeable as the wind. The Word of the Lord is firm as a rock, and it endures forever. The multitudewill always be found fitful and vacillating. They will enthrone a man, today, and chase him from the streets tomorrow. Takebut small account of human applause. The breath of fame's trumpet is a poor reward for a life of toil to serve one's generation.Care not for it, O you of noble spirit! Heed not the world's frowns and court not its smiles. When you are flattered by itsapprobation, or calumniated by its persecution, remember that men's temper and disposition vary like the climate and changelike the weather! Hosannas turn into execrations. The idol of one hour is the aversion of another.
The point, however, to which I shall endeavor to draw your attention tonight (and may the Holy Spirit assist us) is of farmore importance than the prattling gossip of the vulgar crowd. In this sad and brutal cry, "Let Him be crucified," I observe-
I. A VERY STRANGE ILLUSTRATION OF THE ASSERTED DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE.
I have heard till I have been sick of hearing. I have read till I am weary of reading, all sorts of praise passed upon it.I know not what a grand and noble being the creature man is in the estimation of certain lackadaisical divines. They seemto make this their chief end-to laud and magnify their own species! The drift of all their preaching is to please men's earswith their rhetoric and to delude men's judgment with their flattery. And as for their logic, it exalts the ideal of man,while it ignores the actual sinner. It sets up the image and says, "Behold what a splendid intellectual creature man is!"We look around and fail to catch a sight of the individuals they portray! I hesitate not to say that he who praises man doesthe opposite to glorifying God and is as far as the poles asunder from testifying to the Truth of God. The Truth, as we learnit in the Word of God, is most uncomplimentary to man-it rolls him in the very dust, ranks him with the worms, makes nothingof him-yes, less than nothing! So desperate is his moral condition that it adjudges him as his only fit place, the lowestpit of Hell as the due reward of his deeds. But inasmuch as they thus praise human nature, I would like the admirers of itto look a little while on this scene-where humanity gathers around the Savior, Christ the Lord, and cries, "Crucify Him! CrucifyHim!"
And, first, what do you say to this dignity of human nature, in that it does not know God This is taking the sin at the lowestpoint, for had they known Him, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Through ignorance they did it-ignorance, alike,on the part of the rabble and their rulers. It is the best excuse that can possibly be afforded for their cry, their crueltyand their crime. But what an excuse! How humiliating! Here were men who did not know the God that made them! Why boast ofintellect-the keen perception of the human mind-in the face of such imbecility? They did not know the God that fed them! "Theox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib," but Israel did not know her Lord, her King, her God! He came with a thousandprophecies to herald Him, and He answered to them all! The simplest Sunday school child reading through the Old Testamentcan see that the Christ of the New Testament is He of whom the
Seers and the Prophets spoke in vision by the power of the Spirit! But here was human nature left to itself with the Bookin its hand, and totally unable to decipher the evidences or recognize the Messiah! He came unto His own, and His own receivedHim not. You call this "bright-eyed human nature," and it cannot see the sun! You talk about its superior intelligence andyet that which was an axiom to angels, theycould not discern! Angels knew Him-how could they fail to know Him? But these eyesof men are so blinded with the mire of prejudice and the love of sin, that though the Godhead shone gloriously through theManhood of Jesus, they could not-they would not perceive Him to be the Christ! And they put the Son of God, the Heir of Heaven,to an ignominious death! Talk no more of wisdom! Boast not of your sages! Cry not up your philosophy and your deep knowledge!Oh, the bat has brighter eyes than you, and moles see more than do those men who, groveling in the earth, fail to perceivethe Lord! Men knew not God, Himself, when He was Incarnate in human flesh!
The sin, however, was of a deeper dye when men said, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Clearly, human nature hated goodness in itsmost attractive form. A flattering preacher once closed a glowing period with some such words as these- "O Virtue, you fairand lovely object, could you descend among men, and appear in your perfection, all men would prostrate themselves before youas a deity, and you would be beloved of all mankind."
What monstrous assumption! What an extravagant perversion of fact! Virtue diddescend into this world and was Incarnate! ThatIncarnate Virtue they hailed not as "God," but as "devil." Instead of worshipping Him, they hounded Him even to death, andnailed Him to the tree! In our Lord Jesus Christ there was perfect virtue. You cannot detect an error! No, neither an excrescenceor a deficiency! Yet virtue consists not merely in abstaining from harm, but it involved the exercise of every faculty indoing good. His Character was matchless and His goodness was set in the most attractive sphere, for, mark you, it was notvirtue in majestic mien, like that of Lycurgus, enacting laws and administering the prerogatives of government. Or like thatof Moses writing upon the tables of stone, statutes and ordinances of infinite verity, having the sanctions of God with consequencesof faithful indemnity or of fearful penalty. Christ's was virtue in the attitude of lowly service with the emotions of tendersympathy, proving itself by acts of unfailing benevolence. He did not come to tell men they must do this and that, but Hecame to show them and to teach them how to do the will of God from the heart! It was virtue irradiated with pity, adornedwith patience, bejeweled with richest love-forever and ever kindly affectionate. His was benevolence more rare, for it wasunique. Never was there greater love than that of Christ!
Sometimes virtue becomes repulsive to men because of its sternness-they cannot bear a perfect law if, like that of Draco,it should be written in blood. But here was Christ, all affable and amiable-a Man among men! He was with them at their weddingfeasts and with them at their funeral rites. He was to men, a Brother, and He showed and proved Himself such indeed. Yet,for all that, virtue thus comely, thus embellished, thus familiar in the habitations of mankind, He was disliked, abhorredand hunted to the death! Sometimes men oppose goodness if they see it in high places-they will envy the rank and, therefore,forget the virtue. But here was the Christ of God in lowliness, wearing the peasant's garb-eating the bread of the people-poor,yes, so poor that He had not even so much wealth as the fox that has its hole, or the bird that has a nest where to lay itshead! Surely virtue which condescended to such a condition ought to have secured the admiration of mankind! And Christ hadlaid aside all His princely power. He did not come as a King with Sovereign rule, to compel men to do His bidding. Sometimesmen will revolt against that which seems to coerce them. They say they will be drawn, but they will not be driven. But Christwas no driver. As a shepherd goes before his sheep, so He gently led the way. And yet, perfect, immaculate virtue-virtue enshrinedin everything that was attrac-tive-without anything that ought to have excited animosity. Incarnate Virtue! How did it fare?Hear then, O you that boast of human dignity and the glory of human nature!-This Holy One was made the central objective forall the arrows of malice and of spite! He in whom these excellencies were exhibited had for His medal of honor the cry, "LetHim be crucified." O poor fallen human nature-what do you say to this?
I impeach humanity again of the utmost possible folly because, in crucifying Christ, it crucified its best Friend. Jesus Christwas not only the Friend of man, so as to take human nature upon Himself, but He was the friend of sinners, so that He cameinto the world to seek and to save that which was lost. The only errand that Christ pursued in life was a disinterested one.Everybody could see that. He neither hoarded wealth, nor gained high places in the government! Neither did He seek popularesteem. He saved others, but for Himself, He reserved nothing. He gave up all for the sons of men. Yet when they could clearlysee that the lost and most self-denying of all philanthropists was before them, they treated Him as
a criminal, and nailed Him to a Cross! What a Friend He was to those who conspired against Him as a foe! How generously Hehad espoused the cause of those very people who now turned upon Him and said, "Let Him be crucified!" He had healed theirsick. He had raised their dead. He had opened the eyes of their blind and He had restored the withered limbs of their paralyzed.For which of these things did they crucify Him? He was always the people's Friend, the Champion of the populace. He came tobreak oppression, to set the captive free-and all that heard Him must have known that the was the great Prophet of liberty,the uplifter of the fallen, the destroyer of everything that was oppressive, unjust, or even unmerciful. Still, though neverman was such a Friend as He, this stupid world, this worse than swinish world, must put its best Friend to death! O humanity!Blush for yourself, lest angels blush at your impiety and even devils laugh at your infatuation!
Then there was this about human nature-it destroyed its best Instructor The teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the confessionof His enemies, was too sound to be disparaged and He was too wise to be entangled in the meshes of their controversies. Henever taught tyranny. Commend me to a single sentence in the whole of Christ's teaching that would make a despot sit moresteadfastly upon his throne. He never taught anarchy. Find, if you can, a single word that would make men burst the bondsof righteous fidelity and lead lawless lives. He taught no asceticism that would denude life of wholesome pleasure or healthfulenjoyment. Far, far was He, on the other hand, from teaching any libertinism that would tolerate anything that is unclean,unchaste or impure, in word or deed. His teaching was for man-instructing him in what was best for him to do, how it was bestto do it and in what was necessary for his own good that he should eschew and avoid. "Never man spoke like this Man!" I wasin the Hall of Philosophers a little while ago, where were the busts of Socrates, Plato, Solon, and all the great men of formerages. But if they were all put together, of what small account were the maxims that they taught mankind for the promotionof real happiness and true goodness? Why, the sum total is nothing in comparison with that one sermon of the Christ of Nazarethwhich He preached upon the Mount! That one sermon put into the scale outweighs the wisdom of Greece and Rome! And yet, whenthe Man had come who unselfishly, lovingly, tenderly, wisely would lead our fallen race into the paths of holiness and onwardto the goal of perfect happiness, what did humanity do but grind its teeth, gather up its weapons and say, "Away with sucha Fellow from the earth-it is not fit that He should live!" Alas, human nature! How demented and imbecile you are! The verybeasts might lay claim to more sagacity and shrewdness than you have!
Then, too, those who boast of human nature, might, perhaps, say that the multitude on that occasion were not so much to blameas the priests, for the priests persuaded the people. Yes, Sirs, I grant you that. But I suppose priests are human, thoughI sometimes question it. Surely, if ever a man comes to be near akin to a devil, it must be when he assumes to be a priest,and to have the power to open and to shut the gates of Heaven and Hell!
I would rather any day a man call me a demon than a priest! There is something so degraded, so detestable in the professionof a priest that my soul loathes it! I would tear off the last rag of priestcraft that ever stuck to my flesh and feel itto be like that tunic of fire which burned into the flesh of the heroes of old. Away with it! But what must men be- what musthuman nature be that it submits to priests? I say you degrade human nature further when you say they put Christ to death becausethey submitted to the persuasions of the priests. It is true, but where is the manhood of man that he will be led by the noseby a fellow man who chooses to put on a strange, uncouth garb, and feign himself the messenger of God while he perverts theoracles of God and teaches lies? When will the day come that human nature will prove itself to have pure mettle and manlyspirit in it by shaking off the horrible iniquities of priestcraft? Set this crime down to priestcraft, if you will. The priestsdo conspire-they always did and always will conspire to set the people against God! And against Christ. But where is manhoodthat it should put itself beneath the foot of such a thing-a thing that men call a priest? Shame on you, human nature, thatyou should became so abject as to be the football of a priest and submit yourself to an order which sacrilegiously usurpsDivine Authority and insolently tyrannizes over human conscience!
I must close this indictment against human nature with its vaunted dignity by accusing it of wanton cruelty in slaying a defenselessMan. Who ever thought it to be other than dastardly to strike a man who will not defend himself, or to smite one who, beingsmitten, only turns the other cheek?
Cowardice! Cowardice! Cowardice, craven, base, lies at your door, O Humanity! The Christ who was like a sheep- harmless anddefenseless-was treated as if He had been one of the wild beasts of the forest! Who could have had the heart to smite Himwho gave His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair? O Humanity! If I stand at the bar to impeachyou, I scarcely know where to commence the indictment and, having commenced it, I know not where to close it! How fallen,dishonored, infamous are you, O Humanity! Low, depraved, heinous, indeed, have you become that you could put the Messiah,Himself, to death, and crucify the Lord of Glory! Passing onward, I shall now occupy a few minutes as I-
II. ENDEAVOR TO CLOSE THE DOOR AGAINST CERTAIN SELF-RIGHTEOUS DISCLAIMERS.
I think I hear one and another of you say, "But I would not have done so. I will not allow that my nature be so corrupt orabandoned." Listen, Friend! Is not your self-esteem a little suspicious? Of whom were you born but of a woman, as they were?Your circumstances may be somewhat different. Praise your circumstances, not yourself, for had you been in their circumstances,you would have done the same! It is suspicious, I say, when a man begins to say, "I am better than these." Why, this is justwhat those very persons, the priests of old, pretended! What said they but this, "We will build the sepulchers of the Prophetswhom our fathers slew, for had we lived in our fathers' day, we would not have slain them." And by that very speech of theirs-thatself-righteous speech-the Lord Jesus said that they proved that they were the true sons of their fathers! When men begin toplead that they're so much better than others, that they would not have done such things, the suspicion crosses one's mindthat they know not what spirit they are of. Certainly they are rather proud in heart than humble in mind.
But now what would you have done if you had been there. A French king who once heard this story said, "I wish I had been therewith ten thousand of my guards! I'd have cut the throat of every man of them." Just so. No doubt that is what he would havedone-and in so doing he would have crucified the Savior in the worst possible way, for he would have implicated the Saviorin a bloody massacre-which had been to Christ a worse crucifixion, if worse could be than which He suffered. Out spoke theman in the truth and honesty of his soul, and he confessed that he would practically have crucified the Savior. "But," saysone, "I would have spoken for Him, had I been there." Yes, and do you speak for Him now? "Well, I would not hear Him maligned,"says one. But suppose your life depended on it, or your office, or your fame? I will tell you what you would have done-youwould have spoken for Him, like Pilate, and washed your hands and said, "I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. Seeyou to it." You would have gone no farther than that, I guarantee you, unless your heart was renewed-unless Christ had changedyour heart, and I am not dealing, now, with renewed human nature, nor with changed hearts-I am speaking of that which is originallyin us men. And if we had gone as far as Pilate, I fear there is not one of us but would have gone farther!
To come to close quarters with you, dear Hearer, if you are an unsaved, unregenerate man, I will ask you what you have donealready! Perhaps I speak to some here who have made a sneer at the Gospel. You have been accustomed to ridiculing it and whenyou have heard of anyone who has been peculiarly bold in the service of Christ, without enquiring whether your verdict wastrue or not, you set him down at once as being a hypocrite, a fanatic, or a fool! Now, I ask you whether that spirit whichleads you to malign the Christian is not precisely that spirit which led others to condemn the Christ, and to say, "CrucifyHim! crucify Him!" In one age they nail men to a cross of wood. In another age, when they cannot do that, they hold them upto contempt-the spirit is just the same. There lived a man a hundred years ago in this land whose whole life was spent inthe service of Christ-a man of gigantic talents who attracted thousands to listen to his ministry-a man who never spent afarthing of worldly pelf, but lived to win souls, to feed the poor and bless the sick. Now that man, Whitefield, was so abused,traduced and slandered, that even Cowper, when he sung his praises, had to begin them thus-
"Leuconomus (beneath well-sounding Greek, I hide a name a poet must not speak)."
Though he proceeds to speak highly of him, he does not mention his name, except under the Greek form. And so there have livedin this world men of whom the world was not worthy-and the only return they have had has been abuse. What is this but thesame spirit which crucified the Lord? But you tell me you have persecuted nobody and you have ridiculed nobody? I am gladto hear it, but what is your standing, now, with regard to the Christ of the Gospel? Are you trusting in Him? Are you relyingon Him as your Savior? Have you given up all your good works and are you depending upon what He has done? Do you answer, "No"?Then I tell you, you are crucifying Him! You are rejecting Him in the point on which He is most jealous-you are setting upyourself your own savior in opposition to Him-and this is to Him a worse grief and a direr insult even than the nailing ofHim to the accursed tree! Oh, but you say you have not set
up any righteousness of your own! You don't think at all about the matter-you don't care about it! Be it so, then, accordingto your own admission! Albeit the Pharisees would give 30 pieces of silver for Him, you would not give a penny for Him-thatis the only difference! You have the Gospel brought to you and when you hear it, you criticize the speak-er-that is all. Youhave the Bible, and when you get it, you bind it in morocco-and put it on a shelf and never read it. And, perhaps, many ofthis congregation, though living in the land of Gospel Light, are quite ignorant of what the Gospel is. Oh, Sirs, is not thisto crucify Him? This is to ignore Him and this is not only to kill Him, but to bury Him! You have wrapped Him in the windingsheet and laid Him in His grave as best you can. You have, in fact, said, "It is nothing to me. I care not for His book, norHis people, nor His Cross, except it be an ornament after the way of the world's church-but as to the essence, and marrow,and truth of the thing-I will have none of it." Oh, this is the cry of many, and while they so cry let them not self-righteouslyhope to excuse themselves!
But I address some tonight who would shudder at all this, and say, "Oh, Sir, I have neither persecuted His people, nor thoughtlightly of Him. Neither have I been negligent concerning Him, for oh, I long to be saved by Him. I seek His face day and nightand confess my sins into His ear, and I ask for pardon through His blood." Beloved, I am glad to hear you say this, but Imust ask you a question, too. Have you ever doubted whether He could save you? Do you doubt now whether He is willing to saveyou? Ah, then you crucify Him, for there is nothing that so grieves Him as that unkind, ungenerous thought that He is unwillingto forgive! This touches Him in the heart. This pierces His heart as with a spear, for you to think that He will not, or cannot,pardon you! Be guilty of this no longer! Satan told you it was humility- no, but it is dishonoring your Savior! Come, poorawakened Sinner, full of guilt, and full of fear, and say, "I do believe! I will believe that He is both able and willingto save me!" Then, but not until then, may you be able to say, "I have not crucified Him." Now I shall leave that, more especiallyto address-
III. THOSE WHO HAVE CONFESSED THE SIN OF CRUCIFYING CHRIST-AND HAVE RECEIVED PARDON FOR IT.
Beloved, we are coming to the Table of the Lord. With what profound emotions should these meditations fill our breasts aswe observe this ordinance? When we remember that our sins did crucify Christ (for He would not have needed to have died ifwe had not sinned), we ought to think of it with deep repentance-
"'Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins,
His chief tormentors were!
Each of my crimes became a nail.
And unbelief a spear.
"'Twas you that pulled the vengeance down Upon His guiltless head! Break, break my heart, yes burst my eyes, And be my coldnessdead."
Oh, what a sorrow to think we stabbed our Friend in the heart. For our sake He died. There was a little bit of poetry someof us used to repeat at school, "The death of Gellert." When the Welsh chieftain found that in hot-blooded haste he had slainthe hound that had saved his child, he wept right bitterly. That was for a dog. If you went home tonight and found that youhad by some mischance killed your friend. And he had died-and by his death had saved your life-I know you would treasure uphis memory. But it is the Christ of God that you and I have murdered by our sins! They say, in old tradition, that as oftenas ever Peter heard a cock crow, he was accustomed to weep. And as often as we come to this Table, we might very well be accustomedto weep, too, to think that our sins made our Savior bleed. Then what a holy jealousy should stir within us! If my sins didthis, by God's Holy Spirit's help, there shall be an end of my sins! Away with you, you murderers, I will not spare you-neitherthe pleasurable sin, nor the profitable sin, nor the fashionable sin, nor the little sin, as men call it! I cry, "Revenge!"against my sins, and slay the murderers, too! Oh, ask for Grace tonight that you may put sin to death!
And, once more, when we remember that our sins crucified Him, how it ought to waken in our souls a devout resolution thatwe will crown Him! Did they say, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"? Then our voice shall be still louder," Crown Him! Crown Him!Crown Him!" And does a ribald world still say, "Crucify Him!"? Then we who have received the second birth will say, "CrownHim! Crown Him! Crown Him!" The world still clamors, "Crucify!" Go forth, you sons of
God, and proclaim the coronation of the Christ who once wore the crown of thorns! Blush not and be not afraid to defend Himbefore His adversaries, for He will soon come to put His adversaries to shame, and on His head shall His crown flourish forever!I would, coming to this Table, tonight, speak thus to my heart-O my Soul, was Jesus put thus to suffering for you? Then whatcan you do for Him? Have you an unbroken alabaster box in all your possessions? Then bring it out now! Can you not devisesome new way by which you might serve Him, so as to bring yourself to the pinch to bear much sacrifice with stern self-denial?Come, my Soul, do something that you may glorify Him! Give to His cause. Help His poor! Speak to His wounded ones! ConsoleHis distressed people, lay yourself out for Him. Are there any members of this Church that are doing nothing for Jesus? Oh,I pity you, my dear Brothers and Sisters, if you are idle! But while I cannot suggest to you what to do, I pray the Lord toput it into your hearts, tonight, to do something more than you have ever done to honor Christ! You need not tell anybodyabout it-the less said about it the better. Go and do it, not letting your left hand know what your right hand does! Go andweave some crown for Him, though it is but of the poor fading flowers of your heart's love. Go and honor Him! You cannot wipeout the dishonor you have caused Him in your former estate, but you can do something-you can bring Him honor as long as youhave any being by bringing others, through the help of His blessed Spirit, to love and honor Him! God grant us a refreshingseason at the Communion Table-may we have the company of the King, Himself!
Now are there any here that confess their guilt in the death of Christ? Then let me say to every sinner here, if you willlook to Him that was pierced, you shall live! There is only one look at Jesus that is needed to give you pardon! "He thatbelieves on Him is not condemned." You have nailed Him to the Cross-now look at Him! Moses hung the serpent on the pole-thenlooked, himself, and bade all Israel look. I, who had my share in crucifying Him, do look tonight! He is all my salvation-Itrust in nothing else. Look you, then-yes, look you! God help you now to look, each one, and you are saved! God grant it,for Christ's sake. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN 1:19-33; 19:1-16.
JOHN1:19-33
Verses 19-28. And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you?And he confessed and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ And they asked him, Who then? Are you Elijah? And he said,I am not Are you that Prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who are you? that we may give an answer to thosethat sent us. What say you of yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way ofthe Lord, as said the Prophet Isaiah And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him,Why baptize you, then, if you are not that Christ, nor Elijah neither that Prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptizewith water: but there stands One among you, whom you know not: He it is, who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whoseshoe laces I am unworthy to unloose. These things were done in Be-thabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. Was thatthe place where the Israelites crossed the Jordan? It is said to have been so, and truly this is the place where we crossthe Jordan, too-come out of old Judaism into the true faith of the revealed Christ!
29. The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.Ithink I hear the Elijah-like tones of that son of the desert, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world."
30. This is He of whom Isaid, After me comes a Man which ispreferred before me: forHe was before me. Ah, how infinitely beforeJohn! How before him having no beginning of days, before him in His exalted Nature, before him in His superior rank and office!
31. And I knne w Him not: but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore have I come baptizing with water It wasby baptism that the Christ was to be known. John knew more of Jesus Christ than anybody else, yet he did not know Him to bethe Lamb of God until he had baptized Him.
32. 33. And John bore record, saying, Isaw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove andit abode upon Him. And I knewHim not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom you shall see the
Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Spirit I doubt not that John had assuredlyguessed that Jesus was the One, but he had nothing to do with guesses-he was a witness for God and he could only speak asGod revealed things to him.
JOHN19:1-16.
Verses 1-3. Then Pilate, therefore, took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it onHis head, and they put on Him a purple robe, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! Just as they were gathered to say, "Ave Imperator"-"Hailemperor"-so imitating that word which they applied to Caesar, and applying it to Jesus in mockery, "King of the Jews," theutmost scorn was thrown into the last word, "of the Jews." There had been a general tradition that there should arise amongthe Jews a king who would subdue the nations-and the Romans jested at the very thought that they should be conquered by theleader of such a despised race as the Jews! And so they said, "King of the Jews."
3, 4. And they struck Him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again, and said unto them, Behold, I bring Him forthto you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him. That is the second time he said it. He had declared it before-in the38th verse of the previous Chapter we read, "I find in Him no fault at all." And now again, "That you may know that I findno fault in Him." "Then came Jesus forth"-you can see Him going down the steps out of Pilate's Hall into that same courtyard-"wearingthe crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said unto them"-"Ecce Homo"-"behold the Man." He does not call Him, king-heonly gives Him the title of Man. As if to say, "How foolish are you to think there is any danger from Him-look at Him in allHis suffering and shame."
5, 6. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate said unto them, Behold the Man!When the chief priests therefore and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Pilate said untothem, You take Him and crucify Him: for I find no fault in Him. That is the third time. It was well that he who had the principalhand in the slaughter of the Lamb of God should make his report that He was "a Lamb without blemish and without spot" and,therefore, fit to be presented in sacrifice before God. For the third time he acquits Him! The Jews answered him, "We havea law"-it may not be your law-"and by our law He ought to die because He made Himself the Son of God." This is a revivingof the charge of blasphemy which they had brought against Him in the palace of the high priest.
7, 8. 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 Pilatetherefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid. It shows he was afraid all along-the coward- the vacillating coward-andnow a fresh superstition seizes upon him! He believed, as a Roman, in many gods. "What?" he said to himself. "What if, afterall, I should have been torturing a Divine Being, a God who has come among men in their likeness?"
9, 10. And went again into the judgment hall, and said unto Jesus, Where are You from? But Jesus gave him no answer Then Pilatesaid to Him, Do You not speak to me?Know You not that Ihavepower to crucify You, andhavepow-er to release You?And he trembledwith fear, "and went again into the judgment hall," taking his prisoner with him- you can see the two sitting there alone-"andsaid to Jesus, 'Where are You from? Tell me now, what is Your character, Your origin, Your rank?' But Jesus gave him no answer."Pilate's day of Grace was over! He had had his opportunity, but that was now ended-there was no answer. It is a very solemnthing when God gives no answer to a man-when a man turns to Scripture, but there is no answer-when he goes to hear the voice,but there is no voice from the oracle for him! And when he even bows the knee in prayer, but gets no answer. The silence ofthe Christ of God is very terrible. "Then said Pilate unto Him," with all the pride of a Roman in his face, "Do You not speakto me? Don't You know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release you?"
11. Jesus answered, You could have no power at all against Me, except it were given you from above: therefore he that deliveredMe unto you has the greater sin."You have the power to execute the sentence, lent to you from Heaven, but he that broughtMe here, and laid the charge against Me, even Caiaphas, as the representative of the Jews, has the greater sin." And thenthe Blessed One closed His lips, never to open them again until on the Cross! From this time, "like a sheep before her shearers,"He is dumb. Notice that even though that word is the word of the Judge who judges Pilate,
who judges the Jews, yet there is a strain of the gentleness of His Character about it, for though He does virtually declarePilate guilty of great sin,yet He says there is a greater, and while there is no apology for Pilate, yet He puts it softly.
12. And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release Him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If you let this Man go, you are notCaesar's friend: whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar One of the Herods had put upon his coins the name, "Caesar'sfriend," and so they quoted the title which one of their kings had taken, and they tell Pilate that he will not be the friendof Tiberius. Here was a sore point with Pilate. He knew that just then Tiberius was gloomy and morose, too ready to catchanything against his servants-and the man by whose influence Pilate had come into power had just then lost all influence atcourt. So he was afraid it would be his disgrace and discharge as governor if the Jews brought a charge against him to Tiberius.Therefore he trembled.
13. When Pilate, therefore, heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that iscalled the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.The usual form of the Roman judgment place, in the open air, with a stonepavement, and a raised throne.
14. 15. And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he said unto the Jews, Behold your King!But they cried out, Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chiefpriests answered, We have no king but Caesar "To crucify your King." In bitter sarcasm-"You call Him, King, and ask to haveHim crucified?" "The chief priests answered, 'We have no king but Caesar.'" Verily they thus proved the truth of that word,"The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes." And here He was sentof God! He had come at last, for the scepter has evidently departed from Judah, and these men are crying, "We have no kingbut the alien monarch, the all-conquering Caesar."
16. Then he delivered Him, therefore, unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus andledHim away.