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John 19 Commentary

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Pilate takes Jesus and has Him scourged—a severely painful form of whipping that cut into the victim’s body and turned them into a bloody mess. As Jesus “recovers” from the painful shock of this punishment, He is ruthlessly mocked by the Roman soldiers and dressed as a king with a crown of thorns.

Following Jesus’s flogging, Pilate reminds the crowds of Jesus’s innocence before dramatically bringing the bloodied Prisoner out of the Praetorium for the crowds to see. He tells them “Behold the Man!”

After Pilate brought the scourged and bloodied Jesus for the Jews to behold, the chief priests and temple officers lead the crowd to erupt in cries to crucify Him. Pilate is frustrated and tells them that he wants nothing to do with killing this innocent Man.

Having just received the Jews’ new charge against Jesus on the religious crime of blasphemy, Pilate becomes even more afraid and agrees to investigate this new charge with a second interview of Jesus inside the Praetorium. He asks Jesus where He is from; but he is given no answer.

Pilate ends the trial from his Judgment Seat. He gives the Jews a diabolical dilemma of their own when He presents Jesus and says: “Behold Your King.” This forces the Jews to either accept Jesus as their King (in order to crucify Him) or deny that He is their King and admit that He is innocent of their charges.

According to the demands of the crowd, Pilate hands Jesus over to be crucified. This passage concludes John’s narration of the third phase of Jesus’s Civil Trial. This phase is called: “Pilate’s Judgment.”