John 18:33-37
Lesson Focus
Jesus Christ becomes our true King, not in the ways of past Israelite or Roman Kings but through the powerful truth of suffering love.
Lesson Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students should:
Understand that Jesus' kingship differs from traditional earthly kingships.
Recognize that Jesus' reign is characterized by suffering love.
Be able to explain how Jesus' suffering love demonstrates His true power and authority.
Catching Up on the Story
The end of Jesus’ earthly ministry is drawing to a close. John’s passion narrative has begun, and the end is near. Jesus has not acted in any politically subversive way, he has not built an army, and he has not mobilized people in open revolt against the Roman Empire. He has, however, acted in very subversive ways toward the powers that be in both the Jewish and Roman worlds. Jesus has asserted that he is, in fact, the Son of God, eternally co-existent with the Father. This, along with many other teachings that have radically changed how some have understood their standing with God, has gotten him in trouble with the religious leaders mainly because Jesus is a serious threat to disturb the political balance.
The Jewish religious leaders have been seeking for some time now to put him to death, to remove him permanently from the picture. They have arrested him, taken him to the High Priest’s house, conducted a trial of sorts, and because they cannot put him to death in the shameful way that they would like, they are taking him to Pilate. They hope that Pilate will have Jesus put to death as a political criminal, a subversive against the government, by having him crucified.
John begins this scene in the passion narrative at the home of Pilate’s house. The events that have preceded this section have happened during the night and very early morning hours. During the night, Jesus went to both Anna’s and Caiapha’s houses for questioning and trials. What is extremely clear is that the Jewish religious leaders mean business, and they are going to have Jesus killed one way or another.
There is some speculation as to whether or not the Jews could put someone to death. In Acts, we know that they did (Stephan), but this could have been the exception rather than the rule. Either way, they are now seeking to have Jesus put to death at the hands of the Romans.
The Jews are fed up with Jesus’ claims to spiritual and physical power of a just nature. Jesus has repeatedly challenged the religious leader’s power to interpret the law correctly; he has challenged their “righteous” behavior, and he has claimed to be God. At the end of the day, the question of authority is: Who has it? Who will be the true king in Israel - Jesus or someone or something else? However, the nature of the power in question is also in dispute. The Jews are exercising political power that has become unjust. Jesus wished that they would use their political power for justice, mercy, hope, and peace, but they did not.
Scene 1 - Outside Pilate’s House
The scene begins with the Jewish religious leaders bringing Jesus to Pilate at the opening of business. The leaders, because it was almost Passover, did not want to enter Pilate’s house because Gentile houses were unclean, and they didn’t want to defile themselves. Pilate, in a gracious act, comes out to the Jewish leaders.
Pilate, doing his proper job, wants to know what this man is guilty of. The Jews fail to offer concrete or specific crimes that Jesus has committed but state instead that he is a criminal. Pilate thinks that the Jews could take care of Jesus themselves, but the Jews’s intentions come out when they state that they want Jesus dead.
Scene 2 - Inside Pilate’s House
Pilate then goes into his house to see what Jesus is up to for himself. They engage in conversation about kingship and power.
Pilate’s first question of Jesus is if he is King of the Jews. The Jews would have talked about Jesus in a way that made him out to be a political threat to the Roman Empire. Anyone who claimed to be the King of the Jews, who was not, in fact, the current king approved of by Rome, would be a challenge to Rome’s power. This is what the Jews have told Pilate, but it seems Pilate doesn’t believe them.
Jesus’ response is a question. “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” It is obvious that Pilate doesn’t know what Jesus claims to be. At the same time, Pilate seems to know that Jesus isn’t who the Jews claim he is, either.
Pilate asks Jesus another question: “What have you done?” He wants to know why exactly the Jews don’t like him. Jesus responds with a statement about his kingdom. “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” No, Jesus doesn’t claim to be the king of the Jews, a political messiah who is going to violently overthrow the Roman Empire. He does, however, assert that his power is royal in nature and that he does indeed bring a kingdom with him. But Jesus’ response makes it clear that the nature of the kingdom that Jesus leads isn’t like any other kingdom known to man. If Jesus were a king like Pilate or a king like the Jews wanted Jesus to be, then Jesus’ followers would be actively seeking to free him. This, however, was not the case.
Then Jesus states that his followers aren’t fighting to have him released because the kingdom they belong to doesn’t find its power in human origins. Rather, the kingdom Jesus brings is not from this world. In other words, Jesus’ kingdom comes from God, and Jesus reigns with a Godly, nonmilitary, self-emptying power.
Pilate then asks again, “So you are a king?” Jesus’ response is great and isn’t captured rightly in most English translations. It should read something like this, “You said it, not me…” or “If you say so…” But right after that statement, Jesus begins to state that this kingship is the whole reason why he has come into the world, the entire reason he was born. The kingdom Jesus brings testifies to the truth. Everyone who follows Jesus and belongs to his kingdom listens to his voice and begins to live in the truthfulness of God’s kingdom.
Clueless about what Jesus has been saying, Pilate responds with the question, wanting to know what truth is. Pilate can’t find any reason why this man should be put to death as a political enemy of Rome and tells the crowd that has gathered that he wants to release Jesus. But the crowd doesn’t want anything to do with Jesus; the Romans can keep him.
So What…?
After the Exile, Israel hoped that God would again send a messiah to liberate God’s people, just like God had done in faithfulness so many times. Yes, Israel is a nation again, but ever since the return from Exile, they have not been truly free. Because their nation is situated at a strategic crossroads for trade and military might, Israel is constantly changing hands.
At the moment, they are being ruled by the Romans. But they wish it were not so. And so they hope for a messiah that will look like King David. A messiah who will ride out to meet the Romans in battle. They’ve had a few of those, the Maccabees, but that didn’t pan out. Israel’s hopes have not been in vain. God has sent a messiah, Jesus, to liberate Israel. But Israel has misunderstood what that messiah should look like.
It’s not so much that Israel has now been intentionally unfaithful as they had been in the past. It’s just that they have completely misunderstood their own story and God’s intentions for their lives.
The issue in this passage is that the Jewish understanding of God’s kingdom didn’t mesh with what Jesus was preaching. Jesus was/is preaching the existence of a kingdom ruled by love, peace, mercy, and forgiveness. The religious leaders of Jesus day, and Pilate for that matter, were unwilling or unable to understand that this is what Jesus was doing.
The kingdom Jesus brings comes not from human authority but from divine authority. The king establishes the kind of kingdom he wants. Will you bear witness to God’s kingdom as displayed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
“Truth” for John and Jesus is the nature of how God wants the world to work. Kingdom is Jesus’ expression for a way of life and being that God has intended for creation and what is in store for it.
Jesus’ kingdom is one that ultimately heals our scars and one that doesn’t create more scars by the way that it comes. Israel’s hopes after Exile are set on their restoration through revolution and the overthrowing of their various overlords. And once again, they don’t recognize god’s work.
Discussion Questions
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.
What kind of answer do you think Pilate expected from Jesus when he asked if Jesus was the King of the Jews?
Why might Jesus have answered the way that he did?
Why would confessing to be the King of the Jews be dangerous for Jesus to do?
Pilate asks Jesus what he has done to provoke the Jews to request his death. Jesus responds by telling of what his followers have not done. Reread verse 36 and compare and contrast Jesus’ disciples with other revolutionaries. What are the similarities? What are the differences?
What does Jesus mean when he says that his Kingdom is not from here? What do you think Pilate thought he meant?
In verse 37, Pilate thinks that Jesus has just confessed to being a king. Jesus responds, “You say that I am king.” Why would Jesus respond this way?
Jesus then turns the conversation toward truth, “For I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” What does Jesus mean by “truth.” What do you think Pilate thought Jesus meant by truth?
The story ends with Pilate asking, “What is truth?” Why would the author of John end the story this way? What are we left to think about with such an abrupt ending?
Throughout the gospels, the tension between whose truth is right leads to this moment in the story. Jesus brings the truth about the Kingdom of God, which clashes with Israel’s understanding of what God’s Kingdom should look like. The Jewish religious leaders had a hard time accepting Jesus’ truth. What about us? How often do we truly follow the truth of the Kingdom of God? In what ways do we follow our own truth rather than Jesus’ truth?