Power is fun—especially when we get to flaunt it in front of others. We love every excuse we can get to let people know that we’re in control. Pilate definitely did, and that’s why he flaunted it in front of this lowly Jewish prisoner. Except here’s the irony: that Jewish prisoner was the Son of God Most High, Yahweh himself, who had given Pilate every bit of power he had, and who himself had all the power to take it all back from him. The hand of God moved powerfully through even the evil whims of power-hungry people, because through them, God was on a mission to bring salvation to the world.
Meanwhile, the schemes of the Jews reached a tragic climax of evil. So determined were they to reject and condemn the Messiah that they even tactically claimed loyalty to Caesar, the Jews’ greatest oppressor and enemy at the time. Rejection of Jesus often looks like extra loyalty to some worldly government official or celebrity—because keep in mind what James writes: friendship with the world is enmity with God. But of course the world is a fickle friend anyway! By saying they have no king but Caesar in order to get Christ killed, they were making themselves willful slaves of a worldly king, and in fact rejecting the kingship of Yahweh altogether. They were deep in the territory of deceit, just to gain political leverage.
In my opinion, their chant should have instead been “We have no king but the Lord.” But then again, if they had, they would have worshipped the man who stood in front of them, rather than calling for his death.
Why does John spend so much time on Jesus’ trials that led to his crucifixion? Because in it we see the interweaving of several different things that made the gospel happen. In it we see how truly guiltless the God-man really was, and the fact that evil triumphed anyway as the world rejected its one true king, and the perfect meekness that Jesus showed to exhibit a perfect fulfillment of the law and prophets, and of course the hand of God throughout everything, sovereignly orchestrating all things to accomplish his beautiful plan to atone for the sins of the world. The condemnation of the Christ is a thing that calls us to both mourning and rejoicing.
